Fantastic 4

This Fantastic 4 cartoon series nailed it. It ranks right up there with the "X-Men" and "Spiderman" series of the '90s. The art direction matched the comics, the choice of villains was on the money, and most of the stories were taken directly from the comics. How about that? A TV series that has respect/regard for the source material? What a novel concept. These are worth seeking out for any fan of the FF4 comics. AND SPEAKING OF WHICH. . .There are now two FF4 films and this series has yet to see the light of day on DVD! What's up with that? I'm sure there's that issue of ownership of the rights, but no DVD release tie-in? The other FF4 series don't hold a candle to this one! I mean, c'mon, Herbie the Robot(ouch!)? This FF4 kept it real. Unfortunately, the only way to see this is if you have the Boomerang network(which I don't) Let's hope that the folks at Time Warner get the led out and get this series on DVD soon!

I was never much of a Fantastic Four comic book reader but I must say that I highly enjoy this show. It was fun, exciting, and at times funny. Courtesy of the Thing! More over, it featured great villians like Doctor Doom. It's a great show for both fans and non-fans of the classic comic book characters.

The move to television of Comic Book adaptations was surely in full swing or beyond that zenith when Hanna-Barbera brought us the "FANTASYIC 4", Saturday mornings, Fall TV Season in 1967 was the time and location. While CBS went with features from Filmation Associates like DC Comics' SUPERMAN/SUPERBOY('66), SUPERMAN/AQUAMAN Hour of Adventure('67-,68) and BATMAN/SUPERMAN Hour('68)(with other features like GREEN LANTERN, ATOM, HAWKMAN and "...all the Super-Super Heroes of THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF America!", ABC stayed with FANTASTIC 4 and the other Marvel Comics' Star Feature, "SPIDER-MAN"('67).

"SPIDER-MAN" was not however also a Hanna-Barbera Project. It was produced by Ralph Bakshi, Steve Krantz & Company(the future Producers of the animated feature adaptation of Robert Crumb's FRITZ THE CAT(1972). Because both half-hour shows aired back to back Saturday Mornings, had they shared a common production company, there would doubtless been plenty of "crossovers"(in comic book jargon, a Cameo Appearance by a character from a different feature, but from the same publisher.

It was Stan Lee and Marvel Comics who turned "crossovers" from the occasional, to the expected! And returning to "FABTASTIC 4"; we find it to be a much more 'realistic' rendering than most any other animated series. Much like the Fleischer Brothers/Famous Studios Paramount Pictures' SUPERMAN Cartoons of the 1940's, the art design of characters and backgrounds were all adaptations of the Comic Pages.

The 'look' of the production, together with a faithful transference of the personalities, the foibles and the rivalries of the team, all add up to a cinematic/electronic clone of the Comic Page Originals.

The casting of proper voices for the group is the crowning glory of the hour, in order to make the series nearly perfect. Ideally the casting would involve examination of the Comic Page personalities of the principals. To make sure the voice would be fitting, proper and supportive amplification of the characters and plot lines, I would choose the voices as if we were doing a Radio Program. They did do that thing! The cast of voice actors led by veteran character actor and Road Show Bogart, Gerald Mohr(Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards), Joann Pflugg(Susan Storm/Invisible Girl),Jack Flounders(Johnny Storm/The Human Torch) and the Dean of Voice Actors, Paul Freese(Ben Grimm/The Thing, many, many others).

The weekly stories were neat adaptations of those Stan Lee/Jack Kirby masterful early Marvel Fantastic Four Classic sagas. We saw the "Screen Debut" of such great friends and foes as: The Mole Man, Super Skrull, Galactus, Silver Surfer, The Watcher and Dr. Doom. Because of the rights of animation adaption belonged to the previously mentioned Ralph Bakshi/Steve Bakshi/Robert L. Lawrence & Associates, their battles with Prince Namor, The SUB-MARINER and THE INCREDIBLE HULK as well as 'crossover' meetings with CAPTAIN America, THE MIGHTY THOR and THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN, were not allowed to be portrayed on the TV Screen, at that time.

The producers added appropriate Musical Theme and incidental music to underscore the action. Hanna-Barbera was well equipped to assure that this audio-emotional aspect of the stories was taken care of properly. They did.

As a sort of dress rehearsal or a pre-courser to "FANTASTIC 4" and other of their other Comic Book-like characters*, Hanna-Barberra had given us "JONNY QUEST"(1964-65) as a Friday Night, early Prime-Time Entry on ABC.

NOTE:* Just as The Comic Book Hero was adaptable to animation, so too we saw some original cartoon series that were very much in the Comic Book Hero tradition. Hanna-Barberra, for example, gave us SPACE GHOST(1966-68,1994-2004) and THE MIGHTY MIGHTOR(1967-'68). And by the by, SPACE GHOST was succrssfully adapted to his own Comic Book! So, the Wheel has spun a full turn, once again!

I've seen several cartoon versions of The Fantastic Four over the years. The latest one is now broadcasting on the Cartoon Network and has outstanding animation and graphics. However, I still favor this 1967 version, which consists of only 20 episodes. The animation is very simple by today's standards, but the stories and script closely mirror the comic book from that era. In fact, the simple nature of the episodes makes them more appealing to me. As I write this, the 1967 Fantastic Four episodes are being shown on Boomerang, an offshoot of the Cartoon Network. The newest Fantastic Four cartoon is a little TOO slick and fancy for my tastes.

This cartoon was far better than "the New Fantastic Four" a.k.a. "the one without the Human Torch." This is probably due to the fact that Lee and Kirby had some involvement. My only beef is that Dr. Doom was a bit weak. There's an episode based on an issue with the Sub Mariner, but since his cartoon was done by another company, Namor was replaced by a green sea king named Triton (also the name of one of the Inhumans). Oddly enough, all the other characters remained intact. Kirby later helped Hanna-Barbarra by creating character designs for Thundarr the Barbarian.