The New Fantastic Four

This Saturday-morning adaptation of the Marvel Comics title was done at a time when parental fears of violence on TV were at their worst. As such, the Human Torch does not appear in it. Parents were afraid their kids would like the Human Torch so much, they might try to light themselves on fire. Or something. Of course, without the Human Torch, they would only be the "Fantastic Three," so the writers had to invent a new character to fill in for him. And whom did they invent to replace the Human Torch? Why none other than H.E.R.B.I.E. the Robot, a robot so annoyingly cute that you want to throw your bowl of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs cereal at the TV every time he appears. The animation was on par with that of the animated Star Trek TV series -- in other words, it stank. And worst of all, I can't recall a single episode in which Doctor Doom made an appearance. What good are the Fantastic Four without Doctor Doom? That's like having an entire Silver Surfer TV series without Galactus, or a John Travolta movie without Scientology.

It seems almost certain that the addition of Herbie and the subtraction of Johnny Storm/The Human Torch from the 1978 version of the FF was the result of trying to cash in on the Star Wars craze that began the year before with the release of the first movie (Chapter IV). Herbie seems to be a flying, talking R2D2.

The same thing happened with Moonraker in 1979, first James Bond movie released after Star Wars, and in my opinion, the worst of the series. I even seem to remember the end of "The Spy Who Loved Me' in 1977 saying "But James Bond Will Return In." some other movie, perhaps "For Your Eyes Only" (the best of the Moore Bond movies in my opinion) then the producers and/or UA changing their mind.

There are probably other examples of the Star Wars influence but these are the first two that come to mind.

In conclusion, the FF was much better with The Human Torch as in the 1967 and 1996 series, and James Bond was better without Moonraker.

Having said that I seem to remember decent stories in the 1978 version, but substitute Herbie with Johnny Storm and the stories would have been even better.

Herbie is better than Human Torch and I'll tell you why.

1) Anybody with a jet-pack and flamethrower can do what Human Torch does.

2) Having the physicality of the Human Torch added to Thing and Sue Storms force shields relegates Mr. Fantastic to a more cerebral role, but with Herbie doing computations it frees up Mr. Fantastic for more stretchy combat action.

3) Arguments and put downs between Ben Grimm and a robot are somehow more amusing by the nature of their absurdity, than arguments between Ben and Johnny, and Herbie and Ben have a great rapport that is not the same with Johnny.

4) Human Torch asks for a bridge too far in all the "fantastic" suspensions of disbelief. Why would being combustible magically enable him to fly-- and though we can grant that Reed could invent flexy clothes to fit his plastic powers, how don't Human Torch's clothes burn up? Herbie is more interesting to me than Human Torch and the way Ben is better than in the comics, where he is always complaining and has no gratitude for miraculously surviving a cosmic accident and crash landing without permanent injury or pain, just burdened with super strength and a monstrous, but not entirely unpleasant appearance. This Ben is more fun, and Herbie is more fun than Human Torch, too.

The crew of a rocket ship is bombarded by mysterious cosmic rays from deep space. Their leader Reed Richards is turned into the stretchy Mr. Fantastic. His wife Sue Richards is turned into Invisible Girl. Ben Grimm is turned into the Thing. Along with Herbie the robot (Humanoid Electronic Robot B-Style), they are the Fantastic Four. Their headquarters is atop the Baxter Building in New York City.

The comedy is a little cheesy and the story telling is a bit stiff. The animation and story style is from an older generation. There is some fun in seeing these characters in their older versions. The disappointment is a general lack of good action and tension. It does have the fun stretching sounds.

This is the second animated iteration of the classic comic heroes, The Fantastic Four. The most noticeable difference is the missing Human Torch. There was a problem with rights during that time. Herbie is not going down as one of the great robots of all times. It is a rather poor substitution for the Human Torch. It is a much more static character compared to the dynamic Torch. This is a bit before my time and probably did not get much reruns. It's hard to remember if I ever saw this before now. It is certainly dated when viewed today.

The New Fantastic Four was a fantastic (no pun intended) cartoon from the late 70's and even though it omitted a major character it was still highly enjoyable.

The Fantastic Four consisted of Mr Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Thing and The Human Torch. For some reason this show didn't feature the Human Torch; instead we got a robot called HERBIE who was annoying at first but became likeable after awhile.

The plots themselves were pure fun just like the original comics from the 60's/70's. All of the Fantastic Four's top foes such as The Frightful Four were here to battle the team. It was also great to see the Thing and HERBIE the Robot always arguing (they loved each other really).

All in all, a great cartoon series even if the robot had an annoying voice.