In 1961 the publisher of Marvel Comics, Martin Goodman, told his editor and head writer Stan Lee to come up with a super hero team book like the Justice League of America (JLA.)  Super heroes had been out of fashion since the end of WWII, and in the early 60's Marvel published an assortment of western, young love, and SF/horror comic books.  A couple of years earlier though, their competition National Periodical Publications (which eventually changed its name to DC Comics) started experimenting with super hero books.  Their best seller was the JLA which featured all their biggest heros all in one comic.

The easiest thing for Stan to do would be to copy the JLA.  It was a very formalistic comic, with the heros each fighting a villain's henchmen in pairs, and then teaming up at the end to defeat the main menace.  If he did this and it didn't sell, Stan wouldn't be in too much trouble since it wasn't his idea in the first place.  Instead, he risked his job by doing almost the exact opposite of what his boss wanted.  He tossed all of the regular super hero cliche's out the window and created a comic that was truly original and exciting:  The Fantastic Four.  The FF weren't a bunch of heros who hung out together because they were friends, they were family.  They were stuck with each other.  Like any family they fought and had their problems.  They didn't have secret identities either, everyone knew who they were and where they lived.  They didn't wear costumes in the beginning until the fan mail made Stan change his mind on that point.

The group was interesting and dynamic.  Lee showed the down side of having super powers.   The Thing was a classic tragic hero incredibly strong, but trapped in the body of a monster.  Reed was filled with grief for what he accidentally did to his best friends, and the Human Torch was a typical teenager who had typical teenage problems.

The book was immensely popular and was soon Marvel's best selling book.  They spawned a whole universe of heros and were responsible for turning the small funny book publisher Marvel into a multimedia franchise.

The Fantastic Four have been turned into animated cartoon shows several times in the past.  The latest incarnation was broadcast in 1994 and lasted for two seasons.  This series has just been released on DVD to cash in on the new FF movie.

When Reed Richards, his girl friend Sue Storm, her brother Johnny Storm and pilot Ben Grimm test out an experimental rocket that Reed designed, they end up being pelted by cosmic rays.  This effects the ship's instruments and causes the group to crash land.  The emerge from the wreckage unharmed, but soon discover that the rays changed them in fantastic ways.  Reed can now stretch any part of his body, Sue can turn invisible and project force fields, Johnny can ignite his body and fly though the air, and Ben turns into a rock-covered monster with unbelievable strength.  Together they form one of the greatest super-hero teams of all: The Fantastic Four.

The First Season 1994-95:

Glancing over the contents to the first season of this series, it is amazing how many good characters and stories they manage to work into the first 13 episodes.  There's a two part origin, they fight the Sub-mariner, there's a three part Dr. Doom epic, and they travel to the Negative Zone.  In addition to all of this, there is a two-part Silver Surfer/Galactus story.  They took these storyline from some great comics, absolute classics in the field.  That makes me wonder why these first season shows sucked so badly.

The first season of this show is just painful to watch.  It is as if Ron Friedman, the writer for the entire first season, was trying the wring every iota of excitement and enjoyment out of these stories.  The opening credits are give you a good idea of what you're in for: Set to the tune of a REALLY cheesy song, they end with the faces of the Fantastic Four superimposed on an image of Mt. Rushmore. *sheesh*

The scripts are really bad.  In the origin story for example, they don't simply tell the story, they have the FF appearing on a telethon discussing their origin with Dick Clark.  (Now there's a cool guest star.)  Told through flashbacks, every time something interesting was about to happen in the past, the narrative would cut back to the telethon where The Thing threatened people at home if they didn't call in their support.  Instead of building suspense, these interruptions for what amounted to comic relief were unnecessary and very annoying.

The dialog is just as painful.  The fact that the Silver Surfer is described as "a high-flying surfer dude, truly far-out" gives you an example of how lame the writing is.  (And don't get me started on the changes they made to the Ultimate Nullifier.)  Friedman also found it necessary to add a pesky land lady and her obnoxious dog to the stories as a comic relief.  Having The Thing stop in the middle of battling Galactus to be served with an eviction notice is just plan moronic.

In addition to horrible scripts, the direction is awful too.  These episodes are filled with a myriad of little errors that make the show even worse than it normally would have been.  In one episode they have the Puppet Master fall out of a window that is clearly opened, but they dub in the sound of breaking glass.  The Human Torch also carries people in his flaming arms with no harm to them.

The animation is rather poor too.  They didn't spend too much money on these episodes, and they weren't able to use the resources that they did have very well.  The movement is jerky, especially in the action scenes.   They make no real effort to match the voices to the lip movements, and there are several instances where people are talking but their mouths stay closed.  In addition to this, the character designs were horrible.  They were very simplistic and two dimensional looking.  There are very few details, and the characters often look like the crude renderings of a school child.

Unfortunately, this first season has no redeeming values at all.  It is just plain horrible.

The Second Season 1995-96:

I am really astounded that the ratings for the first season were good enough to warrant a second season, but I'm glad that they were.  After the wretched first year, they retooled the series and improved it dramatically.

The show was basically redone from the ground up.  They created a new opening that is actually exciting, spent more money on the animation, fine tuned the character designs and polished the direction.  The main difference is that they fired Ron Friedman as story editor and head writer and brought on Cynde Clark and Steve Granat.  (This pair would later work on X-Men: Evolution.)

This season is the FF that comic fans have loved for years.  The new story editors finally realized that the Fantastic Four doesn't need a comic relief or jokes that were rejected by Bazooka Joe to be enjoyable.  They just need solid scripts that portray the characters the same way that they were in the comics.

In this set of 13 episodes, the FF have the same problems humans have. Johnny is lonesome and has trouble keeping a girl friend, and Ben doesn't think he's good enough for his girl, Alicia.  Because they act like real people, the bond between the characters is stronger.  There are real reasons why they stay together and risk their lives.

One of the best stories is the Inhuman Saga which is told over three episodes.  It follows the comic book fairly closely, and includes the section that made the tale so bitter sweet: the fact that Johnny finally finds his true love, but is separated from her forever.  They set up the situation with Johnny well in advance, so you know how much he cares for his new found love, and the end works very effectively.

This season the show was a serious action/adventure show, and it worked very well.  There were a lot of very memorable episodes that are really great: The fight with Ego the Living Planet aided by Thor, the Daredevil episode where he helps battle Dr. Doom, and the return of Galactus.  The best episode in the set though was Nightmare in Green, when the Incredible Hulk comes to town and The Thing gets in his way.  'Nuff said.

The second season was just as good as the first season was bad.  As where everything was done wrong in the premier set of 13 shows, in the second 13 they got everything right and crafted some exciting and action filled shows.  It is a shame that the series didn't continue after this season, it definitely deserved to.

The 26 episodes that comprise the two seasons that this show ran are presented on four single sided DVDs.

Audio:

The stereo audio track sounded very good.  There wasn't any distortion or hiss, and the track had a good deal of range.  The dialog was clear, even if the battles weren't as dynamic as they could be.  This was a good, if standard, soundtrack.

Video:

The full frame image was very good also, though ther were some defects.  The colors were very bright and the lines were tight.  Aliasing is fairly prevalent though, with many fine lines having a stair step effect or sometimes shimmering.  Aside from this, the show looked fine.

Extras:

The best extra was a video of Stan Lee's Soapbox.  This nearly eight-minute long monolog has Stan telling how he came up with the idea for the FF and what he thinks about their characters.

There are also introductions to each episode by Stan Lee.  In these he basically tells you the basic plot to the upcoming episode.  There are some minor spoilers, though he never gives the resolution.  I didn't find these too interesting.

Final Thoughts:

This is definitely a mixed bag.  The first season of this show is simply wretched and practically unwatchable.  The writing is that bad.  If it was available separately, I would easily recommend the season be Skipped.  The second season on the other hand was fun and exciting, everything you'd want in a FF cartoon.   This season rates a Highly Recommended.  Unfortunately, you can't buy the second season without the first.  I'm going to give this set a Recommended rating, mainly because the second season is that good.  Just use the first season discs as coasters or target practice, you'll get you're money's worth just watching the second season.