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Greenhornet
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1791 Posts |
 Posted - 02/29/2008 : 2:37:08 PM
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Once again we journey into the wonderful world of The Superfriends. Once again we take a nostalgic look at the madcap adventures of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and their costumed chums. Once again we join the Justice League of America in the adventure-filled world of animated DC comics. Once again we ask the musical question: "Is this trip nessisary?"
Yes it is. Because of the many requests of the loyal followers of Jabootu (Praised be his name!), it would seem so.
Since I am but a humble amature reviewer, I will allow my fellow Ken to tackle the main adventures of the Superfriends (those that feature the Legion of Doom) and take on one of the shorter, back-up cartoons. I don't think I'm taking the easy way out, because not only does this episode have the "Wonder Twins" in it, but it is also pretty wacked out, even by Superfriends standards!
"We now continue with the Superfriends" announces the narrator as a title card appiers on-screen. The card reads:
SUPERFRIENDS in:
UNCLE
MXYZPTLK
Story By: (SMUDGE SMUDGE)
The smudge may be the fault of my internet copy, but I wouldn't be surprised if the writer had come back later (After he was sober) and tried to destroy the evidence of his misdeeds. But if that were true, why not destroy the whole cartoon? Oh, the mysteries of life!
Also on the title card are Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman. (Why yes, they all ARE flying. How did you know?) In spite of appiering in the title sequence, only Superman is in this cartoon. Having seen this before, I would say that it's because even AQUAMAN has more dignaty than to show his face in this insane mess. Superman, however, needs the money and will wrork in almost anything. Superman 3+4 are evidence of that.
In the Hall of Justice as Superman and Firestorm watch, Samurai voices the oppinion that they "have everything under control" as he flips through scenes of various world monuments. Either this is supposed to be a montage of "establishing shots", or the Superfriends have been asked to keep an eye out for Carmine SanDiego. (Hmm, the Superfriends vs Carmine SanDiego. Now that's a cartoon I would PAY to see!) Superman finds this "odd" while Firestorm finds it "boring" and the scene quickly fades out and in to a construction site, leaving us to wonder what this scene was supposed to accomplish and what happened to Samurai's Japanese accent (If he ever had one, that is).
The narrator helpfully tells us that "the wonder Twins and Gleep are about to unearth some excitement" (Except they don't, a steamshovel does that). As they watch construction work through the traditional 'holes-in-the-retaining-fence', a glowing red rock falls off a dumptruck and attracts the attention of Gleep, who is on top of the fence. Instead of reaching down with his tail, or jumping over the fence to get the rock, Gleep shoves his tail through the hole and pulls the rock out, resulting in RANDOM ACT OF VIOLENCE AGAINST A FENCE! as sgt. Borntrager would put it. And here, the twins show their (aledged) brain power; Zan picks up the GLOWING rock and they decide to take it back to the Hall of Justice. Kids, you're in a CARTOON. GLOWING rocks have never ment good news! This could be the lead-in to a public service announcement: "Kids, radioactive material may be fun, but it can also be dangerous!" "Golly Superman, you're right! We'll know better next time!" "And knowing is half the battle. Yo Joe! I mean 'great Krypton'."
(Transition Scene) "Everything's quiet" says Superman "Yes, TOO quiet!" replies Samurai, because he's been through this sort of thing before and knows that something will happen and ruin their day. Sure enough, the WTs come in. "Anyone know what this stuff is?" they yammer, shoving the GLOWING, RADIOACTIVE, ROCK into Superman's face. Supes all but wets his pants, but they still hold it to his face untill the accentless-Japanese guy slaps it out of Zan's hand, yelling that it's RED KRYPTONITE!!!!!! Oddly enough, the twins react in horror, as if they had HEARD of the stuff. Gee, you would think if that were the case, ONE of them MIGHT have said "What is it? Let's see, it's red, it glows, it makes that cartoon hum, do you think it could be RED KRYPTONITE?". But noooooo. They go into full exposition mode, reminding viewers that RED kryptonite has wierd effects on Superman (and other super-powered Kryptonians) . In this case, Superman becomes YOUNGER.
But unfortunatly, he is NOT at his "Superboy" stage, which would have made a great episode, an inexperienced and impulsive SuperBOY fights the Legion of Doom and Lex Luthor is torn between destroying his enemy and helping the lad who is at the age BEFORE the lab accident that turned Lex bad and..... OK, sorry, it's just not going to happen. Instead, Superman is at the SuperBRAT stage. Even when he thanks Firestorm for shrinking his supersuit to fit, Superbrat adds "creep", just to remind us that Superman is indeed, a DICK!
Samurai let's the gang know that the effects of red K lasts for a day or so and in the short time period in which he speaks, Superkid has been trashing the joint for TWENTY MINUTES. Now wouldn't saying "twenty SECONDS" have a bigger impact, letting us know that the hero's ordeal has JUST begun? Or did the writers have no conception of time? Supes starts "playing" with the super computer and accidently sets off the "set the place on fire" command. Yeah, "accidently". I'm SURE that Superbrat (As they called him) didn't remember the sequince and didn't do it on purpose, because that would make him a dick. (I'm having enough trouble absorbing the fact that the computer HAS a "set the place on fire" program)
The brat's demands for "toys" brings in Mr. Mixedpickle from the wierdo dimention who says (In a voice like Toyman's) that "uncle" Mixmaster will get him some. Samurai is turned into a basketball and the others become tin solders who goose-step around jerkily, the Wonder Twins march up to each other and kis..
OH GREAT Jabootu, THEY'RE BROTHER AND SISTER!!! OH, ICK! ICK! ICK! EVIL! EVIL!
All right, I went to a bible site and said three 'hail Marys'. Hopefully the evil is gone.
Mr. Mutiplex and Superbrat teleport elsewhere and somehow that releases the heros (and Gleep) from the spell. Samurai somehow knows "where a little boy can get into the most trouble" and tunes in the local zoo, seconds before the brat and his "uncle" pop into view. How did Samurai know this? I have no idea. While Superbrat is riding a rino, the Superfriends appier to tell Mr. Monstertruck that his game is over. Somehow their plan to foil the imp involves them getting brushed aside by the rino (I don't get it either, but then, I'm not a super hero). Mr. Mincepie retaliates by sending the rino, a giraff and a pair of lions into downtown Metropolis.
"Super" insults so far: "Super Brat", "Super Nerds", "Super Ninnies" and "Super Spoil-Sports".
Samurai takes action (I think he's taking advantage of Superman's predicament to take command) and spins around real fast to deposit the dizzy giraff in a dump truck. Now this is TOTALY unlike the Flash's "run around real fast" trick, because Samurai is FLYING at the time, and the Flash CAN'T FLY. Except when he does, of course, Zan turns himself into "an ice cage" (Looking very ashamed about it, too) and Jayna turns into "a dinosaur", because she can turn into USEFULL thing, you know. Teamwork wins the day as Jayna out-roars the lions, backing them into the cage and Gleep closes the door of the ice cage while Zan just sits there, being embarassed by his "super" power (As well he should. Aquaman has better powers than Zan). Firestorm has spotted the rino, which has stopped under an awning to wonder what the H**L the sign above is trying to convey. It says "Jungte Tours" and I have no clue, either. Firestorm turns the awning into a net and even though it only covers the rino to it's feet, everybody knows that if a net covers you, you HAVE TO give up. It's an acctual law, trust me.
"Superbrat" (Samurai's words, not mine) announces that he's hungry by beating the street with his fists. No treat will satisfy him and the mini-earthquake he's creating topples an open water tower that's sitting at the side of the street in this big, modern city, for some unknown reason (Holy Jabootu, how did the Kents ever SURVIVE this kid?). The tantrum... sorry... the SUPER tantrum continues untill the Wonder Twins offers the superkid some ice cream. Not to be outdone, Mr. Missinglink zaps up a small mountain of ice cream with a VW-sized cherry on top that covers an elevated train track where a cross-town commuter is speeding to it's doom!
It never lets up, does it? If I wanted to murder someone, I would buy them a house in Metropolis. Sooner or later, either a super villain or the lack of common sense would do him in and no one would be able to pin the murder on me!
Once again, Samurai --the REAL hero of this episode-- flys into the ice cream and (Are you sitting down?) makes it SPIN AROUND REALLY FAST, turning it into WHIPPED cream, INCLUDING the CHERRY! The train driver doesn't even try to hit the brakes and instead drives right through the wipped cream observing "Wow, some weather we're having!" in a voice that sounds STONED (I wouldn't doubt it). Buddy, you live in METROPOLIS, you should be thinking "The supers are fighting a wierd villain, again" or "Superman is being a dick, again", NOT that it's raining whipped cream!
The Superfriends offer to take Superbrat (They keep calling him that, I swear!) to play baseball, but Mr. Muscatell thinks he should play "super baseball" and zaps them away. What is "super baseball", you may wonder (As do the heros)? I don't know, but somehow it involves hitting rocks at passing airplanes with a tellephonepole-sized bat. Four boulders are sent towards another plane (Maybe there's an airport nearby whose traffic pattern goes over the stadium?) and Firestorm flies in to turn the rocks into balloons. Because he had to "stop those pop flys" so he turned the boulders into balloons that "popped". It's a pun, you see, and a desperatly lame one at that. He didn't have to bother, because in the first shot we clearly see from the angle of trajectory that the rocks would pass behind the plane. But LO! in the very next shot, the cartoonist has corrected the angle to intercept the plane!
Imagine that, a continuity error in a Superfriends cartoon. I. Am. Shocked.
Mr. Moosejaw brags that he's popular with the baseball fans (Maybe his is, I don't know) had materializes letter cards for the fans to hold, reading "MXYZPTLK RAH". Samurai zoom in and in a COMPLEATLY UNEXPECTED manouver, spins THE CARDS around HIMSELF instead of spinning himself aropund the object, rearanging them to read "KTLPZYXM HAR". Fortunatly, Mr. Mxyzptlk is the type who reads things outloud, because when he says his name backwards, he is sent back to his home dimention fo a couple of months. No reason was ever given for this, it just is, accept it!
And I'm glad, because I think I over-did the joke where I mocked his name.
While the baseball fans continue to cheer for no reason, Samurai tells Superpunk that they're going home, following this up with same "Japanese" words that I'm sure translate into "I'm getting out my BELT, young man!"
"Later that night, at the Hall of Justice, the effects of the red kryptonite finally wear off." SuperMAN is sleeping in a bed, but Zan and Jayna are sleeping back-to-back, Samurai is crashed out on a table, Firestom is in a chair, slumped over a console and Gleep hangs by his tail. So, not only do they NOT have enough chairs for everybody, they don't have enough BEDS, either! Did the missing JLA members take the furniture when they went on vacation as a prank? Who knows? I sure don't.
Supes wakes up and looks around, wondering why his friends are so tired, because "we didn't do anything all day". Yeah, sure, pretend to have "SUPER" amnesia so you can't be blamed for all the damage you did as Superbrat. That smirk betrays you!
Dick.
"The Queen is testing poisons." CLEOPATRA, 1935 |
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hk6909
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
651 Posts |
Posted - 02/29/2008 : 6:05:54 PM
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I remember seeing this when I was very, very young.
It was retarded then, too. Nice treatment, buddy.
When a stranger calls, make friends with him. |
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BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
Posted - 02/29/2008 : 6:38:37 PM
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The "mixedpickle" reference dredged up a very painful memory for me, from that Godawful Supes cartoon series from the 60's. Gee, THANKS, Greenhornet! (hee hee hee)
Y'know, it's funny. The Wonder Twins are an example of a half-good idea. Let's see, one twin can morph into any animal she wishes, quite a useful superpower when you think about. The other can change into... uh.... water or ice. Trying to turn Zan into ridiculous things like an ice cage or (I swear I'm not kidding) an ice jet(!) doesn't mask just how lame this power is. If he were born a thousand years later, he'd be invited into the legion of substitute heroes, alongside Color Kid and Antenna Lad. |
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Greenhornet
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1791 Posts |
Posted - 02/29/2008 : 6:49:49 PM
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BradH812 that episode from the sixties is burned into my memory, I can even quote dialog from it! I wonder if they'll put that show out on disc?
hk6909 you're right. Retarded discribes it.
"The Queen is testing poisons." CLEOPATRA, 1935 |
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Uncle Mxyzptlk
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