Fantastic Four: The Complete 1994-95 Animated TV Series

The Fantastic Four is one of Marvel Comics longest running series, and has been reproduced in several other mediums "” from toys to t-shirts, and to a couple cartoon series. The very first debuted on Sept. 9, 1967. For Fantastic Four fans, this cartoon series was a dream come true. Plagued with bad animation and poor voice acting, by today's standards, anyways, the series ended on March 15, 1970. Marvel made a go at a resurrection of the series from 1978-1979, sans the Human Torch whom the network believed would be a bad influence on kids "” hence the Torch never joined the Fantastic Four during this run and was replaced by Firestar. It was not until 1995 that the Fantastic Four made its third and best run as a cartoon series as part of the Marvel Action Hour with the new Iron Man cartoon.

The Fantastic Four, as most of you should know, is the story of Reed Richards, and Ben Grimm, Susan and Johnny Storm, four astronauts who gain amazing powers while exposed to cosmic rays on a space mission. Reed Richards, now known as Mr. Fantastic, gains the ability to stretch his body. Ben Grimm becomes an orange rock monster, dubbed The Thing, Sue Storm can turn invisible and use invisible force fields and projectiles as the Invisible Woman. Her younger brother Johnny Storm is now able to control fire, using it to turn himself into a human torch, which later becomes the name he goes by as the youngest member of the Fantastic Four.

The Fantastic Four Animated Series on DVD is duplicated on 4 discs "” the first 2 mainly covering the first season which ran in 1994, and the last 2 covering the second and final season of 1995. Disc 1 and 2 were extremely enjoyable to watch as they focused mainly on the re-telling of the Fantastic Four origins "” which they Fan 4 tell their fans as guests of a Dick Clark telethon (guest voice appearance by the actual Dick Clark), with subsequent episodes that follow straight out of the comic.

The animation in the first year of the Fantastic Four's '90s run was a dramatic improvement over their 1960s/1970s counterparts. The four main characters voiced by Lori Allan (Sue/Invisible Woman), Beau Weaver (Reed/Mr. Fantastic), Chuck McCann (Ben/The Thing), and 90210's Brian Austin Green (Johnny/The Human Torch). While the majority of the cast does an excellent job at portraying their characters, Beau Weaver comes off more as a Shakespearean actor trying to play a superhero.

For the second season, discs 3 and 4, only one of the voice talents had been replaced "” Quinton Flynn replaces Brian Austin Green as the Human Torch. Animation, this time around, had been improved to closely resemble the newest incarnation of the G.I. Joe animated series, and where

the most annoying theme song in the history of cartoons had been heard, would now stand a much cooler techno-like Fantastic Four theme.

One thing this show was never short on was guest stars "” every villain possible, and even some great super heroes, made their presence known on at least one of the 26 episodes. Dr. Doom, the Silver Surver, the Skrulls, Galactus, Black Panther, Hydro-Man, The Hulk, The Sub-Mariner, etc. voiced by many of Hollywood's greatest talents "” from Star Trek's Michael Dorn to the Lord of the Rings' John Rhyes-Davies "” stop by to either aid or fight Marvel's first family in campy Marvel cartoon fashion.

The cartoon, in my opinion, really starts to get good in discs 3 and 4. Like I mentioned before, by this time, this cartoon was greatly improved in practically every respect, and rather than concentrating on recreating comic book issues into a cartoon, many new original and intriguing stories could be found here to be viewed every Saturday afternoon. The main thing this series lacks, as far as a DVD release, is extras. Granted, I love Stan Lee, but episode introduction by him can get rather boring after a while "” especially when that is basically the only extra on this 4 disc set.

Rob's Recommendation: Overall, the Fantastic Four animated series was a good series. The first season managed to stay very faithful to the original comics, which will undoubtedly please hardcore Fanstastic Four comic book fans, while the second expanded on that with brand new, never-before-seen adventures, with improved animation and voice talent, which is definitely capable of attracting new fans and further pleasing older fans, alike. Though seriously lacking in DVD extras with only episode introductions by Stan Lee, it's definitely a set to be owned and enjoyed by true Fantastic Four fans.

Movie Grade: B

DVD Grade: D

Overall Grade: B-