Super Friends The Complete Collection on DVD and Blu-ray

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

These kids today with their streaming and their Ticks/Tocks, they’ll never know the excitement of setting their alarm and getting up early on Saturday, September 8, 1973 to tune into the debut of what was then the only new comic book show on television. Prolific animation studio Hanna-Barbera had taken on DC’s Justice League during an era when parents deemed superheroes too violent, and so the core characters of Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman and Robin found themselves largely homogenized into cheerful do-gooders. So too were the plotlines routinely sanitized, stacked with misunderstood scientists who learn their lessons by story’s end, although it took a while for my young, uncynical brain to catch on to this trend.

Over the next 12 years, the show would evolve from these humble beginnings into more of a traditional heroic action show, switching from the clichéd goofball sidekicks Wendy, Marvin and Wonderdog to the otherworldly Wonder Twins, Zan and Jayna, at the start of Season Two in 1977. (The numbering, naming and timing become super-complicated.) The show remained mostly lighthearted at this stage, while bringing in more obscure characters from the books, and the thrill young me experienced at the sight of a cameo from Plastic Man or Atom was palpable, although my third bowl of Count Chocula was probably a contributing factor.

The first episode of Season Three brought us into legit superhero action territory with the arrival of The Legion of Doom, headed by Lex Luthor and populated by an assortment of villains plucked from across DC’s rogues gallery. The show would continue to change and the roster of heroes would grow further to include some racially diverse additions. By the time we reached the final season, the fourth episode, entitled “The Fear,” boasted a voice cast with the likes of Ernie Hudson, Robert Morse, Casey Kasem and even Adam West. It was actually a sort of backdoor pilot for a Batman animated series, written by none other than Alan Burnett who, seven years later, would be foundational to Batman: The Animated Series and beyond. Three episodes after that, Superman would die from exposure to Kryptonite, which should indicate how far we’d come, and we would also be treated to galaxy-spanning tales involving the legendary Jack Kirby’s Fourth World universe.

Because it encompassed more than a decade, Super Friends picked up quite a few fans of different ages along the way, each cultivating their own nostalgia for one or more of its six distinct iterations, all included in Warner’s girthy new sets:

• Super Friends
• The All New Super Friends Hour
• Challenge of the Super Friends
• The World’s Greatest Super Friends
• Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show
• The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians

Note that this last one ditches “Super Friends” altogether as part of the ongoing marketing effort to support the popular Kenner Super Powers toys then in stores, complete with their own tie-in comic books. Also here are all of “The Lost Episodes,” a collection of two dozen new adventures created during the original run that would have been the back end of Season 8 but not airing in the U.S. until they arrived in syndication, well after the last series was canceled in 1985.

Purchase Super Friends: The Complete Collection on Blu-ray at Amazon.com

Purchase Super Friends: The Complete Collection on DVD at Amazon.com

Collectors were long vexed by the initial DVD releases which trickled out over a period of ten years, in scattershot sets that were confusing in their sequence and grouping, a frustration now moot with the arrival of these truly comprehensive editions, available on either DVD or Blu-ray, each format sold separately.

The image quality of these 1.33:1 presentations is respectable, keeping in mind that this is old-school cel animation produced on a weekly television budget and schedule. Not surprisingly, the Blu-ray is undeniably superior, flaunting more accurate colors, sharper lines and more detail overall, particularly in the backgrounds. Minute imperfections in the in the individual frames remain, rather than falling victim to excessive digital scrubbing, which would have taken a toll.

What can one fairly say about TV audio that is in some cases more than 50 years old? They knew their limitations back then so they kept it simple and clear and now that aesthetic has been authentically carried into 2024 with DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 dual mono on the Blu-ray. A handful of legacy featurettes carry over from the old DVDs, some better than others plus a few episode audio commentaries featuring renowned comic book scribe Mark Waid and others. We do need to seek out the bonus because no booklet or liner notes have been included. The 16 Blu-ray discs or 21 DVDs are color-coded by season/show and carry the appropriate title logos.

Whether sworn to Doom or Justice, we devotees of Super Friends are legion, and Warner’s complete and well-organized sets are certainly worth adding to our respective libraries, to turn any day, any time into Saturday morning all over again.

Super Friends: The Complete Collection is out on Blu-ray & DVD September 10, 2024 from Warner Bros.

Purchase Super Friends: The Complete Collection on Blu-ray at Amazon.com

Purchase Super Friends: The Complete Collection on DVD at Amazon.com

• Rating Certificate: TV-G
• Studios & Distributors: Hanna-Barbera Productions | Warner Bros. Television | Eric Porter Studios | Taft Broadcasting | Warner Communications | Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
• Creator: Gardner Fox
• Run Time: 3142 Mins.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Primary Audio: English 2.0 Mono
• Street Date: 10 September 2024