Super Friends: The Complete Collection (Blu-ray Review)

• Reviewed by: Tim Salmons
• Review Date: Sep 27, 2024
• Format: Blu-ray Disc
• 

Director

Various

Release Date(s)

1973-1985 (September 10, 2024)

Studio(s)

Hanna-Barbera Productions/DC Comics (Warner Home Video)

• Film/Program Grade: B-
• Video Grade: A-
• Audio Grade: B+
• Extras Grade: C
• Overall Grade: B

Review

Long before Zack Snyder’s Justice League assembled, DC fans were treated to Saturday morning and syndicated adventures with some of their favorite DC superheroes and villains with the long-running Super Friends animated TV franchise, which consisted of seven shows over the course of twelve years, courtesy of Hanna-Barbera Productions. The line up of heroes would be altered over the time, sometimes including young sidekicks who weren’t from the original comics, or some of the lesser known characters in the DC canon. At the center always was Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman, with Robin, the Flash, Cyborg, Firestorm, the Wonder Twins, Apache Chief, El Dorado, and Green Lantern, among others, coming and going over the various iterations of the show when it aired on ABC.

Super Friends from 1973 lasted for one season with sixteen episodes, The All-New Super Friends from 1977 lasted for one season with fifteen episodes, Challenge of the Super Friends from 1978 lasted for one season with sixteen episodes, The World’s Greatest SuperFriends from 1979 lasted for one season with eight episodes, Super Friends from 1980 to 1983 (the longest-running of the bunch) lasted for three seasons with twenty-two episodes, Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show from 1984 lasted for one season with eight episodes, and finally, The Super Powers Team: The Galactic Guardians from 1985 lasted for one season with eight episodes. The shows were repackaged over time, which led to some confusion when they started making their way to DVD. The official third season of Super Friends (1980-1983) ended up not airing in the US until 1995 when the show began airing on the USA Network. The episodes from that season were considered “lost” to US audiences, and when they were eventually released on DVD, they were branded The Lost Episodes, giving fans who didn’t catch them in 1995 a way to see them for the first time.

When it comes to the home video releases of these shows on DVD, there’s been some good and some bad. What’s good is that all of these shows have been available in some form or another on home video since the early 2000s. Each show features traditional cel animation, and is presented in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Super Friends: The Complete Collection on Blu-ray presents recent restorations of every episode of the show, improving upon the DVD counterparts ten-fold. The masters used for the DVDs were tape-sourced, which left vast room for improvement in every category, which this new Blu-ray release from Warner Bros. achieves successfully. Bitrates range from 18 to 35Mbps, but primarily sit between 20 and 25Mbps. Detail and color are dramatically improved, with crisp, clear, and stable images that retain much of the flaws inherent in the original cel animation. Some grain management has been applied, but nothing appears overly egregious. There are also no signs of edge enhancement, sharpening, or other types of unnecessary filters. The color is rich and vibrant with excellent contrast, allowing for deep blacks and nuances in the shading and shadows. Some may scoff at the grain management, but having seen these shows in much lesser quality for over half a century, this is a remarkable upgrade.

Audio for all of the shows is included in English 2.0 mono DTS-HD Master Audio with optional subtitles in English SDH. Some of the DVDs featured alternate language audio and subtitle options, which haven’t been included here. It’s a much cleaner and crisper experience, better-balanced with plenty of support for dialogue, sound effects, and score. It’s limited by its low budget, TV-based simplicity, of course, but nothing is amiss here.

Unfortunately, the packaging for Super Friends: The Complete Collection on Blu-ray (like its DVD counterpart) is not ideal. It’s a multi-disc set with discs sitting side by side and over top of each other. The discs also hold much tighter to the center of each hub, which makes it that much more difficult to remove a disc because you live in fear of actually breaking it in the process. The DVD release is also available, but we cover that in a separate review. The following episodes and extras are included on each disc:

SUPER FRIENDS (1973)

DISC ONE (EPISODES 1-5)

1. The Power Pirate (45:27)
2. The Baffles Puzzle (45:19)
3. Professor Goodfellow’s G.E.E.C. (45:21)
4. The Weather Maker (45:11)
5. Dr. Pelagin’s War (45:22)

DISC TWO (EPISODES 6-10)

6. The Shamon ‘U’ (45:14)
7. Too Hot to Handle (44:13)
8. The Androids (44:58)
9. The Balloon People (45:15)
10. The Fantastic Frerps (45:39)

DISC THREE (EPISODES 11-16)

11. The Ultra Beam (45:24)
12. The Menace of the White Dwarf (45:15)
13. The Mysterious Moles (45:17)
14. Gulliver’s Gigantic Goof (45:13)
15. The Planet-Splitter (45:42)
16. The Watermen (45:12)

THE ALL-NEW SUPER FRIENDS HOUR (1977)

DISC FOUR (EPISODES 1-5)

1. The Brain Machine/Joy Ride/Invasion of the Earthors/The Whirlpool (45:05)
2. The Secret Four/Tiger on the Loose/The Mysterious Time Creatures/The Antidote (45:48)
3. Invasion of the Hydronoids/Hitchhike/City in a Bottle/Space Emergency (46:40)
4. Doctor Fright/Drag Race/Day of the Plant Creatures/Fire (46:04)
5. The Monster of Dr. Droid/Vandals/Super Friends vs. Super Friends/Energy Mass (45:54)

DISC FIVE (EPISODES 6-10)

6. The Enforcer/Shark/Planet of the Neanderthals/Flood of Diamonds (45:34)
7. The Invisible Menace/Initiation/Coming of the Arthropods/River of Doom (45:43)
8. Attack of the Giant Squid/Game of Chicken/The Water Beast/Volcano (45:47)
9. The Collector/Handicap/The Mind Maidens/Alaska Peril (46:04)
10. The Fifty Foot Woman/Cheating/Exploration: Earth/Attack of the Killer Bees (45:58)

DISC SIX (EPISODES 11-16)

11. Forbidden Power/Pressure Point/The Lionmen/The Day of the Rats (45:33)
12. The Man-Beasts of Xra/Prejudice/The Tiny World of Terror/Tibetan Raiders (45:39)
13. Frozen Peril/Dangerous Prank/The Mummy of Nazca/Cable Car Rescue (45:57)
14. The Marsh Monster/Runaways/Will the World Collide?/Time Rescue (45:53)
15. The Protector/Stowaways/The Ghost/Rampage (45:59)

• One Dimensional Goodness: The Super Friends and the Good Old Days (Upscaled SD – 14:33)
• Origins of the Guest Stars (Upscaled SD – 8:29)
• The Wonder Twins Phenomenon (Upscaled SD – 12:08)

CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER FRIENDS (1978) (FIRST HALF SEGMENTS)

DISC SEVEN (EPISODES 1a-8a)

1. The Demons of Exxor (22:41)
2. Rokan: Enemy from Space (22:48)
3. Battle at the Earth’s Core (22:49)
4. Sinbad and the Space Pirates (22:48)
5. The Pied Piper from Space (22:50)
6. Attack of the Vampire (22:48)
7. The Beasts are Coming (22:51)
8. Terror from the Phantom Zone (22:51)

DISC EIGHT (EPISODES 9a-16a)

9. The Anti-Matter Monster (22:49)
10. World Beneath the Ice (22:44)
11. Invasion of the Brain Creatures (22:49)
12. The Incredible Space Circus (22:43)
13. Batman: Dead or Alive (22:40)
14. Battle of the Gods (22:49)
15. Journey Through Inner Space (22:52)
16. The Rise and Fall of the Super Friends (22:42)

• The Ballad of Zan & Jayna (Wonder Twin Powers Activate) Music Video (4:06)
• Pajama-Rama Super Friends Retrospective (11:55)

CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER FRIENDS (1978) (SECOND HALF SEGMENTS)

DISC NINE (EPISODES 1b-8b)

1. Wanted: The Super Friends (21:57)
2. Invasion of the Fearians (21:50)
3. The World’s Deadliest Game (21:48)
4. The Time Trap (21:50)
5. Trial of the Super Friends (21:51)
6. Monolith of Evil (21:47)
7. The Giants of Doom (21:48)
8. Secret Origins of the Super Friends (21:48)

DISC TEN (EPISODES 9b-16b)

9. Revenge on Gorilla City (21:50)
10. Swamp of the Living Dead (21:45)
11. Conquerors of the Future (21:51)
12. The Final Challenge (21:50)
13. Fairy Tale of Doom (21:53)
14. Doomsday (21:51)
15. Super Friends: Rest in Peace (21:50)
16. History of Doom (21:46)

THE WORLD’S GREATEST SUPERFRIENDS (1979)

DISC ELEVEN (EPISODES 1-8)

1. Rub Three Times for Disaster (22:13)
2. Lex Luthor Strikes Back (22:12)
3. Space Knights of Camelon (22:04)
4. The Lord of Middle Earth (22:07)
5. Universe of Evil (22:11)
6. Terror at 20,000 Fathoms (22:15)
7. The SuperFriends Meet Frankenstein (22:16)
8. The Planet of Oz (22:15)

SUPER FRIENDS (1980-1983)

DISC TWELVE (SEASON ONE – EPISODES 1-8)

1. Big Foot/The Ice Demon/The Make-Up Monster (23:01)
2. Journey Into Blackness/Cycle Gang/Dive to Disaster (23:00)
3. Yuna the Terrible/Rock & Roll Space Bandits/Elevator to Nowhere (23:39)
4. One Small Step for Mars/Haunted House/The Incredible Crude Oil Monster (23:01)
5. Voodoo Vampire/Invasion of the Gleeks/Mxyzptlk Strikes Again (23:03)
6. The Man in the Moon/Circus of Horrors/Around the World in 80 Riddles (23:01)
7. Termites from Venus/Eruption/Return of Atlantis (23:03)
8. The Killer Machines/Garden of Doom/Revenge of Bizzaro (23:01)

DISC THIRTEEN (SEASON TWO – EPISODES 1-6)

1. Outlaws of Orion/Three Wishes/Scorpio (21:33)
2. Mxyzptlk’s Flick/Sink Hole/Alien Mummy (21:30)
3. The Evil of Krypton/The Creature from the Dump/The Aircraft Terror (21:34)
4. The Lava Men/Bazarowurld/The Warlord’s Amulet (21:33)
5. The Iron Cyclops/Palette’s Perils/Colossus (21:35)
6. Stowaways from Space/The Scaraghosta Sea/The Witch’s Arcade (21:31)

DISC FOURTEEN (SEASON THREE aka THE LOST EPISODES – EPISODES 1-8)

1. Mxyzptlk’s Revenge/Roller Coaster/Once Upon a Poltergeist (21:32)
2. Warpland/Two Gleeks Are Deadlier Than One/Bulgor the Behemoth (21:33)
3. The Krypton Syndrome/Invasion of the Space Dolls/Terror on the Titanic (21:34)
4. Revenge of Doom/A Pint of Life/Day of the Dinosaurs (21:35)
5. Return of the Phantoms/Bully for You/Superclones (21:34)
6. Prisoners of Sleep/An Unexpected Treasure/The Malusian Blob (21:33)
7. Attack of the Cats/One Small Step for Superman/Video Victims (21:29)
8. Playground of Doom/Space Racers/The Recruiter (21:36)

SUPER FRIENDS: THE LEGENDARY SUPER POWERS SHOW (1984)

DISC FIFTEEN (EPISODES 1-8)

1. The Bride of Darkseid Part I/The Bride of Darkseid Part II (23:22)
2. The Wrath of Braniac/Reflections in Crime (22:08)
3. No Honor Among Thieves/Mr. Mxyzptlk and the Magic Lamp (22:18)
4. The Case of the Shrinking Superfriends/The Mask of Mystery (22:20)
5. Darkseid’s Golden Trap Part I/Darkseid’s Golden Trap Part II (22:26)
6. The Island of the Dinosoids/Uncle Mxyzptlk (22:21)
7. The Case of the Dreadful Dolls/The Royal Ruse (22:22)
8. The Village of Lost Souls/The Curator (22:16)

• Audio Commentary on The Wrath of Braniac by Glen Leopold and Mark Waid
• Audio Commentary on No Honor Among Thieves by John Semper and Mark Waid
• Audio Commentary on The Mask of Mystery by Glen Leopold and Mark Waid
• Audio Commentary on The Case of the Dreadful Dolls by Rich Fogel and Mark Waid
• Audio Commentary on The Royal Ruse by Rich Fogel and Mark Waid
• Evolution: New Heroes, Viler Villains, and Ethnic Additions (Upscaled SD – 17:43)
• The Super Powers Collection: The Effect of the Toy Industry on the Super Friends (Upscaled SD – 7:37)

THE SUPER POWERS TEAM: GALACTIC GUARDIANS (1985)

DISC SIXTEEN (EPISODES 1-8)

1. The Seeds of Doom (21:27)
2. The Ghost Ship/The Bizarro Super Powers Team (21:16)
3. The Darkseid Deception (21:25)
4. The Fear (21:23)
5. The Wild Cards (21:37)
6. Brainchild/The Case of the Stolen Powers (21:22)
7. The Death of Superman (21:07)
8. Escape from Space City (21:17)

• Super Friends Redux: Galactic Guardians (Upscaled SD – 11:10)

This release also corrects many of the mistakes of its DVD predecessors by presenting each show in its complete form and their original running order. The main extras from the DVD releases have also carried over, though the trivia challenges, DVD and video game trailers, and DVD-ROM materials have all been left behind. There’s also nothing new added in. One minor caveat is that the first and second segments of Challenge of the Super Friends are still split into halves, which is not how they originally aired, but it’s a minor issue in the grand scheme of things.

Most casual fans of the show will be more than happy to hang on to their old DVDs or even pick up the new DVD repackaging of these shows as it’s the more affordable option. However, everyone else will definitely want to pick this Blu-ray release of Super Friends: The Complete Collection up, especially for the major jump in visual and aural quality. Despite the less than stellar packaging, this set is still very much recommended.

- Tim Salmons

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