Karen: OK, a follow up to the previous forum: What's your favorite animated super-hero feature? There's certainly a lot to choose from. Although I'm not that familiar with the cartoons of the 30s and 40s, I do find the Fleischer Superman cartoons beautiful to look at.
Karen: In the 60s, the Marvel super-heroes made the jump the the small screen. The Fantastic Four show by Hanna Barbera was pretty good. The Spider-Man cartoon had the catchiest theme song ever -and terrible animation! The same could be said for the other Marvel cartoons of that era, which were little more than comic book panels with a moving arm or leg. DC on the other hand had a variety of shows of average or better quality. In the 70s they debuted the Super-friends, which had a long and memorable run. Non-comics heroes like Space Ghost and the Herculoids were also to be found.
Karen: I wasn't watching a lot of cartoons in the 80s and 90s, but shows like the X-Men, Batman the Animated Series, and Superman were probably the cream of the crop. The last two in particular had top of the line writing and art -unified by Bruce Timm, who would later go on to do my personal favorite, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.
Karen: There have also been a number of animated super-hero films. High on my list would be Pixar's The Incredibles. Both DC and Marvel have produced many animated DVD features in recent years. I am particularly fond of DC's The New Frontier and Marvel's first Avengers feature.
Karen: I know there's a lot I haven't covered -so have at it!
11 comments:
The first two seasons of Justice League were the best ever.
I haven't watched much of the stuff past the early '80s, so my scope here is limited, but I agree with some of the features you mentioned: I thoroughly enjoyed the Incredibles and also liked Space Ghost quite a bit back in the day. And yes, those Fleischer Superman features from the '40s are lovely...
The first two seasons of Batman the animated series. Hands down.
I have to agree on the early Batman The Animared Series. Although it's possible that "Mask of the Phantasm" is the pinnacle of that series too.
Honorable mention to "Teen Titans" though.
I would agree with the first two seasons of Batman: the Animated Series as a real high-water point. As Karen said, I also really like the "New Frontier" full-length feature from DC.
The Fleischer Superman cartoons were every bit as good as anything Disney was producing at the time.
But you know what's especially nostalgiac for me? The previously-mentioned Marvel Super-Heroes cartoons from my birth year, 1966. I saw those in reruns when I was around 6 years old, and even though I'd barely scratched the surface of comics reading, these cartoons were a window to a wonderful world. And, as I began to acquire 25 or 30 comics over the next couple of years, the fact that these cartoons continued to be aired showed me a history behind the characters I was loving in the then-present.
Doug
By the way, unless I'm not looking close enough, I don't think your poll has that Batman cartoon from the late '70s - it was produced by Filmation (they also did a Tarzan cartoon that I used to like). Not enough love for that series to even get a mention? I even think Adam West and Burt Ward did the voices...
Ah Edo, I composed that list mostly from memory, so I'm sure there are a few favorites left off - but no intentional snub, I assure you! I'm really surprised that Batman:TAS isn't running away with the poll!
Karen
Our concurrent sidebar poll results are in, and it looks like folks enjoyed the Fleischer Superman cartoons,had a soft spot for the Super-Friends, and dug Batman:The Animated Series the most. Thanks for taking part!
Karen
If it's tv-only, than the 90s Batman animated series, and Flash Gordon: the Greatest Adventure of All (tv-movie, not the ongoing series)
If you include theatrical movies, then the Fleischer Superman series, hands-down.
My vote goes to the Xmen series of the early 90’s. Although well and truly grown up by then ( so grown up in fact that I couldn’t be bothered to get up that early on a Saturday morning and had to set the video), I still couldn’t resist. One of benefits of being grown up was that I had a kick-ass surround sound system by them, and when I pumped the Xmen through it, it blew me across the room like Marty McFly. Seriously, the score & soundtrack was mixed like a Pink Floyd album. I used to play the credits about 3 or 4 times before I even started watching.
Richard
Didn't catch this earlier..:
Doug, totally agreed on the previously-mentioned Marvel Super-Heroes cartoons. I was born in '63 and always pined for them, especially the Captain America episodes. The birth of my life-long love for CA started right then and there.. Having 'em all on DVD now is great; well, all 'cept Namor (my least favorite..). The animation was 'cost-effective', and worked extremely well.
How can you get closer to the enjoying comic cartoons than animating the actual comic panels..???
In fact, both the Cap eps and the Spidey series gave both my parents premature gray hair, since I heard of but never got the Spidey and Cap Captain Action figures.. I bugged them for YEARS about them!
I'm enjoying the old Spidey series now on DVD, and can agree that while the first year was super-fun, the later Bakshi had more surreal pacing and weaker animation, lacking the fun edge the first year had.
Also enjoyed the 60s FF cartoon, enjoying many concepts from the Kirby era, another great series I aquired on DVD.
As for more recent offerings, the first two years of Batman's Animated Series were stellar in quality and presentation.
'Phantasm' to me was either the series pinnacle, or the 'shark jump'.., not sure. I will give kudos to the Titans series for injecting a fun, energetic angle on our favorite Teens.
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