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To call this series “Fantastic” would be generous but it’s not bad as far as Saturday Morning cartoons go. With the release of “Fantastic Four” in theaters the week of July 8, 2005, Buena Vista has obtained the release rights to this 1994 animated version of the most dysfunctional superhero imaginable. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four initially as a knock off of DC’s popular Justice League comic book. Lee and Kirby introduced their style of creating superheroes that didn’t always behave with super manners and had disagreemets with each other. Fantastic Four probably is one of the duo’s best creations together. This series certainly looks nice on DVD but the music and scripts are rather weak. I can only hope that the movie doesn’t follow the template for the cartoon series. ***

After exposure to high levels of cosmic radiation Reed Richards, Sue Richards, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm are all transformed into beings with super powers. Reed develops the ability to stretch his body as if its elastic (the Fantastic Four was one of the inspirations for “The Incredibles” I should add); Sue Richards can turn invisible and also generate dynamic force fields; her brother Johnny was always a bit of a hothead and literally is one now as the Human Torch; Ben Grimm develops a nasty skin condition where he develops giant orange scales and superhuman strength. His name is pretty easy to come up with—The Thing. This dysfunctional family doesn’t always get alog (particularly Reed and his friend the prickly Grimm who’s prone to solving things with bouts of violence preceded by the phrase, “it’s clobbering’ time!”) but they do love each other. In the first episode of “Fantastic Four” we discover how they got their amazing powers while the quartet are on Dick Clark’s Telethon (really!) pitching their book for a good cause. We also find out about their first adventure as the Fantastic Four where they deal with the Toymaker a man who uses a special ore to control others as if they were puppets. Later, they encounter perennial favorite villain Dr. Doom and Galactus the planet killer who goes from world to world consuming all of a world’s valuable resources. We’re introduced to the Silver Surfer as well (an icon of the 60’s) who seres Galactus. Other good guys and villains from the popular Marvel comics series show up including Namor (sort of like Aquaman with a bad attitude) who later becomes a hero himself. ---

The extras are limited here. I would have expected storyboards, layouts and incomplete sections of animation as part of the package and was disappointed it wasn’t included with this set. We do get a version of Stan Lee’s famous “Soap Box” which used to appear on a regular basis in all the Marvel comics. Lee would usually write about current developments in the comics world, various characters and artists/writers in the Marvel stable. Here Lee discusses the creation of the Fantastic Four and other topics including how he and Jack Kirby (the best and earliest of his collaborators) dreamed up the stories that they used in the Four’s comic books. There’s also a brief introduction to each episode presided over by Lee.You have the option of watching the episodes with or without Lee’s introductions.

Although this isn’t a great representation of the Four’s finest appearances in their comic books, we do get a number of fun adventures. I’m hoping (and from the early preview I saw some time back of “Fantastic Four” I’m pretty well convinced) that the movie improves on the animated series. Clearly created with kids in mind, the narratives are involving and fun introducing the best villains and supporting characters from the series. Sadly, the series lacks the epic scope of the Four’s best adventures probably due to the budget and the time this cartoon series was created but it is an improvement over some of the 60’s Marvel cartoons (although, to be fair, those had better graphics often using the original panel drawings done by the artists minus the dialog balloons but with extremely limited animation). ***

If you’re going to take your son or daughter to see the Fantastic Four this boxed set might not be a bad way to introduce them to the characters although the story deviates from the original comic book to some degree (as does the updated film version). It’s a pity there are no commentary tracks or deleted sequences that might have been shot or abandoned.