It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I remember Saturday mornings when I was little at home with mom lying in bed I would always watch Saturday morning cartoons and this one "Super Friends" was one of my favorites as my imagination and life was thrilled with "Batman and Robin". And I loved seeing these characters on screen as the animation was so bright and in color with each episode as watching theses episodes became my escape from reality as a little boy! The greatest heroes from D.C.'s comic world were featured my favorite was the duo tag team of "Batman and Robin" and along for the journey and action ride was "Superman", "Wonder Woman", and even "Aquaman" plus the little "Wonder Twins" were a treat. As the bad guys they faced were "The Riddler" and "Mr. Mxyzptlk", "Bizarro" and others. Even many episodes were stories of the super heroes facing aliens and robots, and even campy ones where they faced "Bigfoot" and "The Loch Ness Monster". Overall good kids series that entertained when I was little as it was my entertainment and imagination escape.

Many enduring Saturday Morning characters grew progressively grimmer in terms of quality over their life span. Scooby-Doo degenerated from Scooby-Dum to Dynomutt,all the way to Scrappy-Doo to "The 13 Ghosts Of Scooby Doo" and ultimately to babyfication in the mid-1990's with "A Pup Named Scooby Doo". Even other Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters like Yogi Bear,Huckleberry Hound and other Hanna-Barbera cartoon funny animals went from their mildly amusing late 1950's-early 1960's shorts to the horrific antifun of "Yogi's Gang","Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics and not to mention "Yogi's Space Race",during the rest of the 1970's. Other characters too fall aprey as well,for example Looney Tunes' character of Daffy Duck descended from heights like "Duck Dodgers in the 24 and 1/2 Century" and "Duck Amuck"(which basically were two Oscar winning animated shorts)to stupidly chasing Speedy Gonazles in a desultory series of Friz Freleng-directed shorts. Even other shows follow suits as well. The Flintstones went from their own successful original show,deriative but often entertaining,to rerun disgraces and total failures like "Fred and Barney Meet The Thing", "Fred and Barney Meet The Shmoo",and "The Flintstones Mysteries".THE SUPERFRIENDS on the other hand,got better and better in each episode of their incarnations. This was a series that was one of the top rated programs during its entire thirteen and a half year run on ABC-TV from September 8, 1973 until September 6, 1986 and was mostly seen during the earlier part of ABC's Sunshine Saturday Morning schedule. Produced in association with DC Comics and Hanna-Barbera Productions. At the time of their first appearance,the Superfriends were a sort of stripped down version of DC Comics' Justice League Of America. The characters of Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman were already old hands on Saturday Morning. Wonder Woman was the only newcomer,but in comics terms she was a long established a fairly well known character. Even during the earlier seasons(between 1973 through 1975),a few other characters made brief appearances,like Green Arrow. During the show's first three seasons by the way,the heroes never got the chance to fight any villains(that wasn't until The Challenge Of The Superfriends six years later). Instead you got to see these superheroes running around like toddlers saving the world from natural disasters. The worst of this was during the years 1973-1975(seasons one through three). The cause of this fiasco was the repulsive sidekicks that had on the show basically were the characters of Wendy,Marvin and Wonderdog-who were basically teenage kids who hung around the Superfriends. Marvin was the antithesis of Shaggy while Wonderdog was the copy of Scooby Doo(and of all the Scooby clones that came around during the 1970's,Wonderdog was the worst of them all). At least Wendy was mildly competent while Marvin was one of the dumbest kids ever conceived. Wendy and Marvin were just that--the ultimate degenerate form of the kid sidekick that was repulsive and annoying to which in just about every episode Wendy and Marvin always stumbled into trouble and every time were to be rescued in one form or another by The Superfriends. The other aggravating thing and this was what the producers thought was educational during the first three seasons of The Superfriends was the profunsion of short public-service blurbs,in which Batman would help kids cross the street property or various others with Superman telling kids not to smoke cigarettes or used drugs or Aquaman telling kids not to pollute the environment or Wonder Woman telling kids not to get near or talk to strangers. All of that would change quickly in 1975.At the start of the 1975-1976 season,Wendy,Marvin and Wonderdog were completely eliminated and were replaced by The Wonder Twins-which consisted of Jayna,Zan,and their space monkey Gleep(which was a recycled version of Hanna-Barbera's Space Ghost which consisted of Space Ghost's two sidekicks Jan and Jayce and space monkey Blip). Unlike Wendy and Marvin,they actually had superpowers. Hailing from an alien planet,they were able,whenever they touched hands,to take on the form of an animal and the shape of some kind of water. At least the Twins were not helpless idiots like Wendy and Marvin. Most importantly,the new format had more to offer too--more superheroic adventure and some reasonably interesting plots and the occasional addition of new members of the Justice League including Hawkman and Green Lantern and others that featured insulting ethnic characters too like Apache Chief, Black Vulcan,and Samurai. Zan and Jayna were given their own format adventures as well featuring them helping hopeless teens in tight situations. By the end of the 1977-1978 season Zan and Jayna were eliminated from the group. By the start of the 1978-1979 season,the Superfriends FINALLY get the fight their villains which was the next incarnation of the show which in my opinion was one of the coolest and innovative shows ever the grace Saturday Mornings in the late 1970's. "The Challenge Of The Superfriends" premiered during the 1978-1979 season and it featured the Justice League battling the Legion Of Doom(which consisted of Superman's arch nemesis Lex Luthor)and other diabolical villains not to mention once again saving the world from doom and total destruction.The overall success prove brilliant and from there at the start of the 1979-1980 season,The Superfriends expanded to a full 90 minute format that offer more action and thrills than ever which also included repeated episodes from earlier seasons too. That lasted until 1983. The final content of this came at the height of the show's final season with "The Superpowers Team:Galactic Guardians"(premiered during the 1984-1986 seasons) which they faced a new sinister and more deadlier villain "Darkseid" and along with new heroes to join the Hall Of Justice(or the Justice League Of America) as well to battle deadlier and menacing foes. However,after the success of The Superfriends there were other shows that could do follow the same formula,but this was show that change like the colors of the rainbow in different segments.

I may have seen this on Saturday morning, but probably was too young to remember. I was already aware of this version because of a coloring book I had with Wendy and Marvin in it. My greatest memories of this series was coming home after school and watching it in syndication weekday afternoons from 1981-1985 on the network that would become Fox in the mid to late 80's. At that time, they aired on Thursday and Friday afternoons as 2 parters. It wasn't until Cartoon Network that I saw them in their original hour format.If you love the SuperFriends and you want to show your kids this show, then heed my advice. This may be the first series, but do not show them this version first. Otherwise, it will bore your kids to tears. I would start them off with either the Legion of Doom or the Wonder Twins. Get them comfortable with the heroes first before showing them this series.SuperFriends of 1973 is the tamest most non violent version in existence. If you want to blame someone for the lack of action and lack of good comic book villains, then blame the Broadcast Standards and Practices for all the restrictions this show really had. That was due to parent groups complaining about the 60's Super Hero cartoons being so violent. This series was at least a good follow up to the classic Superman, Aquaman, and Batman cartoons by Filmation of the 60's. Especially since Ted Knight narrates this series and the voices of Batman and Robin from the Filmation show (Olan Soule and Casey Kasem) were aboard for the decade long ride. While I liked Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog as a kid, I really hate them now, especially the pooch. Hanna Barbera was really trying to cash in on the phenomenon created by Scooby Doo. The 70's was a decade where HB did lots of cartoons with a group of teens and a mascot of some kind. The SuperFriends were not immune. Wendy is a crossover of Velma (for being a brainy student) and Daphne (for exclaiming Jeepers! all the time). Marvin was a cross between Fred (Frank Welker as the voice over) and Shaggy (tall and lanky). Wendy was annoying as the teachers pet who was always talking down to Marvin. (not that Marvin didn't have it coming at times). Marvin was even more annoying . A teenager with a towel sewed on his shirt with aspirations of being Superman or should I say "Super Marv". Although he did show his smarts now and then, Marvin came across as an idiot. And as for Wonder Dog. I felt he was the worst of the lot. A bad carbon copy of Scooby Doo, only he didn't talk, he did charades and acted like a human at times. These three are unbearable to watch and they were totally useless. Just as useless as the misguided villains, most of whom proved to be good hearted or had good intentions. Like Anthro, from the pilot episode "The Power Pirate, or Colbar from Too Hot to Handle. And others like Profesor Baffles, Dr. Pelagian, Dr. Rebos, and the list goes on. The only thing we had even close to a real villain was Raven in "Menace of the White Dwarf". Other than that, the only other costumed villain was King Plasto in the "Fantastic Frerps".The heroes are actually the reason to watch this show. Danny Dark, Olan Soule, Casey Kasem, Shannon Farnon, and Norman Alden were superbly cast as Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman. Superman and Wonder Woman were good and powerful. Batman and Robin usually get a bad rap for all their Bat gadgets and no fist fights. Well, in this series, their devices are few, basic, and simple, and the Batmobile is their main mode of transportation. And Aquaman usually gets a bad rap for being useless and out of water a lot. Well, in this series, Aquaman is in the water quite a bit. The last episode, "The Watermen " is an underwater story. This series gave us a couple of treats. We see Plastic Man make a cameo in the Professor Goodfellow's G.E.E.C. and we see guest starring roles for the Flash in "Too Hot To Handle" and Green Arrow in his one and only appearance in "Gulliver's Gigantic Goof". Plus, this series is the only one with a recurring character in the form of Colonel Wilcox, the military official who contacts the SuperFriends in time of trouble.All in all, the original SuperFriends is mostly about brain power over brute strength, moral lessons, ethics, ecological issues and anti pollution messages. The best action you'll see the heroes in is when they use their abilities to rescue people. Most of the villains learn their lessons before episode's end. SuperFriends is a lackluster start to a long running series that does promise to get better. If anything, the theme of this series is well worth watching. But like I said, before exposing your kids to Wendy and Marvin, start them off with one or more of the other more exciting versions. This series was okay, but could have been much better.

My favorite "SuperFriends" series is the first season with Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog. My favorite characters in this season are Wendy & Robin. This show can currently be seen on the channel Boomerang from Cartoon Network! Ted Knight (from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show") is the narrator! If you haven't seen this show please track it down on Boomerang and give it try.