Tag: Super Friends

Season 2, Episode 1, Storyline C – “Invasion of the Earthors”

Original Airdate: September 10, 1977

Short Synopsis: On some tourist island (the narrator must have been drinking because he completely slurred the name, it sounded like “Brun Frhyee”), a group of students gather at the top of a supposedly extinct volcano. “Another world, deep in the center of the earth, an industrial world, inhabited by strange, unknown creatures,” causes the volcano to erupt. This race of creatures, the Earthors, are rocky-stoney looking things who are very secure in their manliness as they ride around in giant hot pink vehicles.

Those fools are “melt[ing] away Earth’s stabilizing bedrock.” They call us “upper people.”

WTF Screenshots
“Oh, yeah, we can just drive the bus up there, no problem.”

I was so happy when I saw this glorious screwing around that I almost smiled. This is Jayna, in the form of an octopus, and Zan, in the form of a wave, practicing their powers by cleaning the Justice League headquarters. And I was worried they wouldn’t have time for this shit.

Even though they are entirely made of rock, and don’t wear clothes, this dude sports a belt:

Y’all, this is what happens when you cut stories short.
The Super Friends decide to split up to help the innocent people of Blahmrphflerp. Superman covers the air, Batman and Robin cover the land, and Wonder Woman and Aquaman cover the sea, because Aquaman can’t do anything right.

In season one, I often lamented that the Super Friends spent way too much time explaining how they got places and arranging for rides and pick-ups. But, in this episode, Batman and Robin speed off in their car, on the mainland, and, magically, almost instantly, end up on the Island of Blippity Bloop Bloop. A happy medium would be nice, Super Friends.

What? Your powers are complete bullshit and unhelpful in every way? Surely you jest!
So Jayna and Zan get caught by the Earthors, and decide to use their powers to escape the grip of the stone giants. This is what they came up with:

Within 3 seconds, the Earthors have figured out how to defeat this intimidating puddle-caterpillar combination:

But, get this: Jayna cocoons and turns into a butterfly, so she could fly out of her habitat and make contact with Zan and they both changed back.

Ohhhhh. Why didn’t you just say that?

De-coder
Last week seemed to promise a salacious and inappropriate secret word, but when you combined it with this weeks clue, the answer was “bedrock.”  And not in a “I rocked your bed from the doin’ it we did” kind of way, but in the geological sense.

If you would like to see these shenanigans for yourself, Season 2 is available on DVD.

Season 2, Episode 1, Storyline B – “Joy Ride”

Original Airdate: September 10, 1977

Short Synopsis: Two teens decide to take a plane for a joy ride. Not just any plane, but a plane whose engine could go out at any moment. Corky, the instigator, is 10 hours away from earning his license. Once in the air Corky decides to “have some fun with the local beach bums.” Two of those bums are the Wonder Twins. Yadda yadda yadda, everything turns out fine.

Ladies and Gentleman, May I Present to You
The Wonder Twins were new characters. They didn’t show up in the comics until after the first few episodes of the All-New Hour aired. When introducing new characters, you really should make a great first impression. This is the first time we ever see Jayna and Zan in action:

And, our introduction to Gleek:

Obviously, super heroes who are to be taken very seriously.

It just seems overly complicated.
Let’s briefly discuss how the Wonder Twins get from point A to point B:
Step 1 – They bump fists and say “Wonder Twins power, activate!” (which we know is just a bad habit and not necessary).
Step 2 – Jayna becomes an eagle, Zan becomes purple water.
Step 3 – Zan, able to control the shape and movement of the water he’s become, jumps into a bucket, which they must have to lug everywhere they go.
Step 4 – Gleek holds bucket with Zan-water in it and Jayna flies around with Gleek in her talons, see here:

I’m not one to mess with perfection, because this is, somehow, perfect. But, can I just say, that the idea that the twins not only have to transform into very narrow areas (animal and freakin’ water), that they have to both do it at the same time is really a special touch. What’s that, Zan? You don’t want to be an ice cube? Well, too bad, Jayna needs to turn into a ring tailed lemur.

Other facts to know about The Wonder Twins:
1.    Jayna can still talk, even if she’s an eagle. And she doesn’t say “I want to eat some salmon,” she says stuff that Jayna would want to say.
2.    Zan can also talk as water – the water sloshes out of the bucket when he’s talking. Rude.
3.    When he’s a larger body of water, his face shows up to chat (to Jayna, in the form of a pterodactyl).

It’s De-coder Time!
After the Wonder Twins story, Superman shows up and tells us kids he’s going to give us clues to a secret word, a word that will be very important in the next story. Then, he grabs a cloud and starts turning it into a “picture clue.” All we have to do is remember this clue and put it together with the next one.



NO! I DON’T WANT ANYMORE CLUES!

Tune in next week for the next story, which I assume is going to involve things that children shouldn’t be seeing.

If you would like to see these shenanigans for yourself, Season 2 is available on DVD.

P.S. If you want to read even more philosophical musings about The Wonder Twins and Gleek, here’s an entry on the great Point Counter-Point Point Point.

I had a little peek of this season on YouTube to see if it was worth continuing the Super Friends posts and within 5 minutes Wonder Woman was tied up in her own lasso, Robin was hanging by his cape in a tree, and Batman was stuck in a barrel. So I figured the answer was yes.

I only hope it lives up to the first season. It has big shoes to fill, particularly considering this headline from the first season’s DVD:

Here’s some leftover examples of how the first season of Super Friends changed animation heroics forever:

Season 1 – Episode 16: “The Watermen”

Air date was December 22, 1973

Short Synopsis: Two aliens, Zara and Horo, from a water planet, are extracting silicon from sea water, “turning it from blue to grey.” Those bastards! Their people use silicon for fuel. And this is somehow causing red tide to show up in the places that they are…..arghphflllllarrrb.

This was another painful episode. You know it’s not working and is going to be bad when it’s narrator-heavy: “Wonder Woman takes the toast from the toaster, puts the toast on the center of a plate, opens the utensils drawer and grabs a butter knife. Sensing her toast needs butter because that will make it taste better, Wonder Woman rushes to the refrigerator and grabs the butter. Carefully, and with precise skill, she dips the knife into the butter and spreads the butter on her knife across the toast.” That is a more interesting version of what a narrator-heavy episode is like.

Here’s what the water people look like. Notice Zara can turn her head all the way around like an owl:

Their alien race is technically superior to ours, except for the designing and wearing of pants.

YESSSSS!
Aquaman points.

WTF Screenshots:
Uh, who’s arm and hand is this?

“Put it on full thrutle!”

“Wait, sorry, I meant throttle.”

“Nope, thrutle. Thrutle.”

Wendy sits too close in addition to being a close-talker. And, she’s a giant.

This is Superman using a “Hollywood wind machine” (yes, he went to a movie studio to get it) to remove a ton of starfish from a the corral reef.

Darth Vader chopped off Wendy’s hand.

This is the Super Friends version of how different alien lifeforms will be from humans.
This is real dialog:

Horo: Maybe it’s time for the motorboat and me to play another game of chicken.
Zara: Chicken!?
Horo: I mean “duck.” THEY call it “chicken!”

You almost did me in, Super Friends.
This episode had me rolling my eyes and shaking my head 80% of the time. It was horrible. Horrible. The episode ended with the Super Friends finally catching up to, and finding the water people, easily solving their silicon problem, then wrapping everything up with a game of water polo – because that’s what you do when your alien race had, up to that point, been desperate to get back home. I don’t think I’ll ever be the same.

This was the last episode of season 1. Did you know there was almost four years between the first season of Super Friends and the second, which was re-named “The All-New Super Friends Hour?” You didn’t? And you didn’t need to? Oh, shut up.

I have yet to invest in the second season DVDs, so I’ll be taking a break before I dive in again. That break may be a while, so if you feel your heart will be broken if I wait too long, leave a comment and guilt trip me. Example: “Oh, that’s ok, Carrie, you can take all the time you need. The doctor says I only have three weeks to live, but you do what you think is best.” Or, send out a TroubAlert. Nobody will do anything about it, but it may make you feel better.

Goodbye, season one of Super Friends, I’ll always love you best.

If you would like to see these shenanigans for yourself, the first season is available on DVD.