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Marvel Database
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in: Series, Animated Series, Television Series

Fantastic Four (1994 animated series)

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Episodes

Season 1

Season 2

History

In the early-to-mid-1990s, Marvel Productions syndicated a new Fantastic Four animated series as part of The Marvel Action Hour. The first half of the hour was an episode of Iron Man; the second half an episode of Fantastic Four. During the first season,[1] Stan Lee was featured speaking before each show about characters in the following episode and what had inspired him to create them.

1st Season[]

The vast majority of episodes in the first season consisted of fairly accurate re-tellings and intelligent re-interpretations of classic 1960s FF comic book stories by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, but the season's cost-effective animation and attempts to add humor through the inclusion of a fussy British landlady for the Fantastic Four were generally met with displeasure by fans[2][3] - to say nothing of then-current FF comic book writer Tom DeFalco, who got in trouble for penning a scene in issue 396 of the series that featured Ant-Man watching and lambasting an episode of the cartoon.[4]

2nd Season[]

Both the Fantastic Four and Iron Man series were radically retooled for the second seasons,[5] sporting new opening sequences, improved animation,[6][7] and more mature writing (the first season was primarily written by Ron Friedman, while the second season was overseen by Tom Tataranowicz[8]), though noticeably having fewer introductions by Stan Lee, with several of the new shorter intros being used more than once. The Season 2 episodes also drew upon John Byrne’s 1980s run on the Fantastic Four comic, in addition to further Lee and Kirby adventures. The Marvel Action Hour lasted two seasons before being canceled.

Proposed 3rd Season[]

According to Season 2 supervising producer Tom Tataranowicz, if there had been a third season of Fantastic Four, it would've centered around Susan Storm being pregnant with her future son, Franklin. As the character of the Sub-Mariner played a prominent role in the comic book issues leading up to Franklin's birth, Tataranowicz believed this would have given the production crew a chance to explore the character (who only appeared in Season 1) on their own terms. Tataranowicz also wanted to depict Medusa and She-Hulk as interim members of the Fantastic Four.[9]

DVD releases[]

Following the release of the 2005 live-action film, The Walt Disney Company (through Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment) released the series on Region 1 DVD on July 5. The DVD set now featured new introductions by Stan Lee for all 26 episodes (replacing the original introductions, which had been removed for network broadcast). Additionally, pieces of footage from the episodes themselves had also been removed for network broadcast, and it is these cut episodes that comprise the DVD set.

The first Region 2 release received only a DVD comprising of the first two episodes and the trilogy of the first appearance of Doctor Doom. The second release, now by Liberation Entertainment, features a double DVD Set with the complete first Season with remastered Video and Audio Footage. Due to Liberation's closure within the U.K, the rights to all Marvel cartoons were brought by the company Lace International, but has since changed again to Clear Vision LTD.

Clear Vision LTD will be releasing Season One in two parts. Part one will be released on May 4th 2009 with Part Two released on May 13th 2009. Season Two will also be released in two parts with part one released on June 10th 2009 and part Two released on June 17th 2009 [10]

On April 2009, a DVD Box that collects both Seasons One and Two have been released in European countries with Dutch subtitles under the Liberation Entertainment label.

Full Cast

Guest Cast[]

See Also

Links and References

References

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