The New Fantastic Four


The New Fantastic Four is an American animated series produced by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises and Marvel Comics Animation in 1978. It is the second animated series based on Marvel's comic book series Fantastic Four, following a 1967 series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions.
The 1978 series replaced Johnny Storm with a robot named H.E.R.B.I.E. as the rights to the Human Torch were tied up with Universal Pictures at the time for a proposed film that was never made.
Ownership of the series passed to [The Walt The Walt Disney Company|Disney Company|Disney] in 2001 when Disney acquired Fox Kids Worldwide, which also includes Marvel Productions.

Plot

After getting exposed to cosmic radiation, Reed Richards, Susan Storm and the Thing, alongside their robot H.E.R.B.I.E., fight crime as the Fantastic Four.

Production

DePatie–Freleng Enterprises had initially been slated to produce the Godzilla series while Hanna-Barbera was to produce The New Fantastic Four, but when Lee Gunther at DePatie–Freleng acquired the rights to the Fantastic Four, Hanna-Barbera objected, and this lead to NBC brokering a deal between the studios wherein DePatie–Freleng would produce The New Fantastic Four while Hanna-Barbera would produce Godzilla.
Universal Pictures executive Frank Price had optioned several Marvel Comics characters including the Human Torch and thus other studios could not use him. With the rights to one of the central characters tied up, Fantastic Four co-creator Stan Lee conceived a new fourth member of the team that was inspired by R2-D2 from Star Wars. Dave Cockrum was initially asked to draw concept art for the robot character, but he hated the idea of replacing the Human Torch and submitted intentionally bad designs that resembled household objects with wheels. The assignment was handed off to Fantastic Four co-creator Jack Kirby, who designed a streamlined flying robot named ZZ-123 that would be renamed to H.E.R.B.I.E.
When the series was initially set up at Hanna-Barbera, Mark Evanier who wrote for the Hanna-Barbera line of Gold Key Comics heard the company wanted an art style inspired by Jack Kirby's work, which lead to Evanier contacting the animation director to say Kirby was available to work on the show. Kirby was allowed to work on the show with Marvel Comics agreeing Kirby's work on the series would count towards the requirements of his contract with Marvel. During their time working on the series, Marvel Comics then under the stewardship of President James Galtan decided they should become an animation company so they could deal with networks and not have to sell the rights to their properties leading to the company partnering with DePatie–Freleng and forming Marvel Productions.
While certain episodes were direct adaptations of comic stories, several alterations were made for time limitations and adherence to Broadcast Standards and Practices. Writer Roy Thomas, who worked on the series alongside Lee and Kirby, spoke about the limitations they encountered such as how the Thing was not allowed to hit either people or monsters. Depictions of guns and firearms were also strictly prohibited, with Thomas crafting a scenario where Skrulls were using Star Trek-esque Phasers and receiving a note from the network, stating "No guns of any kind!".
In a private correspondence to Margaret Loesch, Stan Lee expressed dissatisfaction with the show's quality, and wanted to make changes for a second season. The show was cancelled after one season due to the death of Ted Cassidy, who voiced the Thing, and opposition from NBC president Fred Silverman, who considered this adaptation to be of poor quality.

Cast

Main cast

Additional voices

''Marvel Mash-Up''

In July 2012, scenes from Fantastic Four were re-cut, edited, and re-dubbed into comical shorts as part of Disney XD's Marvel Mash-Up series of shorts for their "Marvel Universe on Disney XD" block of programming.

Home media

Region 1

Episodes of the series were included on Prism Entertainment's Marvel Comics Video Library series. The show appeared on Volumes 2 and 7 of the series.
Morningstar Entertainment has released 2 episodes on Region 1 DVD in Canada, however both The Impossible Man and Meet Dr. Doom are reissues of Volumes 2 and 7 of the 1980s Prism Entertainment Marvel Comics Video Library. Both DVDs were mastered from VHS copies of those old releases, and therefore contain the Spider-Man episodes that were added on as bonus episodes to the VHS releases. Meet Doctor Doom is only available in the Villains Gift Set by Morningstar.

Region 2

In April 2008, Liberation Entertainment secured the home media rights to select Marvel shows from Jetix Europe in select European territories, including The New Fantastic Four. The company had plans to release the series on DVD, but in October, the company closed their UK branch; leaving the DVD release cancelled.
In 2009, Clear Vision took over the home media rights and released the complete series in a 2-disc set titled The Fantastic Four: The Complete Series on March 1, 2010 in the United Kingdom.