Thursday, May 22, 2014

Fantastic Four:

This is an old article pending revision.

The Fantastic Four are four Marvel Comics comic book characters that premiered in 1961. This group of people got exposed to cosmic radiation resulting in side effects where they can morph into different abilities, which they are able to use as superpowers. Johnny Storm becomes "The Human Torch" and is able to turn into flames and not burn himself in the process. Since he can turn into heat, he is able to fly. His sister named Susan or Sue, called "The Invisible Woman", is able to disguise herself and can generate force fields. Her husband, Reed Richards, is simply called "Mr. Fantastic" and is able to alter his physical structure and stretch himself to where he is either tall or long. The last member, Ben Grimm, is called "The Thing." he was severely affected by the radiation and is remaining in his solid rock form. He uses this to His advantage as superior strength and invincibility. These four characters are created by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby.

The first time that we get to see The Fantastic Four in animation is in 1967 with 20 episodes produced by Hanna-Barbera. This version explains in detail of what happens to the four people. In the beginning and ending segments, there is a story line of what happens to the characters along with a background of well performed music. Additionally, the characters are drawn very similar to what they look like in the comic books, and the opening also displays a number "4" with the heads of the characters surrounding it, just like in the front cover of the comic books. The series also uses the same font that was used in the comic book title at that time. Hanna-Barbera are also known for their series involving super heroes that they created or produced themselves. There characters are also featured in comic books and comic book-based super hero characters and animation-based super hero characters are both included together in both comic books and in animation. The cast Is Gerald Mohr as Reed Richards, Jo Ann Pflug as Susan, Jack Flounders as Johnny Storm, Paul Frees as Ben Grimm, and Joseph Sirola, as Doctor Doom.

The second appearance in animation of Fantastic Four was in 13 episodes produce by David H. DePatie & Friz Freleng, with Executive Producer Lee Gunther in 1978. In the comic book, both The Human Torch character and The Thing appeared by themselves. While The Thing was featured in other cartoons by Himself in Hanna-Barbera Cartoon, DFE was facing something similar, only this was a problem. The Human Torch was not feature in these episodes. The right to this character was to be featured solo in his own movie. Unfortunately, this did not happen. In the DFE Films series, The human torch character was replaced by a computer that is named H.E.R.-B., or H.E.R.B.I.E. "Humanoid Experimental Robot, B-type--Integrated Electronics". Because of the problems in making a shaky English language version adaptation of Gatchaman called "Battle Of The Planets", many people also believe that The Human Torch was written out for the purpose of protecting children, specifically from the possibility of imitating the abilities of him. The music was composed by Dean Elliott and Eric Rogers. The cast Is Dick Tufeld, Mike Road as Reed Richards, Ginny Tyler as Susan, Ted Cassidy as Ben Grimm, Frank Welker as H.E.R.B.I.E., and John Stephenson, as Doctor Doom.

In 1994 & 1995, another animated series was produced. This time it was produced entirely by Marvel Comics Animation since Friz Freleng went into retirement, and David H. DePatie and Lee Gunther merged the company with Marvel. The design of that series has a very strong resemblance to many Saturday Morning Cartoons at that time. It also includes a design in animation that has been used for many year: Extended Picture Quality and also adding a glossy effect to it. At the same time, it also featured limited animation, an unnecessary added humor. All these errors were worked around halfway into the series. The cast Is Beau Weaver as Reed Richards, Lori Alan as Susan, Quinton Flynn & Brian Austin Green as Johnny Storm, Chuck McCann as Ben Grimm, Pauline Arthur Lomas as Alicia Masters, and Neil Ross & Simon Templeman & John Vernon, as Doctor Doom.

In 2006, Cartoon Network Studios co-produced a new series of Fantastic Four with MoonScoop. MoonScoop Is well known for it well designed animation, a many animation studios in France (such a Marathon) closely resemble the picture quality that Is found in Japanese and Korean cartoons. They use toon-shaded Computer Generated Images, like many cartoons of the twenty-first century, wit extended picture quality design and glossy images. There have been 26 episodes produced as of 2008. The full name of this series I called "Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes." This extended name helps since there are 3 other releases of Fantastic Four that were made prior to this production. H.E.R.B.I.E. makes appearances again, but as a different form of computer system. The cast Is Hiro Kanagawa as Reed Richards, Lara Gilchrist as Susan, Christopher Jacot as Johnny Storm, Brian Dobson as Ben Grimm, Samuel Vincent as H.E.R.B.I.E., Sunita Prasad as Alicia Masters, and Paul Dobson as Doctor Doom.

Live Action Motion Picture:

Beginning in 1992, a film with the budget of less than two million dollars was filmed and screened. The actors are Joseph Culp a Dr. Doom, Kat Green as Alicia Masters, Alex Hyde-White a Reed, Rebecca Staab as Sue, Jay Underwood as Johnny Storm, Michael Bailey Smith & Carl Ciarfalio as Ben. The lead director of the film Is Oley Sassone and the Executive Producer Is Roger Corman. The film was completed, an scheduled for release in 1994. The staff and actors claim that they were told that the movie was going to be released to the public, and also going to be use as a potential for a live action television series.

In 2005, another film was released, this time successfully but with different actors. Jessica Alba played Sue, Ioan Gruffudd played Reed, Chris Evans played Johnny, Michael Chiklis played Ben, Julian McMahon played Dr. Doom, and Kerry Washington played Alicia Masters. It was produced by FOX. In 2007, another film was released, called Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer. It Is possible for a third live action motion picture to be produced, since it was originally planned.

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