Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Animated World of DC Comics: Shazam! (1981)

4 years after the live-action Shazam! had ended its run on CBS, Captain Marvel was back, but this time on NBC as part of the Kid Super Power Hour. Here's the open, which uses the theme from the 1974-77 series, and as with that show, the narration is by co-producer Norm Prescott, uploaded by superherocartoonsite to YouTube:



As I noted in reviewing the live-action Shazam! the other day, Captain Marvel was joined by his sister, Mary, and Captain Marvel, Jr.. In addition, familiar villains such as Black Adam and the Sivanas appeared to menace the "Mighty Marvels". The character designs were based on C. C. Beck's original designs, which more than made up for the casting error in the earlier series, using an older actor (Michael Gray) as Billy Batson when, in the comics, Billy hadn't aged all that much. As I noted before, Kid Super Power Hour was cancelled after 1 season, and was the next-to-last series NBC would obtain from Filmation.

Rating: B-.

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