The Adventures Of Aquaman: The Complete Collection – DVD Review

Shows

Available at Amazon.com

Studio: Warner Bros.
Release Date: October 23, 2007
Number of Discs: 2
Number of Episodes: 36
Running Time: 216 Minutes
MSRP: $26.98

Creators:

Hal Sutherland

Cast:

Marvin Miller……….Aquaman
Jerry Dexter……….Aqualad
Ted Knight……….Narrator/Black Manta

The show:

Get set for undersea adventure!

DC Comics Classic Collection strikes again with The Adventures Of Aquaman. These 36 cartoons are jam-packed with underwater adventure and some the strangest creatures you’ve ever seen.

These shorts originally aired from 1967 to 1968 as part of The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure. In 1968, the episodes re-aired simply as Aquaman, without the Superman segments. They tell the continuing adventures of Aquaman, Aqualad, their seahorses, Imp and Storm, and their pet walrus, Tusky. They fought any number of odd and strange sea threats, with Black Manta being the most reoccurring villain.

Each 12 minute episode consist of two six minute stories so there is no room for plot or character development, just action, exposition dialog and bad quips and puns. Each story goes like this: it’s just another day for Aquaman and Aqualad, something or someone evil shows up to ruin there day, they fight and the villain seems to have the upper hand, that is until Aquaman turns it around and saves the day once again. All this is narrated by the disembodied voice of Ted Knight who spells everything out like, “once again Aquaman telepathically calls his watery friends for help!” And if you’re curious who the villain in any given story is, look no further than the title.

The show also reuses a lot of animation which is very noticeable and adds to the over all cheesiness of the show. Aqualad’s constant Robinesque statements like “Jumping jellyfish!” don’t help either. The animation is a little stiff and very dated. After a while the episodes start to bleed together and you being to feel like if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. That’s not to say Aquaman is all bad. Despite these flaws there are still a lot of interesting things going on in the show and when you consider the time this was made, some of the episodes feel very ahead of their time. Plus, it must be noted that this show was one the early building blocks that got us to the great DC cartoons we have today. Perhaps Aquaman hasn’t aged very well but it is still entertaining for DC fans.


The Crimson Monster: one of the stranger creatures Aquaman fights.

Episodes:

Disc One:

Menace of the Black Manta
The Rampaging Reptile-Men
The Return of Nepto
The Fiery Invaders
Sea Raiders
War of the Water Worlds
The Volcanic Monster
The Crimson Monster from the Pink Pool
The Ice Dragon
The Deadly Drillers
Vassa, Queen of the Mermen
The Microscopic Monsters
The Onslaught of the Octomen
Treacherous is the Torpedoman
The Satanic Saturnians
The Brain, the Brave and the Bold
Where Lurks the Fisherman!
Mephisto’s Marine Marauders

Disc Two:

Trio Of Terror
The Torp, the Magneto and the Claw
Goliaths of the Deep-Sea Gorge
The Sinister Sea Scamp
The Devil Fish
The Sea Scavengers
In Captain Cuda’s Clutches
The Mirror-Man from Planet Imago
The Sea Sorcerer
The Sea-Snares of Captain Sly
The Undersea Trojan Horse
The Vicious Villainy of Vassa
Programmed for Destruction
The War of the Quatix and the Bimphars
The Stickmen of Stygia
Three Wishes to Trouble
The Silver Sphere
To Catch a Fisherman

The Extras:

Aquaman: The Sovereign of the Seas Retrospective Featurette: (25 min.) This is a typical Retrospective. A bunch of Aquaman lovers talk about how great he is and give us a nice history of the underwater hero from his humble beginnings in the comics to the cartoon represented her to his appearances on Smallville and getting his own live action pilot. They even talk about the fake Aquaman movie in Entourage.

The DVD Lounge’s Ratings for
The Adventures Of Aquaman: The Complete Collection
CATEGORY
RATING
(OUT OF 10)
THE SHOW

7.5
THE VIDEO

8
THE AUDIO

8
THE EXTRAS

5
REPLAY VALUE

7
OVERALL
7
(NOT AN AVERAGE)

Mike Noyes received his Masters Degree in Film from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. A few of his short films can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebnoyes. He recently published his first novel which you can buy here: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Days-Years-Mike-Noyes-ebook/dp/B07D48NT6B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528774538&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+days+seven+years