The Fantastic Four (animation)



1978 Animated Adaptation of Marvel Universe Superhero team The Fantastic Four. The one with the cute robot taking the place of the Human Torch, who was tied up in a separate film deal at the time.


 * Canon Immigrant: H.E.R.B.I.E.
 * Don't Try This At Home: Averted, despite popular belief. An urban legend posits that The Human Torch was replaced by H.E.R.B.I.E. at the insistent demand of the network, out of fears that children would set themselves on fire to emulate their hero. The legend was aided by a later issue of the comic in which a kid dies doing just that, and later recollections in the Marvel house magazine Marvel Age which seemed to confirm the rumor. In reality, as mentioned above, the rights had been negotiated separately for a project that never materialized and the Torch character was unavailable (the same snarls prevented the Torch from being one of the "Amazing Friends" in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends).
 * Exiled From Continuity: The Torch. See above.
 * Frank Welker: The VA for H.E.R.B.I.E and Impossible Man (and their first VA as well)
 * Fun with Acronyms: Humanoid Experimental Robot, B-type, Integrated Electronics
 * Keep Circulating the Tapes
 * Large Ham: Several villains, but especially Magneto.
 * Marvel Universe
 * Talking Is a Free Action: Or rather, it isn't anymore -- but the lines could've been taken directly from Silver Age comic scripts, so you see about how a comic book would sound in life. (The answer, by the way, is "hilarious.") You get characters taking forever as they overdramatically describe what they're going to do, and actually doing it goes on to take half a second. No one ever tries to stop the enemy standing two feet away giving long dissertation on exactly how he or she is about to attack.
 * The Notable Numeral
 * Robot Names: See above.
 * Screwed by the Lawyers: The Torch
 * Superhero
 * Urban Legends: It was rumored that the reason for Human Torch's omission was concern that impressionable children would set themselves on fire in an attempt to mimic his powers.

See Fantastic Four for a list of all the other works with this title.