Another obscure Hanna-Barbera cartoon pairing from the vaults of Warner Brothers, Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles feels like the product out of the final pages of a journal of animators on a bender of cough syrup and whiskey. Imagine some of the goofiest superheroes (coil man?) thrown into a trio who then share the usual 22-minute timeslot with a boy and his giant Frankenstein robot, both teams fighting really strange incarnations of evil. It’s hard to say whether they were scraping the bottom of the barrel when they came up with this collection, but it’s not the only strange cartoon pairing they made.
The basic rundown of each cartoon is as follows. Buzz Conroy is a young genius who creates his robot, Frankenstein Jr., and together they have adventures foiling the plots of the nefarious ne’er do wells like Junk Man and the Ghastly Genie. The Impossibles are a trio of heroes who hide their secret identities by doubling as a rock band save for the times when their villainous opponents raise their ugly heads. It sounds like a reasonable premise until you look at the villains and discover the likes of a man who rides around in a bubble kidnapping children. So it’s got that going for it.
It’s a truly silly cartoon, and I suppose the average child would be entertained, but there are better places in the Hanna-Barbera canon to look unless you’re a true collector and only want your child watching Hanna-Barbera. Tell me how that works out.
DVD Bonus Features
It’s a made-to-order DVD set, so there are no extras.
The two-disc, 18-episode set is available exclusively from the Warner Brothers archive via the Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection, and can only be purchased online at the WBShop.
"Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles: The Complete Series" is on sale May 26, 2011 and is not rated. Adventure, Animation, Children & Family. Directed by Joseph Barbera, William Hanna. Written by Eddie Brandt, Phil Hahn. Starring Don Messick, Hal Smith, Ted Cassidy, Paul Frees.
