Back in the nineties Marvel would turn pretty much anything into an animated series be they from popular characters like the X-Men or Spider-Man to more lesser known characters like Iron Man. Well believe it or not there's one animated show from the nineties that alot of us myself included just straight up forgot about as while it does feature some semi popular characters the show itself was packaged together with Iron Man: The Animated Series and so then join me as I review the debut episodes of the show that let's be honest here alot of us just straight up forgot was even a thing in the first place with the episodes in question being called simply just "The Origin Of The Fantastic Four Parts One And Two" enjoy.
The plot of these two episodes is during a telethon the Fantastic Four reveal there backstory in which they have to stop Puppet Master from using human puppets to try and take over the world before it's far to late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty not that bad but at the same time tho the plot of these episodes isn't all that good either as there's nothing in both of these episodes that demands that it be a two part episode as the whole plot really could have been covered in just one episode with the actual plot itself being so thin that it might as well not even be there as it really just comes and goes as and when it chooses to with the plot of these first two episodes not really being really rather entertaining nor is it really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in these episodes is Beau Weaver as Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic and Warden Butler and Lori Alan as Sue Richards / Invisible Woman. Also starring in these episodes is Chuck McCann as The Thing and Guard Clancy , Brian Austin Green as Johnny Storm / The Human Torch , Dick Clark as Himself , Gary Owens as Himself and Bystander 1 , Neil Ross as The Puppet Master and Bystander 2 , Pauline Lomas as Alicia Masters , Joan Lee as Miss Forbes , Gina Tuttle as Woman TV Reporter and Jim Cummings as Slash Curtis , Bull Donavon and Skink Lomas.
Now then as for what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty not that bad. With the cast for these episodes doing the best that they could possibly do as alot of the cast for these episodes aren't that really well known voice actors and as a result of that is that it would be unwise to expect them to turn in a great performance in these two episodes and while some of these actors really do turn in a good performance like Brian Austin Green who really is just a pure joy to listen to as Johnny Storm / The Human Torch we also have Pauline Lomas as Alicia Masters who really just sounds really wooden in the her role with the acting in these episodes not really being helped by the fact that the script for both of these episodes was so bad as it doesn't really give the cast anything to work with interms of what it is that there respective characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place and that is something that really does bring down the overall quality of the acting that's in both of these first two episodes.
Doing the animation for both of these episodes is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Wang Film Productions Company. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty not that bad as there is clear effort put into the animation but at the same time there are some animation errors to be found in the first episode alone with Sue going from her civilian clothes to her Fantastic Four clothes and back again all in the same sequence and while it's really not unusual for Marvel animated shows to have animation errors in them in this show really alot of them were really distracting as all they do is take you out of the episode and remind you that all your doing is watching an animated TV show.
In what could be seen as a rather bold move these episodes instead of having the entire team as the main character instead have Ben Grimm / The Thing act as the main character. As he's the one that gets alot of the plot and alot of the screen tie which is something that doesn't quite work as this is only the first two episodes of the show and as a result of that is the fact that the whole team needs to be set up first before you start individual focus episodes later on in the shows run as by then the team would be fully set up as characters and the show could afford to do these one or two focus episodes to develop certain team members and yet by doing it this early on in the run all it does is make the rest of the team feel like side characters when they all should have been the main characters at least in these bunch of episodes with the show having more of an ensemble main cast like what they did on X-Men: The Animated Series.
As was mentioned at the start of this review this show was packaged with Iron Man: The Animated Series and aired as part of the The Marvel Action Hour. With the block in it's second season being renamed the Marvel Action Universe which saw the addition of oddly enough Biker Mice From Mars being added to the block pairing up Iron Man with the Fantastic Four does make sense as they are apart of the same company and do take place within the exact same fiction universe as X-Men and Spider-Man: The Animated Series but what doesn't make sense is adding in Biker Mice From Mars as yes the show was popular but it doesn't really go with the whole Marvel branding and as a result of that is you risk you putting of the Marvel fans who just want to watch back to back Marvel shows and you risk putting of people who aren't fans of Marvel but are fans of Biker Mice From Mars as Marvel fans won't want a block that's named after Marvel to have a none Marvel themed show in there and the other fans won't want to watch two shows form something that they don't like just to watch the one show that they do like.
While it is understandable that the show didn't use Dr. Doom right away as he is a big enough villain that you don't really need him in the opening few episodes of the show. You still do need a better known villain then The Puppet Master even if it's just a low level villain like Mole Man as The Puppet Master isn't really a strong enough villain to hold an entire episode by himself where as Mole Man is just campy enough and just low level enough that you can kind of get away with it for at the very least this shows opening few episodes where as with The Puppet Master you can't really do that and while yes having a deeply serious villain in your opening few episodes can indeed work just look at Spider-Man: The Animated Series as a key example of that they also need the writing for the character and for the episode to be just as good and sadly that's not the case with the episode as while The Puppet Master is treated seriously the episodes inter cuts his scenes with the more comical scenes at the telethon which causes all tension to be lost right away.
Now then episode one of this show has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly twenty one minuets and fifty one seconds where as episode two of this show has / had an exact grand total running tine of exactly twenty one minuets and fifty one seconds. With both of the episodes having the exact same running time and to both of the episodes credit they really do make the most of that running time but at the same time tho even tho both of these episodes spend alot of time on the telethon it doesn't effect the plot in any way whatsoever which just makes all of these scenes feel alot more like filler scenes as they really could have been cut out from both episodes and nothing regarding the episodes plot would have been effected and it would infact cause both of the episodes to flow alot better then what they do as with those telethon scenes they cut back to it whenever the main plot gets going and all it does is cause the episode to loose momentum but I will admit that both of these have some really good pacing to them tho.
So now then as this is an action show that means that I have to actually talk abut the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes and well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty not that bad. As the episodes do have some really good action scenes in them with the episodes making great use of all of the teams powers and using there powers in some really creative ways but at the same time we the audience aren't really given a reason to care for the team as both episodes don;t give us a reason to care for them outside of the fact that there the heroes and that's really it and while the episode does have some good action in it as the episode fails to make us care for the actual team the all of the good action just does hit as hard as it really should have done in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall it's not hard to see why this show has mostly been forgotten about by alot of people as there's really nothing in these first two episodes that really stands out for all of the right reasons with even these first two episodes being really forgettable at best and really just downright bad at it's absolutely worst in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in these first two episodes in this very review and as such that means that these very episode really do earn them selfs a combined grand old score of exactly a 6 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that In personally used in this very review from the official Marvel Animated Universe fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very episodes that I used in this very review being the really great and really legendary the official Marvel Animated Universe fandom wiki page simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from these episodes and are really of course on the official Marvel Animated Universe fandom wiki page are all really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.