 DVD Review: Plastic Man: The Complete Collection
By Craig Byrne - KryptonSite Webmaster
Plastic Man is a concept that dates back all the way to 1941's Police Comics #1 by Quality Comics. He's now more frequently associated with DC Comics, who acquired the character decades later. In 1979, the animated Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show premiered on ABC, and this introduced the character to an even wider audience. (Strangely, the voiceover at the start of the show refers to him as one of the "newest" super-heroes - despite the fact that he had been around for nearly 40 years at that point.)
I'm sure that it was through this show that I was introduced to the character, even though I was very young at the time. The series ran through 1981, and now it has been collected on the not-so-accurately-named Plastic Man: The Complete Collection DVD set.
Is this Plastic Man cartoon a product of its time? Definitely. Like a lot of animated series of the time, it's played very "safe" as far as animation style goes, using a similar formula that you'd also see in something like Scooby Doo. But, instead of being a deterrent that familiarity makes it very easy to get into. For this cartoon, Plastic Man is given an almost entirely-new supporting cast which includes his girlfriend Penny and the bad-luck-riddled Hula Hula. Apparently the name "Hula Hula" was considered less offensive than the originally-conceived "Coconut." Both sound pretty bad to me. Children of the Eighties might like some of the voice cast and find them familiar - Michael Bell, the voice of Plastic Man, is probably much more familiarly known as the voice of Duke on G.I. Joe; Melendy Britt later achieved voiceover fame as the voice of She-Ra.
The villains in this series are also quite interesting, as Plas is given a whole rogue's gallery. The Weed, The Clam, and Computerhead are among the villains you'll see here.
On this DVD set as a bonus feature is a pilot/presentation for a Plastic Man cartoon that was proposed back in 2006. In many ways, it reminds me of what I don't like about a lot of current animation - the character proportions are a bit crazy, it tries too hard to be "hip," and it just didn't have that accessibility of the earlier cartoons. But, maybe I'm just old and used to my cartoons being a certain way. Interestingly, some of the people involved with the presentation later worked on Batman: The Brave and the Bold - a series that, in my opinion, did a much better interpretation of Plastic Man than this 2006 version.
One complaint I have here is that this DVD is called "The Complete Collection" but the later episodes, with Baby Plas, are not on the set. Far as I can tell, this IS the complete Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, but the packaging more implies that it's the complete Plastic Man, and that's just not true. That's unfortunate.
Also, apparently the Plastic Man show had other features in the hour-long show, and those are sadly missing here as well. It might have been a nice look into animation of its time period. Stranger is that the press release associated with this DVD mentioned those other characters, as well as Baby Plas, but they're nowhere to be seen.
And finally, the interior packaging implies that the bonus features are on Disc 4, so I was quite confused to pop in that DVD to find nothing. It turns out that they're on Discs 1 and 2. Disc 1, by the way, has a great featurette about the history of Plastic Man.
All criticisms aside, this is still a fun set, especially for those around my age (31) who grew up with those sorts of cartoons. If you have kids, they'd probably also really dig it - Plastic Man and all of the things he can turn into, and spotting Plas whenever he's in any kind of disguise - would probably be fun for them.
Plastic Man: The Complete Collection arrived on DVD last week, on November 20. Order a copy from Amazon.com and support this site!
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Plastic Man: The Complete Collection
Warner Home Video
Available November 20, 2009
Featuring the voices of Michael Bell, Melendy Britt, and Joe Baker
35 episodes plus bonus features on 4 discs
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