Orbitty is a lot like the green kangaroo Hoppy from “The Flintstones.” He was around, he was on the show, but people often pretend they never existed. When people think of The Jetsons they never think of Orbitty, and when they think of Bam Bam, Hoppy is the last thing that comes to mind. If ever. Around the time the show jumped the shark by adding Orbitty, “The Jetsons” was pretty much on its way to losing its relevance and momentum that it had.
And Orbitty became the Cousin Oliver of the series. Though he wasn’t as annoying as Scrappy Doo, he was still fairly unnecessary to the show. In fact the writers only chose to acknowledge him when he had to deliver a cutesy line of dialogue, or had a rare episode revolving around him.
“There’s twelve hours of this?” I asked myself while watching what I can only assume are a series of completely disconnected featurettes and “documentaries” about UFO’s and abductions, all of which are about as half baked as I expected them to be.
“Super Friends” was always a mixed bag of sheer idiocy and just all out creativity. In the course of one DVD in this new set from Warner, Superman is reduced to a farmer by Mr. Mxy wearing a straw hat and being weakened by green beans, and two episodes later, we see Superman journey in to an alternate timeline that allows him to land on Krypton and be able to warn the Kryptonians of the impending destruction of the planet Krypton, and is able to touch base with his father. How the show goes from goofy to just epic in mere episodes is just fantastic and part of the reason why “Super Friends” continues to be a property for the fan boys of the world who lovingly mock this legacy.
While Mike Newell did in theory retain much of the mood and dread set by Alfonso Cuaron who injected his own individual flavor in to “Prisoner of Azkaban,” the fourth installment of the film series entitled “The Goblet of Fire” is no more entertaining than the aforementioned title. It’s even worse than the third one primarily because this series progresses more and more in to formulaic dribble and less in to adventurous and original fantasy doldrums that could stimulate the audience.