Join Plastic Man (a super hero with the ability to grow, shrink, and change into any shape he wants,) his girlfriend Penny, and his sidekick Hula Hula (who is cursed with incredibly bad luck) as they fly around the world fighting crime.

CRITIQUE

Plastic Man follows Plas (as his friends call him) and his friends as they are called upon by “The Chief,” (a mysterious woman who runs whatever organization that Plastic Man does super heroic feats for) and told to stop whatever nefarious scheme is being plotted. These schemes are orchestrated by some of the strangest super villains around including oddities such as The Clam, a pirate clam; The Miniscule 7, a generic group of 30’s era gangsters, only travel sized; and Half-Ape, who is literally half man and half ape split down the middle.

Now, the worst thing one can say about Plastic Man is that it is a Hanna Barbera cartoon.  If you can’t stand these sorts of shows (especially things like Speed Buggy or Jabberjaw) I would strongly urge you to stay away.  However if you love old school Hanna Barbara cartoons, then Plastic Man is right up your ally.  It follows the standard 1970’s Hanna Barbera formula with Plastic Man filling the role of the anthropomorphic thing, Penny as the spunky-yet-somewhat-airheaded girlfriend, and Hula Hula as the frightened-but-occasionally-brave comic relief. 

And like other Saturday morning cartoons of its type - the plots are very basic, the jokes are terrible, and the animation is extremely limited. However Plastic Man manages to differentiate itself from the others in one key way.  Plastic Man manages to be silly and fun because Plastic Man is a superhero who actually enjoys having superpowers.   Plas’ enthusiasm alone manages to make this show worth checking out for fans of the superhero genre.  Think about it – how often do you get a hero who actually enjoys his job?

THE VIDEO

While there are no serious digital flaws with the Plastic Man series, the video quality does manage to change between episodes.  I found some episodes to be occasionally blurry while others were a bit washed out, and many of the episodes were grainy. Still, with a show like this, I didn’t expect a crystal clear transfer.

THE AUDIO

Plastic Man is presented in mono and has a fairly standard mix.

THE EXTRAS

Plas-tastic: A Brief History of Plastic Man: A featurette that looks at the history of Plastic Man, from Jack Cole’s original hero to his appearance in the DC comics universe. This has some interesting information about the original character, but little else.

Puddle Trouble: The unaired pilot episode for a Plastic Man series that was never picked up. After watching it, it’s not hard to see why it never made it.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Plastic Man is lame, but also silly fun.  This is definitely something that Hanna Barbera fans (and fans of DC’s superheroes) should check out.