Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes


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Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes is an anime-influenced animated television series based on the Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four comic book series. This is the team's fourth foray into animation. The series is co-produced by American company Marvel Studios and French company MoonScoop Group, with the participation of M6 and Cartoon Network Europe, and is distributed by Taffy Entertainment.

Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes
GenreSuperhero
Based on
Developed byCraig Kyle
Christopher Yost
Written byChristopher Yost
Directed byFranck Michel
Voices ofHiro Kanagawa
Lara Gilchrist
Christopher Jacot
Brian Dobson
Sam Vincent
ComposerNoam Kaniel
Country of originUnited States
Canada
France
Original languagesEnglish
French
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes26
Production
Executive producers
  • Christophe di Sabatino
  • Benoît di Sabatino
  • Nicolas Atlan
  • Avi Arad
  • Craig Kyle
  • Eric S. Rollman
  • Robin Lyons
EditorsBertrand Martineu
Benoit Tricot
Valerie Chappellet
Sandrine Mercier
Running time21–22 minutes
Production companiesMarvel Studios
MoonScoop Group
Original release
Network
ReleaseSeptember 2, 2006 –
February 25, 2010
Related

In the United States, the show had an erratic airing schedule on Cartoon Network, having premiered as part of Toonami on September 2, 2006. It ran for only eight of the season's 26 episodes before being pulled. It subsequently returned to the network starting June 9, 2007, shortly before the release of the film Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. The second launch of the show aired only nine episodes, leaving nine installments not televised in the USA. The show aired on Boomerang for a brief time before moving to Nicktoons in 2009 for the final episodes.[1] The series was produced in 16:9 widescreen, although it was letterboxed or cropped when broadcast.

World's Greatest Heroes is not directly connected to any of the previous iterations of the Fantastic Four, telling its own version of the team's origin and their encounters with their rogues gallery. Unlike its 1994 predecessor, which consisted almost entirely of straight or modified reinterpretations of classic Fantastic Four comic book stories, World's Greatest Heroes features mostly original stories, though elements from various comic iterations of the Fantastic Four were used in the series. Most episodes finished with the 40-second "epilogue" scene.

In October 2004, it was announced Marvel Studios and MoonScoop Group would be teaming up to produce an animated series based on the Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four comic book series which would be shopped to potential buyers.[2] After development began, Christopher Yost was hired to serve as story editor for the series and worked with Craig Kyle, in developing the series.[3] In March 2006, it was announced Cartoon Network had picked up the series for broadcast.[4]

During its original run on Cartoon Network, the series was subject to an erratic airing schedule and as a result only 8 of its 26 episodes ended up being broadcast during its initial broadcast run.[5] Cartoon Network briefly brought the series back in June of 2007 to tie-in with the release Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, but this run would also be cut short and the series wouldn't be broadcast in its entirety until 2009 when the rights to the series were acquired by Nicktoons to air alongside Wolverine and the X-Men and Iron Man: Armored Adventures.[5][6][7]

DVD Name Region 1 Episodes DVD Name Region 4 Episodes
Volume One March 27, 2007
  • "Doomed"
  • "Hard Knocks"
  • "World's Tiniest Heroes"
  • "De-Mole-Ition"
 Volume One October 10, 2007
  • "Trial by Fire"
  • "Doomed"
  • "Doomsday"
  • "Hard Knocks"
Volume Two September 11, 2007
  • "Trial by Fire"
  • "My Neighbor Was a Skrull"
  • "Impossible"
  • "Revenge of the Skrulls"
 Volume Two October 10, 2007
  • "My Neighbor Was a Skrull"
  • "World's Tiniest Heroes"
  • "Zoned Out"
  • "Puppet Master"
Volume Three March 11, 2008
  • "Annihilation"
  • "Doomsday Plus One"
  • "Out of Time"
  • "Shell Games"
 Volume Three February 6, 2008
  • "De-Mole-ition"
  • "Impossible"
  • "Bait and Switch"
  • "Revenge of the Skrulls"
The Complete First Season June 10, 2008
  • All 26 episodes of the first season
 Volume Four June 4, 2008
  • "Doomsday Plus One"
  • "Annihilation"
  • "Strings"
  • "Imperious Rex"
Volume Five September 3, 2008
  • "The Cure"
  • "Frightful"
  • "Atlantis Attack"
  • "Out of Time"
  • "Shell Games"
  1. ^ "Marvel Animation Age". Archived from the original on July 16, 2009. Retrieved 2015-08-09.
  2. ^ "Marvel tooning up 'Four'". Variety. Retrieved April 11, 2024.
  3. ^ "Prepare For The Fantastic! Chris Yost Talks Fantastic Four!". toonzone.net. Archived from the original on 2006-10-04. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  4. ^ "Cartoon Network gets more Fantastic". animatedviews.com. March 16, 2006.
  5. ^ a b "The Animated Fantastic Four". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
  6. ^ IGN, Staff (2007-06-15). "Fantastic Four on TV". IGN. Retrieved 2024-05-03.
  7. ^ ""Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes" Comes to Nicktoons Network in October 2009". Animesuperhero.com. 7 July 2009. Retrieved 2024-05-03.