Aquaman

Famed Filmation cartoon series of the 1960s.

These days some young people take comic book heroes just so seriously and sometimes they struggle with the old stuff. I am a middle aged guy who sometimes likes to return to more harmless days of my youth by watching Batman (1966), Shazam! (1974) and Aquaman (1967).

Just watched Aquaman (1967) on DVD. Granted on first viewing I did struggle with the too simple plots, but then gave it a second go and totally warmed to the bright remastered colours, the voice artist work and the great music cues! Also, I love live-action Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964), so it is nice to have another 60s underwater series - even if it is a cartoon.

In a nutshell, old boys like me will love going down memory lane but young fans of today's CGI epics might might find it a bit too old school for them.

Aquaman (1967-1969) is a series that I recently watched on HBOMAX. The storyline follows Aquaman and Aqua Lad as they do their best to keep keep the underwater civilization of Atlantis safe. We also get to enjoy independent adventures of members of the Justice League of America as they do their best to keep the dry land safe too.

This series was created by Hal Sutherland (Flash Gordon) and contains the voices of Ted Knight (Caddyshack), Marvin Miller (Dead Reckoning), Jerry Dexter (Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends), Gerald Mohr (The Angry Red Planet) and Pat Harrington Jr. (One Day at a Time).

The animation for this series is so fun and I adored the universe and creatures created to fight Aquaman and the JLA. The narration for this series is tremendous and the voices for the characters were perfectly selected. Black Manta was awesome. The sound effects for various actions in this were dated but fun. Aqua Lad calling Aquaman "Big Daddy" was awkward and their pet names overall made me feel a bit uncomfortable. The JLA episodes were awesome and definitely made me smile.

Overall, this is a tremendous series and is absolutely a must see. I would score this an 8/10 and strongly recommend it.

Compared to just about every DC animated show that has come since, Aquaman (1967) falls short in just about every regard. This show was from the classic era of saturday morning cartoons where you would just enjoy your time with your favorite characters. I think this format still has a place in the modern age of cartoons, but the writing needs to be there. What they had here was as barebones as you could get, with no depth, no characterization, and no plot. Unfortunately this show has just been outclassed by the nearly 60 years of DC animation that has come after it, and that means there isn't really a place for Aquaman (1967) anymore. I will say it was cool seeing classic versions of the "Super Friends" as a DC fan, and sometimes the show was so bad it was funny. Pass on Aquaman (1967).

I'll admit that Aquaman was never my favorite superhero and in fact I felt that he, along with those like the Sub Mariner, were sort of silly because they had a limited venue and their powers were really only focused on this limited area.

Yes, I understand that the world is over 70 percent water, but that being said, most people (and thus most adventure) do not live on or under the water, thus limiting these heroes.

This series was, in my opinion, very average for the time and even less impressive these days. The animation style was fairly average, the stories very simplistic, and the sound effects very campy.

While I didn't think that it was that impressive, I do give it credit for helping to push many other cartoons forward and for being entertaining to young children, even if it was only for a short period of time.

One of the first and one of D.C.'s best series. Full of action and many other things that just happened in the 60's. Only the animation is so good.