| Developer: | Craig Kyle Christopher Yost |
| Genre: | Superhero |
| Voices: | Hiro Kanagawa Lara Gilchrist Christopher Jacot Brian Dobson Sam Vincent |
| Director: | Franck Michel |
| Composer: | Noam Kaniel |
| Country: | United States Canada France |
| Language: | English French |
| Editor: | Bertrand Martineu Benoit Tricot Valerie Chappellet Sandrine Mercier |
| Company: | Marvel Studios MoonScoop Group |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 26 |
| Runtime: | 21–22 minutes |
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.
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 . 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 , 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 .[5] [6] [7]
| DVD Name | Region 1 | Episodes | DVD Name | Region 4 | Episodes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volume One | March 27, 2007 |
| Volume One | October 10, 2007 |
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| Volume Two | September 11, 2007 |
| Volume Two | October 10, 2007 |
| |
| Volume Three | March 11, 2008 |
| Volume Three | February 6, 2008 |
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| The Complete First Season | June 10, 2008 |
| Volume Four | June 4, 2008 |
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| Volume Five | September 3, 2008 |
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