All-New Super Friends Hour: The Mummy of Nazca (1977)

 

This is the third segment of the fourteenth episode of The All-New Super Friends Hour, unlike most other Super Friends formats, this one had hour long episodes that were made up of various shorter cartoons. The first segment would be an adventure staring two members (or three in some cases as Batman and Robin would often team with another Super Friend) of the Super Friends. The second would be a morality play staring the Wonder Twins. The third would be a typical half hour Super Friends adventure. The fourth and last segment would feature one of the main Super Friends (or two in the case of Batman and Robin) teaming up with a special DC Comics guest. 

In this episode, our heroes must save the day when the evil Professor Korloff brings an ancient mummy to life for his own nefarious reasons. 

As a fan of superheroes and the old Universal monster movies, this episode is a pure delight. The whole episode has a delight spooky Halloween-eque feel to it that I find tons of fun. The mummy's design is simple but very effective and his muffled vocal noises give him a delightful spooky feel. On top of this the mummy proves to be a very fun Super Friends villain, feeling like a real threat to our heroes. To name the professor leading the mummy Professor Korloff is a very fun nod to the classic Universal monster movies and to Boris Karloff who was the star of the horror classic, The Mummy (1932). The action scenes are a lot of fun here as well. 

If I had one complaint it is that this episode takes place mostly in the daytime. A spooky themed episode like this would have been even more fun and effective with a nighttime setting. 

All in all, though, this is a delightful episode.