| abstract
| - The Balloon People is the ninth episode of the first season of the Superfriends. The episode introduced a family of aliens called Balunians, who had a strange balloon-like physiology. This was the third episode of the show to deal with the subject of pollution, with the last two times that was addressed being in Dr. Pelagian's War and Too Hot to Handle. Once again an alien world is portrayed as being too polluted to live on. This planet is called Balunia, and within the context of the story the Balunians leave their homeworld, and one family of Balunians land in Marvin White's backyard. This episode is unique in that the antagonist of the story; Noah Tall, is the first antagonist in the series that could actually be considered a supervillain. Unlike most of the other antagonists, that consisted of mainly misguided scientists and good-hearted people just going too far to make the world what they envision as a "better place," Noah Tall was actually a greedy man, who lusted for power. This is really the first time we see a truly evil character in the show, but it didn't make the tone of the episode any darker, especially since his sidekick was a character played for laughs. His name was Twisty, and he had some type of extreme speech disorder just for comedy. Even Noah Tall's name is a play on the phrase "Know-it-all." These villains were clearly played for laughs. Much of the episode focuses on humor. This episode can probably be called the first completely comedic story. A good portion of the time the villains make unsuccessful attempts to kidnap the Balunians. Much of the plot of this episode would likely be considered ridiculous by most people, everything from the chill attitude that Americans seem to have regarding aliens living among them, (the writers decided to skip the whole xenophobia concept) to the Super Friends taking Wonder Dog to the pet shop to get a pedicure. It should also be noted that although the Balunians survived this story, realistically one might think that they would have a high mortality rate on a planet like Earth, where every sharp thing in existence could kill them. At one point Aquaman even has to tell them not to touch the coral reef in the ocean. It's quite a thought actually, thinking that these aliens could be killed just walking down the street and petting a feral cat that scratches them, causing them to pop. This story is indeed quite absurd, even for the Super Friends, which itself was already written in a fashion of absurdity. But on the other hand, it should also be noted that by the end of the episode, Krim, the father of the alien family, goes to work for the United States Government. One might think that this could be the government's way of keeping an eye on aliens from space that are potential threats to national security. (not that aliens with balloon bodies would be) The fact is though, Krim and his family is never seen again in the show so it's just as likely the government decided to take them to Area 51 and do terrible experiments on their corpses. But their fate isn't revealed beyond this episode so it's impossible to determine.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)