What Parents Should Know
If you remember the killer theme song but little else about this vintage cartoon, there's a good reason for that. This mediocre series centered on a wimpy hero who pops pills to get the energy to fight crime may bring back warm memories for adults, but just try to get your 8-year-old to sit still for it. For this reason, this series may be passable to kids older than 6, but it's best to keep it for adults. Families who watch this series may want to discuss how we're heroic in our own lives, and how to be heroic without drugs.

Common Sense Media Review
Videos reviewed in this series: Underdog Collector's Edition; Underdog vs. Overcat; Underdog vs. Riff-Raff; and Underdog vs. Simon Barsinister.

Though parents who did time in front of the television in the 1960s and 1970s may react with nostalgic glee to the phrase, "There's no need to fear! Underdog is here!" this is a mediocre series at best. What adults clouded by nostalgia may not recall -- and what this collection will remind them of -- is that Underdog is a wimp. He becomes easily fatigued and has to pop a Super Energy Pill that he keeps in a compartment of his ring. He's not a good role model for kids, and kids may tire of his labored rhyming and uninventive battles.

Having said that, Underdog vs. Overcat is the best in this series. This particular collection is the exception to the video series -- if not a rough diamond, than at least a passable cubic zirconia. The episodes gathered for this collection are above average -- the humor more peculiar, and the stories more inventive. In the first cartoon, a trillion miles out in space, on a world inhabited by giant cats, rules an even larger, more ferocious feline named Overcat. When his planet's milk wells all run dry, Overcat's cronies are dispatched to steal all of Earth's cows, but there's one obstacle they hadn't counted on: a superheroic dog in a blue cape who won't stand for bovine pilfering. Get ready for the match of the century, "Underdog vs. Overcat"--winner take all!

The weakest in this series is Underdog vs. Simon Barsinister. Three episodes ("Shrinking Water," "Vacuum Gun," and "Simon Says") pit Underdog against Barsinister's most frightful inventions: a miniaturizing liquid that rains from the clouds, a vacuum cleaner used to collect every crook in town for use in a single criminal army, and a camera that turns living things into pictures. What's more, this is a series that may irritate more than entertain kids. A rankled 6-year-old viewer was able to hatch more sinister schemes himself.