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| BATMAN |
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The
Animated Series:
The
Legend Begins |
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1992
Director: Eric Radomski, Kent Butterworth |
DVD, Animated, Color
Not Rated
Warner Home Video
ASIN: B00005Y71J |
$19.98
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| In the original
five episodes of the Emmy-winning Batman The Animated Series, Batman must
battle The Joker, The Scarecrow, Poison Ivy and more to protect Gotham
City. |
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DVD Features:
Theatrical trailer(s)
How to draw Batman
"Life on the Edge" game
Animation tests
Conversations with director Bruce Timm
Full-screen format |
Other Formats: VHS, VHS dubbed in Spanish |
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Taking a cue from the caped
crusader's comic book rebirth in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns
and Batman: Year One, this 1992 animated series saved the TV Batman from
a fate worse than camp and drew an unexpected audience for an afternoon
cartoon: adults. The initial five episodes gathered here feature such supervillains
as Man-bat, the Scarecrow, and Poison Ivy, but the deliciously demented
Joker (voiced by Mark Hamill) steals the show in his two appearances, especially
in the twisted "Christmas with the Joker." Escaping Arkham Asylum in a
rocket-powered Christmas tree, the clown prince of crime preempts a TV
showing of It's a Wonderful Life with his own homicidal holiday treat.
It's a solid start to a sleek, stylized, smartly written series that only
improved with time. Ages 7 and up.
--Sean Axmaker
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| BATMAN
& SUPERMAN |
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The
Batman Superman Movie
"World's Finest" |
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1998
Director: Toshihiko Masuda |
DVD, Animated, Color
Not Rated
Warner Home Video
ASIN: B00005Y71G |
$19.98
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| This feature-length
'movie' began as a three-episode story line on the animated TV series,
a superhero crossover where Bruce Wayne visits Metropolis and the Dark
Knight meets the Man of Steel for the first time. The two heroes mix like
oil and water, the law-and-order Superman suspicious of Batman's rather
ruthless methods; but they form an uneasy partnership when Lex Luthor and
the Joker team up to take on the duo. To add a personal dimension to the
already edgy rivalry, Wayne romances Lois Lane under Clark Kent's very
nose. The stylized animation and sharp design of the TV series give the
limited animation a sleek, smooth quality and an energetic sense of movement.
Timothy Daly supplies the voices for Clark Kent and (in a deeper register)
Superman, with Kevin Conroy performing the same vocal trick for Bruce Wayne/Batman;
but Dana Delany only has to worry about one persona as Lois Lane. The once-and-future
Luke Skywalker, cult film star turned voice actor Mark Hamill, provides
the Joker's cackling banter.
--Sean Axmaker.
DVD Features:
"The Joker's Challenge" game
Conversation with producer Bruce Timm
Original music montage
How to draw Batman |
Other Formats: VHS, VHS dubbed in Spanish |
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| The
JUSTICE LEAGUE of AMERICA |
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Justice
League |
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2001
Directors: Butch Lukic, Dan Riba |
DVD, Animated, Color
Not Rated
Warner Home Video
ASIN: B00005Y71H |
$19.98
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| The big guns
in the superhero world join together to form the Justice League in this
hour-long Cartoon Network presentation. When Superman leads the world into
disarming the planet's warheads, huge buglike creatures land in several
of earth's major cities and systematically begin destroying them, impervious
to remaining weaponry. |
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The conflict
pits Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawk Girl,
and interstellar refugee Martian Manhunter against the evil aliens. They're
the same shape-changing beings that desecrated the Manhunter's home planet
centuries before, which gives the wise Martian insight into their mad methods.
This series has proved to have the same widespread popularity as all the
modern animated interpretations of the DC heroes.
DVD Features:
Character bios
Weblink |
Other Formats: VHS |
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| SUPERMAN |
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Complete
Superman Cartoons: Diamond Anniversary Edition |
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1941-1943
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DVD, Full color, Animated
Not Rated
Image Entertainment
ASIN: 6305943389 |
$29.99
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| The complete
Paramount Superman cartoon classics collection of Max and Dave Fleischer,
and more. All seventeen vivid color animation masterpieces fthat were shown
theatrically between 1941 and 1943 are included on this single DVD. Renowned
animators Max and Dave Fleischer spent over $100,000 to produce each of
these catoons and every one has been transferred from mint 35mm prints
to insure the finest possible quality. |
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1. Superman: Pilot Episode
(Sept. 26, 1941)
2. Mechanical Monsters (Nov.
28, 1941)
3. Billion Dollar Limited
(Jan. 9, 1942)
4. The Arctic Giant (Feb.
27, 1942)
5. The Bulleteers (Mar.
27, 1942)
6. The Magnetic Telescope
(Apr. 24, 1942)
7. Electric Earthquake (May
15, 1942)
8. Volcano (Jul. 10, 1942)
9. Terror on the Midway
(Sept. 18, 1942)
10. Japoteurs (Oct. 16,
1942)
11. Showdown (Nov. 20, 1942)
12. Eleventh Hour (Dec.
25, 1942)
13. Destruction Inc. (Feb.
19, 1943)
14. Mummy Strikes (Mar.
26, 1943)
15. Jungle Drums
16. The Underground World
(Jun. 18, 1943)
17. Secret Agent (Jul. 30,
1943)
Starring the voices of...:
Bud Collyer ... Clark Kent/Superman
Joan Alexander ... Lois LaneFormat: Color, Animated
Jack Mercer ... The Mad Scientist |
DVD Features:
Full-screen format
Other Formats: VHS, DVD, DVD |
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This collection of fully restored,
1930s animated shorts from the legendary Max Fleischer are a real treat.
For anyone who has grown up associating the Superman character with different
phases of art direction in Superman comic books over the last 50 years,
or best remembers the look of the Christopher Reeve films or the old television
show, these 'toons will be a mini-revelation. Expanding on cues from the
first generation of Superman comics, Fleischer immerses the man from Krypton
in a marvelous blend of art deco, William Cameron Menzies-inspired sets,
and edgy compositions that can't help but remind one of Fritz Lang-ian
paranoia. Everything is oversized, blocky but rounded, ferociously modernist,
and all too vulnerable. Superman's very function as a character in these
highly dramatic and richly colored fables is both defending the overbearing,
urban progressiveness and capital excesses of a young 20th century while
also reassuring us that progress is not as indomitable as a man--at least
a Superman. The DVD includes a bonus Fleischer short, "Play Safe," plus
information about the restoration process, three choices of sound, complete
history, synopsis, and credits.
--Tom Keogh
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