Superboy

Oh. Dear. Lord.

At Last.

A DIRECT TO DVD DC ANIMATED MOVIE THAT DIDN'T SUCK MAJOR BALLS!!!!

This movie rocked. It simply, absolutely, unequivocally, ROCKED.

Fantastic animation - seamless, stylistic blending of computer animation and hand-drawn animation.

Superb music and voicework.

...and last, but not least, a superb adaptation of a great story.

Chew

This is really great to hear. I pre-ordered the Blu-Ray from Amazon once I read all the great extras it includes.

I loved the Absolute Edition and now I'm really looking forward to the movie.

....and how did you see it a month early?

Superboy

Blu-Ray is a bit of a stretch for me when it comes to animation because the jump in quality usually isn't worth it and the colors seem like someone just cranked up the color saturation on my tv. Otherwise, be glad for your blind buy.

Chew

Never mind, I figured that last question out myself.

bishop2knight

Wait, this is out already? Crap! I need to get on that.

bishop2knight

Oh, nevermind. I actually read the whole post and answered my own question.

boredsilly

I didn't love it as much as Superboy did (who seems to want to have the New Frontiers babies ). The movie felt choppy in spots, and I couldn't help but be aggravated with the stuff they left out, even though it would be impossible to fit all of Cooke's story into the movie.

But yes, this was pretty damn good. All of the voices worked really well, and to be such a complex story they did a admirable job shrinking it to fit in 70 min dtv. The violence was insane and it was cool hearing someone cuss in a DC cartoon (which felt right when they used it). Cooke's art also translated perfectly to the screen. It already has a lot in common with Timm's style, but I would argue that the Cooke's style in animation looked better. It had a more natural look and feel to it.

Hopefully this does well enough so we can keep getting two of these a year. I would love to see a Dark Knight Returns DTV.

Superboy

Cooke acknowledges that his style is inspired by Timm (which in turn was heavily inspired by Jack Kirby, who also happened to inspire Mike Allred), but he's evolved very differently.

I didn't say it was perfect, but it was nice watching a DTV DCU movie that didn't suck. After Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, everything since has been a disappointment. Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman, Superman: Brainiac Attacks, and Superman: Doomsday all sucked. Especially that last one. Oh my god did that movie suck major balls. I have no clue how that movie even made it past the initial script/storyboard phase.

I liked how the plot built up steadily and nicely, gradually introducing each character, but I didn't like near the end they just sort of dropped off a few characters for no reason other than to include them. The plot was a little too close to the Justice League Animated Series pilot, and the last scenes felt really tacked on. I wanted a proper ending. But yes, this movie rocked.

One thing I really liked was Batman's voicework. It wasn't Kevin Conroy but it didn't sound like they were trying to find someone who was like him anyway. A very nice change of pace.

Superboy

When was this...?

boredsilly

When I heard Conroy wasn't doing the voice work, I was saddened because he is perfect. However, you're right. Sisto did a fantastic job of creating a new Batman, and I totally bought into him.

It had problems, but I still enjoyed Superman: Doomsday. Braniac Attacks was panned so bad that I could never bring myself to watch it. Batman: MotB...broke my heart. I was SO excited for the release of that DTV. I was sure it was going to rock, especially being the first DTV after Return of the Joker. I'm still pissed at that "movie", especially for introducing the weirdness of Bruce and Babs possibly having a "thing" sometime after TNBA and before (or during) JL. I'm not big on continuity, but I love it in the DCAU, and I didn't need this shit put in it. You and I can agree MotB isn't cannon though, right? Good.

Timm, Kirby, Cooke, Allred? What a bunch of crappy artists. I would give my left nut to have EVERYTHING drawn by those guys (or guys in that camp of style). Didn't Cooke even work with Timm before moving over to comics on Batman, Tiny Toons, or something?

Superboy

This movie did not have problems. The movie as a whole is a problem. Of course, any movie that ends with two Supermen mudwrestling in oil is okay in my book!

Good, because you saved yourself the trouble of watching one of the worst DTV animated movies ever. It wasn't too campy or cheesy, it was just really, really boring. The plot was a total retread of Superman: TAS and JL.

I too expected this movie to be good, and was nearly in shock at how bad it was. Maybe after all this time on these characters, the writers and artists should move onto something new, because it seems like they're out of ideas. The last season of JLU certainly felt that way too.

Cooke worked on Batman and Batman Beyond and animated the introductions. So he's contributed quite a bit already to the Batman franchise.

boredsilly

While I still thought it was excellent, the last season of JLU felt a little flat to me too. But the whole Cadmus thing was so fucking brilliant, that nearly anything else would pale in comparison.

The one thing I regret is the bullshit Bat-embargo, because I would have loved to see "the near apocalypse of 09" mentioned on Batman Beyond (I think), play out in that last season. How much cooler would it have been to have Rhas Al Ghul be the season's main bad guy, instead of Lex and Darkseid again? In fact that was my only real complaint. Lex got played out at the end their. But then again we got that fun Lex/Flash body swap episode, so who's complaining?

fumanstan

?

This isn't really high on my anticipation list since I never really cared for the character design in the comic or the shots i've seen of the movie, but I'll probably still buy this just as a fan of DC animation. Glad to hear some good news early on, although I enjoyed Doomsday so who knows.

hiccup

When did this come out?

Flay

Just watched this last night. Really fantastic story and the tone was extremely dark for a Justice League flick. I loved the entire voice cast as well.

Jackskeleton

It comes on feb 20th, but a screener copy has been making its rounds since about the 15th or so of the month in the typical underbelly of the internet.

Saw it back then, loved it. Loved the source material and it was a great pleasure to experience it. David really worked great as Hal and the whole feel was perfect to the comics.

I'm a huge fan of Cooke and it lived up to my expectations in every possible way.

mrhan

The animation sort of reminded me of Mike Sekowsky's art in JLA.

Superboy

It was also great how it wasn't trying to ride off the success of the Timm/Dini DCAU. It felt like the dawning of a new age of DC Animation, actually...

fausti

Have this pre-ordered on Blu-Ray. After watching the screener copy floating around, I decided I wanted the best possible copy on home video.

Chew

A review has been posted: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=32366

About what I would expect for a Content grade. At least the extras drew some praise.

Now.....when does The Judas Contract come out?

ivelostr2

I have a question for those who have seen this already...

My 5 year old niece love JLU, superfriends and superpowers, and she will want this I'm sure, but how appropriate is it for someone that age? I'm currently reading the comic and about halfway through the second tpb, and I noticed some mildly adult themes, and a lot of character development that may not be appropriate/interesting for a 5 year old. I'm on the fence about which release to get, I have SD, HD and BD, but my brother only has BD and HD, I planned on getting the HD so she could borrow it, but may ge tthe BR version if she shouldn't watch it...

Nick

Jackskeleton

It is pretty graphic in some scenes but is pretty careful with those.

She'll enjoy it for the characters and forget the "deep" aspects of it.

yecul

The headshot scene early on is something to be aware of as it's probably the only thing that you might not want seen. Think Saving Private Ryan, but a gun to the head instead of a knife to the chest. The headshot is shown, but is in shadow.

That's not significant to the movie aside from some character development. Sorry if someone considers it a spoiler.

harpoonipa

It looks like the next dvd out will be a Batman one. I haven't heard anything about the Judas contract.

wildcatlh

Coming out sometime this year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_Ti...Judas_Contract