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New Justice League Animated Series Coming to Cartoon Network

JD

JD

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DC and Cartoon Network have announced that they will be airing a new Justice Leauge animated series called Justice League Action. Each episode will be 15 minutes long and it will feature Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamil returning to their iconic roles of Batman and the Joker respectively. It will also feature Diedrich Bader as Booster Gold and James Woods as Lex Luthor. Each episode will only run 15 minutes.

That is a great cast, but the 15 minute run times makes me nervous. I was really hoping our next DC animated series would be something deeper, more along the lines of the DCAU series and Young Justice, and I really have to question how much story they can squeeze into 15 minutes.
The IGN article also quotes the press release, which says "No need to wait for the good stuff to start, each eleven-minute episode jumps in with lightning-paced action and heroics." This makes it sound to me like these are basically going to just be eleven or fifteen minute action sequences.
I wonder if the fact that they cancelled Young Justice, Green Lantern, and Beware the Batman has now scared DC off from doing a deep, serious, action series?
 
15 minutes including ads, but they could end every episode as a cliff hanger which forces the kids to tune in tomorrow.

or

15 minutes including ads, but they present in bundles of two stories per installment package.

15 minutes including ads, but a 60 episode season.

Hmm.

The Joker in every episode?
 
JD said:
That is a great cast, but the 15 minute run times makes me nervous. I was really hoping our next DC animated series would be something deeper, more along the lines of the DCAU series and Young Justice, and I really have to question how much story they can squeeze into 15 minutes.
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Quite a lot if they dispense with a lot of "setting up" the story and just get straight to it.

But as far as something being along the lines of the old DCAU and Young Justice, that wasn't going to happen outside of the Toonami/Adult Swim block, IMO.
 
JD said:
I wonder if the fact that they cancelled Young Justice, Green Lantern, and Beware the Batman has now scared DC off from doing a deep, serious, action series?
Click to expand...

It's not DC, it's Cartoon Network and their advertisers. The advertisers are the ones who provide the funding that gets these shows made, in exchange for which they expect the viewers to buy their products. And the advertisers that work with Cartoon Network are targeting a rather narrow demographic of preteen boys, and they aren't interested in paying for shows that they don't think preteen boys will like. Paul Dini went on the record a few years back about how restrictive CN and their advertisers are -- they actually cancelled his live-action show Tower Prep because it was attracting too many female viewers. That's right -- they cancelled a show for being too popular, because it wasn't popular with the right group. Young Justice and Green Lantern were cancelled for much the same reason -- because they weren't aimed at a young enough audience, and probably because they had too many prominent female characters. Toy companies are locked into the assumption that boys won't buy toys of female characters, which is why Star Wars toys featuring Rey have been so scarce.

It's the tyranny of the advertisers that has led to Cartoon Network abandoning any shows aimed at anyone above the age of 12, not to mention anyone with two X chromosomes. The only older-skewing DC animation we get anymore is in the PG-13-rated direct-to-DVD movies, although those don't serve female audiences any better than the TV stuff does.

Well, at least this show features Wonder Woman prominently, though I doubt it'll have many other female characters. And Alan Burnett and Butch Lukic are involved, so that's something. But it's a safe bet that this won't be aimed at anyone who grew up watching Batman: TAS or Justice League, so I kind of wonder why they're even bringing back Conroy and Hamill. (Didn't Hamill say a few years ago that he'd retired from playing the Joker?)
 
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I think he did. but they lured him back to voice The Joker in the upcoming animated movie adaptation of The Killing Joke. Maybe he got excited to do the role again so they got him back for this.
 
Guy Gardener said:
15 minutes including ads, but they could end every episode as a cliff hanger which forces the kids to tune in tomorrow.

or

15 minutes including ads, but they present in bundles of two stories per installment package.

15 minutes including ads, but a 60 episode season.

Hmm.

The Joker in every episode?
Click to expand...
It's likely going to be the same as most every thing they show which means two 15-minute segments in a half-hour show which will probably mean 11 minutes per part without the ads. Often times, each week only the first segment is new with the second segment being a repeat from the previous week. Right now Teen Titans Go, Adventure Time, Steven Universe and Regular Show follow this pattern amongst many others I'm sure.
 
JD said:
I wonder if the fact that they cancelled Young Justice, Green Lantern, and Beware the Batman has now scared DC off from doing a deep, serious, action series?
Click to expand...

Isn't that what the direct for video films are for - this is a show aimed at small children and nothing wrong with that.
 
Mr Light said:
So... is this going to be a proper serious show, or goofy stuff like Teen Titans...?
Click to expand...

Probably somewhere in between. As I said, Cartoon Network and its advertisers have no more interest in older-skewing shows; they want everything to target preteen boys. The character designs in the released image are cheerful and cartoony -- even Batman is smiling. And as the press release says, these are short stories focusing overwhelmingly on action. So perhaps that means it won't be as comedic as Teen Titans Go, but I wouldn't expect sophisticated character drama or thematic complexity.
 
We just need Bruce timm now

Paul dini is on board

https://twitter.com/Paul_Dini/status/693195603455574016

And I just saw this

E8vjTiD.jpg
 
^ A bit of a joke of course but it's scary how effective that is. Bet there'd be less concern with people over the tone.
 
It looks terrible. Thanks, but Dini, Conroy and Hammil don't work with me that way, as token names to draw me in.

If we can have back:
"Family Guy"
"Futurama"
and now "Samuria Jack" (sometime 2016)

Then I want back "Batman: The Animated Seires" as it was before the re-designs. Sadly Shirley Walker and Harvey R. Cohen aren't around anymore to continue doing music.
 
And neither is Boyd Kirkland to direct episodes

Also I think we're overdue for a comedic series with the justice league. It's has be attempted once right?

Different ways to interpret the material is a good thing.

Batman had "Brave and the Bold"

Spider-man has "Ultimate Spider-man"


Wasn't this the same board that had their arms open to a new interpretation of "Star Trek" in 2009?

;)
 
Samurai8472 said:
And neither is Boyd Kirkland to direct episodes

Also I think we're overdue for a comedic series with the justice league. It's has be attempted once right?

Different ways to interpret the material is a good thing.

Batman had "Brave and the Bold"

Spider-man has "Ultimate Spider-man"


Wasn't this the same board that had their arms open to a new interpretation of "Star Trek" in 2009?

;)
Click to expand...

I guess this has been forgotten:

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Is that supposed to be a trailer for that live action JL series they tried to do back in the '90s? That appears to be a fan trailer with footage mostly from the other shows and movies.
 
JD said:
Is that supposed to be a trailer for that live action JL series they tried to do back in the '90s? That appears to be a fan trailer with footage mostly from the other shows and movies.
Click to expand...

Goddamit, that's what I get for copying the link for a video at work where I can't actually watch it first. I replaced it with a more appropriate video, now.

Anyway, the point is that a comedic version of the Justice League has been tried on TV, and it failed miserably despite talents like Miguel Ferrer and David Odgen Stiers.

It's has not been tried in animation, though.
 
Kai "the spy" said:
Anyway, the point is that a comedic version of the Justice League has been tried on TV, and it failed miserably despite talents like Miguel Ferrer and David Odgen Stiers.
Click to expand...

And that wasn't even the first time. Remember Legends of the Superheroes?

Anyway, this is called Justice League Action, not Justice League Comedy. I'd expect a somewhat light tone in keeping with most of what we get on Cartoon Network or Disney XD these days, but the stated intent is to focus mainly on action.
 
The impression I got was that they were basically going to be just fifteen minute long action sequences.
 
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