Green Lantern: Emerald Knights review and discussion

[Christopher]

Bruce Timm has been very clear from the start of these that they meant to have different continuities telling different stories. The example I stated in my previous post was an exception because as I believe Bruce stated himself it was logical to have that follow up story as the sequel.

Of course they're in different continuities; that goes without saying. The question I'm asking is whether it's correct to describe that as the result of a "mandate" rather than a choice. A mandate is something mandatory -- an order imposed by someone else. Calling it a mandate is saying that the makers are being required to do this by their employers and don't have the choice to do otherwise. But they have done otherwise, have made one exception to date, and what you're saying here is that they did it because they decided it was logical to do so. That argues for the overall lack of continuity between films being their own choice, in which case "mandate" is the wrong word.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Mandate is the word used by Bruce Timm who in several previous interviews regarding these DTV's has stated that they have several mandates they have implemented with them. For instance one of them has been the different voice casts. Another has been telling different stories. Another is animation style. There are a couple others that I can't recall at the moment. Essentially though each one of these are supposed to fulfill a certain set of criteria set down by Bruce Timm and company. Perhaps that's the right word instead of mandates??

 

[Lost Periphery]

But really, it's the same with Crisis on Two Earths not being part of Young Justice. Or Young Justice not being part of Batman Under the Red Hood though they have same voice actors and designs.

I don't think they have the same designs, just similar ones. I know from what I've read about YJ that they did new character designs specifically for the show.

Crisis of Two Earths, Young Justice and Under the Red Hood have the same character designs. There are new ones for Young Justice simply because they did not appear in Crisis. But they are all done by the same designers. First Flight and Emerald Knights have the same designs in respect to each other. Nothing similar about it.

 

[Skywalker]

I generally don't like anthologies that much, but I thought this was pretty good, though I thought Nathan Fillion was kind of wasted. I was hoping one of the other Lanterns would tell Arisia a story about Hal.

 

[Lost Periphery]

Mandate is the word used by Bruce Timm who in several previous interviews regarding these DTV's has stated that they have several mandates they have implemented with them. For instance one of them has been the different voice casts. Another has been telling different stories. Another is animation style. There are a couple others that I can't recall at the moment. Essentially though each one of these are supposed to fulfill a certain set of criteria set down by Bruce Timm and company. Perhaps that's the right word instead of mandates??

Sounds like Mandates to me. Or selected segments for a multiple-yet-not-connected series bible? In which case, Mandates again. Or you can use Guidelines so not to offend those people who know how and when to use dictionaries to counter somebody.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Crisis of Two Earths, Young Justice and Under the Red Hood have the same character designs. There are new ones for Young Justice simply because they did not appear in Crisis. But they are all done by the same designers.

Under the Red Hood doesn't have the same designs as Crisis on Two Earths and Young Justice. Dusty Abell and Jon Suzuki did the character designs for Under the Red Hood, while Phil Bourassa did the character designs for Crisis and YJ.

 

[Lost Periphery]

I generally don't like anthologies that much, but I thought this was pretty good, though I thought Nathan Fillion was kind of wasted. I was hoping one of the other Lanterns would tell Arisia a story about Hal.

I guess on an impossibly superficial level, you can think of First Flight and Emerald Knights in respects to the comics: FF=Green Lantern, EK=Green Lantern Corps. In which case, Hal then should not really be in EK, but then that would be silly. And, yeah it would have been cool to have a Hal story. Um, yeah. No pointless posting here.

 

[Lost Periphery]

Crisis of Two Earths, Young Justice and Under the Red Hood have the same character designs. There are new ones for Young Justice simply because they did not appear in Crisis. But they are all done by the same designers.

Under the Red Hood doesn't have the same designs as Crisis on Two Earths and Young Justice. Dusty Abell and Jon Suzuki did the character designs for Under the Red Hood, while Phil Bourassa did the character designs for Crisis and YJ.

You are right. Egg-on-my-face.

 

[O'Dib]

I was hoping for differing animation styles to each story, like most anthologies do. Regardless, I thought it was great. It hit a lot of the right emotional notes, and gives me hope for the live action entry.

 

[Christopher]

I was hoping for differing animation styles to each story, like most anthologies do.

What anthologies do you have in mind? I can think of Batman:Gotham Knights and The Animatrix, and there was an anime anthology from an earlier decade called Robot Carnival, I think, that had such a mix of styles... are there others you're aware of that do that? Oh, wait, wasn't there one a couple of years ago based on a video game, I think it was Halo?

As I said, at least "Mogo Doesn't Socialize" had a distinctive look to its background art. However, judging from the credits, every installment except "Laira" was produced by Studio4°C, while "Laira" was by a Korean studio; I think it was called JM Animation. I'd say "Laira" was visually distinctive in terms of the sheer quality of the action animation, though I guess its design style fit pretty well with the rest.

 

[Hound of UIster]

Atrocitius here actually looked like one of demons from the Tygers story by Moore and O'Neill.

Geoff Johns still manages to write a decent GL story even if he is rather hamfistedd about the story's theme.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Finally saw this today and thought it was really good. Probably my third favorite of the DTV's after "Batman Under the Hood" and "All Star Superman". I enjoyed the First Lantern story and the rich mythology that Green Lantern has. The Mogo story was fantastic as well and will disagree with Christopher about the Kilowog/Deegan story. Of course the training scenes were extreme and over the top. They're space cops. The intent as Deegan explained at the end of the short was that they are in life and death situations all the time. They need to be prepared for it and Deegan himself was meant to show how Kilowog got to be the type of drill Sergeant that he is known for.

 

[JD]

I just got and watched this this evening and I loved it. As a GL newbie it seemed like a really good introduction to the wider GL universe. I really enjoyed all of the stories, but if I had to rank them, I think it would go The First Lantern, the frame, Laira, Abin Sur, and then Kilowog. It really makes me want to go and read some more GL comics. My only real problem with it was that I prefer Micheal Madsen's Kilowog, Henry Rollins voice was a little softer than what I imagined when I read Secret Origin. I know alot of people were disapointed that Hal didn't play a bigger role, but we already got a whole movie revolving around him in First Flight, so I was actually really happy that they shined the spotlight on some of the other members of the GLC.

 

[drychlick]

i wish they had a hal story! after all he is earth gl! But it was good! but next time MORE HAL please

 

[davejames]

Well I think they probably felt Hal's story was already told well enough in First Flight. And frankly, next to some of those other origin stories we saw, his looks kind of short and unremarkable anyway.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Hal was never meant to be featured in this anthology in one of the stories. The point was to use him as a linchpin to introduce the other Corps members and I think the DVD did a great job of doing this.

 

[JD]

I just remembered that JL: The New Frontier also focused alot on Hal's origin as Green Lantern. So we've gotten two Hal stories already.

 

[Christopher]

^It's not so much that I wanted another story focused on Hal Jordan as that I wished that Nathan Fillion had been given more to do as an actor than just give some narration and exposition. A lot of people have been saying for years that they wanted to see Fillion as Hal, and though I had no strong feelings about the suggestion, it seems to me that what we got when it finally happened was kind of anticlimactic.

(And hey, this means that two Firefly cast members have played Hal Jordan now. Adam Baldwin played Hal when he briefly appeared in Justice League Unlimited. Add David Boreanaz in The New Frontier and that's three Joss Whedon players in the same role.)

 

[Admiral_Young]

I wouldn't rule out them having Nathan return for a full length GL feature down the road. We know that they've brought back leading voice actors from previous films so it wouldn't be out of the question.