New animated "Justice League" project from Timm and Burnett
- Thread starter Turtletrekker
- Start date
It would. "Digital" in this context refers only to the manner of distribution (online rather than TV), not creation. All animation is made digitally these days anyway, but it's still created frame by frame, and that takes time.
Sgt. Pepper
Lieutenant Commander
I must admit, I like this idea. I hate the costumes, but like the idea. The only costume that is likable is Superman's. I like the idea that Luthor is a scientist.
Nothing new about that. He was always an evil scientist up until the post-Crisis reboot in 1986 turned him into a businessman. And some later adaptations, like the DC Animated Universe, made him a mix of both.
Sgt. Pepper
Lieutenant Commander
True, but he's mostly been portrayed as a billionaire businessman. I like that he seems to be exclusively a scientist. I like the mixed aproach though. It's not really clear what he is in Superman 1&2, but I suspect criminal/scientist, sort of.
No, the business stuff didn't really come along until '86. The pre-Crisis Luthor was a pure, archetypal mad scientist/inventor. True, Elliot S! Maggin's novel Superman: Last Son of Krypton (i.e. the best Superman story ever written) depicts Luthor as having a legitimate business front to support his activities (though under a false identity, since Luthor was a known and convicted felon), but I think that was unusual; Maggin's novels' Luthor was a rather richer and more multidimensional character than the comics version generally was.
Luthor's best moment was when he was talking down the Amazo android (voiced by our favorite holographic Doctor) in talking about Evolution, and wanting to stay in the game to see how it all ends.
Later, he and Darkseid even seemed to have some sort of understanding there at the end.
Later, he and Darkseid even seemed to have some sort of understanding there at the end.
Sgt. Pepper
Lieutenant Commander
I guess all of my life I've only known his as a businessman like Bruce Wayne's opposite. I never really knew him as anything other, so seeing him as a scientist is pretty new to me. Either way, I like it.
There's multiple generations of us that know him that way - you're not alone in that. 1986 was almost 30 years ago after all, a major percentage of Luthor's existence.
The DC Universe line is specifically PG-13, but there have been a couple of DVD-original movies that were aimed at younger viewers. There was the barely-promoted JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time, initially a Target exclusive but now on Netflix; it's younger-skewing, but I actually liked it better than the recent PG-13 movies. There's also one coming out in three days called Batman Unlimited: Animal Instincts, which seems to be largely about promoting an action figure line, but that's been par for the course for kids' cartoons since the '80s. There will be at least two movies and 22 shorts in that series. There are also a few LEGO DC-superhero movies.
BTAS? The Batman? Batman Brave and the Bold? Beware the Batman?
Probably the most misplaced argument of the week.
Not at all. Kelso's complaint was specifically about DTV (direct-to-video) movies. Everything you listed was a weekly television series, and thus beside the point. (And yes, the first two did have DTV feature installments, but the last one of those was a decade ago, so they're not relevant to a conversation about the current DTV movie line.)
As I said above, the current DC Universe Animated Original Movies DTV line from Warner Bros. Animation is specifically designed to be PG-13 and more adult-oriented than anything WB Animation can get onto commercial television. However, as I also said, there are a very few DTV releases that are aimed younger.
Well, the blood is somewhat surprising in the PG-13 DC animated features from recent years (maybe starting with Gotham Knights).It's more than you see in live-action superhero movies with the same rating, even intense stuff like the Dark Knight trilogy.
The problem is that the PG-13 rating is too broad. Because PG and R ratings are perceived by theaters (or DVD vendors, I guess) as less profitable, nearly every movie tries to edge its way into a PG-13 rating. Movies that would otherwise be PG slip in a bit more profanity or violence or sex to get nudged over the line into PG-13, and movies that would otherwise be R cut out just enough profanity or violence or sex to fall just below the upper limit of PG-13. So the standards of the rating have been stretched out in both directions, and it's become practically useless as a content indicator. (Here's a cute video about the evolution of the PG-13 rating.)
But yeah, I have been startled by the overindulgent bloodshed in the past few DCU movies. It'd be R-rated if it were in live action. The latest ones have also gone for some fairly sophomoric and male-focused titillation, for instance the way Talia al Ghul spent the entirety of Batman and Son in a jumpsuit unzipped to the navel. They really are trying overly hard to target a narrow audience of teenage boys, to the point of alienating other demographics. Which is something DC Comics has also frequently been guilty of in recent years.
Thank you for pointing those out. It's funny/frustrating that the PG-13 productions inevitably wind up in the kid's DVD section. I'm hopeful that the upcoming DTV releases starring Adam West will be appropriate for the younger crowd.
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^ Yes, I've noticed that too, for a number of years... Especially at a certain store with a round red logo whose name starts with the letter T.
It is ridiculous to see the DCU animated movies in the "Kids and Family" section, right by "101 Dalmations." If I were a parent, I'd be mortified.
Somebody at those retail companies really needs to pay better attention. It's been a long time since comics and animation were just aimed at kids.
Kor
It is ridiculous to see the DCU animated movies in the "Kids and Family" section, right by "101 Dalmations." If I were a parent, I'd be mortified.
Somebody at those retail companies really needs to pay better attention. It's been a long time since comics and animation were just aimed at kids.
Kor
Every time I go there for a DC animated movie (I really like getting their exclusive steelbooks) I have to remind myself to go to the kids section to find them. They should not be in the kids section. Whoever stocks the shelves there must think animation automatically equals kid's stuff.
"But like a poor marksman, you keep missing the Target!"