Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Batman Animated Series DVD Box Set

Page: 1(2)3

08:23 / 09.12.05

It's a shame that they JLA first two disks have already been released, the box set works so much better than the episodic disk releases that WB have employed so far for the series - still, season 2 of JLA and JLU will be most welcome!

12:52 / 09.12.05

Yeah, I always skip the episodic DVD releases Warner Bros. does and wait for the box sets.

18:09 / 12.12.05

The new Batman animated show, which pretty much sucks, is rumored to be including Robin next year, since Teen Titans was cancelled (WB might want some animated Robin presence somewhere out there, even though Robin won't show up in the 2nd Batman Christopher Nolan movie). Just a rumor, but there it is.

01:30 / 15.12.05

Started watching the commentaries on Vol. 4 of the Batman DVD (which completes the Bats series, it's all the no-yellow-oval eps) and the Supes commentaries...they're really great. Entertaining tidbits on behind-the-scenes info. from Dini, Timm & co., for the most part - though the guy who moderates/hosts the commentary discussions on the newer DVDs is a bit lackluster. (for one, Dini says that as a child, he saw Mr. Mxypltz - whatever on the spelling - as a 'mean leprechaun', which made me laugh.)

Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

01:35 / 15.12.05

I like that the 4th volume has the option between the original (not "Adventures of Batman & Robin") and the "New Batman/Superman Adventures" opening credits sequences.

The 4th volume also gets into a LOT of WB references. Pinky and the Brain, Freakazoid, Animaniacs, Looney Toons, etc.

I was kind of dissapointed that there was only one commentary per disc, though. I LOVE the Bruce Timms/Paul Dini/other guys commentary stuff. Its hilarious.

01:41 / 15.12.05

The vol. 4 Batman box set has the option of choosing between the 2 title sequences? I didn't see that...it seemed to me that the eps have the original series titles. But maybe I just didn't look carefully enough...

10:10 / 15.12.05

Okay people, focus - make your thoughts sharp like a knife to the temples of those useless gits at WB - "RELEASE... BATMAN ON... REGION 2!!"

18:03 / 15.12.05

* powerful thoughtwaves emanate from my brain for region 2 production **

20:21 / 15.12.05

Just bought Volumes One and Two and I'm workingmy way through nice and slow. I have to admit... that some of these episodes are just plain boring. They're nothing spectacular and the animation is bland and uninspiring. Some of the episodes are fantastic, however. Specifically, Two-Face's origin. How heartbreaking.

My childhood memory of the show is that it's all about heartbreak and tragedy. I'm glad that some of these episodes match up to my memories, but I forgot how much Batman makes lame-ass jokes before kicking ass. But then again, I'm still on disc two of Vol One, so I assume it gets darker and better as we move along.

00:52 / 16.12.05

Darker and better is indeed coming your way (esp. in Volume 4) - but there are always those more standard superhero fare episodes in these collections (although even the more standard eps are far better and more intelligently executed than most cartoons out there dealing with similar subject matter).

02:46 / 16.12.05

See, and I always felt that the eps in Volume 4 were where things took a turn for the worst (non yellow-oval eps). Sure, there are some good ones (where Commissioner Gordon goes apeshit and hunts down Batman). But the character designs went terrible (take a look at Joker, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, etc). And most of the episodes were uninteresting. They lost the noir/deco look, the sense of timing seemed to be lost. It was still better than most everything else in the world though, just not the first three volumes.

Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

19:47 / 16.12.05

FinderWolf, you have to play them from the start. You don't get the option on individual episodes.

20:26 / 16.12.05

Cool, that's what I figured, thanks.

"World's Finest" is a terrific, fun, beautifully executed crossover.

I like that there is a wide variety of styles here; some eps are more goofy fun, some are more traditional modern superheroics, some are darker and more serious. Timm chose to do a commentary on "Critters," the bizarre Steve Gerber-written ep. about a new Batman villain called Farmer Brown, who does genetic experiments on farm animals and creates freakish mutated super-animals, because he figured it would be interesting to do a commentary on an ep. most fans hate as opposed to only doing commentaries on famous, super-successful episodes. Timm also mentioned that he thinks this episode is fun because of its bizarreness, and remarked that Farmer Brown seemed like the kind of new villain the 60s Adam West show was creating.

The voice acting on these shows is so fantastic - one of my goals as is to do v/o work on a Bruce Timm-connected DC animated show. Mark my world, Barbeloids, it will happen!

20:28 / 18.12.05

hey hey, I think somebody was picking up on my brain-waves, because vol 1 of the Batman box-sets has been released on region 2! ahahahahahahaha!! (<-- me when I saw it in HMV this afternoon, and ran clutching it to my breast to the tills).

Roll on 2 3 and 4...

me = happy

02:46 / 19.12.05

Just watched the two part origin episode for Clayface. One word: stunning. The animation was spectacular. Ron Perlman was Clayface. I never knew that. See, this is what I'm talking about: tragedy, heartbreak, misery. That's where good Batman episodes are at.

There's also a great bad-ass Batman moment in the first part. He's flying the Batwing and chasing some henchman in a car into a tunnel. Batman just flies the Batwing right into the tunnel, traffic be damned. The henchman's car in the way? No problem, Batman just flies the Batwing into the car, picking it up, carrying the car by the bat "ears" extending from the front of the plane. Then a metal hand shoots out from between the ears and grabs the henchman while the car drops into the river. All this just to interrogate a henchman.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: you don't fuck with the Batman.

16:41 / 22.12.05

Recently watched The Mask of the Phantasm. Holy Shit is the words to describe this. So heartwrenching. If anybody likes the show and hasn't watched the movie, go see it. I can't believe I hadn't seen this excellent movie yet.

17:34 / 22.12.05

matt, if you think Phantasm was good, you should check out Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. I bought it a couple of days ago and had forgotten just how dark that movie is. Best thing to come out of the DCAU.

08:21 / 23.12.05

That clayface two parter is indeed fantastic - is it the one that has the great chace across the bus or train tops?

21:49 / 26.12.05

I really enjoyed Mask of the Phantasm - I saw it in the theaters (it only ran in movie theaters for about 1 month, if that long). My favorite moment was when Bruce, having fallen in love with the character named Andi and happily dating her, pleads before his parents' grave for release from his vow to always fight crime to avenge them and keep his city safe. In a desperate, sad moment that is quite disturbing, he kneels before their grave and pleads "Things are different now. I'm...happy." Then cut to a shot of their unanswering gravestone, lit by flashes of lightning (of course). A creepy dramatic moment that gives some nice insight into Wayne's psychosis.

In other Justice League DVD news, All The Rage over at Silver Bullet Comic Books.com reports that:

>> Victory League

Regarding last week’s item on the coming seasons of Justice League on DVD, TV Shows On DVD broke the news that fans had been waiting to hear. Over at Toonzone, Jim Harvey posted the following message:

Upon reading the news posted at TV Shows on DVD linked above, I contacted some sources to confirm. And? We did it!

Beginning with the mid-2006 release of Justice League: Season Two, the series will be presented in the proper widescreen format! And yes, this includes Justice League Unlimited!

Bruce Timm responded: YOU GUYS ROCK to the fans who deluged Warner Home Video with requests for the widescreen.

22:13 / 26.12.05

Yesssssssssssss. Merry Christmas.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

22:38 / 26.12.05

I just wanted to add, from my confusion at the first volume of this not being listed on Amazon.co.uk - that right now in England it's actually an HMV exclusive.

I'm not sure if that'll be changing or anything, but yeah. You won't be finding it anywhere else!

23:24 / 26.12.05

I heard that the DVD of Return of the Joker is somewhat censored compared to the original - in light of the Columbine tragedy? Can anyone confirm?

07:21 / 27.12.05

As far as I know, the censoring only occurred with the initial release of Return of the Joker. Most copies now are the unedited version and it's almost MORE difficult to find the censored version than the uncensored.

Amazon has the uncut version cheap for the used copies. That's how I got mine.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

07:26 / 27.12.05

I got Mask of the Phantasm for Christmas and having only seen it once before many years ago I was amazed at how breathtaking it really is. The scene Finderwolf mentions with Bruce almost totally losing it because of all things he’s happy was just such a perfect characterisation of how Bruce’s instability should work – so much more touching and human than a million pages of the crazy paranoid ninja Bat. Reading the comics I usually think I don’t like Batman; but then when I go back and watch this stuff I remember how great the character can be. As far as I’m concerned Paul Dini, Bruce Timm and the rest should be in charge of all things Batman related forever.

Alfred also as ever had most of the best lines ‘Of course you’re perfectly sane, Sir; by the way I’ve pressed your tights and put away you’re exploding gas balls’, and I found it especially powerful when old Alfred actually got a bit angry and as well as throwing a ’Bloody’ into the conversation actually called Bruce just ‘Bruce’ with no master or any other honorific – the writer’s had a real gift for great dialogue.

16:59 / 27.12.05

Amen to that. I'm glad that scene made an equally powerful impression on others besides myself...and yes, little details like Alfred leaving out the "Master" do make for beautiful touches.

18:00 / 27.12.05

Aside from MASK of the PHANTASM and RETURN of the JOKER, are any of the other animated "movies" worth getting? There's BATGIRL begins, SUBZERO featuring Mr. Freeze, and most recently - BATMAN VS. DRACULA. Am I missing any? Are there any Superman or JLA direct-to-dvd movies?

I got Batman season 3 and Superman season 2 for x-mas and I am totally hooked! I only remember watching a few episodes a few years ago, and I don't remember them being this fantastic. The voice-work is particularly excellent. One of the more inspired casting decisions was getting Gilbert Godfried to play Mr Mxyzptlk. It almost erases the Superfriends Mxy from my mind. And Sandra Bernhardt as his girlfriend? Brilliant. The dialogue on Batman TAS is also brill. My favorite ep on S3 is the Jonah Hex one. Some of his lines are laugh-out-loud funny.

So Justice League and Batman Beyond are coming up next. Does anyone have any details? I am wondering how many seasons of the Justice League have been complete, and whether or not it's still on the air. I live in a city just north of Montreal in Canada and the channel that used to screen JLU no longer carries it. The last episode I saw was a 2-parter involving time-travel and the final fate of Batman Beyond. It felt like a series wrap - but is there more? What am I missing?

20:02 / 27.12.05

>> Does anyone have any details?

See previous page of this very thread for the details.

21:23 / 27.12.05

I meant any further details, Finder, and if you read the previous page yourself you'll notice that I already thanked you for what you posted there (smiley face right backatcha). I am hooked like a damn junkie on this animated universe now and I need more dvd info!

22:26 / 27.12.05

Subzero is really great - easily the best Mr Freeze story, with the added bonus of this being the peak of the "original style" animation (before they switched to the more streamlined Gotham Knights style). it's quite Japanese-influenced, an gorgeous. Well worth a look.

Batman vs Dracula and Batgirl Begins... hmmmm... they're not bad, but by no means good. Dracula's disguise is a name called Alucard. How stupid is this Batman!? Still, some of the fights are pretty good, and the animation is nice (although it's no Bruce Timm, but there you go), but the story and dialogue a pap. Download. Batgirl Begins is marginally better, in that it's shorter (just a two part episode, 45 mins), and the batgirl caracter is very well animated, making it worth a watch just for the aesthetics.

Really, stick to the DVD boxsets, 1-4, get the older movies then watch justice league, and thank your lucky stars they're still making that.

22:30 / 27.12.05

Aside from MASK of the PHANTASM and RETURN of the JOKER, are any of the other animated "movies" worth getting? There's BATGIRL begins, SUBZERO featuring Mr. Freeze, and most recently - BATMAN VS. DRACULA. Am I missing any? Are there any Superman or JLA direct-to-dvd movies?

SUBZERO is a decent continuation of Mr. Freeze and "Heart of Ice". BATMAN VS. DRACULA and BATGIRL BEGINS are both from that damnable new cartoon, The Batman, which is a lackluster Jackie Chan Adventures clone to the Bruce Timm stuff. I haven't seen them myself and have no interest at all in 'em.

The only other one I know of is MYSTERY OF THE BATWOMAN. It's not the best of the lot. Quirky and slightly forgettable with an odd Ricky Martin-esque Latin number running through it. Still better than that "The Batman" dreck.

13:55 / 28.12.05

Ah, now I see, Mr. Tulpa - sorry 'bout that. I misunderstood. I don't think there's any new info. out there as of yet.

MYSTERY OF THE BATWOMAN is ok but not great - the animation borders on the low-rent (uncharacteristic of the Dini/Timm team; but I think this one was produced by some others with only a bit from Timm & Co.). There are some nice bits, but it's the weakest by far of all the animated Bat-movies.

And yeah, the new "The Batman" stuff sucks pretty bad. Although I am curious to see what a Batman v. Dracula story would be like, even a weak one...

Sub-Zero is pretty good, except for a few lame computer graphic effects on the vehicles (Bat-speedboat, etc.) that stick out like a sore thumb. It has some nice moments with the "Dick dating Barbara" relationship, as I recall, and deals very nicely indeed with furthering the Mr. Freeze story (which was continued in Batman Beyond to great effect).

23:23 / 28.12.05

MYSTERY OF THE BATWOMAN, btw, has one of the best fights I've seen in a cartoon, with Batwoman vs twin acrobats. Very cool choreography. The film itself is actually pretty good, I thought. It's no mask of the phantasm, but has some excellent set pieces, great voicework and was, after all, the last time we saw the timm-style Batman in his own show.

17:58 / 24.01.06

from comics 2 film:

>> Don't call it a comeback -- the Superman Homepage is reporting that "Dana Delany and Tim Daly will reprise their roles from 'Superman: The Animated Series' with an all-new DVD movie from Warner Bros. Animation later this year. In 'Superman: Brainiac Attacks,' the Man of Steel faces a combined threat from his two biggest foes, Lex Luthor and Brainiac. But perhaps even more daunting will be getting in touch with his feelings for Lois."

23:02 / 24.01.06

Also...from Comics Continuum:

>> The film is written by Duane Capizzi and directed by Curt Geda.

Geda is a veteran of the Timm/Dini staff; I've heard of Capizzi but don't know much about him.

22:56 / 19.03.06

Batman Beyond Season One is now out on DVD.

Page: 1(2)3