Back when Bruce Timm’s critically acclaimed award winning groundbreaking “Batman: The Animated Series” finally bowed out after branching off the “Superman” animated series, Warner approached Timm and his creative team with a mission. They wanted Batman back but this time younger, and geared to a much less mature audience. And Bruce Timm obliged and by god, he gave them a youth oriented Batman show, but he did it his way and on his terms. And what Warner likely intended to be a fun hilarious goofy series, ended up being just as moody, adult, grim, and bleak as the original Batman series. “Batman Beyond” is one of the beloved relics of the late nineties entering in to the millennium that managed to completely re-think the Batman universe, but also stay true to the themes and adult nature of the original series.
Tag Archives: Animation
Day & Night (2010)
One of the elements of animation that Pixar has always excelled at that will garner them a bonafide place in history books and text books about storytelling and animation (whether you’re sick of seeing them on TV and awards shows or not) is the fact that the animators and writers in the studio are able to understand that animation is just as much a narrative experience as it is about sight and sound. As well you can also surround an animated film around sight and sound and little dialogue without overloading us with explosions and colors.
Assassin's Creed: Ascendance (2010)
As I suspected going in to this originally, “Ascendance” is really just something of a sample of the upcoming game to whet the appetite’s of fans and isn’t really about telling a story as it is setting up the potential for the main arc of the new “Assassin’s Creed” game. There is a lot of foreshadowing, a lot of storytelling and dialogue that’s meant to reflect on events in the game, teases to events about to occur, and even a cameo by a major influential historical figure in the final scene. Admittedly I’ve never played the game nor am I familiar with much the particulars so “Acsendance” is a short film that will be polarizing to just about anyone who hasn’t played the actual game and are unaware of the sequel and its specifics.
Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam (DVD)
Here’s what I assumed happened with the release of “The Return of Black Adam”: DC and Warner Bros. didn’t have enough creative material to turn the reunion of Superman and Shazam! in to a feature length film, and in spite of Shazam! playing a supporting role, Superman is much too iconic to be used as simple filler before a big animated feature from DC home video, so what they did was take the half hour movie featuring Superman and Shazam! and, knowing no sensible fan would spend twenty bucks on a half hour movie, filled the DVD with other short animated films starring DC third tier characters that were featured on prior DVD Releases. Deep down this feels like DC Comics testing the waters for a Captain Marvel animated movie, gauging public interest and we’re paying them to be a focus group.
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)
When it comes to hardcore well versed Scooby Doo Fans… we’re not one of them. But for a brief (oh so brief) period in the late nineties, Hanna Barbera thought it’d be a good idea before the live action movie to feature the Scoobies solving actual paranormal cases that they presumed were originally just scams and con jobs. “Zombie Island” is one of the best (and few) examples of Scooby-Doo done well and correctly with a case the entire gang gets in on that is creepy and actually risks their lives, in the end. With animation I’m never above being experimental, and my faith in “Zombie Island” was rewarded with a wicked and creepy little yarn about the Mystery Machine group re-uniting after a long stretch on their own.
The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
Whether we like it or not, from here on in Marvel Comics and Marvel Entertainment is officially owned by Disney Studios. What effect this will have on the comics and characters as a whole has yet to be fully realized, but many can agree one of the positive outcomes of this new ownership has been “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” a full fledged action adventure series starring all of the heroes we know and love fighting as one super team against Earth’s most impossible foes.
After a very disastrous animated attempt in the late nineties many fans recall with disgust, Disney has rebooted the animated franchise including all of our favorite heroes the aforementioned series failed to include and have considerably gone all out creatively and artistically. While the series will satisfy fans of the actual title, the intent of the series is to garner brand new fans of the titles and characters being pushed on a kids channel geared toward boys and will undoubtedly win over a brand new generation of true believers.
The Addams Family: The Complete Series (DVD)
There will always be a place for America’s ghoulish family The Addams and I assume in lieu of the proposed Tim Burton re-launch, the Hanna Barbera animated series from the early seventies is something of a necessary property to re-live the nostalgia for fans of the franchise and help them hunger for Burton’s new vision. Featuring the entire series in a four DVD set, “The Addams Family” is quite a departure from the normality of the creepy Addams Family this time venturing out beyond the series to offer up some Scooby Doo mystery solving.
One of the highlights of the series is the discovery that a young Jodie Foster (Yes, that Jodie Foster) voices Wednesday Addams. Beyond that this is a typical cash in from the Hanna Barbera legacy. Instead of leaving them in one place to cope with everyday life, instead the Addams take their show on the road driving around in a humongous Victorian Mansion/RV that brings aboard all of the Addams for the fun.