Like The Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight, Halo Legends is an anthology, containing cartoons done in both CG and anime styles. Like most Warner original-to-DVD animation releases, there will be a two-disc Special Edition ($29.98), a single-disc version ($19.98), and Blu-Ray ($34.99). Here’s the description from the press release:

Halo Legends is a seven-story anthology –- told across eight spectacular episodes -– that explores the origin and historical events of the Halo universe and its intriguing characters. … each individual episode imagined by a cutting-edge, renowned Japanese anime director/animator, including Shinji Aramaki, Mamoru Oshii, Hideki Futamura, Tomoki Kyoda and Yasushi Muraki…. The individual episodes fall within Halo’s 26th Century mythology as the battle between humanity and aliens rages on in an attempt to protect Earth and mankind’s expansive number of space colonies. The dramatic, action-packed stories feature characters and locales familiar to Halo fans, and episodes range in length between 10 and 17 minutes -–  resulting in nearly two hours of animated adventures.

Bonus Features include:

• The Making of Halo Legends -– An introduction to Halo Legends followed by a making-of segment for each episode.
• Halo: Gaming Evolved –- Explaining the Halo phenomenon from its inception as an Xbox video game to a present day entertainment franchise.
• Audio Commentary with directors Frank O’Connor and Joseph Chou

The Blu-Ray version has, in addition, “Halo: The Story so Far”, a Halo universe overview.

Imagine being immersed in a long, meandering conversation with someone that speaks their mind openly on any and everything. Further imagine that you look at your watch and discovered you’ve been captivated by this person for several hours, and it’s only been the two of you the whole time. That’s what it’s like to read Hayao Miyazaki’s Starting Point: 1979-1996. It’s one of most delightful, enlightening, and at times surprisingly confessional books I’ve read in a great while.

Starting Point: 1979-1996
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Starting Point is a collection of Miyazaki’s writings and interviews. There is a nice bonus in the center of the book, an eight-page, full-color manga on the history of in-flight dining done for Winds, Japan Airlines’ magazine. This is followed by nine black-and-white pages from Miyazaki’s notebooks. (The last three are untranslated so you can see the quality of Miyazaki’s penmanship.) The foreword is by John Lasseter, one of the founders of Pixar and friend of Miyazaki. The afterword is by Isao Takahata, long-time collaborator of Miyazaki and co-founder of Studio Ghibli.

Over the course of the book, the reader is able to develop a well-rounded picture of Miyazaki, both the man and the animator. In high school, Miyazaki originally wanted to be a gekiga manga artist (49). (Gekiga is a style of realistically drawn manga. The stories are often gritty, dark portrayals of modern life.) However, the Japanese animated movie Hakujaden (The Tale of the White Serpent) literally changed his life.

It made me realize that, behind a facade of cynical pronouncements, in actuality I really was in love with the pure, earnest world of film, even if it were only another cheap melodrama. I was no longer able to deny the fact that there was another me — a me that yearned desperately to affirm the world rather than negate it. (70)

Miyazaki went off to college where, surprisingly, he majored in political economics. While in college he was also part of the Children Literature Study Group (311).

In 1963, he was hired by Toei Animation as an in-between animator (the entry-level job for animation companies). He found the daily grind of television animation becoming unbearable. He was ready to return to his former dream of becoming a manga artist, when a Russian animated film reignited his passion. “Had I not one day seen Snedronnigen (The Snow Queen) during a film screening hosted by the company labor union, I honestly doubt that I would have continued working as an animator.” (71)

In 1978, Miyazaki would make his directorial debut with the television series Future Boy Conan (yet to be released in the US). In 1979, Miyazaki directed his first feature film, Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro. In 1985, Studio Ghibli was founded. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Miyazaki has a great deal of faith in the unlimited potential of animation as a storytelling medium. In this sense he reminds me of Tezuka, who believed that manga had unlimited potential and was an art form on par with novels, short stories, and theater. I find Miyazaki’s passion for cartoons compelling and share his belief that the only limits to cartoons are the imaginations of animators.

In other words, I am talking about doing something with animation that can’t be done with manga magazines, children’s literature, or even live-action films. I’m talking about building a truly unique imaginary world, tossing in characters I like, and then creating a complete drama using them. Simply put, this is what animation is to me. (17)

He has equally high hopes for what his films will accomplish.

To my way of thinking, creating animation means creating a fictional world. That world soothes the spirit of those who are disheartened and exhausted from dealing with the sharp edges of reality, or suffering from a nearsighted distortion of their emotions. When the audience is watching animation, they are apt to feel light and cheerful or purified and refreshed. (25)

But if we can free ourselves from the various complexes we have and the tangled relationships we are in to live a freer, more open world, we might be able to become strong and heroic. I think everyone entertains thoughts of becoming more beautiful, or more gentle, or of having a more meaningful existence. (306)

His high ambitions for animation have made him a harsh critic of much of the animation he sees. “I frankly despise the truncated word ‘anime’ because it only symbolizes the current desolation of our industry.” (72)

But I’d like to see effort put into filmmaking sufficient to withstand the bare-knuckled criticism that I’m providing here. Cartoons have certain weaknesses that we normally don’t notice, and a type of laxity arises precisely because the films are treated as mere cartoons. (118)

His most vehement criticism is leveled at television animation.

“Producing an animation series merely to fill time slots in the broadcast schedule is like generating cultural pollution.” (186)

TV cartoon shows were all just a bunch of slapdash, amateurish, uninspired, derivative creations. We used to say among ourselves that making them was like working with still-open wounds. (279)

Is it any wonder that one he was given the freedom to make animated films, he never returned to television again?

I was also amazed some of the personal confessions that show up in this book. A touching reflection on his relationship with his father and his perceived failings as a parent, “I tried to be a good father, but in the end I wasn’t a very good parent.” (204) His flaws as a first-time director, “The schedule slipped and I caused a lot of trouble for the staff and the production company. This was entirely due to my failing, as I can only work following my intuition and feelings.” (66) Even his personal shortcomings, “I’m a careless sort of person, so I am often quick to say bad things about people.” (211)

My favorite sections of the book are where he discusses Future Boy Conan and each of his films in detail. We learn Miyazaki didn’t intend for the ending of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind to have the religious overtones that it did. But once the film headed in that direction he couldn’t steer it otherwise. (393) Further, we find out Kiki’s Delivery Service was actually made for young women heading to Tokyo to find their first job and make a place for themselves in this world. (262, 378) Porco Rosso was made, “…for tired, middle-aged men whose brain cells have turned to tofu.” (267) There are so many more interesting facts about the production and themes in each of his major works.

So many great quotes can be pulled from this book. There are tons of fascinating ideas that could fuel extended discussions among its readers. Not to mention, lots of behind-the-scenes glimpses of the reality of making animated TV shows and feature films. There is such a wealth of information, no review can truly hope to touch on everything contained within the pages of this book.

I honestly believe that every anime fan needs to read Miyazaki’s Starting Point: 1979-1996. It’s a chance to see deeply inside the anime industry, as well as an opportunity to intimately know one of anime’s greatest directors. I highly recommend Takahata’s afterward as a loving, but brutally honest, portrayal that only a real friend could write. This is also a must-read for American animation fans. It offers a different perspective on cartoons, and how they should be made, than we generally hear in the US. Simply put, this is too significant a book to let simply pass you by. (The publisher provided a review copy.)

Bonus Feature: I showed Johanna what my copy of Starting Point looked like when I was reading it and she thought it would be fun to take a picture of it share with you. So here are my photos. I annotated each photo in an attempt to justify/explain my process.

The Character’s Comic Origin

Plastic Man was one of the greatest conceptual characters ever created in comic books, especially during his Golden Age career where his adventures were chronicled by his creator, the amazing Jack Cole. Primarily a humorist, Cole’s Plastic Man adventures (beginning in the pages of Police Comics in 1941) were wildly funny and amazingly innovative, with Cole’s often surreal artwork and outrageous slapstick humor.

Plastic Man: The Complete Collection
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But Plastic Man wasn’t just a great humor strip — there were darker elements as well, especially in the character’s origins as former criminal Eel O’Brian, abandoned by his gang and left for dead when a heist goes bad. Saved by a monk and taken to recover at his monastery, O’Brian discovers that exposure to a mysterious acid during the failed crime has changed him physically — his body is pliable like rubber! With the revelation of this remarkable power, and with the monk’s belief that he had the capacity for greater good, O’Brian decides to change his life completely. Disguising himself by remolding his face and donning cool goggles and a patently ridiculous stretchable leotard (with a distinctive black and yellow striped belt), he becomes the crime fighter Plastic Man!

Eventually joining the police department and then the FBI, Plastic Man becomes an incredibly successfully hero, mostly because he still maintains his Eel O’Brian identity as a criminal in order to keep tabs on the criminal underworld. Thus, with one foot in each “world”, Plas’ adventures are filled with wild comedy as well as crime elements, as he’s pitted against any number of bizarre crooks and femme fatales. Cole capitalized on the character’s unique costume and abilities by either making Plas a master of disguise or by having him “blend into the background” by taking the shape of normal everyday objects, like mailboxes and lamp poles — all with tell-tale black and yellow stripes or stylized goggles. Thus, he became his generation’s “Where’s Waldo?” long before Waldo was born, and readers delighted in ferreting out where Plas was hiding in Cole’s often bizarre artwork!

Plas in Modern Comics

Plastic Man had a long and successful Golden Age career in both Police Comics and his own title until his publisher, Quality Comics, folded in 1956. DC Comics (then National Periodical Publications) acquired the publishing rights to three Quality properties — Blackhawk, G.I. Combat, and Plastic Man. They almost immediately began publishing the first two but completely forgot about Plastic Man until 1966, where he finally popped up in the Dial H For Hero feature in House of Mystery. That was probably just a way to promote his upcoming (but short-lived) ten-issue series, the first issue memorably illustrated by Gil Kane. But the character wasn’t the same.

Since then, Plastic Man has had a very long, very intermittent, and mostly confusing history/continuity at DC. Every few years the character would be revived, either with a new series or as a member of the All-Star Squadron or eventually, the Justice League. But the exact combination of key elements of each appearance were never quite satisfactory. Almost no one could replicate Cole’s magic touch with the character. (Although Kyle Baker’s series came close. At least it looked great!) A lot of his later writers could just not capture his humor properly, especially in his JLA appearances, where it seemed like he was an obnoxious jerk who wouldn’t shut up. Or they made the character too serious, with family problems or really wrong feelings of insecurity. In the modern DC world, he’s still a good character, but he has lost many of the elements that originally made him great.

Destined for Animation

Unfortunately, such is the same with Plas’ animation career. It’s not that The Plastic Man Comedy/ Adventure Show (running 1979-1981, from which this four-DVD set is compiled) is actually a bad show — it’s not! It’s got a great pedigree, and some great folks working on it. Plus, Plas is a character who is destined to be animated — stretching and morphing into other shapes is only really cool when you can see it in action! It’s just that it is obviously a product of its time, subject to the whims of the great Saturday Morning Television Network gods, their P.C. desires and fears of complaints from parental groups. It probably didn’t help that the show was co-produced by Hanna Barbera (long past their prime, pre-Cartoon Network) and Ruby-Spears (did they have a prime?).

Here’s some of the good stuff: Plas himself, who does some cool stunts throughout the series and throws out some occasionally great one-liners while under pressure. He’s ably voiced by Michael Bell, although his voice tends to occasionally get a bit whiny when agitated (or is that just because he’s fighting to be heard against the relentlessly bad generic non-stop soundtrack music in each episode?). The villains are pretty cool. I especially like The Clam, an actual talking clam wearing a little sailor’s cap. Dr. Dome (not Doom) pops up from the 60s DC comic series, and Carrot Man (from the 70s comics) also makes an odd appearance. Plus, there are some great comic book writers on the writing staff including Mark Evanier, Steve Gerber, Roy Thomas, and Buzz Dixon. Unfortunately, there are no individual episode credits, so you’re on your own trying to identify who wrote what. (Sounds like a great drinking game to me!)

This Might Be Annoying

And here’s some of the bad stuff: Plas’s blonde bombshell partner Penny, who is voiced with the most annoying Southern accent since Veronica on the Archie cartoons from the 60s. (The voice actress, Melendy Britt, did a much better job voicing Princess Adora/She-Ra.) Penny obviously has a huge crush on Plastic Man, which is mostly unrequited as Plas only has eyes for the female Chief (also voiced by Britt). In the DVD documentary for the series, animation producer James Tucker speculates that Penny might only be there to help make it clear that Plas is actually interested in girls, being, you know, so unusually dressed in a leotard all the time. (Oh dear.) Penny finally succeeds in getting her man, as sometime between the first and second seasons, Plas and Penny not only marry — but actually spawn. There’s a little Baby Plas running around in Season Two, not only in his own cartoon series (called Baby Plas, natch), but in the Plastic Family series of cartoons staring Mom, Pop, and Baby Plas. Sadly (or fortunately — your choice), the Baby Plas and Plastic Family cartoons are not included in this set, making it not quite so Complete after all. (But trust me, I’m not complaining!)

By the way, we don’t actually see any of the wedding, except for being told about it in the opening sequence of the second season, in lieu of actually getting a real theme song. But then again, there’s no theme song for the first season either, just a discussion of how Plas’ powers work, set to more relentless generic soundtrack. Was there so much cost-cutting going on that the producers didn’t want to pay for a theme song, or were there just not that many good rhymes for “plastic”?

But I’m forgetting about one of the worst comic relief sidekicks in all of cartoons. Hula Hula was a Polynesian (you can tell by his Hawaiian shirt) man (or boy? who can tell?), who inexplicably talked like Lou Costello (from Abbott &…) and had horrible bad luck that affected everybody around him. And apparently made him stupid as well. Fortunately, the producers came to their senses and didn’t call him by the horribly racist name “Coconut” like they wanted to. The character was already offensive enough without that added burden. He was no Woozy Winks, I’ll tell you that!

Extras! Extras!

But all is not lost. As if to prove that Plas could be a great animated star, the DVD set also includes an unaired Plastic Man pilot episode that was produced for Cartoon Network in 2006, and it is the best thing on this set. It was developed by Andy Suriano (producer on Batman: The Brave and the Bold) and Tom Kenny (voice of Spongebob Squarepants), who also plays Plastic Man. It’s a great cartoon, full of manic energy (maybe a bit too manic, actually), but there are lots of good gags, and Plas seems more like Plas than he has since the 1940s. Perhaps it’s a little bit too Ren & Stimpy/Kricfalusi influenced, for my taste anyway. There’s enough great stuff in the cartoon to not really need the crutch of the borrowed influence, and that may be why it was not picked up to go to series. I’d love to see Suriano and Kenny try it again — and Plas does occasionally pop up on Batman: The Brave and the Bold (voiced by Kenny), and in a much more appealing style, at least in my opinion.

Also included in the set is a 14-minute documentary, PLAS-tastic: A Brief History of Plastic Man. Featuring comic historians Jerry Beck, Mark Evanier (who also wrote for the show), and Alan Kistler, plus animation veterans Dan Riba, Andy Suriano, James Tucker, Tom Kenny, Andrea Romano, and Jeff Hall, the group discuss the series in-depth, as well as the unaired pilot, Kyle Baker’s take on Plastic Man at DC comics, and Plas’ appearances on Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Notably, no DC staffers appear in the documentary.

One last thing, the Bonus Features aren’t on Disc 4 where the packaging says they are. The Documentary is actually on Disc 1 and the unaired pilot “Puddle Trouble” is on Disc 2.

All in all, a very nice DVD set, for a series that may or may not really deserve it — but that’s pretty much left up for you to decide. If you grew up watching this series as a kid, and have fond memories of watching it, you will love it. For the rest of us, there’s a lot to love about Plastic Man, and for something you love, a lot can be forgiven.

Classic comic book adventures of Plastic Man by Jack Cole can be found in Volumes 1-8 of the Plastic Man Archives, published by DC Comics, and highly recommended. (The studio provided a DVD review copy.)

Peanuts 1970’s Collection
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The Peanuts 1970’s Collection, Volume 1, continues Warner’s series of chronological Peanuts collections with the first six specials of the the 1970s, including two which are new to DVD: Play It Again, Charlie Brown and It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown. The other titles are You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown, There’s No Time For Love, Charlie Brown, and the two well-known holiday specials A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and It’s The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown.

All of the features are completely remastered, and there’s an all-new featurette, Woodstock: Creating Snoopy’s Sidekick, which I assume will include the origins of the intrepid bird named after the famous rock festival. Unfortunately, the original featurettes that accompanied the previously released specials on DVD are not included. So, as usual, Warner has produced yet another Peanuts collection which is high on entertainment value and production quality, but not so much on completeness. But if you’re looking for an easy way to scoop up six Peanuts specials in one compact two-DVD set, this is your collection.

More soon. In the meantime, here’s a clip from the famous Thanksgiving show with that terrific music.

Disney is reissuing some of their great Christmas cartoons in new editions this year, just in time for the holidays.

Disney Animation Collection: Mickey’s Christmas Carol

Mickey’s Christmas Carol is a new entry in the Walt Disney Animation Collection: Classic Short Films series that I reviewed earlier this year. The lead feature is an all-star adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens’ tale, originally theatrically released in 1983 as a special feature with the re-release of The Rescuers. It was the first new Mickey Mouse cartoon made in over 30 years, and the first ever to include all of Disney’s classic characters (except Pluto, for some reason).

The cast includes Uncle Scrooge (playing Ebenezer Scrooge, in the greatest no-brainer casting ever done by Hollywood). Mickey plays the Bob Cratchit role, Goofy plays the ghost of Marley, Jiminy Cricket is the Ghost of Christmas Past, Willie the Giant is the Ghost of Christmas Present, and Pete (Mickey’s frequent nemesis) is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

Mickey’s Christmas Carol
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Donald Duck also appears as Scrooge’s nephew Fred, voiced by Clarence Nash in his last theatrical appearance as Donald before his death in 1985. Donald was the only character in the film to be voiced by his original voice, although several voice actors made their first appearance as classic Disney characters in this film — most notably, Alan Young as Uncle Scrooge, Wayne Allwine as Mickey Mouse, Eddie Carroll as Jiminy Cricket, Willie the Giant by Will Ryan, and Patricia Parris as Daisy Duck. And, as a matter of curiosity, current Chief Creative Officer for Pixar and Disney Animation, John Lasseter, has an early creative credit on this film.

The film also includes dozens of cameos from across the history of Disney animation including The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf, Max Hare, Daisy Duck, Minnie Mouse, Donald’s nephews, Gus Goose, Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar, Grandma Duck, Chip ‘n’ Dale, and many more from the cast of Robin Hood and also from The Wind and the Willows (which had roughly the same time and place setting as A Christmas Carol, Victorian England).

The film is pretty faithful to the original Dickens story, but at just 24 minutes, not every scene is as fleshed-out as it could be. The characters play it pretty straight, but there’s some occasional humor — Willie the Giant climbing out of the top of Scrooge’s house and wandering around town is very funny, and Marley Goofy has some great moments, as well as a Goofy Holler! The animation is crisp and the backgrounds, especially in the opening sequences, are gorgeous. Some of the more notable Disney talents on the film include animators Glenn Keane, Mark Henn, Randy Cartwright, creative consultant Eric Larson, and director Burny Mattinson. The film is very historically important and also one of Disney’s best short features.

Other Classic Holiday Shorts

Also included is The Small One, originally released in theaters in 1978 with the re-release of Pinocchio. It’s also the last Disney production featuring the work of producer and director Don Bluth, who left Disney the following year to start his own animation company, best known for The Secret of NIMH (1982). He also produced animation for the popular Dragon’s Lair (1983) and Space Ace (1984) video games and provided the memorable animated segment in Xanadu (1980 — one of Johanna’s favorites).

The Small One, based on the book by Charles Tazewell, is a tremendously moving film and one of the very best examples of character animation. It’s truly one of Disney’s “hidden gems”. It’s the incredibly poignant story of a poor young boy who cares for his father’s donkeys. His favorite is “Small One”, an undersized and older donkey who struggles to keep up with his chores. Ultimately, the father determines that Small One is too old to work and must be sold to raise money for the poor family. So the boy accompanies Small One to the marketplace, but he finds selling the old donkey is much more difficult than first thought.

This is the first time that I’ve ever seen this cartoon, and initially thought that things were going to go in a much different way than they actually do, as this film has a very surprising resolution. In fact, you’ll wonder why this is part of a holiday collection until you see the very last minute of this memorable short film.

Rounding out the collection is Pluto’s Christmas Tree (1952), a fun romp as Mickey and Pluto inadvertently bring home a Christmas tree that Chip and Dale (Disney’s trouble-making chipmunks) are living in. Hilarity ensues. Plus, cameos by Donald, Goofy, and Minnie Mouse. Also included is Santa’s Workshop, a 1932 Silly Symphony cartoon where Santa and his elves are preparing for Christmas Day, and all the toys come to life! And since it’s an early Disney cartoon, everybody sings and dances! Yay! And there’s an early appearance of the “checkered paint” gag! I’ve seen it a billion times, yet I laugh each time I see it! (NOTE: this cartoon has been edited to remove a racially stereotyped caricature.)

All in all, a great collection, although it’s unfortunate that Mickey’s Christmas Carol is not presented in its original letterbox format. There are nice film transfers on all the cartoons, even the relatively ancient Silly Symphony.

Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving

Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving
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Also available in a new 10th Anniversary edition is Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving. This release combines three Pooh shorts that were originally made-for-TV, including A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving (1998) and two shorts originally from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (”Groundpiglet Day” and “Find Her, Keep Her”), into one “film”. Also on the disc are two bonus cartoons from the New Adventures series, “Magic Earmuffs” and “The Wishing Bear”. All of these short cartoons are from the 1988-89 season of the show.

This is probably a perfectly fine release for young children, although I did see a few comments around the ‘net that some very young kids might have problems with some occasionally scary scenes. Even I was a little disturbed by seeing Piglet in a pretty tense situation in “Magic Earmuffs”, when he’s skating from ice floe to ice floe while on the edge of a big waterfall! Adults will have a tougher time with this release, as by this time the Disney cartoons have drifted farther and farther away from the the original A. A. Milne books. They added many new and uninspired characters, while some of the originals (most notably Kanga, mother to Roo) disappeared. Also, the hodge-podge of cartoons offers up a number of confusions — stylistic differences from cartoon to cartoon, different voice actors portraying characters (sadly, many of the original voice actors had passed away prior to these cartoons), and even Christopher Robin’s accent switching back-and-forth from British to American! “Oh, bother!” might exclaim Pooh.

If you have no problem with your Pooh not being all that Milne-like (or even as good as the original Disney Pooh shorts!), then this will be fine for your kids’ holiday viewing, although they will have to tolerate the characters frequently acting like idiots. In the long-standing Disney DVD tradition, there are a couple of Pooh games to play as bonus features. If you’re a Disney or Pooh collector, the Gift Set version of the DVD comes with a very cute baby-sized Christmas stocking featuring Pooh, Tigger and Piglet.

(Complimentary copies for this review were provided by the studio.)

Reasonably faithful to the original source material, the new Superman/Batman: Public Enemies animated feature plays much better than some of the recent DCU animated films but still has some problems in both animation quality and story.

Based on the opening salvo in DC’s Superman/Batman comic book (the story arc was originally called “The World’s Finest” in tribute to the long-running comic that the original Superman and Batman team-ups appeared in), the six-issue comic story was a non-stop, in-your-face romp, featuring dozens of DC heroes and villains and crazy DC concepts. It was to be the climatic storyline of the Lex Luthor, President of the DCU scenario that had ruled in the comics for the previous couple of years.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
Two-Disc Special Edition
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Written by then-Superman writer Jeph Loeb and illustrated by his long-time artistic collaborator Ed McGuinness, the story was a crazy snapshot of a transitional time in the comic books and touched upon a number of other DCU stories of the era — most notably the Batman stories “No Man’s Land” and “Bruce Wayne – Murderer?” as well as the Our Worlds at War crossover. It also set up a number of future storylines and concepts for the DCU, later picked up in Infinite Crisis, 52, and Countdown. None of these story bits appear in the animated version — a wise decision by the animation folks who needed the film to stand on its own.

We do get most of the broad strokes of the original in the film, however, and pretty faithfully done as well! The animation design is largely based on McGuinness’ art choices, down to the spikey-haired and highlighted Superman (perhaps a bit overdone in the film) to the lantern-jawed Batman who rarely has bright light fall across his blocky-cowled face. Large chunks of Loeb’s original story remains (thankfully excluding a slightly confusing visit from a time-displaced Superman — although unfortunately losing some great action scenes in the process). Much of Loeb’s original dialogue remains as well, although that’s not always a good thing, as anyone who’s ever read a comic book out loud may know. Some of the most powerful lines of any comic do not always transfer well to the spoken word and can come off as corny — or even dumb — in the wrong hands. There are a couple of those moments here, also. Sadly, Loeb’s best writing trick — the ongoing point-counterpoint caption boxes of Superman and Batman (actually their thoughts) — are not often attempted for the animated film, mostly because they’re a print-only kind of writing trick. And they are missed.

Most of the changes in the film script — by long-time DCU animation writer Stan Berkowitz — over the comic book occur in the third act, mostly in an attempt to keep the film as a stand-alone story. In the original, Captain Atom (not Batman) makes the fateful flight on the Composite Superman and sacrifices himself in the process (actually, he gets blown into the Wildstorm Universe, but that’s a different story). With no powers, in the film, the foregone conclusion of Batman’s survival becomes somewhat miraculous. In the comic, Batman also pursues Luthor to get some measure of retribution for what Luthor has done to him (behind-the-scenes in the destruction of Gotham and setting up Bruce Wayne as a murderer). Also, Luthor escapes from Batman (in the great comic book tradition) using Apokolips tech (too confusing an element for the film). It’s better for the film to have Luthor taken into custody and pay for his crimes. Much better closure.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
Blu-Ray Edition
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The film features Power Girl’s first actual appearance in a DCU animated project (a similar character, Galatea, appeared in a couple of episodes of Justice League Unlimited), but she doesn’t appear to be anything like the DCU Power Girl in personality or temperament. She’s more similar to the original 1950s Linda Lee Supergirl than the robust Power Girl portrayed in the comics. Having voice actress Allison Mack (Smallville) portray this Power Girl with an especially “girly” and demure voice adds to this discrepancy. Also, in the original comic, Power Girl (and the non-appearing) Katana are originally revealed as Superman and Batman’s deliberate “plants” in Luthor’s Super Hero Task Force, which lends a bit more weight to the character.

There are some shortcomings in the animation. Early in the film, there are some poorly animated vehicles that not only look badly drawn, they look to have no weight whatsoever to them, giving them the appearance of large toys. Later in the last third of the film, and especially in the last ten minutes, there are some horrible off-model faces, which pulled me right out of the film at its most climactic moment. I can accept occasional weak animation in the rapid-paced world of daily TV series production, but now that folks have to pay for these direct-to-DVD films, I think it would be nice to see a little bit higher quality animation, or at least not having it look like it was “rushed”. The short running time — 67 minutes, six of which were opening and closing credits — also lends weight to thinking this release had some time pressure.

I was very happy to see the return of Clancy Brown, Kevin Conroy, and Tim Daly to the roles of Lex Luthor, Batman, and Superman, respectively. The fact that the three often recorded together in the studio was felt in the film, especially in the more intense scenes. Brown’s performance was especially notable, slyly playing Lex from supreme megalomaniac to his rapid decline into insanity. Kudos also to returning C.C.H. Pounder as Amanda Waller, easily one of Casting Director Andrea Romano’s best choices of actor matching character.

Special Features

Rounding out Disc One are the “Special Features”: “Blackest Night: Inside the DC Comics Event”, “Wonder Woman: The Amazon Princess”, “Batman Gotham Night — An Anime Revolution”, “From Graphic Novel to Original Animated Movie — Justice League: The New Frontier”, and “Green Lantern: First Flight — The Animated Movie Sneak Peek”. All of these have appeared on other DC Universe animated DVDs, which kinda makes them less Special Features than extended promotional material — great for new-to-the-series viewers, but not so much for those of us who have been following right along with each new release. Also included are extra trailers for the Green Lantern animated movie, Fringe: Season One DVD, and the Batman: Arkham Asylum video game. These are in addition to the front-loaded trailers for Sherlock Holmes, Halo Legends, Smallville Season 8, and the ubiquitous Warner Blu-Ray ad.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
Standard DVD Edition
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The real Special Features are on the second disc. First up is “A Test of Minds: The Psychology of Superman and Batman”, 19 minutes of psychobabble and armchair psychiatry by the likes of DC suits Gregory Noveck and Paul Levitz, director Alan Burnett, original writer Jeph Loeb, a couple of authors, and an actual Ph.D.! My favorite part was when Dan Didio explained that Superman was the “fireman” of the DCU while Batman was the “policeman”. Based on this new information, I fully expect to see Krypto transformed into a Dalmatian by Red Kryptonite in next year’s DC books. Seriously, I’ve been a part of more interesting (and lively) discussions of this type with both comic fans and professionals at various convention watering holes over the years.

Much better is “Dinner with DCU and Special Guest Kevin Conroy”, the DCU being Bruce Timm, Andrea Romano, and Gregory Noveck. It’s 25 minutes of great dinner conversation between these folks and “the” animated voice of Batman. Topics range from Conroy’s casting (from more than 250 hopefuls) to how Conroy alters his voice for different interpretations of the character to a great anecdote about Conroy driving around on the LA freeways, dressed as Batman.

“First Look at Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths” features Timm, Romano, director Lauren Montgomery, and writer Dwayne McDuffie discussing the next DC Universe animated feature. Apparently based on concepts from the second original JLA-JSA crossover from the 1960s (but not including the JSA), this new film will feature an animated version of the Crime Syndicate, the evil dopplegangers of the Justice League from a parallel world. It’s from a script called “Worlds Collide,” originally written by McDuffie for the unproduced fifth season of the Justice League animated series, newly rewritten by McDuffie to be less JLU-animated continuity and more DCU. The film returns to the concept of using superstar talent for the lead voices, rather than the long-established voices from the original animated series. Announced are Billy Baldwin as Batman, Mark Harmon as Superman, Chris Noth as Lex Luthor, Gina Torres as Superwoman, and James Woods as Owlman. This preview runs 11 minutes and the completed film is due for release in the spring of 2010. Looks very interesting!

Finally, there are Bruce Timm’s Top Picks, two episodes from the original Superman: The Animated Series. Both from Season 3, “The Demon Reborn” features Superman teaming with Batman to battle Ra’s al Ghul, while “Knight Time” teams Supes (disguising himself as Batman) with Robin to find the missing Batman.

For more information, the official site is SupermanBatmanDVD.com. (A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the studio.)

“A Wonderful Piece of Eye-Candy!” — Mike Wazowski

“Two thumbs up! Er… what’s a thumb?” — Mater

“Best book since — SQUIRREL!” — Dug

Pixarpedia: A Complete Guide to the World of Pixar… And Beyond! is a lavish, full-color, kid-friendly roundup of everything Pixar. It ranges from a brief history of the company to hints on finding the inside jokes and references in each Pixar film — and everything else in-between!

Pixarpedia
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In fact, calling it “A Complete Guide to the World of Pixar… And Beyond!” may actually be selling it a bit short. Because not only is there plenty of information on the Pixar “stars” like Woody, Buzz, Flik, Sulley, Nemo, Mr. Incredible, Lightning McQueen, Remy, WALL*E, and Carl Fredricksen, but also covered are all your favorite PIxar supporting characters, including Mr. Potato Head, Tuck and Roll, Jessie, Roz, Dory, Edna Mode, Mater, Anton Ego, M-O, and Dug. Believe it or not, pretty much EVERY character who ever spoke a line (or got a laugh) or even just appeared in the background in a Pixar movie is included — Headless Doll (and Headless Doll’s Sister!), Poo Poo Platter Waiter, Amy, Harley P. Gerson, Two Pelicans, Snug, Petrol Pulaski, Ambrister, BRL-A, and Omega! Now that’s detailed! (Can you I.D. them all? Bet your kid can!)

Besides a plot summary for each film, there are also details on the fantastic locales and settings for all of them, including Pizza Planet, Bug City, Al’s Toy Barn, Monsteropolis, Coral Reef, Nomanisan Island, Radiator Springs, Remy’s Paris, The Axiom, and Paradise Falls.

There’s also lots of info on all of Pixar’s short features from the very beginning (Luxo Jr., starring the Luxo lamp that has become Pixar’s trademark) all the way to Partly Cloudy, starring Gus the cloud and Peck the loyal delivery stork (which appeared with Pixar’s latest feature, Up). These short features are fan favorites, ranging from the wildly hysterical (For The Birds, Lifted, Presto) to heartwarming (Geri’s Game, Boundin’). Little do most viewers know that these short films are usually experiments for trying new and different computer techniques.

The illustrations (mostly stills from the films themselves) are wonderful and eye-catching. Besides the pictures of all the Pixar characters, there are dozens of other shots from the films, many of them presented as huge 2-page spreads. The shot of the Incredibles’ family embracing after their fight on the island is almost worth the entire price of the book. Many of these spreads are poster-worthy!

While the bulk of this 350-page oversized hardcover is taken up with kid-centric descriptions of all the characters and films, there is also a a section in the back of the book which offers “A Closer Look” at each of the films. Here you will find the Major Credits for each film (including a list of the Voice Talent) and “Fascinating Facts”, key trivia (like the cover date of the Life Magazine shown in Toy Story 2 being director John Lasseter’s birth date). Plus, there are clues to finding some of Pixar’s (and Disney) running jokes – “Spot the Pizza Planet Truck,” Hidden Mickeys, John Ratzenberger (his voice appears in every Pixar feature! Do you know where?), and “A113”, the now-famous classroom number at CalArts, where a number of leading animators (including some key Pixar staff) learned their trade. And speaking of the Pixar staff, a key member of each film gets to comment on the film in this section.

The Forward is by Andrew Stanton, the writer and director of Academy Award-winning Best Animated Films Finding Nemo and WALL*E. Stanton has played a role (occasionally, literally as a voice actor) in every Pixar feature and is the writer/director of John Carter of Mars for Pixar, scheduled for 2012 release.

Pixarpedia is one of the best coffee-table books ever produced for an audience too young for coffee. While it may be a little bit lightweight for the adult Pixar fan, every imaginative young child who’s ever seen a Pixar film (i.e. pretty much every kid on the planet) would love this book as a wonderful holiday gift.

(A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the publisher.)

First, there’s the schedule. Only the Blu-Ray version ($39.99) will be released this month. The standard DVD edition is due out November 24, almost two months later, with a list price of $29.99.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Diamond Edition (Blu-Ray looking
like DVD package)
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(This isn’t the first time Disney’s messed with release dates in order to attempt to drive customers to the more expensive Blu-Ray format. Last time, with Bolt, it was only two days early, though.)

More interesting to me is the cover format. In addition to the typical Blu-Ray design, they’ve released the same content (2 Blu-Ray discs and one DVD) in a design that looks like the usual DVD package, as shown here.

This version comes with a sticker on it that says “Great Value! This Combo Pack also includes a Blu-Ray of the movie! Limited Time!” The combo pack has been used on several recent Disney movie releases, shipping a single DVD disc with the movie with the Blu-Ray in order to convince families to “prepare for the future”. The only people inconvenienced are those who want to view the extras on their regular DVD player, a group I’m part of.

Snow White is legitimately a classic, the first full-length animated movie, and I’m sure the cleanup looks amazing. (It’s also, according to Disney, “the first film ever to have a motion picture soundtrack, as well as the first film that uses music to advance the story.”) I’m curious to watch the story of an old woman jealous of her step-daughter’s beauty again, even though it plays into all kinds of female stereotypes, including the biggest of all: waiting for a prince to rescue you. I’ll just have to wait two months to enjoy the background material.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Diamond Edition (Blu-Ray package)
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The Blu-Ray extras include:

• The Magic Mirror, a guide through the special features. “The host for an incredibly immersive experience … will recognize viewing patterns, knows where the audience has left off and will even suggest where to navigate next.” (Because DVDs weren’t interactive enough, I guess.)
• DisneyView. “Utilizing Disney Blu-ray technology, acclaimed Disney artist Toby Bluth was able to draw beyond the borders of the classic full frame cinema and fill the otherwise dark edges of the screen with beautiful custom imagery, giving audiences a new view of the animated classic favorite.” Homemade widescreen!
• Mirror, Mirror on the Wall. Uses BD-Live to set up a “personal message from [a] favorite princess” who will then call you on the phone. Creepy! Although great to bribe kids with, I imagine. “Clean up your room, or you won’t hear from Jasmine!”
• A couple of games. Does anyone play DVD games? Don’t we have video game systems and handhelds and cellphones for this?

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Diamond Edition (Standard DVD)
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These will be on both the Blu-Ray and the later DVD special edition:

• “Snow White Returns” thanks to recently found storyboards that “suggest a brand new Snow White featurette that never got made.”
• “The One That Started It All” reveals how Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs “forever changed the world of movies and the world at large.”
• Karaoke sing-along to “Heigh-Ho”

The single-disc DVD extras (all editions) are as follows:

• Audio commentary with Walt Disney, hosted by John Canemaker (an animation historian; this commentary also appeared on the last re-release of Snow White, the Platinum Edition)
• An “all-new music video” of “Someday My Prince Will Come” from Tiffany Thornton (no idea who she is, I’m assuming one of Disney’s latest teen packages they want to give a music career to)
• Sneak peak of The Princess and the Frog, Disney’s Christmas movie release

In case you were wondering, the “Diamond Collection” is a new designation for “The Walt Disney Studio’s most prestigious animated classics.” 14 movies will be released over the next 7 years, featuring “groundbreaking, state-of-the-art immersive bonus content and … unprecedented levels of interactivity, personalization, and customization, only made possible by Blu-Ray technology.”

Viz’s Vampire Knight is one of the better-known manga in this genre — the latest in the series, Volume 7, was #6 on the most recent New York Times manga bestseller list, its 8th week on the list — and now they’re adding the anime as well.

No dates or specific release plans are yet available, but Viz yesterday announced that “it has acquired the domestic TV, Home Entertainment, Streaming, DTO, and Merchandising rights to the hit VAMPIRE KNIGHT animated series.” (I believe “DTO” means Download-to-Own.) This includes all home video outlets, including Blu-Ray, plus video on demand and mobile technology. I’m sure there will be more announcements coming over the rest of the year.

The G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Complete Series Limited Edition Collector’s Set comes in a footlocker (of course). The 95 episodes are found on 17 DVDs, along with lots of bonus material. Here’s the description:

Loaded with over 36 hours of content, this 17-disc collector’s set of G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero contains all 95 episodes including the final episodes that have never been available on DVD until now, brand-new bonus features celebrating G.I. JOE’s rich history, a special collectible book, an exclusive 1-GB “Dog Tag” Flash Drive (USB 2.0) with G.I. JOE silent comics, and special Arashikage and Cobra rub-on tattoos…. Plus, there is a special DVD place holder inside [the footlocker] case for the G.I. JOE original animated movie when it becomes available next year!

That’s thinking ahead, and it’s the kind of detail that dedicated fans appreciate. You can order the set now from the website for $145, or it will be in stores on November 10 at a suggested list price of $180. Maybe that allows for the store to give a discount of 20%, which brings the price to … $144! Imagine that coincidence!

The bonus features on DVD include:

• Looking Back with writer Ron Friedman, Parts One, Two, and Three
• “Knowing Is Half the Battle” PSAs
• G.I. JOE’s original 1963 Toy Fair presentation
• Archival Hasbro toy commercials
• Printable “Jungle Trap” script
• Every Day Heroes: The History of G.I. JOE (includes brand-new interviews)
• Men & Women of Action: Creating the G.I. JOE Animated Series (with creative team members and voice talent)
• Voices of A Real American Hero (roundtable discussion with eight voice cast members, including those who played Duke, Spirit, Destro, Serpentor, and Scarlett)
• Greenshirts: The G.I. JOE Fandom
• Declassified: A Conversation With Larry Hama
• Fan Material – Live-action fan film Battle for the Serpent Stone

Using provided audio and images of the Hulk, Wolverine, or Nova, contestants assemble seven pages by October 5. If the “Aniboom community” votes your entry one of the top 50, you get a free one-year subscription to the Marvel digital comics site. The rest of the rules are a little hinky — all the dates are listed as “on or around”, and the main page says the grand prize winner will be announced on both November 16 and November 23. Anyway, five finalists will be picked on October 19 (four by “a panel of Marvel judges”, one by the “community”), and they will get $2000 and two weeks to finish their motion comic before the grand prize judging.

There are also one or two wildcard finalists, picked by the judges, “who independently complete their original submission.” So even if you don’t win any money, you can still work for Marvel for free! Isn’t that great? In that way, it’s typical of these contests — the company gets a lot for not very much money (in their eyes), one or a handful of lucky fans get a token payment in exchange for losing all rights, and most of the entrants just gave away their work for nothing. But so long as you know what you’re getting into… I’m told digital sharecropping is the way things work online now. And really, what are most people going to do with a partially completed Marvel motion comic anyway?

There’s a whole lot of rules, of course, including that you can only use provided content, nothing else (that way, there’s no ownership quibbles); that it’s all property of Marvel Entertainment; and that your entry “may not be used or displayed commercially.” So if you run ads on your blog, don’t post your entry!

You also can’t mention any other properties or movies or actual people or be derogatory about the companies or characters or just about anyone or be “sexually explicit, obscene, pornographic, gratuitously violent, self-mutilating, discriminatory, illegal, offensive, threatening, profane, or harassing”. Whew! Those Must Nots just gave me a ton of ideas. I do like this FAQ entry, at the very end:

Do I need special software…?

No. We’re looking to see how you imagine bringing a comic book to life, so it’s up to you to figure out how you’ll do so. Whether you use free software or custom software, take stop motion images of the pages, or just cut out the characters and mount them on popsicle sticks, the choice is up to you!

I want to see Marvel popsicle comics!

Nana (Uncut Box Set 1)
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The two Nanas meet by accident on the train and then fall into becoming roommates. One Nana is a tough rock chick, coming to the big city to form a band and succeed at music; the other is following a guy, because she doesn’t know what to do with herself other than pretend to be in love.

What the Series Does Well

In reviewing the story of a musician and her friends, it’s important to know: is the music any good? Yes. It’s very in keeping with what we know about Nana, her attitude and mood. The other Nana, aka Hachi (voiced in English by Kelly Sheridan), is just as silly and naive as she needs to be. Her voice is chirpy, almost annoying, while Rock Nana (Rebecca Shoichet) is sly, lower, and knowing. Hachi’s crush on Nana is obvious from the first, and the background music they use for her is wonderfully silly. Even KC, who didn’t know the story and doesn’t watch anime, was laughing at some of the scenes and exaggerated responses. The voice acting (dubbed) is, based on my limited knowledge, very good. It’s done by Ocean Studios in Canada.

The art is lovely, in keeping with Ai Yazawa’s designs and characters. I found myself often admiring the backgrounds and settings. There’s a lot of snow in this series, and it works beautifully on screen. The animation is limited, with sometimes only mouths moving, or sound playing over static scenes, but well-done. Hachi’s narration frames the sequences, providing the nostalgic look back characteristic of the series’ storytelling. Even when she’s talking in cliches, the context gives them new meaning. And given Hachi’s love of movies, it’s no surprise that she thinks of love in those types of romantic terms. She envisions herself in film scenes without much attention paid to realism or effects on others.

Although we aren’t given much to go on, I’ve always kind of admired Hachi’s boyfriend Shoji. She should have known, when his rule was “you can come join me in Tokyo if you get a job and take care of yourself”, that they had different views of what their relationship meant. But I liked his unwillingness to take advantage of her, even when she was ready to move in and be his maid and cook.

Episode List

Episode 1 introduces the characters.

Episode 2 is Hachi’s flashback of her checkered romantic history (including sleeping with an older married man, which might be why the set is rated 18 and up, or maybe it’s because of Nana and Ren’s habit of taking baths together, or their debate about birth control, or even just the smoking).

Episode 3, Hachi and Shoji get to know each other better and start dating, in spite of her idiocy and lack of forethought. She’s so young, regardless of her age, and although her friends care, they’re just looking for someone else to take care of her so they can get on with their lives. She has no dreams of her own and doesn’t seem to feel the lack.

Episode 4 shows the aftermath of her friends’ decisions to move to Tokyo without her and her understanding with Shoji. Then we begin Nana’s flashbacks, starting with her band.

Disc 2, Episode 5 first mentions Trapnest, the band Ren joins in Tokyo, and shows how Nana’s band, Blast, formed. Nana also explains why she didn’t go with Ren and says goodbye to him.

Episode 6 returns to present by repeating episode 1 all over again, interspersed with a few new bits elaborating on what happened.

Episode 7 repeats how the two came to share an apartment before going into more about how Hachi broke the news to Shoji. Yasu has the best entrance ever. He and Nana are such great characters because they speak truth without a lot of worry about other’s feelings. While Hachi does the same thing out of cluelessness, it’s a lot more attractive from the more striking pair.

Episode 8 has the two starting to furnish their apartment and learning a lot more about each other and the boys they’re with.

They’re all really very damaged people. That’s what makes them so interesting to watch. Nana seems like the most together, but when you model yourself after Sid and Nancy, the viewer should realize that she’s broken, too.

Disc 3, Episode 9 has Hachi working at her first job, while Nana’s old bandmate Nobu comes to Tokyo. This sequence begins a set about the transformative power of making music, as well as starting off another plot that will cause big changes in Hachi’s life.

Episode 10, Hachi decides that Nana needs a band, so she starts trying to find another member for them.

Episode 11 brings Hachi to stark awareness of how expensive living in a city can be. I found it interesting that, by the end of this set, we haven’t met Trapnest yet, and Hachi is still with Shoji. There’s still a lot more to come.

The Box Set Features

I like the length of the episodes. 22 minutes is enough to get you a chunk of the story but short enough that my attention doesn’t wander. The three-disc set contains 11 episodes, plus a recap episode called 11.5, featuring the fourth-wall-breaking Junko’s Place familiar to comic readers. (Which means if you watch the whole set, you see some of these events three times within four hours.) You can view the episodes subtitled or dubbed, although dub is the default.

Extras include a subtitled interview with the director, versions of the opening and closing credits with no credits (”clean” versions), line art of the character designs, and previews for other Viz products, including the Nana movie, which was a lot more emotional than this version. The set also comes with a logo-decorated guitar pick. For more information, visit the official website. You can also buy the first season on iTunes or watch free on Hulu. The next 11-episode set is due out near the end of November.

(A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the publisher.)

I like the revised look of the characters, reportedly based on Ed McGuinness’ art — there seems to be more feeling in the faces, and it’s nice to see them getting away from the ridiculously flat square jaws of the Bruce Timm-inspired designs — but the shoebox-flavored straight-line cars are a bit amateurish.

The DVD will be released September 29 as a single disc, two-disc special edition, or Blu-Ray.

The following interview text was provided by Warner Home Video, as were previous interviews with John C. McGinley (Metallo) and writer Stan Berkowitz. Burton has some interesting things to say about Black Lightning’s historical role, his own comic book history, and the value of imagination and science fiction.

In a career that essentially launched with his breakthrough performance in the landmark miniseries Roots, LeVar Burton has garnered seven Emmy Awards, three Image Awards, a Peabody as well as a Grammy, and in 1990 was permanently enshrined as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Burton is forever beloved by the sci-fi crowd for his memorable performance as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation and its feature film versions. Along the way, Burton has been a virtual fixture on television screens – from his 176 episodes of Next Gen and 150 episodes of Reading Rainbow to another 41 episodes of The $10,000 Pyramid and 58 episodes as Kwame in Captain Planet and the Planeteers.

QUESTION: Was it difficult to settle on a voice for Black Lightning?

LEVAR BURTON: I think everybody has a super hero that lives inside of them, so I just went to that place, that deep kind of super hero voice.

QUESTION: What were your comic book habits as a kid?

LEVAR BURTON: I grew up, part time, in Germany. My father was in the military, so we used to trade comic books for entertainment. On Saturdays, you took your box with all your comic books, and you went around from apartment building to apartment building, trading comic books with the other American kids living on the base. Television was in German, so we didn’t watch TV – we read comics. But this was before black super heroes came around – they didn’t start appearing until the ’70s. So it’s mildly exciting for me to actually have a chance to play a black super hero today.

Black Lightning, played by LeVar Burton

QUESTION: Batman or Superman?

LEVAR BURTON: When I was a kid, it was always Batman over Superman. Batman had all the cool stuff, and he just had a vibe. Superman was the All-American guy but, with Batman, there’s a little something going on. Batman’s history was a little edgier, and there was just something really attractive to me about the cowl. Superman is all out there, even though he does the Clark Kent thing, but Batman keeps his identity hidden. He has this double life that’s very sexy, very attractive for a kid. Not that I didn’t like Superman – the whole kryptonite thing is all well and good – but Batman was my guy.

QUESTION: What makes comic books great literature?

LEVAR BURTON: People ask me all the time, because I did Reading Rainbow on PBS for 25 years, “How do I get my kids to read?” And I say, “Find something that they’re passionate about.” If it’s comic books that they want to read, then buy them comic books, for goodness sakes. Comic books are good literature and, like science fiction, they have a tendency to really draw us toward that part of ourselves that imagines that which we create.

I’m one of those people that believes that there was some kid back in the 1960s watching Star Trek, and he kept seeing Captain Kirk pull out this communicator and flip it open – and that kid grew up and became an engineer, a designer of products, and we now have a device that is more common than the toaster. How many flip phones do you see on a daily basis? That which we imagine is what we tend to manifest in third dimension – that’s what human beings do, we are manifesting machines. The metaphor of a man who has an external electronic device, something man-made that serves him and somehow serves humanity, and that he becomes so aligned with that device, with the power of that device, that at one point he can discard it – I think that’s a real metaphor for the human journey. One day we won’t need a transporter device to get from one place to another. And it begins with the wheel and then migrates through airplanes to some future technology that we can’t produce yet but we can imagine. Imagination is really the key part of the human journey, it’s the key to the process of manifesting what our heart’s desire is.

When I was a kid, it was comic books that pointed me in that direction and from comic books I went to science fiction literature, which is still one of my most favorite genres of literature to read. Don’t underestimate the power of comics and what they represent for us and how they inform us on the journey of being human – because it’s powerful. It’s very powerful. They give us permission to contemplate what’s possible. And in this world, in this universe, there’s nothing that is not possible. If you can dream it, you can do it.

Black Lightning and Power Girl

QUESTION: Can you appreciate the passion of the sci-fi fan?

LEVAR BURTON: Oh yeah. Because I am one. When I was a kid, I read a lot of science fiction books and it was rare for me to see heroes of color in the pages of those novels. Gene Roddenberry had a vision of the future, and Star Trek was one that said to me, as a kid growing up in Sacramento, California, “When the future comes, there’s a place for you.” I’ve said this many times, and Whoopi (Goldberg) feels the same way – seeing Nichelle Nichols on the bridge of the Enterprise meant that we are a part of the future. So I was a huge fan of the original series and to have grown up and become of that mythos, a part of that family, and to represent people dealing with physical challenges, much like what Nichelle Nichols represented for people like Whoopi and myself, I can’t even begin to share with you what that means to me. It was just beyond the beyond. So I get Star Trek fans, I get science fiction fans because, again, science fiction literature is that body of literature that causes us to ask what I feel are two of the most of the most powerful words – in sequence, in language – “what if?” And that’s an open door, that’s an open door to use your imagination to dream and to dream the big dream. As an actor, I dress up for a living and I get paid for it so, to see a guy come to a convention in his costume that he’s made – it’s a good thing, you know. This guy isn’t out there beating his wife or kicking his dog, he’s engaging in a healthy fantasy role-play. I think too many grown ups forget how important that part of our lives are, the ability to imagine and to dream. So it’s all good.

QUESTION: You’re Black Lightning for this film. If you could play any super hero role, do you have a role you covet?

LEVAR BURTON: Well, I’ll start with Black Lightning. That ain’t a bad place to start. I mean, come on, if you’re going to play a super hero, why not play the first real black super hero in the pantheon? I’m good with that.

LeVar Burton, casting/dialogue director Andrea Romano, and executive producer Bruce Timm

QUESTION: Does voiceover work have any special appeal for you?

LEVAR BURTON: I love voiceovers because, and I’m sure you hear this from actors all the time, but it’s kind of pure acting. For many years on Next Gen, I wore this visor over my eyes and one of the things that I discovered was that it’s really difficult to communicate, or it’s harder to communicate, when you can’t see someone’s eyes. As a result of playing Geordi, I really do recognize how important the voice is – and what a facile tool for communication the voice can be. When I was kid, we listened to radio a lot for entertainment and I remember how vivid that was for me. To this day, I listen to NPR and I love doing audio books – because it’s like it’s pure storytelling. It’s sitting around the fire and sharing stories, really engaging your imagination. So, as an actor, sitting in front of a microphone and creating is just so much fun because it really does break it down to its most pure and elemental level. It’s just you and the voice and the character telling a story.

QUESTION: Does it ever feel odd to be acting all alone?

LEVAR BURTON: Well, during the physical parts of the voiceover, when you’re doing all the action scenes, I think if you were an alien and dropped into a recording studio and were observing a session, you would really wonder about the sanity of the beings that you are observing. But it’s fun and it feels a little silly, but that’s what gets it done. When they’re in that mode, I think actors are just big kids – and we like playing in the sandbox.

The following interview text was provided by Warner Home Video, as was a previous interview with writer Stan Berkowitz.

McGinley has crafted a well-rounded career in film and television, forcing audiences to instantly take note with his performances in Oliver Stone films like Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July. Instantly recognizable to television audiences for his portrayal of the sarcastic, abusive, hilarious Dr. Cox in 169 episodes of Scrubs, McGinley is also no stranger to animation, having spent significant hours in the sound booth recording for The Boondocks, Justice League (as The Atom), and in guest spots on King of the Hill, Kim Possible, and Robot Chicken.

QUESTION: What were the joys and challenges of getting behind a microphone for a character like Metallo?

JOHN C. MCGINLEY: It’s a real treat to collaborate with the creative folks once you get in the booth. Ten out of ten times, the people on the other side of the glass know the character better than you are ever going to –- they have been working on this for months or years. All you can do is try to return serve because you are given all this wonderful, precise direction. I’ve found over the years it is really, really helpful to just integrate and go. It’s also a treat that the people on the other side of the glass are pretty much the top one percent of their industry, and I get to have this kind of creative input. You get on a lot of film sets and everybody is rolling the dice. Everybody is guessing their best. The people in that booth are not guessing, they know this stuff backwards. That to me is a huge asset.

Batman helps a wounded Superman

QUESTION: What were your impressions of the script for Superman/Batman: Public Enemies?

JOHN C. MCGINLEY: The fun part for me showing up on any set is the preparation. A lot of times, when you are doing a play or a film, things are going to go wrong. You’re going to lose the light or the sound is going to stop working. Even in a controlled environment like that booth, which lends itself to things going right and to things flourishing, there are sometimes things that can go wrong and thus, compromises will need to be made. So it behooves the actor to come loaded for bear. If you are 100 percent ready and we have to make 40 percent compromises, then unless you have that other 60 percent ready, it is going to kind of just go flat instead of elevating it. My favorite thing, which may sound a little presumptuous, is to try to elevate the material.

QUESTION: Did you enter the world of superheroes through comic books or otherwise?

JOHN C. MCGINLEY: My earliest memories of Batman are watching the live-action series with Batman and Robin. That was the coolest Batmobile, and you had Frank Gorshin as the Riddler and Caesar Romero being the Joker. As far as Superman goes, it was more about the Christopher Reeve films. I was not a comic book reader. When we played as kids, we were always acting out stuff we saw Batman doing or the Green Hornet or Aquaman. But that inspiration came from Saturday morning cartoons and not proper comic books.

Metallo, voiced by John C. McGinley

QUESTION: As a non-comics reader, does voicing a comic character still lend itself to some child-like thrill for you?

JOHN C. MCGINLEY: Well, of course, it is big fat privilege to work with these characters -– and it is really fun now with Hi-Def. It just kind of jumps off the screen, and the transfers (to Hi-Def) are so beautiful now and perfect. It’s completely thrilling because the state of the art has exceeded anybody’s wildest expectations. It is astonishing. It is not as fun to see my voice come out of a character as it is really rewarding. To be a tiny component in the evolution of animation as the voice of a character is thrilling.

My son is old enough to hear and recognize my voice coming out of the characters, but it doesn’t resonate with him yet. My daughter will, and that is pretty cool. Not necessarily to be a killer robot, but we will see how things evolve.

QUESTION: Actors tend to be very self-critical. Is it easier to watch an animated film with your voice coming out of a character than it is to watch yourself on-screen in live-action productions?

JOHN C. MCGINLEY: If I have a script early enough, I have a room set aside in our house as a rehearsal space. I set up a camera and I rehearse in front of the camera, especially for Dr. Cox on Scrubs, who has these long two-page, single-space rants. So it is almost like somebody practicing foul shots. It sounds simple -– go to the free throw line and shoot a foul shot. But Larry Bird shot a million foul shots in French Lick before he ever tried for Indiana State or the Boston Celtics. So I feel like if you have text early enough, it really is in the actor’s best interests to go just hash about in front of a lens.

One thing the lens does is it exposes bad habits. Like an X-ray machine taking a picture of a fracture. We all have nervous ticks, things we do when you can’t remember a line. But if you watch yourself, you can see for yourself –- the camera exposes those liabilities like an X-ray machine. So yes, I watch myself on film as much as possible because the learning curve just objectively is through the roof.

QUESTION: You’ve worked with some impressive live-action directors. What’s it like working with Andrea Romano in the animated realm?

JOHN C. MCGINLEY: Andrea Romano is not dissimilar to Oliver Stone in a lot of ways, in as much as they’re both like a thoroughbred at the Kentucky Derby. They both put on creative blinders like a thoroughbred. Oliver and Andrea both put on blinders and invite you into that narrow creative vision which is the perfect division for the piece. So that you don’t have to do anything, you don’t have to guess. Come right inside here and it is going to be good. When you come in there with Oliver Stone or with Andrea, it is Nirvana. You will now shine.

QUESTION: We’ve heard the expression, but can you define a John C. McGinley “type”?

JOHN C. MCGINLEY: The John C. McGinley type usually is one of about seven different things. It is a niche that I fell into, not of my own doing, but it became the part in the films where either you are the best friend, the co-worker, the bad guy, the brother who dies and compels the hero into action in the third act, the boss, now the father of the kids, the head of the hospital usually in a position of authority. For a long time there was a group of us –- Ving Rhames, me, and about a half a dozen other guys -– who would be the component in the story. Who would reiterate the who, what, where, when, and how a couple times throughout the movie. You need somebody who can speak the speech without getting in the way of the speech. The hero is not going to do that. So every once in a while throughout the progression of a story, we need to be reminded where the bomb is, when it is going to go off, and who the bad guys are. So that the hero can do his job. That “type” has paid the bills for a long time.

The following interview text was provided by Warner Home Video.

Berkowitz has been actively writing for 30 years, focusing his efforts on animated properties for the past dozen years. His animated credits range from Superman: The Animated Series and Batman: The Animated Series to Justice League, The Batman, and Legion of Super Heroes, with stops on shows like Static Shock, Batman Beyond, and Spider-Man along the way. Prior to moving into the animated realm, Berkowitz garnered credits writing episodes of T.J. Hooker and the latter-day versions of Dragnet and Adam 12.

QUESTION: Why was this story right for you?

STAN BERKOWITZ: I love the political aspect of it. In the comic book that Jeph Loeb wrote, it was assumed that everyone knew the backstory to how Luthor got elected President. But we needed the movie to show an audience, who might not be familiar with the comics, exactly what would have to happen for Luthor to be elected. I sort of envisioned Luthor ascending to the Presidency somewhere around 2012. I didn’t quite predict the catastrophe we’d be seeing in 2008. But I figured that something bad would happen, and then Democrats would be elected in 2008, they wouldn’t be able to solve the problem and, in 2012, a tough, Ross Perot-style third-party bid would be the one who’d be elected.

It was kind of fun for me to envision the political atmosphere that would have to take place in order for that to happen. And I also had a wonderful time going with Jeph’s depiction of Luthor’s descent into insanity -– always keeping in mind that Clancy Brown would be enacting the dialogue. It was just great to write that.

President Lex Luthor claims an oncoming kryptonite meteor has driven Superman mad

QUESTION: Superman/Batman: Public Enemies follows Justice League: The New Frontier as your second DC Universe film adaptation of a classic DC Comics graphic novel/comic series. Are there specific challenges to adapting a well-known story?

STAN BERKOWITZ: Each adaptation is different and presents different challenges. In New Frontier, the challenge was compressing all the material into a coherent 75-minute story. In Public Enemies, the challenge was making the thematic concerns concrete because the comic author had the luxury of a narrator to talk about the themes. And when we did the screenplay, we had to show the themes in action, having things happen to illustrate those themes.

For Public Enemies, there was also the issue of credibility. We were concerned that if a person who vaguely knows Superman and Batman grabs this off the shelf and sees Lex Luthor as President, he might think, “hey, what’s going on here?” It might just put them off, or make them think this was an alternate world story. And that’s not how it’s advertised. The other credibility issue is that in the comic, Luthor believes that the meteor is coming to Earth because of Superman. As a reader, I could not get past the fact that the public buys Luthor’s explanation. I didn’t believe an audience watching this as an animated production would buy Luthor’s explanation. So Alan (Burnett) and Bruce (Timm) and I had to figure out an alternate way for Luthor to frame Superman. I think it worked very well.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
Buy this DVD

QUESTION: What makes Lex Luthor such a great villain?

STAN BERKOWITZ: I think any time you do a story, you have to ask yourself, “What does the villain want?” And the more complex the villain, the more unusual a thing it is that he wants –- and thus, the better the story will be. In Luthor’s case, he’s like Salieri to Superman’s Mozart. Salieri would have been the era’s greatest composer had it not been for Mozart, and Salieri knows this. In the same vein, Luthor would have been the leading light of our generation except for Superman, and there’s nothing that he can do about it. He’s cast into the shadows, and that’s why he has that pathological hatred of Superman.

QUESTION: You’ve written Batman, and you’ve written Superman. Now you’ve gotten to write them together. What’s that dynamic like to combine them and use that chemistry to bring out the personalities?

STAN BERKOWITZ: Well, Batman and Superman are opposites. Superman has always been presented as the character from the light, the daytime; Batman from the nighttime. They have decidedly different outlooks. Superman is the ultimate kid from Kansas, who had a real healthy upbringing. Batman is the tormented orphan. In a way, Superman’s outlook is too sunny, and Batman’s is too dark. The two of them work against each other, trying to temper each other’s attitude.

Superman wants to cheer up Batman to a certain extent, and Batman wants to make Superman aware that there is a darker world under what Superman normally sees. It’s fun to create banter between them. It was also fun to adapt the banter that was in the graphic novel, and we used a lot of it. Jeph’s words were so good, we just pulled dialogue directly from the pages of the novel.

Bruce Wayne in the Batcave

QUESTION: Are you thinking of the cast’s voices when you’re writing and if so, does that help you write?

STAN BERKOWITZ: I’m definitely thinking of the actors’ voices. Not to denigrate Superman and Batman, but this is Luthor’s story. Luthor has more dialogue than either Batman or Superman. And frankly, I actually gave him even more dialogue in those long speeches because I was hoping Clancy Brown would get the part, which he did. It’s so pleasurable to watch –- and hear -– Clancy do those Luthor lines, to watch Clancy’s descent into madness. It just brought me back to the days when I got into this medium in the first place. Suddenly, I was just a 13-year-old with a movie camera having fun with my friends and doing these little movies. It had that same visceral pleasure for me. Tim (Daly) and Kevin (Conroy) are sensational, too -– those were also the voices I had in mind while I was writing. But this really is Clancy’s vehicle this time.

QUESTION: Do you remember your first experience with Superman and with Batman?

STAN BERKOWITZ: Easily. The reason I remember this so well is that when I started working on the show Superboy in Florida, I was flown to New York to meet Mike Carlin and Andy Helfer at DC Comics. And we talked for most of the day about the Superboy show and then they just casually mentioned, “Oh, by the way, we happen to have a library here of all the comics that DC has ever done.” Well, I got to go see it. I went into that library and found the very first two comics I’d ever gotten. One of them was an issue of Detective Comics with a character called Garth, and it involved a crossbow being used to kill someone in an empty room. The strings had been held back by a cake of ice. And when the ice melted, the crossbow let go and killed the guy sitting in this deserted room. And the other one was an Adventure Comics from August of ‘58, where Superboy played all the positions on a baseball team, thanks to his super speed. And I remember I’d been sick in the evening, and my father went out and got the medicine for me, and also picked up those two comic books. So it was kind of cool, almost like reaching into a time capsule, because I hadn’t seen the comics in over 30 years.

QUESTION: What is your strength in this industry?

STAN BERKOWITZ: I think part of my strength is work habits. One of the lessons I learned from my very first job after film school was from Russ Meyer. He said that from the time you wake up ’til the time you go to sleep, when you’re on a show, the show owns you. You don’t own the show. There’s no going home at 6:00 at night. I have no idea if there’s any creativity involved (he laughs), but I’m fairly certain that the conscientiousness might explain some of the longevity.

Superman in battle

QUESTION: Which presents more challenges: writing an original Stan Berkowitz story or adapting someone else’s work?

STAN BERKOWITZ: Doing an original presents more challenges. The adaptations are already there -– the studio knows they want to do it. In both the case of New Frontier and Public Enemies, I was approached by the studio and asked if I wanted to adapt them. Getting your own thing off the ground is much, much more difficult because even in our little world of animation, the pre-selling is an important factor. And in both the case of New Frontier and Public Enemies, you had best-selling comics that the fans already knew.

QUESTION: What’s the perfect environment for you to write in?

STAN BERKOWITZ: I like an empty room, and that’s all I really need because there are absolutely no distractions. No TV, no internet, just a quiet room. It works for me. And it helps me to work faster. From the day they decided to do Public Enemies until the day that the first draft of the script was ready, it was exactly 60 days -– which is really, really fast for a feature-length project.

When I started writing in film school, I’d have the TV on. Now I can’t even have music on. It just has to be dead quiet with nobody around, nobody coming to bother me. It’s all about concentration. I can go for about two hours before I need a distraction, then I come back and go for another two hours. If you plan your whole day carefully, you can get in eight hours of work and probably six to seven pages of finished screenplay a day. There are other writers who can do 10 or 12, but they’re probably burned out after about a week or two.

Stan Berkowitz (Photo courtesy of Gary Miereanu)

QUESTION: Beyond the narrative, are there any other key differences between Jeph Loeb’s version and what we’ll see in the movie?

STAN BERKOWITZ: I think the largest one involves what Superman is framed for. We just didn’t find it credible that the American public would believe that Superman was somehow drawing the meteor to Earth. We thought we needed something that made a little bit more sense.

My first instinct was to have Superman accused of an attempted murder on Metallo, and then have this whole thing where ultimately Metallo plays a key role by donating his skeleton to be the nose cone of the rocket. That didn’t work, and then Alan (Burnett) suggested having Metallo murdered and framing Superman for that. Then Alan asked the next question and answered it himself. “Why would anybody believe that Superman had killed Metallo?” And the answer that Alan gave for why people would believe that Superman would kill was that Superman’s mind was already being affected by the kryptonite radiation coming from the approaching meteor. Suddenly, the public is afraid that a crazed Superman could just go off the handle and kill anyone. I felt that that was a very effective way of framing Superman.

QUESTION: What’s the influence of Alan Burnett on the DC Universe films?

STAN BERKOWITZ: Alan Burnett has become an uber editor of all of the DCU DVDs, and hopefully that remains his role from now on. I started working for Alan in 1996, and in my opinion, you could not ask for a better guy in that position. He’s almost always one of the few adults in the room. Inevitably, he’ll come up with something that seems really small, but then changes the whole story and makes it work. The radiation effecting Superman’s mind is a perfect example. I never would have thought of that. But then here’s Alan sitting quietly and then saying something that fixes everything. That’s what Alan does. His criticisms are always constructive. And you never, never see much ego involved -– at least I haven’t in the past 12 years.

QUESTION: What it’s like for you to hear your words take life in a recording session?

STAN BERKOWITZ: It’s fun, but it makes you appreciate just how good everyone else involved really is. For starters, Andrea (Romano) makes it look very, very simple, but I urge anyone who thinks it’s simple to actually try to direct actors. It’s hard. Very hard. They speak a different language. We were working on an episode of Justice League, and I happened to get to the recording session early and the only other person there already was the lead villain. We started chatting and, of course, the conversation turned to “How did you see this guy?” So I tell him my concept of the character. I swear to God, it took Andrea an hour of recording time to undo the damage I’d done because I spoke to him from the wrong perspective. An actor wants to know the internal emotional aspect of how the character feels, and I was describing the character from the outside, as how you would see him.

I’ve been blessed in that Andrea is one of the few dialogue directors I’ve worked with since 1996. When you hear an actor -– who’s either bad or who’s badly directed –- doing your dialogue, you start thinking, “Oh my God, I’m a terrible writer.” And then you hear your words being directed by good director, working with good actors, and you say, “Hey, I’m good. I can write dialogue.” That’s the pleasure of being in a recording session for one of your scripts.

More information is available at the film’s official website.

Eagle One Media sent out a press release announcing that they were producing “animated motion comic productions” of Street Fighter (formerly a video game) and Voltron: Defender of the Universe (formerly an anime series) to air on Syfy starting September 28.

Since the Eagle One website prominently pushes their cartoon DVDs of the same titles, I guess I know where they’re getting the content. I find it amusing that, although they mention that the DVDs were based on Udon (Street Fighter) and DD Publishing (Devil’s Due? Voltron) comics, they’re sort of irrelevant at this point. Anyone interested in these limited animation videos will likely come from the other, more popular media incarnations, not from comics that were themselves licensed properties.

Warner, through various digital, video, and new media arms, has been the leader in the field so far, with these additional releases: Batman: Mad Love, Batman: Black & White, and Superman: Red Son. They’ve even put out 20 Peanuts motion comic shorts.

Warner wasn’t actually the first with such a project. In addition to the jittery Invincible series, announced earlier but released later (to iTunes and airing on MTV2), there were various Marvel cartoons that aired on TV in the 60s that used similar effects.

That pedigree leads me to question this new format. When you add camera tricks and a soundtrack to a comic, is it still a comic? Or just a poor excuse for a cartoon, done on the cheap? Are they reaching a new audience, attracted by a new format in more modern sales outlets (that come to them)? Will those hypothetical new readers eventually wind up buying traditional-format comics? Could this be just another way to try and make more money from the same, previously existing content?

This Wall Street Journal writeup gives some hints:

Warner, a unit of Time Warner Inc., sees the initiative as a way to unlock value from the company’s DC Comics library by creating a new kind of comic that can be distributed via the Internet, mobile phones and video on demand. It underscores the importance the studios are attaching to finding new revenue streams as sales shrink from DVDs.

They need to create a new format in order to open a new market and “unlock value” from whatever assets they can plunder. People don’t pay for content on the web, but they do expect to pay for mobile phone or iTunes downloads. (That may answer the fan question as to why none of this is available through the DC or Warner websites.)

Tapping an existing franchise is key to getting the business off the ground, says Diane Nelson, president of Warner Premiere, the direct-to-DVD production arm of Warner Entertainment, which is spearheading the project. The DC brands “have relations with consumers, and will break through the clutter in the digital-content area,” she says.

In other words, known characters are a plus, which is why we’re seeing the big two, Superman and Batman, and a tie-in to a blockbuster film release. And using existing, paid-for art and stories means minimal additional charges (just those for conversion and sound work).

Marvel, on the other hand, is taking the opposite tack. Last week, they released their own motion comic starring Spider-Woman, a lesser-known character (although one with a tie-in brand name). The in-continuity story is by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. There are five episodes in all, 10-12 minutes each, released on iTunes every two weeks at $1.99 an episode. (For those who don’t care to purchase digital episodes, the Spider-Woman story will be published on paper next month.)

Marvel was quick to call it a success, crowing that it “debut[ed] as the #1 episode on the Television-Animation sales chart and as the #2 episode on the Top Television Episodes sales chart.” (TV episodes? I guess because it’s serialized.) Note that they offered special, half-off introductory pricing for the first two weeks of 99 cents for the first installment. They have already announced their next project, an adaptation of an Astonishing X-Men story by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday that will launch at the end of October.

So is this the future of comics, or just another stunted branch of experimentation? (That many of these efforts are only available in the U.S. may affect the answer.) Have you watched a motion comic? Would you want to? Does your answer change depending on price?

Comics aren’t the only medium with these kinds of tie-ins, by the way. Warner is also trying it with a new band from the UK, One Eskimo. Together with the studio, the band is releasing a “visual album”, a collection of cartoon videos, through iTunes on August 31.

“The Adventures of One eskimO”, is a 10-part short-form animated series that takes viewers on a journey through an epic love story starring our hero One eskimO and his band of animal friends that include Monkey, Giraffe, and Penguin.

It appears a bit too twee for me. The animation was produced by Passion Pictures, the same group that did the Gorillaz animation, and Warner is promoting this visual album as defining “a unique new digital category” and the “first of its kind” in providing “a fully immersive musical and visual storytelling experience”. I think the Beatles might have something to say about that, with Yellow Submarine, but that will get me ranting about why their works aren’t yet available on iTunes.

One of the best manga of 2008, Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, will debut in animated form on Syfy on October 12. The former Sci-Fi Network is running “Ani-Monday“, an anime programming block. After airing on Mondays on Syfy, the episodes will re-run on Chiller (a channel focused on horror and suspense) in the following week.

The cartoon series is rated TV-MA and is promised to “remain true to the original story.” Neurosurgeon Dr. Tenma saved a child who then turned out to be the monster of the title, a cold-blooded killer with no remorse. Tenma then sets out to remedy his mistake, giving up his career and risking his life to chase the young man around the world, all while the police suspect him of the murders.

On the East Coast, two episodes will air every Monday, beginning at 11 PM. There were 74 episodes produced, which means a nine-month (or longer) run. Read the full Viz announcement for more information.

On November 10, Justice League: The Complete Animated Series is available for $100 (which means you should be able to find it for under $70). The 15-disc set has 91 episodes in “special collectible packaging”. (The series was previously available as Justice League Season One and Season Two and Justice League Unlimited Season One and Season Two.) The bonus disc featurette is “Unlimited Reserve: Exploring the Depths of the DC Universe”. Is it too much to hope that that means talking about some fan-favorite superheroes that don’t always get as much press as the big names?

Superman: The Complete Animated Series has seven discs containing 54 episodes (previously available as three separate sets) at a suggested retail price of $53.82 (which works out to about $18 a season). The “all-new bonus disc” has a new featurette, “The Despot Darkseid: A Villain Worthy of Superman”. It will be available on November 24.