Justice League: Throne of Atlantis Commemorative Edition
Now available, to prepare us all for the live-action Aquaman movie out next month (this disc even opens with that trailer, in case you missed the connection), is the Justice League: Throne of Atlantis Commemorative Edition, which reissues the three-year-old animated movie with some new extras. The 4K Ultra HD edition, which Warner was kind enough to send me for review, also comes with a regular Blu-ray disc and a digital edition, while the Blu-ray edition has digital and DVD.
If you’re a fan of the character, this is a good upgrade to the package and a nice, lightweight overview.
Since I didn’t care much for the film itself, I’ll mostly be talking about the new special features. Carried over from the previous edition are these:
“Scoring Atlantis: The Sounds of the Deep”, a half-hour on the sound portrait. It ties into the option to run the entire film with only the background music.
“Villains of the Deep” (11 minutes) about Black Manta and Ocean Master.
Excerpts from the Throne of Atlantis panel from the 2014 NY Comic-Con run about 27 minutes.
“Robin and Nightwing Bonus Sequence”, a four-minute short introduced by James Tucker, executive producer of DC DTV line of DVDs, about a 45-second cut sequence that helps connect the Batman and Justice League animated movie lines.
As previously announced, the new special feature is “Aquaman: The New King”, 15 minutes about the character’s history with screenwriter Heath Corson and Hector Navarro, DC All Access host, who does most of the heavy lifting in narrating why the character is cool. Also participating are Sam Witwer (who voices Orm in this movie) and Matt Lanter (voice of Aquaman).
It would be nice if they credited the artists whose work they’re panning across on the screen. Alex Ross gets name-checked several times for his regal paintings of the characters, and Peter David’s run as writer is mentioned, but few other creators are credited.
There’s also a new commentary by Mike Carlin and Corson, since this movie didn’t get one the first time it was released. Plus these additional extras:
A preview of The Death of Superman (7 minutes) and a sneak peek at its sequel, Reign of the Supermen (9 1/2 minutes).
Four cartoon episodes, two from Batman: The Brave and the Bold: “Aquaman’s Outrageous Adventure!” (the hilarious road trip episode) and “Evil Under the Sea!” (Aquaman’s first appearance on the series, in the third episode).
One I was surprised to see: Aquaman – “Menace of the Black Manta” and “The Rampaging Reptile-Men”, two episodes from the 1967 TV series made by Filmation and narrated by Ted Knight. This shows kids just how far we’ve come, between the blocky animation and the way Aquaman and Aqualad, riding seahorses, leave Mera to chase after them yelling “Wait for me!” (She doesn’t even make it into the second segment.)
And one that confused me: Justice League Unlimited – “Far From Home”, a cartoon in which Supergirl, Green Arrow, and Green Lantern visit the Legion of Super-Heroes. Not sure why this was included, unless they’re continuing to try and drum up interest in the future teens.