Rising from then ashes of the first two seasons of the Justice League
animates series, Justice League Unlimited takes the good elements
of what came before, turns in a new direction and creates something a bit more
fun. When a show gets a fresh start, instead of cancellation, you hope that
the new style and direction will translate into everything that the show touches.
This DVD, unfortunately, doesn’t rise above the regular expectations of
a Warner Home Video release of an animated series. Although, while the extras
are lacking and the architecture is dull, the 26 episodes of Justice
League Unlimited that you get to watch still make it worth the trip
to the DVD store.
THE SERIES
While the first two seasons of Justice League focused
on seven heroes (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern,
Flash and Hawkgirl), Justice League Unlimited somewhat deemphasizes
these characters’ roles and brings in an unlimited supply of additional
characters. While some of the characters act as window dressing, having dozens
of new characters to play with opens a lot of story potential. At times, the
writers use this potential to create some great stories, with little interaction
from the original seven characters, but more often than not, the writers rely
on the big seven to move the plot along.
Interestingly enough, the early episodes have a different feel than the later
episodes. The first five – seven shows offer a broader look at the different
characters that inhabit the world of the Justice League and
seem to give the writers a lot of room to play around and have fun. The later
episodes tie together loose plotlines from the original Justice League
animated series and Superman the Animated Series that ran in
the 1990s from the same producers.
In the end, you can really see the fun that the writers have with the earlier
episodes. In one, Wonder Woman is turned into a pig, and Batman has to find
a way to turn her back. While it’s a silly premise, it distinguishes itself
from the original Justice League series by not taking itself
too seriously, a fault of the original series. Also, another great episode focuses
on a character named Booster Gold as he tries to be a hero, instead of working
crowd control.
Later in the second set of shows (which may or may not be Series 2), the writing
team creates a strong story with the introduction of a government force that
wants to stop the League, with funding from Superman’s arch nemesis, Lex
Luthor. They also tie up loose ends from the previous series, by handling Hawkgirl’s
reintroduction into the League after she was revealed as a spy in Justice
League Season 2.
At the end of 26 episodes, you’ll have found yourself with some clunkers,
but the animation style, the strong writing on the majority of the series, the
introduction of classic DC Comics characters, and the sense of fun make watching
the DVD worthwhile. Also, the fact that the series ties up loose ends from nearly
every previous DC animated series (Batman the Animates Series, Superman
the Animated Series, Justice League and even Batman Beyond)
make this series a worthy successor to all of the Brice Timm and Paul Dini created
DC animated shows.
Another fun item about the show is the talent of the actors who voice the JLU
characters. While the seven lead characters aren’t well known outside
of the DC animated universe, many of the villains and additional heroes are
talented actors that come from a variety of TV shows and movies. For example,
the Atom is voiced by John C. McGinley from Scrubs, Jeremy Piven plays Elongated
Man, Daniel Dae Kim from Lost voices Metron, and Dana Delaney acts as Lois Lane.
This is just a random sample of the voices you hear, and each one actually plays
their parts well, rather than it feeling like the actors were looking for a
paycheck.
An interesting thing to note is that the package lists the show contents as
Justice League Unlimited Season 1. According to IMDB, Warner
Home Video seems to have fit Season 1 and Season 2 of JLU into
one convenient package. I’m not sure if IMDB is correct, or if the DVD
is correct, but it’s nice to have 26 episodes in the set instead of 13.
SOUND & VISUALS Justice League Unlimited Season One is presented in its original
Full Screen format. The transfer from the source material to the DVD seems flawless,
and the colors and animation look perfect.
While there are several language tracks including French and Spanish, this
release suffers from Warner’s decision not to invest a Surround Sound
track.
And, in a move that makes no sense, no subtitles are included in any language.
Hearing impaired? I guess that doesn’t exist in the world of the
Justice League.
PACKAGING & LAYOUT
The DVDs are packaged in a cardboard folded holder that fits into a slipcase.
The slipcase features what looks to be stock at of several of the characters
from the show, but is actually raised, instead of two-dimensional. The cardboard
folded case features a finished piece of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and
Supergirl and what looks to be concept art from other episodes. The pieces look
rougher than what you see in the series, but are very interesting.
Inside the cases, each DVD features a different hero. The character choices
are interesting because instead of focusing on the expected Superman, Batman,
Wonder Woman and another member of the original seven you have different characters.
OK, mostly different characters. Batman is still on one of the DVDs, but the
other discs feature Wildcat, Black Canary and Aquaman. While the pictures are
stock art (and you actually see the same image of Aquaman on the DVD itself),
it’s a nice touch.
Unfortunately, like all Warner Home Video DVDs, the care put into the packaging
doesn’t make it to the DVD architecture itself. Once the DVD is in the
player, you get a static picture to stare at. This one almost looks like they
took it from the original Justice League series, featuring
the original seven posing, with a four additional characters in the background.
It only goes downhill once the episodes are playing. Deciding not to learn
from past mistakes, Warner decided to format the DVD so that each episode is
a single chapter. So, if you fall asleep while Superman and Captain Marvel are
fighting each other and want to see what happened, you’re forced to speed
through 15 minutes of the show to get to the point where you fell asleep. I
guess one way to avoid all of this is to not fall asleep during the show, but
that’s not always an option.
SPECIAL FEATURES
The bonus materials included on the disc range from fun to self-indulgent. Again,
staying true to form, Warner Home Video misses the boat by adding very
few and mostly uninteresting specials to the collection. While the show is a
lot of fun to watch, the special features are mostly average, with some really
good commentaries. Special features in the series include:
• Commentaries – The DVD features commentary on two episodes, “This
Little Piggy” and “The Return.” “This Little Piggy”
features Bruce Tim (producer), Paul Dini (writer), Dwayne McDuffie (producer)
and James Tucker (producer). “The Return” features Bruce Timm,.
Dwayne McDuffie, James Tucker and Joaquim Dos Santos (director). Unlike many
commentaries, the four participants actually don’t seem to be aware that
they’re being recorded. By that, I meant that they’re not awkward
and really seem more interested in talking to each other about the episode and
the fan reaction to the episode than about complementing each other and discussing
how great a job they did. These commentaries range from how some fans didn’t
understand that “This Little Piggy” was an homage to Bewitched
to what fans didn’t like artistically to how much fun the creators had
poking around in the DC Universe cast of characters. What distinguishes these
commentaries is the way the creators accept that not everything they did was
perfect, and shows that these guys really loved their job. After listening to
the commentaries, you get a better understanding of the episode you’re
watching and see that they team was laying the groundwork for things to come.
They even make fun of their title sequence and the fact that the fans hated
the way the sequence showed off scenes from the episode you were about to watch.
These two commentaries are definitely worth listening to.
• And Justice For All – Billed as “the process of revamping
the series with new characters and a new creative direction,” this feature
felt like a very scripted explanation of what the show is. It was less of a
discussion of the process, and more of an explanation of what happened in the
first episode. There were some fun things said, but overall, it’s not
much more than a group of guys congratulating themselves on recreating their
own show. (9:10 minutes)
• Themes of Justice – One thing you learn from the commentaries
and form watching “And Justice for All,” is that the creative team
was in love with their theme song. Instead of traditional background music,
they used rock…at least that’s what they keep saying. If anything,
it’s traditional rock-esque theme music, and while it’s nice, it
doesn’t really do that much for me. Unfortunately, it really turned the
creative team on, and that’s why we’re stuck with this horror of
a feature – four scenes with all sound effects and dialogue removed. I
guess this makes it easier for me to enjoy the soundtrack, which I didn’t
particularly notice when I was watching the episodes.
Trailers and previews included on the disc are both Superman related including
“Superman on DVD” (meaning everything form of Superman you can imagine
from the 50s TV show to the Lois and Clark to Superman
2) and Superman Returns.
FINAL THOUGHTS
While I really liked most of the episodes from Justice League Unlimited
Season 1, the DVD falls into the same trap as most of the Warner
Home Video releases of animated shows. It features great content, but has
almost no thought or plan in place for extras or developing an easy to manage
DVD. Fans of past Bruce Timm/Paul Dini animated series will want to pick up
this collection, since it ties nicely into all of the work they’ve done
before, but casual viewers might not find it worth the admission price. It’s
really a shame that the special features fall so flat and that the architecture
is almost nonexistent, since some of the episodes included in this collection
are among some of the most enjoyable 20 minutes of TV around.
DVD Film Score: A
DVD Audio/Video Score: C+
DVD Packaging and Layout Score: C
DVD Special Features Score: C Overall Score: C
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