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Superman The Complete Animated Series

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    Ian Jane
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  • Superman: The Complete Animated Series

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    Released by: Warner Brothers
    Released on: 11/24/09
    Director: Various
    Cast: N/A
    Year: Various
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Series:

    Batman: The Animated Series, which was spearheaded by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, is widely considered one of the greatest animated series of this era. They pretty much nailed the character and set him in an appropriately dark and surprisingly mature world. The same is true of their follow up, Superman: The Animated Series, which Warner Brothers has now collected in a complete series boxed set.

    At this point in time, pretty much everyone on the Earth knows that Superman was originally Kal-El, the last son of Krypton, sent to Earth as an infant just before his planet died. He was raised in the Midwest by a kind family named The Kent's who found him and took them in as their own. As he grew up, they realized he was different than other kids and that he had superhuman powers - not only could he leap over tall buildings in a single bound and run faster than a locomotive, but he was able to fly and had remarkable strength.

    As an adult, Kal-El, now going under the human name of Clark Kent, has moved to the thriving city of Metropolis where he works for a newspaper called The Daily Planet. Here he chums around with gal-pal Lois Lane and a keen boy reporter named Jimmy Olsen all while trying to juggle his day to day duties with those of his alter ego, the caped hero known as Superman.

    Like they did with the Batman series, Timm and Dini really captured the essence of what made the early Superman comic books so much fun. The character was never grounded in reality the way that Batman was, instead, he was rather ridiculous when you think about it but at the same time, this ridiculousness lead to a whole lot of fun. Colorful and crazy villains are pretty plentiful here, most of them classic characters from the comic like Bizarro and Darkseid, one of the late Jack Kirby's more unusual creations. Everything feels very much in the spirit of the classic Superman stories, before the character was ultra over merchandised and turned into a parody of himself in the eighties. He has a sense of nobility and morality that drives him but not to the point where he comes across as a zealot of fanatic. His interactions with those around him are often times played in a more humorous vein, but this too works in the context of the stories that are told here. Guest appearances from popular characters like Lobo and, yes, Batman, help to keep things interesting.

    The animation style employed here also bares a very strong resemblance to the Batman series. There's a strong sense of art deco design at work throughout which is evident in the buildings and the fashions and the minimalist approach is effective in really making it all seem like a comic book come to life. The stories are well written and frequently exciting and there's a good sense of continuity that is strung throughout the episodes here that will reward those in for the long haul without ever alienating more casual viewers.

    The episodes that make up the complete series are spread out across this set as follows:

    DISC ONE: The Last Son Of Krypton Part 1 / The Last Son Of Krypton Part 2 / The Last Son Of Krypton Part 3 /Fun And Games / A Little Piece Of Home / Feeding Time

    DISC TWO - SIDE A: The Way Of All Flesh / Stolen Memories / The Main Man Part 1 / The Main Man Part 2 / My Girl / Tools Of The Trade / Two's A Crowd / The Prometheon

    DISC TWO - SIDE B: Blasts From The Past Part 1 / Blasts From The Past Part 2 / Livewire / Speed Demons

    DISC THREE: Identity Crisis / Target / Action Figures / Mxyzpixilated / Double Dose / Solar Power

    DISC FOUR - SIDE A: Monkey Fun / Brave New Metropolis / Ghost In The Machine / World's Finest Part 1 / World's Finest Part 2 / World's Finest Part 3

    DISC FOUR - SIDE B: Father's Day / The Hands Of Fate / Bizarro's World / Prototype / The Late Mr. Kent / Heavy Metal

    DISC FIVE: Warrior Queen / Apokolips… Now! Part 1 / Apokolips… Now! Part 2 /Little Girl Lost Part 1 / Little Girl Lost Part 2 / Where There's Smoke

    DISC SIX - SIDE A: Knight Time / New Kids In Town / Obsession / Absolute Power / In Brightest Day

    DISC SIX - SIDE B: Superman's Pal / Fish Story / Unity / The Demon Reborn / Legacy Part 1 / Legacy Part 2

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Everything in this set shows up in 1.33.1 fullframe, just as it should be. The quality is very good and there's really very little to complain about. Colors look nice and bright without appearing overcooked and there aren't any instances of major print damage to note but some mild debris pops up here and there. There aren't any problems with compression artifacts or edge enhancement to complain about and overall the material looks pretty impressive, though the fact that the transfers are interlaced is irritating.

    The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo soundtrack is clean and clear and as simple as it should be. Dialogue is always nice and easy to understand and there aren't any problems with hiss or distortion. Levels are properly balanced and everything sounds fine. English, French and Spanish subtitles are included.

    Warner Brothers has spread the extras out across each of the first six discs in the set - let's start with the commentaries. The first disc features a commentary on The Last Son of Krypton - Part 1 episode and an optional trivia track on the A Little Piece of Home episode. Disc two features commentary tracks for the Stolen Memories episode, The Main Man - Part 2 episode, and the Tools of the Trade episode. Disc three features a video commentary on Mxyzpixilated episode while disc four contains commentary tracks for Brave New Metropolis and World's Finest - Part 1. Disc five has a commentary on the Apokolips...Now! - Part 2 episode, and last but not least, disc six has a commentary on New Kids in Town and Legacy - Part 2. Participants included in the commentaries are Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Alan Burnett, Dan Riba, Glen Murakami across the board joined from time to time by Curt Geda, Jason Hillhouse and James Tucker. Topics include the animation style employed, various changes made to some of the stories, working within continuity and character development. All involved are pretty jovial and these tracks are worth listening to for fans of the series.

    There are also some cool featurettes scattered throughout the set. Disc two contains Learning To Fly (9:40), which is an interesting look at how this animated series came to be that contains interviews with director Dan Riba, producer Bruce Timm, and plenty of others all of whom talk about their work on the show. The flipside of disc two has a featurette called Building The Mythology: Superman's Supporting Cast (9:37) and it's a look at the lesser known characters from the series, well at least lesser known than Superman himself. The writers chime in on why they like these characters and what they bring to the universe where the stories take place. The documentary on disc three is called Menaces Of Metropolis: Behind The Villains Of Superman (13:01) and it does for the bad guys what the last featurette did for the supporting characters by including interviews with most of the same people and giving us some welcome background on some of the antagonists in the show. Disc five contains Superman: Behind The Cape (15:22) which is a nifty behind the scenes segment hosted by voice actor David Kaufman who handles the Jimmy Olsen character. It's more of a roundtable talk with the writing team than anything else but it's interesting to get their input on what they were trying to do with and bring to the characters. Disc six contains a documentary called Look, Up In The Sky!: The Amazing Story Of Superman (6:29) which is an excerpt from the documentary produced by Bryan Singer and Kevin Burns. It would have been nice to see the whole thing included in this set, particularly as there would have been plenty of room on the seventh disc. Speaking of which…

    Disc seven contains the only new material in this set, a featurette called The Despot Darkseid: A Villain Worthy of Superman (16:56). A handful of trailers for other WB properties are also included. This isn't a bad featurette, but it's a bit on the brief side. It explores the origins of the Darkseid character, from his 'Fourth World' origins to his place in the Superman animated universe and it includes interviews with the likes of Bruce Timm, who describes Jack Kirby's comics are 'weird.'

    Inside the case is a nice booklet that contains an episode listing and a description of each disc's extra features. All seven discs in the set have animated menus and you can watch each episode on its own or an entire disc's worth through the play all functionality.

    The Final Word:

    If you've already got the earlier releases there isn't enough new material here to warrant an upgrade but the series really is a good one and you don't have to be a comic book fan to appreciate it. It's well written, nicely animated, and pretty entertaining and WB has done a fine job bringing it to DVD in one swell package.
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