The trailer for Justice League: Doom, officially premiered this past weekend at NYCC 2011. Since a lot of the Justice League animated series voice cast is back to reprise their classic roles, this is sure to be an awesome film! (I don’t know about you, but I definitely miss the days of Batman: the Animated Series, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. I’m pscyhed to have this voice cast back!)

From the Press Release:

“Justice League: Doom finds Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green
Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Cyborg and Batman on their heels when a
team of super villains discover and implement the Dark Knight’s
“contingency plans” for stopping any rogue Justice League member. The
story is inspired by Mark Waid’s much-heralded “JLA: Tower of Babel.”

Primetime television stars Nathan Fillion (Castle) and Tim Daly
(Private Practice), the reigning voices of Green Lantern and Superman,
respectively, join a group of eight actors reprising their famed
cartoon roles, including Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series) as
Batman, Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville, Breaking In) as Flash, Susan
Eisenberg (Superman/Batman: Apocalypse) as Wonder Woman and Carl
Lumbly (Alias) as J’onn J’onzz/Martian Manhunter. Also returning to
their Justice League animated series roles are the villainous voices
of Phil Morris (Smallville, Seinfeld) as Vandal Savage, Olivia d’Abo
(The Wonder Years) as Star Sapphire, and Alexis Denisof (Angel) as
Mirror Master. David Kaufman (Danny Phantom) also reprises his Justice
League role of Jimmy Olsen.

The film is executive produced by Bruce Timm (Batman: Year One), and
directed by Lauren Montgomery (Batman: Year One), who is also credited
as producer alongside Alan Burnett (Batman: The Animated Series).
Justice League: Doom is the final script from the late Dwayne McDuffie
(All-Star Superman, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths). Casting and
dialogue direction is once again in the capable hands of Andrea Romano
(Batman: Year One, SpongeBob SquarePants).”

We got the chance to participate in round-table interviews with Kevin Conroy, Bruce Timm and Andrea Romano this past weekend at NYCC 2011. Check back later this week to see the posts!

We got the opportunity to interview three of the most awesome voice actors / creative cast in anime history this past weekend at New York Comic Con, 2011. As someone who has watched Dragon Ball since it first premiered in North America 15 years ago – I have to admit I was really psyched to meet Chris Sabat, Justin Cook and Sean Schemmel. Dragon Ball Z is legendary – it helped to carry anime into the mainstream and has been shown all over the world. Watch our interview with Chris, Justin and Sean as they discuss the 15th Anniversary of Dragon Ball Z in North America, Dragon Ball Z Kai, and the upcoming Blu-ray 1.1 release of Dragon Ball Z!

Part One:

Part Two:

Be sure to pick up the new Dragon Ball Z Level 1.1 on Blu-ray November 8th. The set includes painstakingly remastered 1080p video and Dolby True HD audio. You’ll get the first 17 episodes on two discs with over 410 minutes of action and awesome extras.

Here’s a bit more about Chris, Justin and Sean (Bios courtesy of NYCC/Funimation):

Chris Sabat: “Christopher R. Sabat has lived on a diet of Senzu Beans for nearly 15 years. As the Voice Director for Dragonaball Z as well as the actor behind Vegeta, Piccolo, Yamcha, Mr. Popo, Kami, Jeice, Recoome, Korin, Burter, Shenron, Zarbon, Guru, Porunga, and countless others, you could possibly say he is the voice of Dragonball Z. Christopher currently owns Okratron 5000, a game audio and voice-over production studio in Dallas, Texas.”

Justin Cook: “Justin Cook has been working in the world of anime exclusively for FUNimation since the beginning of 2000.  Beginning as an ADR engineer and Production Assistant then Voice Director, Line Producer, Production Manager, and currently he is the Director of Production. He has voiced a number of characters including, Raditz and Super Buu from Dragon Ball Z; Yusuke in Yu Yu Hakusho, Chiba in Mongolian Chop Squad; Hatsuhara Soma in Fruits Basket and Capt. Bellamy in One Piece.  He has voice directed episodes from the series Fruits Basket, Yu Yu Hakusho, Dragon Ball and Kiddy Grade.”

Sean Schemmel: “Sean Schemmel gets paid to stand in a sound proof padded room and make wacky voices all day with good reason.  He’s good at it.  Ever since he was discovered doing so at an undisclosed mental institution (read Marionette Theatre) Sean has been gainfully employed as a voice actor for some of the most popular titles in Anime history.  He is best known as the voices of Goku, King Kai and Nail in the internationally acclaimed anime series, Dragonball Z Dragonball Z Kai, and Dragonball GT.   Other notable roles include, Amidamaru, and Rio inShaman King, Constable Biggles, Sh’Okanabo, Master Kahn (and many others) in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Onsokumaru in Ninja Nonsense, about 12 different thumbs in Thumb Wrestling Federation and Gonard in Kappa Mikey.   In addition to Dragonball Z Kai Sean can currently be heard as Paradox in the feature film,  Yu-Gi-Oh 5d’s Bonds Beyond Time and as Grings Kodai in (Pokemon) Zoroark: Master of Illusions.

In the realm of audiobooks, Sean won a 2010 Earphones Award for his work in The Big Splash by Jack D. Ferraiolo and has been nominated for a 2011 Audie Award in the category of humor for his work in Shit My Dad Says, by Justin Halpern

Sean has also adapted for English and directed the following anime series:  Space Pirate Mito,  Sadamitsu: The Destroyer, Midori Days, and Ah! My Goddess.  Sean currently resides in New Jersey, and in his spare time enjoys playing the French Horn, writing parodies, playing guitar and bass and moving heavy objects with his mind.”

This week’s Blu-ray Pick of the Week is the latest entry into the DC Animated Movie Universe, Batman: Year One – based off the acclaimed graphic novel of the same name by Frank Miller.

Fellow robot, CitizenBot, was lucky enough to catch the premier of this film at Comic Con and was very pleased with it.

In terms of the look, given the somewhat minimalist leanings of the source material’s art, they had to add some more in, but also they wanted to keep the spirit of the original art. “We absolutely tried to follow it as closely as we could, from the colors to the characters. We tried to make it as dirty and ugly as we could… when you color things digitally things end up looking relatively clean, so we had to go in and add that extra bit of detail,” explained Montgomery.  “The city kind of had to be a character in itself,” she added, explaining that we, the audience, needed to feel the corruption, the dirt, the edge of the city- sort of an oppressive feeling as it closed in on Gordon and Batman.  In this, they completely delivered. The art was exactly as I’d pictured it. And they delivered on the character.

And as for the characters themselves, the voice talent was brilliant. We have Bryan Cranston as a pitch-perfect, world-weary Lt. Gordon. As voice director Andrea Romano put it in our interview, “Thank God he’s good at this.” Eliza Dushku puts in double duty as Selena Kyle/Catwoman (and yes in this version they retain her origin as a prostitute, just like in the book) and also in an animated Catwoman short that will be packaged with Year One. A little more about Catwoman- some have mentioned the similarity between the character design in this and the leaked pictures of Anne Hathaway in the upcoming Nolan Dark Knight Rises. Executive Producer (and superhero himself) Bruce Timm said it’s purely coincidental.  “I’m in awe of them,” talking about his admiration for the Nolan films. But? “I don’t think I’m even on their radar.”  So modest.

You can read his entire review from July here, including the part in which Katee Sackhoff, who plays Det. Sarah Essen, propositions him for a threesome! (SPOILER ALERT: She was joking.)

Batman: Year One is another home-run for DC and Warner Bros. on the animated front as they continue to pump fantastic films and adaptations onto home entertainment platforms. The animation is fantastic, the story is compelling and stays very true to the source material, and the voice acting is once again top-notch – for the most part. My only minor nit-pick of the film is that I thought Ben McKenzie (of The OC fame) was a little dull as Bruce Wayne, and Bruce Wayne only. His voice for Batman worked very well, but for me his Bruce Wayne was lacking some emotion. It may sound odd to criticize on this point, but Bruce Wayne was the only part of this film that seemed to leave something left to be desired – but it’s very minor and by no means completely takes away from Year One as a whole.

Batman: Year One on Blu-ray comes packaged with a DVD and digital copy and a handful of extras, including the option to watch the film with crew commentary featuring Alan Burnett, Sam Liu, Mike Carlin, and Andrea Romano. There is a very good half-hour documentary called “Heart of Vengeance: Returning Batman to His Roots” in which the history of moving Batman out of “campy” back to his pulp origins is discussed in length. There is also a feature titled “Conversations With DC Comics: Featuring the 201 Batman Creative Team” which mostly features the “current” Batman creative team talking about the Batman character and comics and what they mean to them. There is a lot of personal reflection in this featurette, but it’s quite interesting.

You will also find on the Blu-ray disc a digital comic copy of the first chapter of Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One graphic novel and two episodes from Batman: The Animated Series– both of which prominently feature Catwoman. We also get a sneak peek at the next DCU animate feature, Justice League: Doom, which is a loose adaptation of the Justice League comics “Tower of Babel” story arc. It looks like it will be very good.

Finally, but certainly not least, we have the latest animated short from DC and Warner Bros. with Catwoman included with this set. Once again featuring the purrfectly (I’m so, so sorry for that – I couldn’t resist) fitting voice of Eliza Dushku as Selena Kyle/Catwoman and written by Paul Dini, this animated short follows Catwoman as she goes toe-to-toe with Rough Cut who is smuggling some very precious and disturbing cargo out of Gotham City. This short is beautifully animated and again, well acted. Perhaps the thing I found most interesting is how well they married both Selena’s sex appeal and her all around bad-assery – most notably as she confronts Rough Cut in a “Gentleman’s Club”. Often times it seems writers and directors have a hard time walking the line of creating a strong but sexy character, often straying too far to one side or the other, but this for me was pitch-perfect Catwoman and I thought Selena and Rough Cut’s throw down through the streets of Gotham culminating at a dock was even more exciting that the climax in the feature film it came with.

Fans of these DC Animated Feature Films have come to expect a lot and Batman: Year Oneand all it includes once again hits its mark. The special features, the Catwoman short, and the feature film itself are all well worth the price of picking this one up and adding it to your home entertainment collection.

Batman: Year One is available for purchase today at retailers and online at Amazon!

The second day of New York Comic Con has come to a close and I’m resting my feet back  at a friend’s place in Queens. Today was fantastic – lots of great interviews, panels and special events. The highlights of my day included interviewing Chris Sabat, Justin Cook, and Sean Schemmel from Dragon Ball Z, seeing Joe Simon (who just turned 98 years old on Tuesday) at his panel “My Life in Comics,” and getting an up-close glimpse of Stan Lee meeting colleagues at the Archie Booth on the show floor. We’ve got a lot of great stuff coming up for you once we get a chance to get it all edited and web-ready, but for now I wanted to share some photos with you from Thursday and Friday. Enjoy!

Be sure to check back soon for our interviews with Tom Morello, the Skullgirl’s creative team, Kevin Conroy, Bruce Timm, Andrea Romano, Chris Sabat, Justin Cook, Sean Schemmel and more!

“Nomad Droids” is an episode divided into three mini-segments, all starring Artoo and Threepio. The first part is very much like the opening to the Wizard of Oz. There’s a hurricane of a battle and the droids get into the only safe place they can think of: a Y-wing. They’re whisked away to a foreign world where they encounter a pint-size civilization under the thumb of an evil leader. Our heroes are captured, freed, and accidentally kill the overlord, freeing the Brownie-like creatures to lead themselves. Think Wicked Witch of the East and the Munchkins.

Back in space, they find themselves on another planet, running low on power and playing out more scenes from The Wizard of Oz. That’s where they encounter a group of Pit droids who have enslaved an entire race with a giant hologram. (That might have been my favorite part of the episode).

In the third section, they’re abducted by pirates and are almost melted down before they’re saved by General Grievous.

At the end, they’re reunited with the Republic and no one seems to want to listen to their fantastical story.

Watching this episode, it’s important to remind people that Artoo and Threepio as a duo carried an entire show in the 80s on their shoulders. And they did it capably.

I can see where a lot of people might have an issue with these Artoo and Threepio. Their whimsical adventures aren’t the sort of fare we’ve been used to on the show, really since the beginning. Ambush (the first aired episode) is really the only one I can think of with this level of whimsy. They’re fun episodes and in the classic mold of old Saturday morning cartoons. It takes all the heart of those old stories and adds in the sensibilities of the new show and give us something unique to The Clone Wars.

How can you argue with that?

Some could, I’m sure. But I watched this episode with my kids and we all laughed hysterically through it. It was fun. And that’s what Star Wars is supposed to be. No matter how awesome or how epic things get, there’s always whimsy and humour there. Even when Star Wars is at its darkest, there’s lighthearted joking. The first half hour of Revenge of the Sith has plenty of laughs. And The Empire Strikes Back? It has some of the funniest moments in the entire saga. Consider this exchange between the droids:

C-3PO: I didn’t ask you to turn on the thermal heater. I merely commented that it was freezing in the princess’s chamber…
[Artoo whistles his objection]
C-3PO: But it’s supposed to be freezing! How we are ever going to dry out her clothes, I really don’t know!

And that leads into some great moments with Han.

What I’m trying to say is this: This show shouldn’t be one note. It will get soooo boring if it’s war all the time. It’s these brief respites that make me appreciate the war episodes even more. These are fun. The kids love them and so do. Sure, it doesn’t make the most sense in the world that the droids weren’t with Anakin and Padme, but these were fun episodes and that outweighs things. It’s important to have comedic moments woven into the tapestry of the films to break the tension, and for that same reason it’s important to have these lighthearted episodes to break the tension of the season.

But for as funny as this episode was, there was a LOT of killing… Which actually made me laugh. As the pirates were getting sucked out of the hole in the ship and into the vacuum of space, I started giggling about the whole thing. There is a hilarious amount of killing in this episode. Watch it again, you’ll see what I mean.

The animation for this episode was wondrous. The environments and the character models were things we hadn’t really seen before and even just for a throwaway episode. And I loved all the references to the classic trilogy. Most will recognize the shots in the hallway at the beginning with Artoo and Threepio looking for an escape pod as a direct homage to A New Hope, but did anyone else notice the direct visual reference to Empire? Their crash landing on that first planet seemed, shot for shot, just like Luke’s landing on Dagobah. Specifically: that shot in the cockpit.

I don’t automatically like every episode, trust me, but they make it incredibly hard for me to hate the episodes. From the gorgeous lighting, rich colours, fascinating design, and great characters all the way to the well-written stories and inspirations from the films I love the most. It all congeals into something that seems designed specifically for me to enjoy.

It just works.

If you’re whining about these episodes and can’t wait to get back into the war, The Umbarra arc is up next and Dee Bradley Baker assured me on more than one occasion that this is the show stopper. At least until Darth Maul returns.

Is Jem still truly outrageous?  Well, naturally that will depend on your personal tastes, but re-watching episodes of Jem & the Holograms has been a very entertaining experience.

Jem brings the glam and glitz of the music scene to an animated series, and it has everything you could ask for:  drama, intrigue, romance, adventure, an ongoing identity crisis, oh, and of course music.

And the clothes!  If you remember the 80’s, then you know what I’m talking about.  Crazy patterns, shoulder pads, big hair, chunky earrings . . . Jem brings back the styles of the era with a vengeance.  I think much of my enjoyment from each episode came from just seeing what the group wore.  Reminds me of the Jem paper dolls and their accompanying outfits that I still have stashed away somewhere.

Beware, though.  The catchy theme song can quickly become an earworm.  I just found myself singing it a moment ago.  You’ve been warned.

If you’re unfamiliar with the basic plot of the series, Jerrica Benton’s father has passed away and left her Starlight Music and Starlight House, a foster home for orphaned girls.  Half of Starlight Music is owned by the greedy Eric Raymond, who also manages a rival group called The Misfits.  Led by spoiled heiress Pizzazz, the Misfits bring nothing but trouble to Jerrica.

Jerrica’s father also left her a machine known as Synergy, a secret computer that has the capability to project holograms of any kind.  Jerrica uses it to turn herself into Jem.  Quiet band manager Jerrica by day, glam pink-haired rocker Jem by night.

So . . . how does the show hold up after nearly twenty years?

Pretty well.  The series offers a wide variety of themes, focusing on social issues such as hunger, poverty, the elderly, drug use, and orphaned children.  Sometimes the tone is more reminiscent of an after-school special, however, which certainly is indicative of the era in which the show aired.  Still, each episode contains songs set against music video-like sequences, and most of the shows are just pure fun.  Silly at times, but still fun.

I suppose my main issue with the show is the relationship between Jerrica and her boyfriend Rio.  The problem is that Rio also appears to be involved with Jem.  Technically, Jem and Jerrica are the same person, but Rio has no knowledge of this.  And yet no one finds it weird that he kisses Jem in one scene and Jerrica in another.  The episode “Midsummer Night’s Madness” tries to address this problem to some degree, but I feel like it was never really resolved.

If you were a fan of the series when it first aired, then I certainly recommend this set.  In addition to the complete series, there are also bonus features worth watching.  And if you haven’t seen the show, then I also recommend it, if for no other reason than to experience a blast from the past, along with a little glamour, glitter, fashion and fame.

Entertainment Weekly has the exclusive and a first look, but Darth Maul is BACK!

Coming to us in Spring 2012, the one thing we were all most excited about that was hinted last season is coming true. Presumably, Savage Opress finds his missing brother and he survived being cut in half on Naboo.

I really can’t begin to tell you how excited this makes me.

You can go to EW and watch the clip here.

The video is fantastic.

They have an interview with Dave FIloni who, in classic Filoni form, uses classic Star wars logic to explain his point. I can’t tell you how fun it is talking to Dave Filoni because of it. Here’s a snippet:

Fans will note that there is precedent for this kind of resurrection. “The Dark Side of the Force is the path to many abilities some consider to be…unnatural,” Darth Sidious says in Revenge of the Sith. Sidious and his master found a way to use the Force to cheat death—that’s how he was able to keep Vader alive after that little swan dive into a lava field. Couldn’t Maul have picked up on some of that too? Says Filoni, “He’s suffered through a lot to keep himself alive and implemented the training of his master to do so.”

Sadly, we have to wait until spring to see this.

Lucasfilm has once again given us a sneak peak at the next episode of The Clone Wars. It looks pretty apparent that we’re getting more episodes with Artoo and Threepio, which is fine by me.

From the press blurb:

C-3PO and R2-D2’s adventure continues and they encounter danger at every turn. Forced to escape a Separatist attack in a Y-wing fighter, the droids visit the world of the Patitites, the odd planet Balnab, and the inside of a pirate warship where they are forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena in “Nomad Droids” a new episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, airing at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, October 14th on Cartoon Network.

And in this second clip, you get so much classic Star Wars it’s ridiculous:

I’m not even sure where to start with this one. “Mercy Mission” is a fairy tale like romp starring Artoo and Threepio as a sort of Alice and Dinah (or Dorothy and Toto) who find themselves on a mission to help a planet plagued by earthquakes and end up down a metaphorical rabbit hole, trying to solve the Caterpillar like riddles that will save both races of people caught in the destruction of the quakes.

This episode was a bizarre and delightful fantasy.

It had all of the hallmarks of a classic storybook tale, with Threepio and Artoo as the children trapped in the world no one else knows about or believes in.

The imagery of the episode was decidedly fantastical and it took an entirely humorous bent on an episode. And to be honest, I find breather episodes like this refreshing. The Clone Wars hasn’t much tapped its full potential for these entertaining and whimsical episodes and I’m glad their cutting loose. And there was plenty of great film references here. Aside from the obvious Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz comparisons, this episode had flourishes of Return of the Jedi with the banter between Threepio and the ewok-like creatures who seem to worship him.

One of my favorite moments is when they’re given a riddle by the caterpillar like girl at the end of the labyrinth and are forced to solve it in order to get back to the surface and save the day. Did it seem as obvious to anyone else that the puzzle they were given was reminiscent of The Fifth Element?

Overall, this episode was a breather episode (that was produced for Season 3) that offered little in the way of continuing story lines but was a lot of fun for the kids. Both of my kids adored this episode. It was funny for them and they were just at rapt attention the entire time. It was fun watching with them.

Based on the preview for the upcoming episodes, it looks like we’re getting more adventures of Artoo and Threepio. If nothing else, The Clone Wars crew is showing how it’s done. That Droids show doesn’t have anything on them. Could this be the three episode Droids arc? Who knows.

What I do know is that these whimsical episodes don’t bother me. In fact, I will still go so far as to say that Bombad Jedi might be on my top 5 favorite episodes of the series.

Some might balk at episodes like this, but I would argue that they’re a welcome distraction. They can’t be expected to give us one-note war episodes week after week after week. The wide expanse of the Star Wars universe and the equally expansive nature of the form of an animated television show demands variation and artistic license. It’s great to see them giving it to us.

And one note about the beautiful animation in this episode, particularly during the underground sequences, my 8 year old daughter was so convinced by the tree-like people, she honestly thought they were puppets and kept asking if they were real puppets. To my mind, that seems like high praise for the show.

We’ll be back next week with the episode “Nomad Droids”. You can watch a clip of it on StarWars.Com, but it looks like equal parts Gulliver’s Travels, Willow, and Spies Like Us.

I can’t wait.

I didn’t realize that if you ask most animators to pick a film that is the pinnacle of your art, the most frequent response would be Dumbo.

I haven’t seen this film in twenty or more years and I couldn’t even fathom why it could be their favorite animated film of all time, especially with movies like Alice in Wonderland, Lady and the Tramp, and Sleeping Beauty to pick from.

The Blu-ray of Dumbo arrived and I was dying of curiosity to watch it and see what the film could offer and I was shocked.

Dumbo is a fine film and the animation is fantastic, sure, but I was shocked by the economy and efficiency of storytelling. Dumbo came out in 1941 when animated features (and even color and sound movies) were in their infancy. Learning to tell a story with these new tools wasn’t easy for some, but for Disney it seemed to come naturally.

But this film clocks in at 65 minutes and is so straightforward, touching, funny, and surreal that it’s amazing so much was packed into to so little time. Though, on its surface, Dumbo might seem as a mish-mash of musical numbers and comedy bits to string the narrative together, it’s a brilliant bit of storytelling. You all generally know the story, right? Dumbo is born, he’s different, he has no talents, but he learns that, with the aid of a magic feather, he can fly because of his big ears. He has to learn to believe in himself and fly on his own when he loses the feather. To communicate that story in a manner as efficient as they did is really a marvel.

But all of the things I remembered about the film that haunted me from my childhood, particularly the Dali-esque ‘Pink Elephants on Parade’ sequence, all fit so neatly into the movie in a way I didn’t quite understand as a child but as a writer today it blew my mind. There are so many visual flourishes that help tie the story and the longing and the motion together that it’s just…staggering… As you’re watching it, think about all that goes into something as simple as Dumbo holding Timothy’s tail with his trunk… It’s… it means sooooo much in the context of the film and… wow. This film really blew me away all over again.

And the fact that the film, like all of my favorite films, can blend humour, drama, tears, joy, laughter, and surrealism in a way that isn’t distracting or lopsided is impressive.

It’s a lesson storytellers would do well to learn.

As far as the Blu-ray itself, like all Disney Blu-rays, it looks absolutely gorgeous and has special features that document the making of the film and the appreciation that’s grown out of it.

I would have never guessed that Dumbo was a must-own Disney film, but now, with my adult eyes, I can see it for the brilliance that it is. Get it. It’s worth revisiting.