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Justice League
Warner Bros. // Unrated // April 23, 2002
List Price: $19.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie
Justice League is a release that encompasses the first 3 episodes of the new Justice League series shown on Cartoon Network, subtitled "Secret Origins". I saw this when it first came out and it is cool to see it again in a DVD form, but some things are just not right with this release. One of them is that it is not even presented in a widescreen aspect ratio like the uncut version of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker was. This is very unfortunate given that I watch Justice League in its widescreen form on Cartoon Network as much as I can. The creative team here has worked on many WB animated series and had widescreen in mind when creating the series, along with many other series they worked on. Not having a widescreen print of Justice League on DVD is just wrong. I will go into other problems more in the technical part of the review.
The title "Secret Origins" is a bit of a misnomer. There really is no talk about the members of the Justice League's origins, so what kind of subtitle is this? For those that grew up on Superfriends repeats, Justice League is at its foundation the update to it. It does not share as much in common with its comic iteration, Justice League of America, as it does with Superfriends. I say this because of the odd characters that were decided to be in this group. Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Batman and the Martian Manhunter are a given, but the black Green Lantern (John Stewart) and Hawkgirl? Why? I guess they were trying to be diverse in their choices for characters. Heck, they even made everyone consider Wonder Woman as someone new on the scene and the real rookie in the squad. From a comic book perspective this was a poorly conceived group of characters and it seems just from the opening arc that many of the characters have no substance to them, including Superman and Batman. The only one with any real substance is Flash, who is voiced by the current Lex Luthor on the TV series Smallville, Michael Rosenbaum. All the others seem to be going through the motions.
"Secret Origins" begins on Mars. An astronaut, J. Allen Carter, falls down a hole on the planet and comes upon a door. He eventually figures out how to open the door and he releases something, but at this point we do not know what. We then go to 2 years later and are at a Wayne Tech lab. Some people there are talking a strange language and go to destroy a satellite communications array. Batman tries to stop them and is even aided by Superman, but the people turn into white vein-looking humanoids and succeed in destroying the array. Superman even has some images go through his mind, but he does not know what it is yet.
We next see J. Allen Carter talking in front of what looks like the United Nations. He is now a senator and is working toward nuclear disarmament around the world. He enlists Superman in his quest and Superman goes around disarming nuclear weapons around the world. The aliens then attack Metropolis and they destroy a good part of the city. Batman and Superman try to stop them and Superman again has images rush through his head. He stops and then he flies off somewhere and Batman follows. Superman walks into a government building and releases a greenish alien. We find out this is the Martian Manhunter and he has been trying to contact Superman to let him out so he could help against the aliens. He was also sending out messages to the other heroes to help him in his quest. The rest of the arc is spent on the quest of the seven heroes to overcome the invading aliens. After all this the Justice League is fully born with a headquarters in space, which mirrors a lot with the comic book for the JLA.
The DVD
Video: As explained above, this is presented in Full-Frame only. There is no widescreen option for this show. It is sad that Warner decided not to include a widescreen presentation, given that Cartoon Network advertises the widescreen presentation of the series on their own network. Warner dropped the ball on this one. I also noticed a bit of shimmering here and there and what seemed like some grain in parts. The shimmering was very apparent at the end as they pulled away from the space headquarters. This is a poor video job and they also seem to have not put much effort toward it. It is now 5 months since Justice League premiered on Cartoon Network, a little effort would have gone a long way.
Sound: Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0. This is sad because of the fact that the Samurai Jack release earlier this year had a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on it even though the back of the box said otherwise. I believe it was rumored this release would have a DD 5.1 mix on it, but I guess it did not make it through. This, along with the non-widescreen presentation, reeks of Warner rushing this release through. The sound presented here is good, but I would have liked a DD 5.1 mix. The action scenes are not that great from a sound perspective, but it works.
Menus: The menu is a picture of the group with Superman in the middle with the theme song playing softly in the background. My problem with the menu is after a minute it automatically goes to the show. This happens a lot on Warner discs and they really need to move away from this.
Extras:
Character Bios: Small info about each of the Justice League characters.
Cast and Crew: A listing of the voices and the people behind the series.
Trailers: Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (cut version it looks like from the box art), Batman/Mr. Freeze: SubZero, The Batman/Superman Movie and a Scooby-Doo sneak peek at all the animated movies and the beginning of the series coming out on DVD.
Final Thoughts: Justice League is both promising and disappointing. It seems with Paul Dini's departure that the group responsible for such things as Batman: The Animated Series, Superman and Batman Beyond may have lost its way or its heart. The choice of some characters is bad from an old-school comic book collector standpoint who have read JLA for a long time. There seems to be no soul or feelings behind most of the characters and they seem to be going through the motions. Making Wonder Woman unknown to any of them is bad as well. I do not believe this series will be good until the Injustice Gang shows up, whose entrance seems to be pushed back more and more these days. The Injustice Gang will bring credence to this series and will most likely make it interesting. This series is ok, but it just does not stand up well with its predecessors. Warner seems to have rushed this release with no widescreen and no Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Justice League is pretty new, but it does not stand up well to the other series. At best this is a rental if you have already seen these episodes. If not, you may want to buy it and then watch Cartoon Network for the continuing series. I just wish I could recommend this series like I do its predecessors.
Justice League is a release that encompasses the first 3 episodes of the new Justice League series shown on Cartoon Network, subtitled "Secret Origins". I saw this when it first came out and it is cool to see it again in a DVD form, but some things are just not right with this release. One of them is that it is not even presented in a widescreen aspect ratio like the uncut version of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker was. This is very unfortunate given that I watch Justice League in its widescreen form on Cartoon Network as much as I can. The creative team here has worked on many WB animated series and had widescreen in mind when creating the series, along with many other series they worked on. Not having a widescreen print of Justice League on DVD is just wrong. I will go into other problems more in the technical part of the review.
The title "Secret Origins" is a bit of a misnomer. There really is no talk about the members of the Justice League's origins, so what kind of subtitle is this? For those that grew up on Superfriends repeats, Justice League is at its foundation the update to it. It does not share as much in common with its comic iteration, Justice League of America, as it does with Superfriends. I say this because of the odd characters that were decided to be in this group. Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Batman and the Martian Manhunter are a given, but the black Green Lantern (John Stewart) and Hawkgirl? Why? I guess they were trying to be diverse in their choices for characters. Heck, they even made everyone consider Wonder Woman as someone new on the scene and the real rookie in the squad. From a comic book perspective this was a poorly conceived group of characters and it seems just from the opening arc that many of the characters have no substance to them, including Superman and Batman. The only one with any real substance is Flash, who is voiced by the current Lex Luthor on the TV series Smallville, Michael Rosenbaum. All the others seem to be going through the motions.
"Secret Origins" begins on Mars. An astronaut, J. Allen Carter, falls down a hole on the planet and comes upon a door. He eventually figures out how to open the door and he releases something, but at this point we do not know what. We then go to 2 years later and are at a Wayne Tech lab. Some people there are talking a strange language and go to destroy a satellite communications array. Batman tries to stop them and is even aided by Superman, but the people turn into white vein-looking humanoids and succeed in destroying the array. Superman even has some images go through his mind, but he does not know what it is yet.
We next see J. Allen Carter talking in front of what looks like the United Nations. He is now a senator and is working toward nuclear disarmament around the world. He enlists Superman in his quest and Superman goes around disarming nuclear weapons around the world. The aliens then attack Metropolis and they destroy a good part of the city. Batman and Superman try to stop them and Superman again has images rush through his head. He stops and then he flies off somewhere and Batman follows. Superman walks into a government building and releases a greenish alien. We find out this is the Martian Manhunter and he has been trying to contact Superman to let him out so he could help against the aliens. He was also sending out messages to the other heroes to help him in his quest. The rest of the arc is spent on the quest of the seven heroes to overcome the invading aliens. After all this the Justice League is fully born with a headquarters in space, which mirrors a lot with the comic book for the JLA.
The DVD
Video: As explained above, this is presented in Full-Frame only. There is no widescreen option for this show. It is sad that Warner decided not to include a widescreen presentation, given that Cartoon Network advertises the widescreen presentation of the series on their own network. Warner dropped the ball on this one. I also noticed a bit of shimmering here and there and what seemed like some grain in parts. The shimmering was very apparent at the end as they pulled away from the space headquarters. This is a poor video job and they also seem to have not put much effort toward it. It is now 5 months since Justice League premiered on Cartoon Network, a little effort would have gone a long way.
Sound: Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0. This is sad because of the fact that the Samurai Jack release earlier this year had a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on it even though the back of the box said otherwise. I believe it was rumored this release would have a DD 5.1 mix on it, but I guess it did not make it through. This, along with the non-widescreen presentation, reeks of Warner rushing this release through. The sound presented here is good, but I would have liked a DD 5.1 mix. The action scenes are not that great from a sound perspective, but it works.
Menus: The menu is a picture of the group with Superman in the middle with the theme song playing softly in the background. My problem with the menu is after a minute it automatically goes to the show. This happens a lot on Warner discs and they really need to move away from this.
Extras:
Character Bios: Small info about each of the Justice League characters.
Cast and Crew: A listing of the voices and the people behind the series.
Trailers: Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (cut version it looks like from the box art), Batman/Mr. Freeze: SubZero, The Batman/Superman Movie and a Scooby-Doo sneak peek at all the animated movies and the beginning of the series coming out on DVD.
Final Thoughts: Justice League is both promising and disappointing. It seems with Paul Dini's departure that the group responsible for such things as Batman: The Animated Series, Superman and Batman Beyond may have lost its way or its heart. The choice of some characters is bad from an old-school comic book collector standpoint who have read JLA for a long time. There seems to be no soul or feelings behind most of the characters and they seem to be going through the motions. Making Wonder Woman unknown to any of them is bad as well. I do not believe this series will be good until the Injustice Gang shows up, whose entrance seems to be pushed back more and more these days. The Injustice Gang will bring credence to this series and will most likely make it interesting. This series is ok, but it just does not stand up well with its predecessors. Warner seems to have rushed this release with no widescreen and no Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Justice League is pretty new, but it does not stand up well to the other series. At best this is a rental if you have already seen these episodes. If not, you may want to buy it and then watch Cartoon Network for the continuing series. I just wish I could recommend this series like I do its predecessors.
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