Releases - DVDs - Superman: The Animated Series, Volume 1
Release Information:
Studio: Warner Home Video
Announce Date: 8/25/04
Street Date: 12/7/04; Delayed until 1/25/05
Closed Captioning: Yes
MSRP: $26.99
Subformat: Multi Disc
Media Quantity: 2
Run Time: 396
Episodes:
Disc 1 - 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 2, 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 2, Side B- Blasts from the Past Part 1; Blasts from
the Past Part 2; Livewire; Speed Demons |
Aspect Ratio(s):
Orginal Aspect Ratio - 1.33
Standard [4:3 Transfer]
Discographic Information:
Sound Track Language: English
Subtitles: 1 English, 2 Francais, 3 Espanol
Aspect Ratio: Standard [4:3 Transfer]
Edition Details:
• Encoding: Region 1
• Animated, Color
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Special Features
• Commentary on "The Last Son Of Krypton Part 1", "Stolen Memories",
"The Main Man Part 2" and "Tools of the Trade" by Bruce Timm, Producer;
Paul Dini, Producer; Alan Burnett, Producer; Dan Riba, Director; Curt
Geda, Director; and Glen Murakami, Art Director.
• Featurette: Superman: Learning to Fly {RT 10:00: A featurette
exploring the creation of Superman: The Animated Series, including
interviews with talent, creators and DC Comics}; Building the Mythology:
Superman's Supporting Cast {RT 10:00 A featurette focusing on the
supporting cast of Superman including Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Perry
White, and Jonathan and Martha Kent}
• Other: A Little Piece of Trivia {Pop up trivia over the "A Little
Piece of Home" episode RT 22:00} |
Official Synopsis: Your spirits will soar with this
2-disc/18-episode set from the popular TV series! Portraying the man and
hero as human while keeping the comic-book action at full speed, each
animated adventure is a fast-paced spellbinder. Beginning with his
arrival on Earth, Superman finds his place in his adopted home and
accepts his role as its champion - facing mortal enemy Lex Luthor and
countless other criminals like the Weather Wizard and the Toyman.
High-flying excitement, boundless thrills and revealing Exclusive Extras
collide in this superior collection about the dynamic hero that inspires
us all to strive for truth and justice.
Review (by Amazing Spidey)
After years and years filled with innumerable petitions and online
ranting and raving, Warner Bros. has finally given us what we've been
demanding: a nice, big, box set of DVDs collecting episodes of Superman:
The Animated Series.
The series, which ran in the late 1990s on Kids WB! before moving into
reruns on Cartoon Network, was produced by the same creative team that
brought us Batman: The Animated Series; as was to be expected, it was
glorious. But the transition from the Dark Knight to the Man of Steel
wasn't an easy one for the producers, as extras on the new set reveal.
Originally, they considered going for a look similar to that of Batman:
The Animated Series. But after a lot of debate, common sense (or
creative ambition) finally prevailed, and they gave Superman a sleek,
futuristic look that painted its larger-than-life characters in bright,
optimistic colours. It was a wise choice, in my opinion. Superman: The
Animated Series is sometimes criticized for having a brighter look than
the Batman series, but I simply can’t imagine him in a dark, Gothamesque
landscape.
Another difference between the shows: the villains. Joker, Riddler and
Catwoman are fine, but against Superman they would have been as flies.
Instead, Superman pumped its villains up into major threats while also
nicely updating their often old-fashioned comic book look and origins.
The main villain, though, wasn't really a physical threat to Superman.
It was Lex Luthor, the ruthless businessman who, from behind a façade of
legitimacy, ran Metropolis with a mobster's ethos. He had the biggest
presence in the rogue's gallery, but the likes of Metallo, Toyman and
The Parasite all made great appearances. The current set even includes
two great team ups. Iin the two-part "The Main Man" The Preserver hires
Lobo to kidnap the Man of Steel and lock him up in a zoo of nearly
extinct species, and in "Speed Demons" Superman teams up with the
pre-Justice League Flash.
Other top episodes collected in the present set include "Fun And Games,"
which was a clever run at making Toyman into a serious adversary for a
change, and which is arguably the most beautiful episode in the entire
DCAU canon. We also get a nice portrait of Smallville, courtesy of Lana
Lang in "My Girl."
As with any set, there are a few stinkers. Thankfully, there’s none here
that will make you wish you hadn’t bought it, but "Blasts from the Past,
Part 1" and "The Prometheon" didn't add anything to the show, and they
don't add anything to this set.
Extras in this collection are a bit light for my liking, but they're
good all the same. The Superman: Learning To Fly featurette has Bruce
Timm, Alan Burnett, Paul Dini and James Tucker talking about the show’s
creation, its visuals, their decision to use Brainiac as a villain
created by the Kryptonians, and their debates on how powerful to make
Superman. It’s short but interesting. It would’ve been nice to hear from
some of the comic creators, as they did on Batman: Volume One, but
again, length gets in the way.
A featurette about Superman’s supporting cast is also terrific. It talks
about each of the show’s supporting characters, how they relate to
Superman, why they were used in the show, and what went into designing
them. I learned a lot from it: Dan Turpin’s design is based on the King
himself, Jack Kirby, and his partner, Maggie Sawyer, is a lesbian. (The
creators admit that they could never outright disclose this fact, but
they purposely dropped hints into storylines.) This featurette also,
thankfully, replaces those lame bios that always seems to end up on
Warner’s DVDs, and I hope that the next set will include a similar
feature on the show’s villains. It’s no secret that Superman’s rogue's
gallery is a lot harder to translate than Batman, and I’d love to hear
what went into each villain, especially since a lot of them got major
revamps.
The commentaries are a real pleasure to listen to, though Dini seems to
have a mysterious fixation on Mxyzptlk, constantly talking about
everyone’s favourite Superman villain even though none of his episodes
are even on this disc. (Hopefully, "Mxyzptlked" will get a commentary on
the next disc; it could prove to be the funniest thing ever.) The
creators don’t make themselves sound like everything is perfect or that
they are God's gift to animated television, and they’ll charmingly admit
to their screw-ups and ridicule the results. There are a few more gaps
than I’d like, and Timm himself confesses that he needs to watch the
episodes before sitting down to talk about them. It’s obvious this is
the first time he’s seen them in a while, and there are places where he
and the others simply watch the episode instead of telling you all those
tidbits you’re dying to hear. He also has trouble staying on topic, but
that’s something some us already knew.
With the number of episodes on the discs, I wasn’t expecting wonders for
the presentation. I was pleasantly surprised. Aside from the odd bit of
grain here and there, there’s very little wrong with the transfer. It’s
no Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, but it does a fine job and is
undoubtedly the best-looking version available. As someone who first saw
these episodes on a poor, battered VHS with constant tracking problems
and a picture that would randomly turn black and white, it’s nice to see
it in all its full-colour glory. The sound is more or less as the same
quality as the picture. There’s nothing that stands out as great or
terrible, which is perfectly sufficient for me. The voices are all
clear, the music isn’t too loud or overbearing, and the sound effects
are at their best.
The animated menus are some of the best I’ve seen. Using a comic strip
mixed with animation, Superman flies through the frames in all his red
and blue glory. I’m not usually a fan of animated menus, but these are
what all menus should be like: quick, snazzy and a real pleasure to look
at. The packaging is similar to that on Batman: The Animated Series -
Volume One, but smaller, as there are only two discs included instead of
four. Speaking of the discs, the art on the flipper disc is a little
disappointing. It’s difficult to tell which side is which, and the
writing on it is so damn small I could barely see it. As with most WB
releases, there’s some pretty mediocre interior art on the packaging.
Most are images captured from the episodes, while others are promotional
images. But there some are new drawings that, unfortunately, aren’t much
to look at.
There is one major downer: it’s all over so soon. Hopefully, WB will
release all the episodes in similar sets and soon. A fantastic set like
this leaves you craving more and makes you pray that all your other
favourites get the same treatments.
You should buy this set the moment you clap eyes on it. Hopefully, sets
like this signal the end of the dreaded single disc treatment. |
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