BLU-RAY
REVIEW:
JUSTICE LEAGUE
Season one
08/17/08
What
kid who grow up in the 70s or 80s doesn’t remember Saturday
morning cartoons? Of those cartoons, one of the best was the
“Super Friends” which featured the Justice League. The
“Super Friends” was one of my favorite cartoons and besides
the “Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears “, the only
other reason to get up early on a Saturday morning. The
“Super Friends” featured some of our favorite superheroes
like Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The
Flash, Green Lantern and a bunch of others. However what
really made the show stand out, where the villains lead by
Lex Luthor and known as the Legion of Doom. Yes, there were
other villains beside the Legion, but I always considered
the episodes with the Legion to be the best.
After adapting both Batman and Superman into successful
animated series, Bruce Timm had only but one place to go:
Justice League. Bruce Timm decided he wanted to keep the new
Justice League in line with the comic book and the focus on
the characters. Not wanting to overwhelm the series with too
many characters Bruce decide on the following
heros: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green
Lantern, Martian Manhunter and Hawkgirl. Season 1 of Justice
League debuted on the cartoon network in 2001 and become an
instant hit. Sadly, this series has no Legion of Doom.
I never caught the series on Cartoon Network, but after
watching the Blu-ray edition of season 1, all I can say is
that I’m very impressed. The animation is beautiful and the
stories are nicely built with a good foundation. The only
problem I had is that a lot of the conflict is easily
resolved in the last 5-10 minutes of the show. I also wasn’t
too happy that all the episodes are in 4:3 format and not
widescreen. However, in Blu-ray the colors are bright and
beautiful and nothing seems washed-out.
The 26 episodes are contained on 3 Blu-ray disk. The must
see episodes are “Secret Origins” which is where Martian
Manhunter telepathically summons the super friends to work
together to defeat an evil alien life form. “The Enemy
Below” is also quite good and features a favorite from
“Super Friends”, Aquaman. Here Aquaman is the King of
Atlantis and has a grudge against the humans. “Legends” is
another classic episode featuring a throw back to the golden
age of comic books. One thing is for certain, season one of
Justice League is rock solid and all I can say is, “I can’t
wait for Season 2.”
Review By Brad Peterson
brad@smartcine.com
VIDEO:
1080P High Definition (1.33:1)
AUDIO:
Dolby
Digital 5.1 Surround - English
Subtitles - English
BONUS FEATURES:
Disc 1
Commentary on “The Enemy Below” Part 2 with producers
Bruce Timm, James Tucker, Glen Murakami, Rich Fogel and
director Dan Riba. Discussion range from why they decided to
do two part-ers to how cartoon network lent there support
for some episode to be done in widescreen.
Disc 2
Commentary on Legends - Part 2 with producers Bruce Timm,
James Tucker, Glen Murakami, Rich Fogel and director Dan
Riba. Group discusses how they got the idea for this episode
from a trip to Korea and a desire to showcase the classic
Justice League
Disc 3
Commentary on The Savage Time - Part 2 with producers
Bruce Timm, James Tucker, Glen Murakami, Rich Fogel and
director Dan Riba. Group discusses that this episode has
some of there favorite bits like the black hawks and
Sergeant Rock.
Inside Justice League - A private panel
discussion takes place between Bruce Timm and his team of
creators about Justice League with some special surprises.
Jason Hillhouse moderates the group discussing the
difficulty of creating Justice League and the challenges
they faced with the finite amount of villains. (9:11)
The Look of the League Character Design - Bruce
Timm explains character design of Justice League. The look
of each character is discussed. (4:17)
Justice League: The First Mission -
Never-Before-Seen Promo. Jason Hillhouse speaks with James
Tucker and Bruce Timm about the creation of the test promo
for Justice League which took about two weeks to create.
(5:53)
Storyboards
- The blue prints for Justice. The creative teams of
Justice League discusses the storyboarding process (7:10)
Music Video - The Blackhawk Theme - Featuring
footage from Justice League. (2:40)
RATING BREAK DOWN:
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