DC Universe Animated Original Movies

[Bill1978]

I actually found Lex to be a very jarring juxtaposition in tone to the rest of trailer. And I don't recall Lex being such a goofball. Even though it is spoiler heavy it has actually increased my interest in the movie now that it seems that it won't be pointless hero fighting hero action for the duration of the movie. I reckon that will last half the movie.

[EricJ]

I actually found Lex to be a very jarring juxtaposition in tone to the rest of trailer. And I don't recall Lex being such a goofball.

(ahem, Kevin Spacey's imitation of Gene Hackman says hi)

It's rumored to be Lex Luthor Jr. (like Dillinger Jr. in Tron Legacy), but yeah, Warner and Snyder seem to have Eisenberg constantly playing it one second away from saying "Why so....grumpy?"

[Bill1978]

I didn't find Kevin Spacey's Lex to be an outright caricature like this one seems appears to be. And Kevin's portrayal was still tonally correct for his movie. Jesse's portrayal is akin to King Julien appearing in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.

[Ben]

C'mon, guys...pretty obvious that the movie wasn't going to be Batman fighting Superman for the whole thing! Of *course* they were going to settle their differences (or at least form an uneasy alliance) to battle a common enemy in the second half of the film!

[Dacey]

Maybe I'm imagining it, but the animation in the trailer for The Killing Joke looks surprisingly terrible at some spots. Like the studio made severe budget cuts in order to financially justify the risk of releasing an R rated film.

[ShyViolet]

Also for some reason Batman doesn't sound a whole lot like Kevin Conroy to me.

[EricJ]

TKJ's trying for a Snyder-esque fan-faithfulness to every single iconic image in the comic, right down to the drawing and character style. You can't really get fluid animation with the gritty, angular design, so they go just with what fits.

[Ben]

Or it could just be that the factory animators churning these things out are simply having a tougher time trying to emulate the more intricate designs and animation requirements. After all, this is otherwise a step up in style for those houses and they're sure to struggle without being able to lean back on the TAS-style of drawing they usually adapt.

[Randall]

Some of the DC animated movies DO look pretty terrible. A few have been awful, though most are at least passable. This isn't the first one to disappoint. It does tend to be worse when they go with more realistic designs, like with The Killing Joke, as the talent for doing those designs justice isn't really there among the animation staff. The budget isn't there, either, and these are cranked out as Ben said.

The original idea with these movies was to emulate the original drawing style of the stories, though that mission has been hit-and-miss (some artists being more distinctive or cartoony than others). The Killing Joke designs look only vaguely Bolland-esque. And yeah, I also thought that Conroy sounded different in the trailer for TKJ.

[ShyViolet]

Special one night premiere (July 25) in participating theaters:

http://www.fathomevents.com/event/batma ... ign=Batman

[Dacey]

Batman and Harley Quinn announced, a brand new story written by Bruce Timm!

http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/7 ... lms-coming

[ShyViolet]

KJ: not much chance for even a nom for BAF, unfortunately:


http://moviepilot.com/posts/4005923

[Randall]

"The Academy seems to favor Disney movies"?

History suggests otherwise, but I guess the author is including Pixar films. Even then, the statement seems an exaggeration.

Nevertheless, it never even occurred to me that TKJ could be that good. The animation looks disappointing, and early buzz is not that great.

However, I am excited about the next few DC animated films: Justice League Dark (hopefully with Swamp Thing intact), the Harley Quinn film, and especially the long awaited (originally it was set to be one of the first 3 in the series) Teen Titans: The Judas Contract. The beloved New Teen Titans storyline was done for the TV show, but had to be watered down. With the line "maturing"," it is great to see them going for it.

[Dacey]

On a somewhat unrelated note, I don't get the "controversy" surrounding TKJ regarding the relationship between Batman and Batgirl.

That had already been done on both the cartoon show as well as Return of the Joker. It's not a "bold" new idea (and certainly less controversial than implied sexual assault!).

[Bill1978]

As the author of that article states, TKJ is ineligible for the BAF because it isn't having a week long release. It has nothing to do with Disney's apparent monopoly on the award, it is all to do with Warner's release schedule. Obviously Warner isn't interested in getting this film eligible for the Oscars otherwise they would have booked a week long screening in LA.

This kind of reporting from uber fans always annoys me. Especially when they haven't seen the film yet.

On a different note, I am looking forward to the Teen Titan movie.