Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Green Lantern: First Flight

Available 7-28-09 on Blu-Ray, DVD, and On Demand. Official Website

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Upcoming Anime and Comics on TV, DVD, and Theater

January 23 - Wolverine and the X-Men - Nicktoons, 8/7C
January 27 - Hulk VS. (Wolverine and Thor) DVD from Marvel
October - Astro Boy - Summit Entertainment/Imagi Studios

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Other Animated DVDs: Doctor Strange, Avengers, Iron Man

Here is the list of good animated super hero movies I promised (these are also not your ordinary Saturday morning fare either):

Doctor Strange - Normally I don't care much for magic because it goes against hard science and anything can happen, but the magic in this story follows definite rules. It is actually just the vehicle used to tell a good human interest story.

Ultimate Avengers 2 - Ultimate Avengers is also good, and you need to see it to get the story on all the main characters, but II is better. Iron Man is actually better in these Avenger movies than he is in his own (see next). The Hulk/Bruce Banner story carries through both movies. The Hulk really Hulks-out: he does some of his famous comic book tricks, ones that can only be done in CGI or animation. It's worth getting both movies just for that.

The Invincible Iron Man - Regardless of what I said in the entry above, this is a movie worth seeing to learn the origin of Iron Man. It should be interesting to compare it to the live action movie coming out next year.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Superman: Doomsday DVD available now

I got it in the mail from amazon.com yesterday and watched it last night. It was definitely worth the $13.99 I paid for it sight unseen. If your impression of animation is still Saturday morning kids' cartoons, you will probably be impressed if you take a chance on this movie. You might even change your mind about "that kid stuff" and start looking into a few more good animated superhero video novels (I'll make a list of suggestions in another post).

The movie is (loosely) based on a group of graphic novels that incorporate the story of "The Death of Superman." It is the first Superman animated story that it is rated PG-13. It is almost totally for violence; none of the seven dirty words are heard, and the relationship between Lois Lane and Superman is implied in the manner of a 60's sitcom or drama. We do see Lex Luther (voiced by James Marsters - Spike from TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel) behave more like the criminal villain he his. Innocent bystanders get killed graphically by Doomsday, and there was almost certainly peripheral casualties when all the building collapsed during his fight with Superman. And when have you ever seen Superman coughing up blood? Not in any live-action film.

But the unique "violence" in this animated story is not the main reason to see the movie. If all you wanted was graphic violence, there are hundreds of hard-core Japanese anime movies of any genre that can give you that. No, you want to watch this film because it has an adult story and dialog, more so even that the late Cartoon Network series Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. And the animation is much improved over the usual American product. There are many scenes where it is obvious that they spent a lot of time and effort on shadow and shading and making Superman's cape flow realistically.

Check it out at the Superman: Doomsday Official DVD Page. And here is the trailer for it. SPOILER ALERT! Sorry, but there is a major plot point revealed in the clips and narration. Don't watch it if you you don't want to spoil the surprise.




Monday, July 30, 2007

New Futurama Coming

Just heard about this watching interviews from Comic-Con. Apparently they are working on new Futurama direct-to-DVD movies, the first one of which will be released November 27th. I found an old news story on If Magazine about it. The DVDs will also be cut up into sixteen separate episodes and shown on Comedy Central.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Iron Man Animated

While you're waiting for the live-action Iron Man coming out it 2008, you can catch the animated DVD story here. He also appears in Ultimate Avengers The Movie and Ultimate Avengers 2. (I think both of these are better than the stand-alone Iron Man DVD, actually, what with the Bruce Banner/Incredible Hulk storyline.)