In the comic, the two are just training and discussing fighting techniques; the producers threw it in seemingly for no reason (once again demonstrating that Timm and co., for all their strengths, have no understanding whatsoever of Wonder Woman; it's got me worried for the animated DVD they'll be doing). I mean, at the most basic level, Diana is not the leader of the Amazons.

So that bit during the sparring makes no sense, but as far as who should be established leader of the Amazons if Timm and company were following the book pretty faithfully...was Hippolyta shown or mentioned in Cooke's comic ? If not, they could interpret however they wanted.

What happened with The Losers on Dinosaur Island that Timm and friends seemed to be kinda miffed about having to cut for time ? Just a big action scene ? I know better at this point than to ask who The Losers are without checking Wikipedia first, so I'll do that after I post.

Since Cooke seems to have adapted something from main DC continuity, Dinosaur Island, and expanded upon its story by hinting at its origin and revealing it to be a large sentient thing called The Center...has a revelation of that sort been shown in main continuity since New Frontier was published ? Or is Dinosaur Island still just a stationary island in the DC-verse ?

Its been awhile since I've read the book but if I remember correctly;

A sqoad of about 5 Losers and their dog make it to the island to locate another lost squad. Once they get there they're picked off one by one by the dinos until its down to one Native American guy whose name I forget, John Something?, and the dog, who meet the sole survivor of the first squad; Rick Flagg.

Flagg takes the Losers boat but John elects to remain behind and avenge his friends. You know that scene where Faraday blows up the T-Rex's head? Well switch the two men and thats what happened to John.

It results in an awesome splash that the movie doesn't even come close to in my opinion, but that whole section is 100% fluff.

She was never shown, but the comic did not deviate from any of the characters' classic setups, and Diana is always called "Princess", not "Queen."

I loved the New Frontier Movie, but it did raise a question for me.

The creators lamented all the stuff they had to cut to make the movie fit the length. Now I understand that for TV cartoons which have to fit a specific timeslot less ads, but what's the time pressure for a direct to DVD movie that can doesn't have to worry about those things?

The expense of animating them? I'm guessing that it's a matter of budget, rather than media capacity/time or audience attention span.

Just finished the comics last night. Thought they were great. Not sure if I want to see the movie now.

Budget; Direct-to-DVD animation is expensive, so the WB will pay for 70 minutes' worth per film; they've said that if sales justify it, they might do longer films in the future.

I think for this movie, and all movies that are going to be based on existing stories, not newly made, they should go the distance. Doomsday and New Frontier need the proper time to do them justice. Doomsday was just horrible, and I think time was the factor in this. Doomsday comes, he kills Superman, Metropolis mourns for a few days, Superman returns, the end. New Frontier was great, but it needed every part to be told and DC should have given it at least 2 hours if not more to have it told properly.

I just recently got into Justice League Unlimited. I came into it during mid S4 and I've been catching the episodes on Boomerang. I loved Batman/Superman: The Animated Series but this show is amazing. I find it more mature and kinda dark I love it.

The New Frontier movie, was a movie only on DVD or can I catch this airing somewhere?

The New Frontier is a straight to DVD adaptation of the mini-series by Darwyn Cooke by the same name. Came out maybe 3 weeks ago?

And now that you mention it, I don't remember ever seeing a commercial for this, unlike Doomsday. Did I just miss them or was there no push at all for it?

I think these animated movies (New Frontier, Doomsday, the Ultimate Avengers) pretty much don't get much of a marketing push outside of the comics circle.

I wonder which company is doing better in sales (per film) so far for these new direct-to-DVD standalone projects. (well, Marvel's are more of a series of films, with Dr. Strange so far being the only one not directly connected to the first three films). I guess DC's started with Superman: Doomsday, because I wouldn't count earlier direct-to-DVD efforts like Return of the Joker and Mystery of the Batwoman, since they were extensions of their respective shows. Superman: Brainiac Attacks could count as DC's first animated standalone effort, though I'm not sure if most fans want to count it as the beginning and it's kinda debateable anyway since it's in such a weird place as almost being a piece of S:TAS but having too many differences (especially in the voice actor department) or continuity inconsistencies to allow it to work.

As far as movie length goes. The more continuing success, the longer the movies get, it seems. Ultimate Avengers was 72 minutes, Avengers 2 was 73, The Invincible Iron Man was 83 (now that's at least approaching the standard length of theatrical feature animation, but that was the Marvel cartoon story that least deserved it, god did that film drag). Dr. Strange being a step back to 76 minutes, we'll chalk that up to the character being less well known/less popular.

DC's most recent films have all been the same length--75 minutes.

I'm sure I heard an announcement that there was another Avengers animated movie featuring kid Avengers in the works that was supposed to follow Dr. Strange, but I haven't heard anything about it since. I've also heard that Timm & co. were supposed to do an adaptation of "The Judas Contract" (a classic Titans Comic arc) but the next two are a Batman Anime film and some Wonder Woman flick.

Gotham Knight (i.e., the anime Batman film) is meant as a tie-in to The Dark Knight, a la The Animatrix. Marv Wolfman recently confirmed that The Judas Contract is on hold, because Warner Home Video isn't sure there's enough of an audience to make it worth their while.

Considering how Timm and Co wrote Wonder Woman and the Amazons for JL and JLU I'm very worried how the movie will play out.

More proof that Warner Bros. Execs suffer from Rectal Cranial inversion.

Adults today were comic book readers in the '70s when the Teen Titans was the only DC comic that was as popular as the average Marvel comic, and the Judas Contract was the best of the run. Sure, most people think cartoons are just or kids, but the reason the Timm/Dini series of cartoons did so well is that they appealed to adults as well as children, and if the Warners realized an animated movie could be something other than a tie in for a live action theatrical release, they'd jump on this immediately.

Judas Contract was in the '80's and it was a different team than the one(s) in the 70's. I hated the TT's comics from the 70's.

I'd watch a TT animated movie or show if it was done with them being older. I watch the one that Cartoon Network had on only because my 6 y/o wants to watch it with me.

I wouldn't be surprised if another reason that Judas Contract is delayed/cancelled is DC already pulling out a "didn't they already do this storyline in that anime Teen Titans series a few years back?"

I watched the recent Justice League film last night after importing it from Murrca and rather enjoyed it.

My grasp of DC continuity is a bit weak, due to stopping collecting about 6 years ago, but can someone explain why Adam Strange was fighting on Earth with Superman and the rest? Surely he's only a hero after he's been teleported to Rann by the Zeta Beam? I can only remember one Adam Strange on Earth story and that was an 8 page back up in either Action or DC Coimics Presents.

Oh, and despite my many years of collecting DC comics, it was only when I watched the back up feature about the history of the League that I realised Green Lantern's weakness was to the colour yellow because that represents cowardice and he is supposed to have been born without fear. Can't remember when I last felt so stupid.

Eh? Have they retconned again, because last I remember the Guardians built a flaw into the central battery, and all rings, because no one should have ultimate power without any checks.

No, they haven't retconned. What I mean is the writers were clever enough to pick yellow as the colour of weakness, due to the 'without fear' thing.

Sorry, I should have been clearer.

I'm not certain whether it was the writers being clever or a lucky happenstance that the color selected as the weakness happened to be a color associated with cowardice. (After all, the original Green Lantern was powerless against wood, which I don't think had any deep Freudian meaning).

(Although they did kind of retcon it -- the more recent story is that there was a fear monster that fed off fear energy, which just happens to be colored yellow. A long time ago, the Guardians imprisoned the fear monster in the central power battery, and it was the presence of the fear monster in the battery that caused the vulnerability to yellow.)

New Frontier takes place in its own continuity. Darwyn Cooke pulled all of the characters and ideas he felt like using out of the main DC Universe and played with them on his own.

Cheers guys!

The love of geekish things never leaves you.

Just when you think you're out....etc...etc...

And, for some reason, the fact that the Lanterns know this now lets them become immune to the yellow weakness.

Oh, and it turns out that Hal Jordan has never done anything wrong, ever. Anything you think he did wrong was all a trick.

I've just finished watching the entire Justice League series. I really enjoyed it, the story telling was good. Can anyone recommend other cartoons that are to an equal standard?

I'd prefer the DC comic verse, but other stuff would be good too.

I know most will disagree, but the Teen Titans series is pretty good. The animation is kinda different, but the storylines picked up in S2-S4, that and Slade is badass in the first season and continues from there.

I second that! Once you get used to the animation Teen Titans is a great show.

I agree TT got better over time, but I never liked Slade. He was just a one-note gimmick to me that wasn't ever interesting.

I'm really liking the new Spectacular Spider-man cartoon on Saturdays. I would also highly recommend Glen Weisman's, the man who is behind the new version, earlier series Gargoyles, especially the first 2 seasons.

Seconding the Gargoyles recommendation. Huge second.

And Redred, since you just finished this series I assume you watched Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, and Batman Beyond as well ? Not to mention the direct-to-DVD tie-ins like Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero, Mystery of the Batwoman, and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker ? For a complete picture of the entire franchise, to get every last little detail and joke, and just because they're all excellent in their own right (well, the Batwoman movie not so much, but still worth the rent IMO).

The first season of HBO's Spawn animated series. I do remember that that is gold, I also remember liking most of Season 2 as well, but the third season/movie-length finale was awful. A hard R-rating though, in case you're sensitive about that sorta thing or watching your cartoons with children. Excellent voice acting (the leading man, Keith David, plays the lead Goliath on Gargoyles as well).

It's humor and not epic superhero/fantasy/sci-fi drama, but all four volumes of Futurama get my top recommend for comedy and superb animation (the very first episode ain't great, it takes a short bit for th show to find its legs and rhythm, IMO). And come to think of it, it does have a series of epic storylines that develop over the course of the series, not to mention the big movie. More direct-to-DVD movies to come too, so it's not a series that you'd be starting that's already over.

For more animated humor, Clone High, UnderGrads, and South Park get my vote. The first two are shorter commitments, they only lasted 13 episodes each.

Aeon Flux is out in arguably the best complete series release for an indie cartoon I've seen so far. It's weird, well-acted, well-written, the animation is unique, and you should ignore that there was ever a badly reviewed Charlize Theron live-action movie (haven't seen it myself). The shorts are very cool and the full length episodes hold up real well over a decade later too.

Getting outside of North American animation, aside from films, for anime I've only seen the mini-series Macross Plus and Neon Genesis Evangelion and can only sorta recommend Macross (unless we're going even further back and I include stuff like Sailor Moon, Saber Rider, and Astro Boy, but you asked for quality, not nostalgia and/or cheese). I'm sure some anime afficionados here can recommend quality, well-written animated Japanese shows.

I have other favorite North American cartoons that, at times during their run reached the quality of the DC Animated Universe shows, but objectively a lot of them weren't as consistently good or they took too long to become good (for example, I loved [b]ReBoot[b], but it was only entertaining and fun, and more than a little goofy, until the end of Season 2 when it got seriously good. And it was still rarely as adult or took itself as seriously as JL/JLU, if that's a requirement of yours).

I second this too. The writers get a little too into Slade and how badass he's supposed to be and take the character a little too far in the toughness department. Same goes for Robin most of the time.

Fortunately the other villains work much better. Some have forshadowing seasons in advance and others just kind of show up but almost all of them are great. I think Teen Titans went to darker places than Justice League ever did, with not only betrayal but killing, heroes making bad decisions, children getting slapped around by adults, an actual romance and ultimate evil.

Slade was great in the Terra saga as well as the beginning of the Raven storyline, other than that it was just okay, same w/Robin but in different circumstances.

Wow! So many recs. Thanks guys.

Kris_AB I haven't seen all of the DC cartoons that you listed. I was wondering if it'd be worth watching them, but I'll check them out. I've never heard of Gargoyles, I just looked it up on wikipedia, it sounds interesting. I remember watching Aeon Flux on mtv, it was very good.

As for TT, I wasn't sure if it was more for the kids, but I'll check it out also.

I do want to get into anime, but where to start! It's like this huge world. The last anime series that I watched was way back, when my older brother brought home a copy of Akira on VHS.

I can't recommend Gargoyles highly enough; one of the great animated shows (heck, shows, period).

Anime is a huge world, and broken into many genres. But if you like conflicted heroes with more adult themes a la Batman, or if you just want to see a really great series, try Cowboy Bebop. The music alone is worth it.

It was inevitable, but I didn't think it'd happen this soon. Justice League Season 1 is coming to Blu-Ray August 19th. There's a cover there at the TVshowsOnDVD.com link too.

I have this set on regular dvd, but besides it being in widescreen will the picture look much different? I really figured B:TAS would come out first on blu-ray.

Is "Justice League Unlimited" season three available anywhere? I can't find it on Amazon or at Best Buy.

I don't think there was a Season Three of "Unlimited." There were two seasons of regular "Justice League," two seasons of "Unlimited," and that was it.

There were three seasons of Unlimited. Season 2 ended on "Epilogue" and season 3 began on "I Am Legion".

Hmm, something strange is going on. I have the box sets, and the first episode of Season 1 Unlimited is "Initiation" and the last episode is "Epilogue." Then Season 2 starts with "I Am Legion" and ends with "Destroyer."

Maybe in some places they combined the first and second seasons into one box set and marketed the third season as Season 2. :shrugs:

Must have done it. I'm going by what my downloaded episodes were titled and tv.com. But yeah, works out cheaper if they combined, so woo!

Justice League Seasons 1 and 2 are in their own separate DVD sets.

Justice League Unlimited Seasons 1 and 2 are contained in JLU Season 1 DVD set and Season 3 is labeled as the Season 2 DVD set. For JLU, they probably should've gone with volumes. Or if I had it my way, they would've just kept the name of the show the same and had a Season 3, 4, and 5.

You guys figured it out, just wanted to confirm.

So, what was with the all-day marathon on Boomerang yesterday of JL Season 2? Not compalining at all, mind you; just worried that the show may be getting the kiss-off treatment.

It was such a treat to see some of those again (well, maybe not Eclipsed, even with Tracey Walter as a guest). Maybe Boomerang will start running the whole series, instead of just the endless loop of JLU they have been on for so long now - it might give a little freshness to everything.

Wonder Woman animated DVD trailer.

I had a bunch of problems with the JLU version of the character, but this looks more promising (though they seem to be keeping the bleached-blonde Hippolyta).

Plus, it has Artemis, which is cool.

Well, the action at the very least looks like it'll be nice. Wait and see for the story...I like the trailer a lot, but can't let it get my hopes up too high.

The design of Diana this time out seems much more tough-Amazonian than the animated series (she was still tall and arguably formidable-looking, just more traditionally-accepted-feminine in appearance on JL/JLU), which from what I can tell from seeing lots of Wonder Woman cover art and pin-ups (never read one of her comics though), is true to how she's often portrayed.

The cast is appealing. With the exception of Batman: Gotham Knight (which was all professional voice actors and Kevin Conroy), DC's other two non-DCAU direct-to-DVD films have had interesting mixes of "name" actors, mostly successful choices IMO. I've only ever seen Keri Russel in girly girl roles (Felicity, for example), but she's a capable actor. It's got Nathan Fillion, I'm won over already (Firefly/Serenity, Buffy, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and oh yeah I almost forgot that he was Vigilante on JLU, but meh to that role). Alfred Molina and Virginia Madsen, always great. I know a lotta people don't like her, but I enjoyed Rosario Dawson in Shattered Glass, The Rundown, Sin City, Rent, and what little I saw of Clerks 2.

I'll rent it like all the others, then buy the ones I found worthwhile some day on Blu-Ray.

You can play with them soon.

I watched New Frontier over the weekend (it was on YTV in Canada). I really liked it. They did a very good job making it something not for kids, and the credits sequence was really well done. I also liked how for once they showed how Green Lantern and Martian manhunter are two of the most powerful heroes in the DC universe.

Before I forget . . . New Frontier will be airing next Saturday on Cartoon Network. I never got around to watching on account that the library system never got to getting the DVD, so I'll be looking forward to it.