JL: Crisis on Two Earths

For years, I’ve complained how about most people in the US view animation as medium for children’s movies and TV shows (with comedy shows like the Simpsons and Family Guy being an exception.) With the latest Justice League feature debuting at #2, could we be finally coming around to accepting animation as venue for more mature features?

Bruce Timm, Dwayne McDuffie and the rest of the crew on Justice League Unlimited did an amazing job of writing smart and mature story lines, while working within the restrictions of a TV-Y7 rating. With the DC Comics Direct-To-Video releases, we get the opportunity to see what they can do without the TV rating restrictions. The results are awesome comic book adaptation presented as they should be.

Hasbro has signed a agreement with Shout! Factory to bring to DVD several animated properties based on the toymaker’s lines.

The multiyear deal includes episodes of 1980s series “The Transformers” and “G.I. Joe.”

The $29.99 three-DVD set will include the original broadcast versions of all 16 episodes from the 1984 season in the intended story line order, with remastered picture and a new stereo soundtrack created from the original audio.

read more from Reuters.

dbz setThe holidays are a great time to chill out and watch some old videos that are collecting dust on your shelf. Saturday, I watched 8 Man After, DBZ Treee of Might, and DBZ Dead Zone.

It’s always fun to watch old Streamline Pictures anime becuase they seem to use the same 5 voices for all of their dubs. But I still enjoy Streamline Pics like 8 Man After. Plenty of good action, nice story and good animation that holds up pretty well today. I wish it could have been fleshed out into a full series, instead of an OAV.

The DBZ movies were fun just to see how the DBZ characters have evolved over time. Gohan, the litte kid with so much hidden power. Piccolo, (in Dead Zone) is training for a re-match with his nemisis Goku! And Goku, who hasn’t figured out the Super Saiyan thing yet, relies on his Kaiô-ken to fight his enemies.

Later, I plan to watch Voltron: Fleet of Doom. I’m still mad, reflecting on my elementary school days when all my friends came in and told me how cool it was to see BOTH Voltrons TOGETHER! Of course, I never saw that episode until I was an adult. I may watch some of my DC Animation DVDs too.

What are you watching over the holidays?

All 85 episodes of the original Robotech series are now available for digital download. You can now download this series directly to your computer or digital media player through major online stores, including Amazon and Robotech: The Original Series.

from icV2 and AnimeNation:

In a surprise move the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim has reduced the number of anime series in its Saturday night lineup.  Starting this Saturday, September 13th, Viz Media’s Bleach will lead off the Adult Swim block at 11pm (ET, PT) followed by an episode of FUNimation’s Fullmetal Alchemist.  The previous schedule, which had been announced on August 25th, featured four anime series–FUNimation’s Shin Chan (at midnight ET, PT) followed by Bleach, Bandai’s Code Geass and Media Blasters’ Moribito.

This is disappointing. Cartoon Network & Adult Swim were the most widely-available outlets for Anime in the US. CN/AS was my favorite network when I could watch DBZ, Gundam, Robotech, Inuyash and other Anime shows. Now, the only thing I watch is Bleach. What happened? Is it a shift in strategy at the network, or lack of quality Anime to show on the network? Let me know what you think.

Warner Issues a Statement About the Hawkman/Birdman Mix-Up on DC Super Heroes: The Filmation Adventures Menus:

Warner Home Video would like to address a mistake made on the menus of the DC Superheroes: The Filmation Adventures DVD sets. While each disc’s menu should feature an image of the DC Comics character Hawkman, it instead has an image of the character Birdman. We apologize for the mistake and hope consumers will still see the value in the incredible cartoons featured on the actual DVDs.

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It is an accomplished, serious and adult adaptation that keeps every ounce of the original story’s brilliance. What we have here is a serious adult superhero story straight out of the Silver Age, but with the weight of the best of modern age storytelling.

read more from Ain’t It Cool News

Justice League – The New Frontier (Single-Disc Edition)

Blue Harvest,” from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, pays homage to “Star Wars,” the DVD counting among its many extras an interview with George Lucas by “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane. The disc also is the first to include a digital copy available for download to the iPod.

read more from Reuters

Blue Harvest