Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns Animated

[Two-Face]

What movies Emerson started. I can't remember? I think he's great and will be as the Joker.

 

[Travesty]

It was rumored earlier, but someone confirmed it about a week or so ago. I think it'll be an interesting choice for TDKR-Joker.

So far, from everything I keep seeing, this is shaping out to be a great DCU animated film. Even though TDKR isn't my favorite book out there, I'm still very much excited about this release.

 

[Drz]

Speaking as a massive Lost fan, I think he's PERFECT for Joker! Shame they couldn't get Mark Hamill back

Why are you on the assumption they even asked for him? For Hamill's voice to fit this Joker, he'd had to do a completely different take, so you'd just have fans groaning how it's not the BTAS Joker.

 

[Holiday]

What movies Emerson started. I can't remember? I think he's great and will be as the Joker.

He was in the first Saw film, but most know him as Ben from Lost.

 

[theMan-Bat]

Surprised nobody posted this here yet:

Michael Emerson as the Joker

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Michael-Emerson-Joker-The-Dark-Knight-Returns-1052594.aspx

It's fitting that The Joker posted that.

Besides the Michael Emerson interview, the link also reveals that Mark Valley (Human Target) is voicing Superman in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Part 2.

 

[Lencho01]

It'd be like how the majority of Gotham Knight was for me with Conroy.

 

[Sawyer]

Michael Emerson as the Joker

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Michael-Emerson-Joker-The-Dark-Knight-Returns-1052594.aspx

Michael Emerson?!?

 

[shauner111]

Very surprised by Emerson. He's always been a great choice for the Riddler, and i still think he would be an amazing riddler in live-action...but him voicing the Joker is gonna be awesome.

 

[Young Superman]

Michael Emerson as the Joker

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Michael-Emerson-Joker-The-Dark-Knight-Returns-1052594.aspx

This is cool. Do we know who is voicing Superman in this yet?

 

[Kane52630]

This is cool. Do we know who is voicing Superman in this yet?

...

Besides the Michael Emerson interview, the link also reveals that Mark Valley (Human Target) is voicing Superman in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Part 2.

 

[Young Superman]

Cool thanks, Valley's an interesting choice to voice Superman.

 

[Brother Jack]

Emerson is a good choice. He can certainly be creepy enough.

 

[BH/HHH]

Michael Emerson as the Joker

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Michael-Emerson-Joker-The-Dark-Knight-Returns-1052594.aspx

Looks very reminscent of Jack Nicholson. I don't know who Emerson is but hopefully he'll do a good job.


Mark Valley as Superman is very interesting.

I have to admit though I hate the way Superman is portrayed in this book and I think he's made to look like an idiot. Still I hope they keep in the scene where he stops the rocket (I think that's right) even though the recharge from the flower was odd even if they do feed off sunlight.

 

[theMan-Bat]

I don't know who Emerson is but hopefully he'll do a good job.

Michael Emerson was the deceptive villain in Lost. The Joker is very deceptive in Dark Knight Returns, conning his Arkham psychiatrist into believing that he's a changed man, remorseful of his crimes and harmless now.

Mark Valley as Superman is very interesting.

I have to admit though I hate the way Superman is portrayed in this book and I think he's made to look like an idiot. Still I hope they keep in the scene where he stops the rocket (I think that's right) even though the recharge from the flower was odd even if they do feed off sunlight.

As Superman says of the Earth, "The same power...The sun's power...fuels us both...You hold it here...You store it...I beg you...For a suffering world...Release it...You are so generous...I swear your adopted son will honor you."
Superman actually calls Batman an idiot, because in Superman's mind, Batman is being idiotically reckless. Neither Batman or Superman are made to look like idiots, they just have very different points of view, which puts them at odds.

One of my favorite Superman scenes in Dark Knight Returns is when Superman fights crime in Gotham while moving so fast that people can't even see him. Superman also heroically diverts a bomb from a populated area and suffers the explosion himself, he goes on about how petty and cruel and awful we are and then still hopes to be able to save us. "You have every reason to be outraged, Mother Earth...You have given them everything...They are tiny and stupid and vicious but please listen to them...I have always loved you...Though I was born a galaxy away...I have always served you..."
And Superman had iconically been a patriotic, law-abiding establishment figure for decades. Superman had been shown patriotically assisting the government for decades. Superman had been involved legally with the police (Superman #20 (1943) "Lair of the Leopard", and many others), U.S. Army (Superman #23 (1943) "America's Secret Weapon", and many others), U.S. Navy (Superman #15 (1942) "The Napkanese Saboteurs", and many others), the Secret Service (Action Comics #256 (1959) "Superman of the Future") and U.S. Presidents (Superman #107 (1964) "Superman's Mission for President Kennedy"). There was the Superman School for Officers' Training, the nations largest Army officers training center, constructed single-handedly by Superman, at super-speed, as a favor to the U.S. Army in Action Comics #210 (1943) "Make Way for Fate!" Superman held the rank of General in the U.S. Army in Superman #133 (1959) "Superman Joins the Army!" It's revealed that every nation knows how to get in touch with Superman through the White House in Action Comics #306 (1963). Frank Miller used Superman's history for inspiration in Dark Knight Returns. Frank Miller said in Comics Interview #31 (1986), "I found ways to use Superman's thirty year history."

 

[BH/HHH]

Michael Emerson was the deceptive villain in Lost. The Joker is very deceptive in Dark Knight Returns, conning his Arkham psychiatrist into believing that he's a changed man, remorseful of his crimes and harmless now.



As Superman says of the Earth, "The same power...The sun's power...fuels us both...You hold it here...You store it...I beg you...For a suffering world...Release it...You are so generous...I swear your adopted son will honor you."
Superman actually calls Batman an idiot, because in Superman's mind, Batman is being idiotically reckless. Neither Batman or Superman are made to look like idiots, they just have very different points of view, which puts them at odds.

One of my favorite Superman scenes in Dark Knight Returns is when Superman fights crime in Gotham while moving so fast that people can't even see him. Superman also heroically diverts a bomb from a populated area and suffers the explosion himself,? he goes on about how petty and cruel and awful we are and then still hopes to be able to save us. "You have every reason to be outraged, Mother Earth...You have given them everything...They are tiny and stupid and vicious but please listen to them...I have always loved you...Though I was born a galaxy away...I have always served you..."
And Superman had iconically been a patriotic, law-abiding establishment figure for decades. Superman had been shown patriotically assisting the government for decades. Superman had been involved legally with the police (Superman #20 (1943) "Lair of the Leopard", and many others), U.S. Army (Superman #23 (1943) "America's Secret Weapon", and many others), U.S. Navy? (Superman #15 (1942) "The Napkanese Saboteurs", and many others), the Secret Service (Action Comics #256 (1959) "Superman of the Future") and U.S. Presidents (Superman #107 (1964) "Superman's Mission for President Kennedy"). There was the Superman School for Officers' Training, the nations largest Army officers training center,? constructed single-handedly by Superman, at super-speed, as a favor to the U.S. Army in Action Comics #210 (1943) "Make Way for Fate!" Superman held the rank of General in the U.S. Army in Superman #133 (1959) "Superman Joins the Army!" It's revealed that every nation knows how to get in touch with Superman through the White House in Action Comics #306 (1963). Frank Miller used Superman's history for inspiration in Dark Knight Returns. Frank Miller said in Comics Interview #31 (1986), "I found ways to use Superman's thirty year history."

Superman may have helped the government but he is not a government puppet as portrayed in this.

Also I don't like him calling people idiots, Superman as character has always believed in the people, he sees the good in everyone the Superman I know n love would not refer to the people of Earth as idiots.

But I disgress each to their own I think TDKR's works as an elseworlds story which is what it is but in no way is this a version of Superman that I know and love.

Personally I'm hoping they take a stab at Kingdom Come sometime which IMO is the far superior return of an old hero story but again that's just me.

 

[theMan-Bat]

Superman may have helped the government but he is not a government puppet as portrayed in this.

Serving his country doesn't make him the government's puppet, certainly not in his opinion. Superman does it for patriotic reasons because he wants to serve his country, save lives, he works alongside them, rather than above them. He comes from above us but stands beside us. He imposes his own limits. He agrees to abide by the laws of the land ("the American way"). He tries to be a positive role-model, and to be a positive role-model the people must trust in the moral core of Superman, not perceive him as a reckless outlaw vigilante, hence Superman's legal government-sanctioned methods. Batman wants to be feared, Superman wants to be trusted. In Superman #22 (1943) "The Great ABC Panic" by Jerry Siegel, the nation plunges into chaos when the Prankster copyrights the English alphabet, and Clark thinks to himself, "What can I do? The Prankster has the law on his side, and I won't flout justice at any cost!"
Superman had a long history of working with the American governments Navy, Army, and with U.S. Presidents themselves (Superman #170 (1964) "Superman's Mission for President Kennedy", etc.) long before Frank Miller wrote Dark Knight Returns. Also Dark Knight Returns takes place in the future after superheroes had been vilified by parents groups, the media, and had been called in for questioning by a Senate Sub-Committee and superheroes had been outlawed and retired except for Superman, because he is legally government-sanctioned. Frank Miller's idea that these superheroes would be vilified by parents groups, the media, and be called in for questioning by a Senate Sub-Committee was modeled after the real-life vilifying of these characters and the U.S. government proceedings against them in the 1950s. In reality these superheroes Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman were vilified by parents groups, the media, a psychologist named Fredric Wertham and a Senate Sub-Committee on Juvenile Delinquency called the comic book publishers in for questioning and they eventually make a pact with the government that they would give them their obedience or disappear. It happened in 1954 and the original strict Comics Code was created, those that weren't code approved were forced out of publication because the threat of newsdealer boycotts were pressuring them into not selling what somebody had found offensive. DC editors had been censoring Batman comics since 1941 when they created an Editorial Advisory Board so by the 1950s it was actually the horror and crime comics Crime Suspenstories, Crime Does Not Pay, Tales of the Crypt, Vault of Fear, Haunt of Fear, that made comics all look like monsters and really soiled them in the public eye. Batman is at his core a horror-esque character dressing as a bat to frighten and had very brutal methods before DC editors censored the character, so Frank Miller puts Batman in the role that the horror and crime comics and their publisher Bill Gaines were in at the time that these things really happened. Psychologist Bartholomew Wolper who calls Batman a fascist in Dark Knight Returns is based on psychologist Fredric Wertham who called superheroes fascist.

Also I don't like him calling people idiots, Superman as character has always believed in the people, he sees the good in everyone the Superman I know n love would not refer to the people of Earth as idiots.

Now you make it seem as though Superman's going around calling all the people of the Earth idiots in Dark Knight Returns. He only thinks Batman is being idiotic, foolish in other words. But even after Batman viciously fought him, Superman cradles Batman in his arms and shouts "Don't touch him!" at the off-panel military onlookers.

In Dark Knight Returns Superman certainly sees the good in the people of Earth, as he struggles to work with the people of Earth and to save the people of Earth, but he's also not ignorant to the viciousness, the cruelty, the foolishness of Earthlings, either. Batman was denigrated in Kingdom Come by Superman, "Shut up! I don't have time for your hollier-than-thou cracks!"

But I disgress each to their own I think TDKR's works as an elseworlds story which is what it is but in no way is this a version of Superman that I know and love.

It's a Dark Knight Universe story (Earth-31), which is part of DC's Multiverse, and it's certainly a version of Superman that I know and love.

Personally I'm hoping they take a stab at Kingdom Come sometime which IMO is the far superior return of an old hero story but again that's just me.

At the Batman: Year One panel at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2011, when asked if Kingdom Come is possibly going to be made into a movie, Bruce Timm said, "It's just not made for 2D animation. It's just not. I don't think we...It's not a good fit. Yeah. So, impossible dream, yes. I'm sorry."
[YT]B8n5Y72NoJ8[/YT]
According to Alex Ross, Bruce Timm doesn't even like Kingdom Come. Alex Ross said, "For some reason, as we were both approaching Superman at exactly the same time – he was just starting on designing the show and I was starting work on Kingdom Come – we shared each other's experiences of what things we were doing for design and direction, and he was nothing if not hypercritical… well, to be fair, we were both hypercritical of each other. In what each other was doing towards the same source. And he fell out of love with anything that he had liked before with what I did. In fact, he fell out of love with it to such a point that he hated the very idea of what I was doing."
http://www.ign.com/articles/2003/10/22/an-interview-with-alex-ross?page=2

Rich Johnston: "I asked Bruce Timm at last year’s Batman: Year One panel whether he might take Kingdom Come on as a project. He told me that it wasn’t a story suited for animation. Do you think your style could be adapted to animation?"

Alex Ross: "I’ve seen some of the Warner Brothers stuff, some of it is quite good, but they don’t have the budget for my style. They can’t even bring to life George Perez’s art style in traditional animation. When you’re talking about my style, you’re really talking about 3D graphics. What I try to do is bring this stuff to some kind of physical life that exceeds comic book illustrations. If you’re not trying to cast people to match my drawings, you’re talking about computer animation on a level we still haven’t seen done. Things that have tried for realism haven’t worked out perfectly well yet. The best on-screen example of that would be Final Fantasy (2001). They did it very well, but there’s still a certain level of stiffness. Until that’s fully conquered, a style like mine just becomes reduced when you turn it into 2D animation. The next question is, 'is the story line so important that we just need to get it told soon.' I’ve always hoped that DC would never have to scrape the bottom of the barrel in doing that. I’d like to think that I’m no easily replaceable and that my style could not so easily be thrown out just to get the production on the schedule. And, as you can imagine, I have absolutely zero input in that process.
Say that you use the technology that they use for video games now. It’s not perfect, but if they tried something like that for Kingdom Come, then I might be interested."

Rich Johnston: "Like Arkham City (2011 video game)?"

Alex Ross: "Yeah, that’s physically possible to do—an animated feature that looks like that. Will it be everything I hope it would be? Not yet, but it’s heading in that direction."
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/07/13/the-new-52-is-a-tough-thing-to-see-alex-ross-talks-tower-chronicles-reboots-and-how-to-animate-kingdom-come/

I enjoy both Dark Knight Returns and Kingdom Come. Kingdom Come is obviously inspired by Dark Knight Returns in that it is a Dark Knight Returns that is Superman centered rather than Batman centered. In Dark Knight Returns it is the older Batman who is retired, has grown facial hair and is mopey at Wayne Manor, and Gordon worries about him, and then the Dark Knight returns after crime had gotten very bad, he comes into conflict with the establishment, there is conflict between Batman and Superman because of their differing views and methods, the Joker commits mass murder and then dies, there is a nuclear attack, Batman is allied with Green Arrow on his side, and Batman ends up having a final showdown with Superman.
In Kingdom Come it is the older Superman who is retired, has grown facial hair and is mopey at the Fortress of Solitude, and Wonder Woman worries about him, then the Man of Steel returns after crime has gotten very bad, he comes into conflict with the establishment, there is conflict between Superman and Batman because of their differing views and methods, the Joker committed mass murder and then dies, there is a nuclear attack, Batman is allied with Green Arrow on his side, and Superman ends up having a final showdown with Captain Marvel. Alex Ross even had an obvious homage to Carrie Kelley in Kingdom Come at the superhero restaurant in the end.

 

[theMan-Bat]

Jose Alcaraz posted on the Facebook page, "Wal-Mart will be releasing the exclusive 2 Disc DVD set. Best Buy will be releasing the Blu-ray Combo Pack with an action figure."
http://www.facebook.com/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights and Superman vs. the Elite did have their Two-Disc DVD sets released exclusively through Walmart.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/20655978
However the Walmart website has the Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Part 1 Single-Disc DVD and the Blu-Ray Combo Pack listed for preorders, with no Two-Disc DVD set listed for preorder.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/21566275
http://www.walmart.com/ip/21566274
So at this point it's looking like Warner is canceling the Two-Disc DVD set option. But the Walmart site is also mistakenly listing the Single-Disc DVD as a Blu-Ray, so their site isn't so reliable for accurate info on the Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Part 1 items at this point.

Update: Warner is releasing a Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Part 1 Two-Disc DVD set after all.
Front cover of the Two-Disc DVD set:

Back Cover of the Two-Disc DVD set:

The Two-Disc DVD set doesn't include the new featurette Her Name is Carrie … Her Role is Robin. It only includes the featurette Batman and Me: The Bob Kane Story, which had previously been released on the Batman: Gotham Knight Two-Disc Special Edition DVD set. So the special features disc has no new content at all. So if you already have the Batman: Gotham Knight Two-Disc Special Edition DVD set and the Batman: The Animated Series Volume One DVD set, then there's no reason to buy this Two-Disc DVD set instead of the Blu-ray/DVD/UltraViolet Combo Pack or the Single Disc DVD.

 

[BH/HHH]

The man-bat your very knowledgeable how do you know all that? I'm really impressed by your knowledge.

I do like the DKR's story but I just don't feel its my Superman in that story and i am irritated by how he comes across but each to their own.

I get your comparisons on TDKR's and Kindgom Come I'd love to know if Alex Ross was actually inspired by the DKR's or not.

 

[Kane52630]

I am hoping one day they make a Kingdom Come animated film in the style of Alex Ross.

 

[Kane52630]

New Clip From The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1

http://www.superherohype.com/news/a...-new-clip-from-the-dark-knight-returns-part-1

 

[EliteF50]

I haven't been this excited for a Batman movie since TDKR!

 

[theMan-Bat]

[YT]99lj-5fAV0A[/YT]
Wow. Awesome 2nd clip. Again, impressively faithful to the source material.

 

[theMan-Bat]

2nd Dark Knight Returns clip.
[YT]99lj-5fAV0A[/YT]
Again, impressively faithful to the source material.

 

[Brother Jack]

Still not totally feeling the Mutant Leader's voice.

 

[EliteF50]

I like it better now. It sounds deeper than it did in that leaked BTS video.