The DCU Animation Thread.

[Etienne]

As for her Mary Jane's VA, considering her VA in the 90's series sounded like a whiny 12-year-old, I'll gladly take the prostitute voice.

There has to be a middle ground.

 

[RogueDK]

I've come to the realization that B&B has some great replay value. I can honestly watch the Joker or Robin or even the Bat-Mite episode a number of times.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold has a better replay value than The Spectacular Spider-man.

Agreed.

 

[Etienne]

Agreed.

I stand by my statement after watching the first two episodes of SSM season 2.

 

[BlackLantern]

As for her Mary Jane's VA, considering her VA in the 90's series sounded like a whiny 12-year-old, I'll gladly take the prostitute voice.

you need a happy medium...she's supposed to sound like a 15 yr old girl, not a 29 yr old $300/hr call girl

 

[GamerSlyRatchet]

you need a happy medium...she's supposed to sound like a 15 yr old girl, not a 29 yr old $300/hr call girl

I can see why the voice may be a bit...too sexy, but after suffering through other horrible interpretations of MJ in the cartoons and movies, I'm glad someone finally got it right, as presented in the early years.

Anyways, so anyone else excited for those DC Animated Shorts? Anyone you wish had a short?

 

[Dread]

Comparing SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN and BATMAN: BRAVE AND THE BOLD is almost akin to apples and oranges, as the cliche' goes.

SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN is extremely serial and meant to be taken seriously, with many events played for drama or suspense. While it has light moments it has a lot of serious moments and a very strict story-arc format where no episode is wasted and they all play towards an end season finale. It has very complicated character interrelationships as well as themes of Shakespeare or Evolution thrown into the mildest details. Characters can be hurt, traumatized, and you are supposed to believe possibly killed if Spidey does not save them.

BATMAN: BRAVE AND THE BOLD is mostly played for laughs. It has had some serious interludes or allusions, and some very minor subplots, but by and large is meant to provide a good time with done in one episode tales. It knows how absurd it is. There is no threat of Batman or any hero being hurt or maimed and that's fine too. It can get away with, say, Bat-Mite virtually breaking the 4th Wall. It's akin to SUPERFRIENDS, only with better action, animation, acting, and probably writing. But in many ways a 21st century SUPERFRIENDS. And that isn't a bad thing because "Light Batman" is the only type of Batman that hasn't been overdone on the small screen in nearly a generation. While THE BATMAN tried and failed to straddle the line between being serious and being campy, BATMAN: BRAVE AND THE BOLD embraces camp, and runs wild with it.

And, are we really bashing Vanessa Marshall's Mary Jane from SS-M? I thought she did a great job. MJ should sound sexy.

 

[Prison Mike]

I love MJ's voice. I always thought it should sound sexy...

 

[BlackLantern]

Sexy is one thing....****ey is another all together...and she sounds ****ey...not that its anything to worry about, the shows dead anyway

 

[Prison Mike]

what do you mean the show is dead?

 

[BlackLantern]

well only 2 seasons aired, the reruns are on Disney XD now because there is no more Kids WB since the CW sold that block to 4Kids...the third season is outlined, but has yet to be commissioned by anyone

 

[Prison Mike]

I believe the second season is airing on Disney XD but they're new since they haven't aired in U.S. before. I saw the season 2 episodes on youtube as they aired in Canada. I'm sure season 3 will be commissioned.

 

[BlackLantern]

well its been close to a year...if someone hasn't grabbed it by now, no one is going to

 

[GamerSlyRatchet]

Hopefully, the show will get picked up in time. Maybe even announce it at Comic-Con, since they have a panel. It would be a huge shame if the show got cancelled after two seasons.

Worse if they show hasn't received an award yet, not even an Emmy. Then again, the Emmys are a complete joke.

 

[BlackLantern]

the show is OK, not sure if its award worthy

 

[Nathan]

I don't care about awards, but Spectacular Spider-Man is one of the best cartoons we've got in recent years. It's a really quality show. Would be a shame if it's done with Season 2.

 

[RogueDK]

Tara Strong is set to voice Billy Batson in an upcoming episode of Brave & The Bold. Probably second season but here's a link with cast pic:

http://voiceactors.wordpress.com/?s=Batson

 

[BlackLantern]

Captain Marvel....yea!!!

 

[Nathan]

I haven't kept up with Brave and the Bold, can anyone tell me in which episode Green Lantern appeared?

 

[GamerSlyRatchet]

I haven't kept up with Brave and the Bold, can anyone tell me in which episode Green Lantern appeared?

Better make that Green Lanterns. The teaser for "Day of the Dark Knight" and the main episode "The Eye of Despero" features them. Also, an upcoming episode is hinted to have more Green Lantern stuff.

 

[Dread]

Sexy is one thing....****ey is another all together...and she sounds ****ey...not that its anything to worry about, the shows dead anyway

I don't think Vanessa Marshall sounded "****ey" as MJ in SS-M.

The show isn't exactly dead...yet. If we don't get news about a third season by October, though, it likely is. Hopefully we get an announcement at SDCC, or at least by September.

Tara Strong is returning...and voicing Billy Batson. Okay, interesting. I still want to see some heroines. They don't ALL have to flirt with Batman.

 

[Dread]

More news about the casting of SUPERMAN/BATMAN: PUBLIC ENEMIES from Comics Continuum:

http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0907/21/index.htm

BRIEFLY

* The cast of Superman/Batman: Public Enemies includes Allison Mack as Power Girl, Xander Berkeley as Captain Atom, LeVar Burton as Black Lightning, Ricardo Chivara as Major Force and John C. McGinley at Metallo.

IMDB.com confirms that Mack has been cast as Power Girl. It also claims that CCH Pounder will reprise her role as Amanda Waller, but that hasn't been confirmed elsewhere yet. Considering this is being released two months after GREEN LANTERN: FIRST FLIGHT, I imagine the schedule must have been hectic, two animated DTV's being produced concurrently. Not only do Conroy, Brown, Daly, and perhaps Pounder bring fan favorite actors reprising their animated roles, but they likely know said roles so well that they barely have to rehearse or do too many takes in the booth. Still, Marvel's seemed to have slowed on their animated DTV front with no word on THOR: TALES OF ASGARD yet, and DC's capitalizing.

Still, that is quite a cast lined up. Allison Mack is already involved in SMALLVILLE which has been going for about 100 seasons, so it fits that she'd be cast in some DC cartoons (much like Michael Rosenbaum was). The WB/DC animated DTV's seem to have a higher casting budget than Marvel/Lion's Gate's stuff, as they always seem to get some decent names into their cast. GREEN LANTERN: FIRST FLIGHT naturally stars LAW & ORDER: SVU's Chris Meloni as Hal Jordon as well as having Michael Madsen, Kurtwood Smith, Victor Garber and John Larroquette on the cast. Juliet Landau, formerly cast as Tala on JLU, is also there.

 

[BlackLantern]

Marvels reason for that is they want people to concentrate on the characters, not the voices...if you look at any of their DTVs, its all people who are dedicated voice actors

 

[Panthro]

Marvels reason for that is they want people to concentrate on the characters, not the voices...if you look at any of their DTVs, its all people who are dedicated voice actors

It's probably cheaper too, hiring voice actors by trade as opposed to some 'celebrity'.

 

[BlackLantern]

DC does have WB standing right behind them so they can afford guys like Victor Garber and Chris Meloni

 

[Dread]

Marvels reason for that is they want people to concentrate on the characters, not the voices...if you look at any of their DTVs, its all people who are dedicated voice actors

That isn't to say that Marvel's animated voice casts are in any way bad. I didn't intend it that way. It's just they usually are lower profile, and in a way that is a shame. One easy example is Nolan North. He's played a variety of roles for them lately; Hank Pym in ULTIMATE AVENGERS 1 & 2, Deadpool in HULK VS. WOLVERINE, and naturally Cyclops in WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN. Back in 2007, WB put out their CGI "TMNT" film, and North starred as Raph. "Starred" is the appropriate term. Raph probably has more lines than the rest of the characters, and clearly has the strongest growth of the film, as he has to learn to not only forgive Leo for leaving their family, but get used to working with his brothers again. Yet does North get top billing? No. Y'know who does? Kevin Smith, who had, at best, a 3-5 line cameo (which in the commentary is stated to have been mostly improved). That's woefully unfair. In some ways "UP" had the same problem. Ed Asner was the star. But his name wasn't as plastered all over the place, either. If Ryan Seacrest had a cameo, his would have.

But, I digress. To be fair, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN actually had some modest "celeb" casting as it went along. Granted, it's a Greg Wiesman production, and he always lines up talent. He even got a few larger profile actors for a dub of the anime 3X3 EYES some years back.

My point was that usually the WB stuff has more of a casting budget, not that the performances are better. Although I will say that Andrea Romano is an excellent director and even "celeb" parts for the DTV's are usually well cast. They're not as bad as, say, some of the celebrity casting in some bigger budget motion pictures that Disney and WB did, especially in the late 90's. HOME ON THE RANGE, anyone?

Hell, the voice cast of WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN is one of it's strengths. It usually pleasantly distracts from some of the writing hiccups.

It was just something I'd noticed.