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Category: DC Media (DCEU, DCU)

DC’s movies, TV shows, and animated offerings

Tweets from 2010-08-07

  • TGIF! #
  • Doing Write: Upgraded to WP 3.0.1 http://bit.ly/aaX5wI #
  • Watching Justice League cartoons. All that Greek Myth stuff around Wonder Woman? Kitten SO totally gets it now. Western Civ FTW! #

Unblogged Bits (Fri. 30-Jul-10 0201)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. ‘Legend of Korra’: The ‘Avatar’ Creators on the New Spinoff – Speakeasy – WSJ – More on the new series, interviewing Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. Sounds promising!
  2. The Crime Syndicate: the Evil Justice League – Evil Twins — the GM’s Best Friend.
  3. Drilling on California’s Coastline – And if only the liberals hadn’t gotten gotten all persnickety about “spills” and “ecology” and “beaches,” those rigs would still be there today!
  4. Out of Laser Sights, Out of Mind – Don’t you realize that foreign aid simply encourages folks in foreign countries to sit around on their butts and watch “Oprah” all day?! It’s like unemployment for furriners!
  5. Private Industry Contaminating Your Precious Bodily Fluids – Silly writer — modern conservatism has nothing to do with past conservative values, only with The Money.
  6. Anne Rice Leaves Christianity; Doesn’t Want To Be “Anti-Gay,” “Anti-Feminist” – I’ll note that as a Christian, I am not anti-gay, anti-feminist, anti-birth-control, anti-Democrat, anti-secular-humanist, anti-science, anti-life … Though that’s gotten me into some trouble as to whether I’m to be considered Christian at all. Certainly, demoninationally, there are sizable factions within Christianity that are some or all of those things. But there are parts that are not, that care more for Christ’s care for others and love of all.
  7. The Stupidity Of Liberal Apathy | The New Republic – “If the left is going to demand action, it has to do more than sigh when action–even modest action–actually happens.” Nobody is going to claim that the Obama Administration, or the Democratic Leadership of Congress, have been uncompromising drivers of progressive change (except, of course, for brick-lobbing Republicans). But, really — if the choice is between a House of Representatives led by Nancy Pelosi or one led by John Boehner, do liberals REALLY think there’s no difference?
  8. Past problems for company at heart of oil spill – Yahoo! News – Obviously, the problem was that they were over-regulated! Fewer regulations, fewer regulatory violations!
  9. Logo Blocked! Obama’s Communists Desperately Try To Hide Logo! Furor Over GodBlock UPDATED! | Christian Coalition of America – Holy crap, whatever these guys are smoking simply cannot be legal.

Unblogged Bits (Thu. 1-Jul-10 0201)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Homeland Security Works For Disney Now? Announces Shut Down Of Movie Sites At Disney – Big Media has far too many Congresscritters from both parties willing to do them favors.
  2. The 12 Greatest Moments from the Justice League Cartoon – Rewatched about 2/3 of JLU (both seasons) recently, and it really was just damned good cartoonage.
  3. Increasing Number Of Americans Unable To Point Out Map | The Onion – Unfortunately, life imitates art …
  4. Elena Kagan Asked Straight Up: ‘You Got What It Takes?’ | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source – If only it were that simple.
  5. This Dude Is the Best There Ever Was – Must, must share this with Kitten …
  6. Wonder Woman Has Decided to Cosplay as ’90s Superboy – I give that costume … 3 years, absolute tops. Yes, the star-spangled swim suit was its own level of dorkiness — but, hell, so is Superman’s underwear-on-the-outside outfit, and every change to that has been trendy crap that didn’t last until the next big cross-over or two.
  7. Klobuchar Hits Coburn For Saying America Was More Free When There Were No Women On The Supreme Court – Freedom for me, but not for thee!
  8. Tongue-Tied to America « MADE IN AMERICA – This really needs to be more widely known. Hispanics in this country these days are actually adopting English faster than turn-of-the-last-century immigrants.
  9. Victoria’s Secret Says to Love Your Photoshopped Body – I notice the ribs that come with that degree of anorexia have mysteriously vanished, too.
  10. Putting Airline Travel into Perspective – The sad thing is that it seems air travel times are increasing — not because of slower planes, but because of increased delays, security, and other folderol at airports.
  11. The Active/Passive Gender Binary in Kids’ Meal Toys – Yeesh. And, yes, Katherine usually requests the “boy toy.”
  12. Co-opting Abe Lincoln and the Fight Against Slavery – Some interesting discussion of oversimplifying and co-opting historic figures, Abe Lincoln as a far more complex person than he is as a symbol, and a really, truly, awful, terrible political commercial (with the possible exception of the last 15 seconds).
  13. Maybe Safety Shouldn’t Always Be First (At Any Age) – I’m a big believer in safety, but one has to ask, ultimately, safety to what end? Wrapping a kid (or an elder) up in cotton and isolating them in a little box may be “safer,” but at the cost of actual living.
  14. Outrage of the Afternoon: School Bans Toy Soldiers – “Remember: when tiny plastic weapons are outlawed, only tiny plastic outlaws will have tiny plastic weapons.”
  15. FL Gov. Charlie Crist Claims that Oil Covered Beaches are Safe – These conservative governors are in a bind — either they scream for federal assistance and scare off the tourists, or they pander to the tourism trade and get the suffering locals all torqued off. My heart bleeds for them.
  16. New Old Spice Ad – Okay, it’s funny. I won’t buy the product, but it’s funny.

Unblogged Bits for Sun, 25 Apr 2010, 8:01PM

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Young Justice and Mad Magazine Are Cartoon-Network Bound – Leaving aside the oddity of making Aqualad black (though it sounds like there may be some in-continuity basis for it), this looks a lot more like current Teen Titans than Young Justice … but, then, Young Justice is a nice title name (and avoids stomping all over the not-all-that-old TT cartoon franchise).
  2. Chickens-4-Checkups Roundup: SOS! – Well, Sue, you knew this job was dangerous when you ran for it …
  3. No sense of humour at all, Part II [Pharyngula] – Humility is considered a virtue. Getting all huffy over what you perceive as disrespect is … sort of the antithesis of humility.
  4. Eight types of friendship – An interesting analysis.

A guilty TV-viewing secret

The Blurry "S"
The Blurry "S"

“Hi. My name is Dave.  And I watch Smallville.”

Hi, Dave!

When Smallville first started I had — well, less-than-zero interest in it.  “Look — it’s Smallville Creek,” I’d josh, and though I’d occasionally tune it in if I was on a business trip and in the hotel and it was the right day and I wasn’t doing something else … nothing I saw made me feel any different.  Cheesy effects, Young Super-Hero Teen Angst, and … well … meh.

I decided, when the big “Justice Society of America” episode came up this season to give it another look-see, if only to see how godawful it was. I am a JSA fan, after all.  And …

Well …

Okay, it’s like candy corn.  It’s sweet.  It’s cheap. It’s mildly nauseating in excess. It’s not what you’d want to have every night.

But it’s not that bad.  The FX are still pretty crappy — amazing what you can do with blur-o-shaky-cam-vision — and the story is still soap-operatic.  But it’s at least in Metropolis now, and there are enough parallels to the canonical comics (to the extent that applies any more) that I just sort of enjoy, candy corn-like, seeing how they play with the plot elements.  Zod, Amanda Waller, Green Arrow, the JSA, Martian Manhunter, Kandor and the lost Kryptonians, Silver-freakin-Banshee, Metallo-fer-goshsakes …

The whole “he’s not Superman, he’s ‘The Blur'” and coy Matrixy non-uniform thing is simultaneously goofy and interesting.  The questions of trust and family and who’s preparing to counter whom, and who’s in the right (or wrong) about it is a bit intriguing.  There’s some writing there that’s no worse than what the average issue of Action has (even if it’s not as sophisticated or interesting or enjoyable as, say, Superman: TAS, or the animated Justice League). There’s far more insulting drama on TV, in short.  Which is definitely damning with faint praise, but I’ll leave it at that.

I don’t know if I’ll finally watch one episode too many and swear off the candy corn series for another year, or if I’ll continue just munching a bit from week to week.  If I had to cancel my cable, it would be the least of shows I watch that I’d mourn.

But I’m still enjoying it.  As a guilty not-so-anymore-secret.

Unblogged Bits for Mon, 29 Mar 2010, 9:00PM

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Sci-Fi-Superfan-Reference-Manual.jpg – HA! Shiny!
  2. BRAVE & THE BOLD – “The Super Batman of Planet X” – Mania.com – This was a blast to watch if only to hear Kevin Conroy, Clancy Brown, and Dana Delany reprise their roles (kinda-sorta) from the old BTAS/STAS series.

Unblogged Bits for Wednesday, 22 April 2009

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

Watchmen title sequence Easter Eggs

The main titles for Watchmen — coming after the gory slugfest between the Comedian and his attacker — provide a history of the movie’s world. This IO9 article has a great summary of some of the Easter Eggs (hidden treasures) in that sequence. A few thoughts …

  1. Yeah, it’s quite possible that’s a reference to the ill-fated Waynes — though it would be clearer if there was a young kid with them, and the movie posters were for Zorro. Without that, it’s just as arguable that Nite Owl (I) is taking the place of Batman in this continuity. (Unconfirmed, but one of the commenters notes that the scene takes place at “the Gotham Opera House (an ejected bullet shell is seen flipping right in front of the word ‘Gotham.'”
  2. Well, I suppose it could be any B-20, but the number on the front does make it seem like the Enola Gay is now the Sally Jupiter — and there’s some nuclear-packed irony for you.
  3. I recognized Dollar Bill in the opening sequence, but not the infamous “gunned down when his cape got caught in a revolving door” fate he suffered. That said, I’m not sure how his cape got caught over the top of a revolving door in that way.
  4. I spotted the Last Supper motif, of course. Consulting some notes … Mothman, Silhouette and her girlfriend are in the place of Bartholomew, James (son of Alphaeus) and Andrew. No symbolism leaps out there. The Comedian is in Judas’ seat and pose (without Peter and John backing him up). Sally’s in Jesus’ spot (with a beatific smile toward the Comedian). On her left, her husband, Laurence Schexnayder, is taking Philip’s role, “demanding an explanation.” Capt. Metropolis (in Matthew’s pose) is turned toward Hooded Justice (Simon the Zealot).
  5. The best bit that the IO9 article doesn’t mention is how Silhouette preempts the hapless sailor (seen striding along a few seconds too late) in the famous “V-E Day” picture, grabbing the nurse to smooch her herself. 

Yeesh. I’m going to be stepping through the DVD on 1/4 speed at this rate.

Batman: Brave and the Bold

So we’ve been having fun watching the new Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon on Cartoon Network (official site). While I miss my beloved Batman: The Animated Series of memory, it’s a better (read: truer to the comic book world) rendition of Bats than the shortish-lived The Batman.

The Brave and the Bold was a comic that ran for some decades at DC (recently resurrected), and basically served as a team-up book, usually with Batman. That’s how this new series works — each episode has Batman teaming up with another DCU hero against some thread. In fact, it’s usually two heroes, one for the teaser in front (the end of an adventure), once for the main part of the show.

The animation style is similar to BTAS, if a bit more stylized. The whole show has a 60s jazz lilt to it, from the graphics to the music. While there are more contemporary sensibilities, the overall tone is lighter, much more Silver or Golden Age (Green Arrow, a semi-regular, is in his pre-Neil Adams getup, drives an Arrow-Car, flies an Arrow-Plane, etc.). Bats himself is — well, he’s still got that glowering I-am-the-Night sensibility, but he’s not above the occasional wry wisecrack or cracking a grin.

Much of the internal Bat-monologue (which we are now privy to, which seems odd) is commentary about other heroes — especially young ones. Indeed, for a show that so far has not mentioned Robin, we’ve had significant appearances from Speedy and (the new) Blue Beetle to fill in the youthful-projection role. Batman’s voiced by Dietrich Bader, who manages a credible gravelly Kevin Conroy imitation.  

Though clearly set in the DC Universe, it’s neither canonical to the comics (either now or from the period), nor does it parallel the BTAS or Justice League animated universes (the treatments of Wildcat and, even moreso, Aquaman, are quite different). That’s okay, if occasionally jarring. In some ways, it’s like the (endless) Legion of Super Heroes reboots — it’s fun to see old stories and old characters behaving just a bit differently.

If there’s one drawback to BatB, it’s what haunted the original comic, too (as well as whenever Batman is with the Justice League). Batman is essentially a normal, if highly trained, human, partnering with and fighting against metahuman opponents. The options seem to be (a) getting soundly thrashed on every outing, (b) turning into a tech monkey to pull a new equalizer out of the utility belt at each turn, (c) ignoring the different power levels as much as possible, so that Bats dukes it out with much more powerful opponents, (d) leveraging martials arts into a “power” to provide at least some equality, and/or (e) making Bats into a cunning mastermind who wins against more powerful opponents because he out-thinks them.

The writers here have generally gone for (b) and (c). Bats seems to be reguarly pulling out some new tech trick (Nth Metal brass knuckles, built-in jet-pack, etc.”) at every turn, and even when he’s not, he’s still a formidable brawler against folks who ought to pound him into paste. They’re the weakest options, but they’re also understandable for a kid’s cartoon.

Can’t criticize too much, because we’re enjoying this Cartoon Network outing. It’s good to see Bats up on the screen again, even if it’s not my “favorite” incarnation, both Katherine and I (and Margie) enjoy it, and I hope the show has a long run.

(As a side note, I can’t imagine that Cartoon Network gets so many downloads of ringtones that they actually make a substantial amount of money from it at $1.99/shot — as opposed to the publicity they’d get if their ringtones were, ah, free.)

Faboo SciFi Homage to the 70s

This was the era I grew up in, SciFi-wise on TV. And this image by Dusty Abell (full sized here) shows off a whole gob of folks from the era. This is…

This was the era I grew up in, SciFi-wise on TV. And this image by Dusty Abell (full sized here) shows off a whole gob of folks from the era. This is just beauty. 

scifi-70s-80s

Yeah, a lot of it was crap — but it was our crap, dagnabbit! And it was the only crap in town.

Featured above (and you have to look at the full-size version, or even a still-large-but-more-readable version to appreciate it) are (deeeep breath, and from memory) …

Continue reading “Faboo SciFi Homage to the 70s”

Eartha Kitt, RIP

The classic sultry songstress of the original “Santa Baby,” my first exposure to Eartha Kitt was as a 3rd season replacement of Julie Newmar as Catwoman on the 1960s Batman…

The classic sultry songstress of the original “Santa Baby,” my first exposure to Eartha Kitt was as a 3rd season replacement of Julie Newmar as Catwoman on the 1960s Batman TV series. Nobody could supplant the sultry and regal Ms. Newmar in the role, but Kitt brought an appropriate cat-like ferocity and sly unpredictability to the part (not to mention the purr), making her a more-than-worthy substitute. 

(thanks, Amanda, for the IM)

Potpourri on a way-too-busy Tuesday

PALINESQUE POLITICS! Executive Experience and More on “Executive” Experience – Having “executive experience” is a lot more (and a lot less) than serving in office in an executive branch. Obama’s demonstrated…

PALINESQUE POLITICS!

  1. Executive Experience and More on “Executive” Experience – Having “executive experience” is a lot more (and a lot less) than serving in office in an executive branch. Obama’s demonstrated executive ability in this very campaign, something I’ve yet to see from Palin’s track record (hiring of lobbyists aside).
  2. Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process… – Speaking of executive decision-making, the way McCain appears to have handled the whole process — the first decision he gets to make as a proto-president — demonstrates a lack of planning, rash decision-making, and shoot-first-questions-later style of leadership that … is not quite what I think we need today.
  3. Borderline – More obvious sources unexamined before the decision was made.
  4. ABC News Confirms That McCain’s VP Pick Was AIP Member – But remember, John McCain is for America, first!
  5. Atheists’ Worst Nightmares: Sarah Palin, Bananas – It’s so amusing to hear conservative women’s groups slam traditional feminist groups over the Palin nomination, when without the feminists of the 60s and 70s and beyond Palin wouldn’t have made it past being a beauty pageant winner.
  6. George Lakoff: The Palin Choice and the Reality of… – Does the Palin decision make a difference? “Yes, the McCain-Palin ticket is weak on the major realities. But it is strong on the symbolic dimension of politics that Republicans are so good at marketing. Just arguing the realities, the issues, the hard truths should be enough in times this bad, but the political mind and its response to symbolism cannot be ignored. The initial Democratic response to Palin — the response based on realities alone — indicates that many Democrats have not learned the lessons of the Reagan and Bush years.”

POLITICS SANS PALIN!

  1. Report: Gonzales Mishandled Classified Data – washingtonpost.com – Speaking of knee-jerk selections of incompetents with insufficient vetting, no surprise here that not only did Gonzales not keep highly classified data under proper security (i.e., something beyond sitting in his unlocked brief case at home), he couldn’t remember the combo to his house safe.
  2. Protests in Minneapolis [The Corpus Callosum] – Because if you call them “terrorists,” you can do whatever you want, right?

NO POLITICS!

  1. Study Links Gene Variant in Men to Marital Discord… – Genes aren’t destiny … but they can certainly give a behavior nudge.
  2. Shelley, Percy Bysshe – A quote for today on tolerance.
  3. Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, The: Warner Issues… – Hawkman, Bird Man … what’s the diff, y’know? I mean, they’re both, like, comic book guys with feathers.
  4. A fresh take on the browser and Google Chrome, Google’s Browser Project: Do we really need another browser out there? I remain in love with Firefox — but I’m damned tempted to see what Google’s up to with Chrome.

Final Bachelor Movie Reviews

With Margie and Katherine coming home tomorrow, here are a few last things I watched before they did. Tin Man (2007) : For all that Sci-Fi channel’s original programming tends…

With Margie and Katherine coming home tomorrow, here are a few last things I watched before they did.

Tin Man (2007) : For all that Sci-Fi channel’s original programming tends to suck, they can do a pretty decent job at times. This clever homage to Wizard of Oz (it’s not quite a retelling, but it reincorporates a whole slew of elements in an updated-yet-steampunkish kind of way) manages to stay entertaining for most of its three 90 minutes (broadcast time) episodes. The production values are low-value, and the plot stammers a bit toward the end, but it kept my attention and my amusement. I might very well watch this with Margie — and possibly Katherine, too.


Justice League: New Frontier (2008) : A variant retelling of the formation of the Justice League of America, based on a 2003-04 comic series by that name. Set in the late 50s and early 60s, we get smatterings of McCarthyesque red-baiting and general paranoia, set against luscious retro settings, as the various heroes — Flash, Jonn Jonnz, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and an initially pre-GL Hal Jordan struggle with what it means to be a hero for the people in the face of social ostracism and government suspicion. It works pretty well, even if some of the voice artist choices are a bit off, and for someone with a love of Silver Age DC, there’s chewy bits a-plenty. It’s also rated PG-13 for some fairly violent scenes and a fairly high body count, making it a dubious choice for Katherine.

Bachelor Movie Reviews

So what does a guy watch when his wife and kid are out of town? Hmmmm … well, if it’s me …  Battle of the Bulge (1965) : A film…

So what does a guy watch when his wife and kid are out of town? Hmmmm … well, if it’s me … 


Battle of the Bulge (1965) : A film of a bygone era of movie-making — the massive, epic war film, complete with big stars, big sound track, big battles, and a cast of zillions. Even has an Overture, Entr’Acte, and Exit Music. A ripping good tale, if pretty shoddy history. Worth watching if you’ve only ever seen the 167 minute run time dramatically cut-down for a two hour (with commercials) TV slot.


Dragonlance – Dragons of the Autumn Twilight

(2008) : Wretched animation (and a wretched mix of CG and 2D animation at that), muddled plot, clumsy storytelling … ick. Not necessarily the fault of the original, just of this production, which resembles the Rankin-Bass Return of the King in its incoherence (but is much less well put toether. Okay, as a kid I would have killed for this. But there’s so much better available now, it’s a wonder this got made. Does make me want to re-read the book, though.


Ocean’s Eleven (2001) : I wanted to like this more than I did. Slick, stylish, and a classically crafted caper flick, it felt ultimately empty, and left me wondering whether I was really interested in picking up the next installment from the bargain bin.


The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) : I had genuinely forgotten how faboo of a movie this is. Any time I don’t rank this on lists of my Top Ten Films, kick me upside the head. Simply incredible.

 


The Lion in Winter (1968) : A complex historical melodrama that is soooooo late 60s intellectual-revisionist soap opera with witty wordplay from its stage origin that it’s almost difficult to enjoy, rather than “just” be fascinated by.


The Andromeda Strain (1971) : It had been several years since I watched the “original” adaptation of Crichton’s novel. And, yes, though the technology has changed a bit in the last 35 years, it’s still a taut scientific thriller. Worth watching.


Die Hard (1988) : The original and still — even with Bruce Willis sporting a full(ish) head of hair, a kick-ass action flick — great good guys, great bad guys, a great Michael Kamen (and James Horner and Ludwig van Beethoven) score, guns, explosions, and a good time to be had for all.


Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms (2006) : Not bad. Not great, but not bad. The animation is serviceable to the decent story, and there’s some fun Japanese mythos bits. Certainly made me want to rewatch the movie (or re-read some of the trades).


Hellboy (2004) : So I did (the former). Still a good, fun flick, a bit too violent and dark to share with Katherine (yet), but a remarkably faithful adaptation of Mignola’s work. Good stuff.


Superman Returns (2006) : No, I’d not seen it yet. And I’m glad ow I have. It does a remarkable job of tying to the original couple of Donner Superman flicks of … ye gods, how long ago? Great cast, well-done special effects, good use of the classic Williams music, and a fine story with a 00s polish and edge. Good flick.

Movie review: Batman Begins

Yes, I am, in fact, the last person to have seen this movie. Well, the last person amongst the circle of folks I know who would be interested in seeing…

Yes, I am, in fact, the last person to have seen this movie. Well, the last person amongst the circle of folks I know who would be interested in seeing it. But when I saw the DVD marked down to $7.50 yesterday at Target, I couldn’t resist.

 

 

Batman Begins (2008) 

Overall Story
Production Acting

 

Story: Okay, for starters, this isn’t as much fun of a movie as Iron Man (the new touchstone for super-hero movies). That’s okay, because Batman — and his origin — shouldn’t be fun. This movie also takes canon, give it a few good shakes, then puts the results out on display. This is the sort of thing — Ra’s al Ghul being involved in Batman’s original training, for example — that drives some fanboys nuts, and all too often with justification. If you’re going to screw around with continuity, you better be replacing it with something at least as good.

In this case, they have. There aren’t necessarily compelling reasons for the changes, large and small, the insertion of new characters, the shuffling about of others, etc. — but they do work well, stripping much of the “comic book” from the mix without leaving Batman looking too ridiculous as a costumed crusader.

Finally, regarding continuity, let’s face it — over the last seventy years, Batman’s origin has been reshown, rewritten, rejiggered, so many times that, so long as it remains true to the original, no continuity fan is going to complain too loudly. Heck, the changes here are smaller than in the previous Batman franchise starter (where it turns out that the Joker was the one who killed the Waynes).

That all said — the story, which focuses on Batman’s origins, starting in media res of Bruce Wayne’s wanderjahr, is highly satisfying. If it gets a scosh too complex later on — plots within wheels within motivations within secrets within schemes, with various villainous parties working together and separately to make life difficult for Gotham — it still pretty much holds together, and then some.

Production: Unlike previous incarnations, this Batman is more high adventure than operatic SFX. Gothan here is a pretty ordinary (if grungy and decaying) city, not Burton’s stylize vision. That doesn’t make either the scenery or the action pedestrian, but does make it feel more real than what we’ve seen in the past. Well done.

Acting: The acting is surprisingly strong. Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne treads old ground but does so well and believably. Gary Oldman makes for a splendid Jim Gordon. Rutger Hauer, former action hero, now plays a nicely evil executive. Liam Neeson’s “Ducard” is quite nice, too. There aren’t any weak spots amongst the supporting cast, either, both in the canonical characters (nice Scarecrow) to the new ones (Rachel) — though there’s something just a bit off in Michael Caine’s Alfred that I can’t quite put my finger on.

Overall: Iron Man‘s getting all the hot press right now, and rightly so. But for a more subtle, less flashy, and equally worthy entry into the “comic book movie” genre, Batman Begins does just as well. 

This particular DVD is utterly lacking in any special features — except for one well-done movie.

 

Potpourri on Arbor Day Eve

Shamos: Why e-voting paper trails are a bad idea | The Iconoclast – politics, law, and technology – CNET News.com – Are e-voting paper trails actually useful, or desirable? I…

  1. Shamos: Why e-voting paper trails are a bad idea | The Iconoclast – politics, law, and technology – CNET News.com – Are e-voting paper trails actually useful, or desirable? I think what the whole e-voting thang has raised is how secure (or insecure) our voting process is, and what risks we need to take (and which we need to work on reducing).
  2. When the Ex Blogs, the Dirtiest Laundry Is Aired – New York Times – I don’t know if it’s a good thing, or a bad thing, that my divorce from Cheryl was in pre-blogging days.
  3. The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure DVD news: Announcement for DC Super Heroes: The Filmation Adventures | TVShowsOnDVD.com – This makes me sooooooo happy! The SAHoA was dearly beloved by me as a child — esp. for all the non-Superman/Aquaman bits, which is what this DVD set will collect. Glee!
  4. BMWSportTouring Forums: Space Shuttle Processing: Rarely seen by the general public – How to assemble a space shuttle for lauch. Cool. (via GeekPress)
  5. The Art of the Title Sequence – This looks like an extraordinarily cool site, looking at TV/movie title sequence. Pretty. (via kottke)

Siegel heirs get partial copyright to Superman

Great Scott!  A federal judge here on Wednesday ruled that the heirs of Jerome Siegel — who 70 years ago sold the rights to the action hero he created…

Great Scott! 

A federal judge here on Wednesday ruled that the heirs of Jerome Siegel — who 70 years ago sold the rights to the action hero he created with Joseph Shuster to Detective Comics for $130 — were entitled to claim a share of the United States copyright to the character. The ruling left intact Time Warner’s international rights to the character, which it has long owned through its DC Comics unit.

And it reserved for trial questions over how much the company may owe the Siegel heirs for use of the character since 1999, when their ownership is deemed to have been restored. Also to be resolved is whether the heirs are entitled to payments directly from Time Warner’s film unit, Warner Brothers, which took in $200 million at the domestic box office with “Superman Returns” in 2006, or only from the DC unit’s Superman profits.

All of which may — due to appeals and negotiations — put the kibosh on a Superman Returns sequel and the announced Justice League of America film. Not to mention future animated Superman projects. A similar 2006 ruling on “Superboy” is the main reason why the current Legion of Super-Heroes cartoon refers to Kal-El as “Superman” instead.

The ruling specifically upheld the Siegels’ copyright in the Superman material published in Detective Comics’ Action Comics Vol. 1. The extent to which later iterations of the character are derived from that original was not determined by the judge.

[…] By 1937, the pair were offering publishers comic strips in which the classic Superman elements — cape, logo and Clark Kent alter-ego — were already set. When Detective Comics bought 13 pages of work for its new Action Comics series the next year, the company sent Mr. Siegel a check for $130, and received in return a release from both creators granting the company rights to Superman “to have and hold forever,” the order noted.

In the late 1940s, a referee in a New York court upheld Detective Comics’ copyright, prompting Mr. Siegel and Mr. Shuster to drop their claim in exchange for $94,000. More than 30 years later, DC Comics (the successor to Detective Comics) gave the creators each a $20,000-per-year annuity that was later increased to $30,000. In 1997, however, Mrs. Siegel and her daughter served copyright termination notices under provisions of a 1976 law that permits heirs, under certain circumstances, to recover rights to creations.

The heirs to Shuster get their turn at bat starting in 2013.

Compensation to the Siegels would be limited to any work created after their 1999 termination date. Income from the 1978 “Superman” film, or the three sequels that followed in the 1980s, are not at issue. But a “Superman Returns” sequel being planned with the filmmaker Bryan Singer (who has also directed “The Usual Suspects” and “X-Men”) might require payments to the Siegels, should they prevail in a demand that the studio’s income, not just that of the comics unit, be subject to a court-ordered accounting.

Time Warner is expected to appeal.

Hrm. On the one hand, anything that pokes Big Media in the eyeball and restores some measure of rights to the creators of works is, to my mind, probably a good thing. On the other hand, the likely effect on stuff I want to see makes me (selfishly, to be sure) a bit less sanguine. We’ll see.

BIIIIIIIIRDGIRL!

So while Margie was sleeping off her all-nighter, I gave Kitten an early Christmas gift — the Bird Man and the Galaxy Trio DVD collection.  Woot!  Yes, the classic 1967 Hanna-Barbera…

So while Margie was sleeping off her all-nighter, I gave Kitten an early Christmas gift — the Bird Man and the Galaxy Trio DVD collection.  Woot!  Yes, the classic 1967 Hanna-Barbera cartoon series, collected on two DVDs.

Yes, it’s inutterably goofy, but in a charming, retro, nostalgic way.  And Katherine just ate it up like candy.  My plans to raise a little geek proceed apace …

The two different serials (which ran on a single show, with a Birdman ep, a GT ep, then a Birdman ep) were part of the Alex Toth-designed era at HB, when (goofiness aside), the adventures were taken fairly seriously.  Birdman is a solar-powered flying hero (duh), vaguely associated with the sun god Ra, but now working for an international police organization against various other super-powered threats.  The plots were simplistically formulaic — villain threatens, Birdman is called to the rescue, they fight, Birdman runs short of solar energy, Birdman regains solar energy to escape near death, Birdman defeats the villain — but still fine, and the art design, and classic HB music / sound fx / voice artists all make it a quality production for the period.

The Egyptian connection shows in the show’s visual design, mostly.  There’s one very brief allusion to it in the show, and in some promotional materials, but it was seriously downplayed in production, for whatever reason.  On the other hand, the show did a nice job of establishing that there was a back story to all this — villains were often someone Birdman had faced in the past, etc.

The Galaxy Trio are a bit more interesting — a trio of super-powered future space cops, sort of a mini-Legion of Super-Heroes crossed with Space Ghost, and with a lot of visual influence from Star Trek (which was on its third season when this premiered).  The plots and their resolution are a bit more varied than Birdman, since the mix of powers and personalities were more varied, too — but there’s nothing here that’s particularly ground-breaking.  Just good fun.

More on info on both sets of heroes here and here.

And, yes, I choose to consider the later incarnation as Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, however amusing, to be non-canonical.  🙂

Actually, Birdman wasn’t my favorite HB super-hero from that era — but that’s another gift for Kitten this Christmas …

Saturday Super-Stars

Steve asks:Were Saturday morning cartoons a part of your weekly routine? What do you recall of them? Do you remember when you stopped watching them? Oh, yeah.  Oh, my…

Steve asks:

Were Saturday morning cartoons a part of your weekly routine? What do you recall of them? Do you remember when you stopped watching them?

Oh, yeah.  Oh, my heavens, yeah.

I can recall being a wee tot (1st Grade or younger), sitting in front of the TV the living room on Montalto Drive, watching The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, drawing endless stick figure super-heroes on pieces of typing paper on a metal TV tray.

Underdog.  Tennessee Tuxedo.  Bullwinkle and Rocky.  Jonny Quest.  Super President.  Space Ghost.  Shazzan.  The Herculoids.  The Fantastic Four.  Hoppity Hooper.   Jetsons. Go-Go Gophers.

I can recall doing my best ninja creep down the hallway in Diamond Bar to get out to the family room to watch cartoons without waking my Dad (not that he objected to the cartoons, he objected to being awakened on a Saturday morning).  My brother and I would watch, through my parents arising, through breakfast, all the way up to when cartoons would change to live action shows, like The Monkees (yeah).  Shortly thereafter, Dad would want to watch sports.

Bugs Bunny / Road Runner.  Fantastic Voyage.  Spider-Man.  Scooby-Doo.  Land of the Lost.  Sea Lab 2020. The Banana Splits.  Pink Panther.  Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp.   Bugaloos.  Lidsville.  The Wacky Races.  Fat Albert.  The Double-Deckers.  Star Trek TAS.  The Saturday Superstar Movies.  Josie and the Pussycats.  Thundarr the Barbarian. The Superfriends.

I never really gave up on Saturday morning cartoons — they more gave up on me, becoming more sparse, less amusing, and even more crudely crafted.  There were a few exceptions, but I tended to watch more reruns of stuff outside of Saturday mornings.  That went on into adulthood.

My interests were revived with my daughter (which meant it was my turn to be dragged out of bed on an early schedule), both in terms of acquiring copies of my old cartoons to share with her, scoping out the new cartoons being made — and, best of all, getting a DVR to be able to watch Saturday cartoons (and everyday ones) whenever we wanted.

(For a trip down Memory Lane, let me suggest this site.)

Cartoony glee!

This summer looks like it’s going to rock when it comes to DVD releases classic 60s cartoons — Space Ghost, Birdman (both of them the original non-satiric versions), plus…

This summer looks like it’s going to rock when it comes to DVD releases classic 60s cartoons — Space Ghost, Birdman (both of them the original non-satiric versions), plus the old Filmation Superman and Batman cartoons. Some of my best childhood memories circle around those cartoons on Saturday mornings — and some of
that’s been passed on to Katherine, too.