warner bros

In fifth grade, I journeyed onto the small stage for the first and last time. I don’t know what possessed me that year, because I was a terminally shy kid for much of my life, but in fifth grade, I was the Mad Hatter.

In the grand scheme of things, the Mad Hatter is a minor, but highly memorable, character that appears near the end of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. The reason that he’s plastered all over the posters for the upcoming Tim Burton candy-colored, hollow monstrosity is to appeal to a cross section of the lowest common denominator : people who like to look at Johnny Depp, people who satisfy themselves at knowing the barest parts of classic literature and can pick out a character, and people who get all excited when they see shiny things. But I digress.

There have been many different film interpretations of Alice in Wonderland over the years. It naturally lends itself to amazing visual and intellectual landscapes. It is, after all, full of anthropomorphized animals, talismans, characters who are mentally ill, and general whimsy – and it presents itself in a manner that can be filmed as a sequential narrative.

Throw all of that away. In 1966, the BBC made their own version of the story. And it’s freaking weird. Which is saying a lot for Alice in Wonderland.

Filmed entirely in black and white, BBC’s Alice presents a deeply atmospheric take on Alice, never letting the viewer forget that the entire thing is a dream. While a knowledge of the book helps to string things together, watching the entire thing without the help of foreknowledge is even more confusing and disturbing. Our sleepy Alice never expresses a single emotion, and rarely looks at the people she’s talking to, instead opting to stare right at the audience in many cases and delivering her monologues in a whisper. Film is double exposed, speeches are run backwards, and you can’t help but feel like you’re watching something that stumbled out of the mind of the most intense surrealist.

All of the fascinating animals – the amphibian doormen, the drugged-out insects, the translucent cats – are now all people. Boring, stuffy, middle-class English people who speak in riddles that are far, far less endearing when they’re not coming out of a mouth that also catches flies. While this is definitely a commentary on society, I have to wonder if these comments are misplaced a little. Maybe I’m just a philistine for expecting a character called ‘March Hare’ to be a rabbit instead of a political cartoon that looks like an old dude.

That aside, the appearance of the film is absorbing, and just a little dark. Taxidermied dogs seem to appear everywhere, and overgrown weeds threaten to take over the entire screen. In place of all of the usual fantasy is a very heightened delivery of the hyper-real, which serves surprisingly wall in its place. The whole thing feels like falling asleep in the middle of a summer afternoon and waking up very disoriented – which is precisely what Alice does anyhow. On this larger scale, it works excellently, even if the narrative is impossible to follow.

This DVD, distributed by Warner Bros., includes a whole lot of great, insightful extras which are even more interesting then the film itself. First, there is a 1903 version of Alice in Wonderland, as well as a 1965 documentary about Lewis Carroll and his relationship with Alice, which becomes creepy very quickly and effectively. Best of all, there’s a full-length commentary provided by the director, which gives a lot of depth to the strange way that this film was interpreted. It’s actually surprising that so much exists around the making of this film, including behind the scenes photographs, given that it was made well before the era of DVD extras, so the experience is rewarding.

The world is going to lose sight of what Alice in Wonderland is about very soon, so this is a sobering look at the exact opposite of what the bombastic, gimmicky Burton is pulling. This title will be available on March 2, 2010, so have a look!

[DVD graciously provided by Warner Home Video Inc.]

I guess I’ll never come to terms with great TV shows ending prematurely. With the huge influence that the DC Animated Universe had on everything that came after it, it’s a little tragic that Warner Bros. doesn’t do more with it. Sure, we get plenty of unrelated DC Comics animated movies, but they have nothing to do with the power and empathy that the original animated series generated. You can’t form a meaningful, lasting relationship in 75 minutes, but you can certainly have some fun. I’m a guy who’s looking to settle down.

Superman : The Complete Animated Series is a lasting relationship. While the original Batman Animated Series was the pioneer, Superman came along as an equally powerful flip side to Gotham’s dark, noir scenery. Metropolis rarely saw the night, while Gotham was all shadows, all of the time. This atmospheric divide was reflected perfectly in Superman’s ‘boy scout’ attitude and Tim Daly’s masterful voice acting.

Granted, it was never quite as easy to sympathize with a guy who was borderline immortal, but Superman’s epic, surreal enemies are where the stories really took off. With this as an easy entry point, Superman’s overwhelmingly good nature becomes endearing – especially when it cracks. And there’s no doubt that Superman had some of the most lighthearted, entertaining episodes of anything DC has ever produced, including the almost-all-powerful, chaotic Mr. Mxyzptlk (voiced by Gilbert Gottfried), the hilariously Silver Age Bizarro, the ultra-violent Lobo (voiced by Brad Garrett, and a character so violent in his comics that Mattel won’t even make an animated figure of him), and even the crazy old Granny Goodness (voiced by Ed Asner). It could be a wacky free-for-all, and it definitely bears signs of being a product of Warner Brothers, but it’s subtle, and really quite great.

Of course, the events of this series relate to what eventually culminates in the opus that is Justice League Unlimited. If you already own the three Superman boxed sets that were released previously, you have almost everything that’s contained here. Every commentary and bonus feature is preserved, along with a completely new 7th disc that contains a 17-minute documentary about Jack Kirby and the role of Darkseid in Superman’s mythos. It’s a little weird that a whole extra DVD would be dedicated to one small featurette, but there it is. PS : trailers for other DVDs that you want to sell can never, ever be considered ‘extras’, people.

Also reproduced here is the fact that half of the discs are double-sided DVDs – just like the original sets. Handle with care, as these are known to become damaged much more easily than a traditional DVD would, and some DVD players simply aren’t quite as gentle with the topside of a DVD as they could be. Batman got a huge boxed set with lots of extras, and Justice League got a tin. Superman seems to get the least fanfare of these three, being packaged in a plastic case with a slipcover. Of course, from a purely aesthetic sense, this would be nice to see in a fancy tin that can be shelved alongside the finer things, but it’s still great to have it all in one place. It’s not a complaint, because this packaging certainly wouldn’t prevent a purchase, but I’m a sucker for consistency and completing sets of things.

It’s been years of intermittent collecting, but the whole DC Animated Universe is finally all in one place on my shelf, and it’s hot stuff. The whole set can be purchased for under $40, if you shop around. There are episodes that I never realized I missed the first time around, so encountering these after so long, with my newly acquired geekery, is like sitting in front of the TV on Saturday morning all over again. Which is really utopia, right?

As a child born in 1981, I’m fairly certain that my exposure to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in all possible forms was inevitable – and like the retromutagen ooze that altered the Turtles’ lives so severely, I too would be impossibly changed, but far less athletic.

There would be animated Turtles, comic Turtles, Turtle pogs and action figures, and even the questionable times when our beloved terrapins stepped uncomfortably close to my own reality by becoming represented by giant foam costumes – both in cinematic features and in live action musical abominations at Radio City Music Hall. It happened, and I have the bootleg tape of it that I’d find years later, like some kind of secret nerd porn. A ballad from Master Splinter, and a rap from Michelangelo? It’s crazy enough to potentially kill you with the funk.

When the movies came along, we even accepted an origin story that didn’t match with the cartoons we loved – were the Ninja Turtles humans first, or were they turtles first? I’ve never been the biggest fan of live-action-ifying animated properties, as evidenced by the brain-stab that was Super Mario on Ice and the Flintstones movie, but these have a very hallowed place in pop cultural history, and they rightfully belong there. Half of them even have the involvement of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, so as something of a Henson enthusiast (I even own the one action figure of him), this set of films fits into many little collection niches that I’m happy to fill – the least of which is my collection of ‘films so bad that they will either form eternal friendships or bitter enemies once endured together’. I’m looking at you, Rem Lezar.

This box set contains four TMNT DVDs, which span the first three live action TMNT movies from 1990 to 1993 and the recent animated film. These are all lovingly cradled in a zippered pouch with metallic manhole covers on either side. Inside are ten sleeves, not unlike those you’d find in your everyday CD holding case. Curiously, this leaves 16 completely empty spots to fill, which makes me wonder if the complete original animated series would fit securely into this carrier, or maybe that good ol’ Radio City bootleg. Regardless, there’s a ton of extra space, and I wonder if they’re trying to tell us something.

The set comes with a handful of interesting extra items, including a sheet of 8 temporary tattoos, and in an act of supreme awesomeness, a set of four eye masks, not unlike the ones that the Turtles wear, and color coded appropriately. All I need is three friends with no sense of shame.

The DVD extras on the first three films are fairly minimal and consist of trailers and small games, while the fourth, more recent film comes with all of the usual commentary & deleted scenes, storyboards and interviews. I’d have loved to hear the reminiscing that came with the first three movies and how much alcohol was consumed along the way to get some of the acutely embarrassing dialogue onto the big screen. I say this lovingly, of course.

I definitely can’t claim the same fervent devotion to the Turtles as some hardcore fans can, but I appreciate what they are. They’ve even been referenced in a David Byrne song, so how can they possibly be wrong? Great action figures, some truly exceptional video games, and a handful of goofy movies later, I still love the Turtles. It’s good to have this reunion.

You’d think that DC Comics and Warner Brothers would eventually run out of old Super Friends cartoons to put onto DVD. You’d think that Wonder Woman has lassoed every kind of dinosaur and/or alien invader, and that every Justice League member had faced their own evil doppelganger, or that Superman would just freakin’ stop putting himself in Kryptonite-likely situations. You’re thinking wrong.

The most recent DVD set from Warner Bros. is called ‘Super Friends : The Lost Episodes‘. While this might imply that there are a handful of episodes that never aired due to the show ending, or because Wonder Woman was animated without a top for a few seconds, these are definitely all episodes that saw the ol’ TV screen long ago. This collection of 24 episodes consists of a series of cartoons that were animated as the previous Super Friends series was ending, and were later shoehorned into the ‘Superman/Batman Adventures’ show in 1983 – but ‘Super Friends : Stuff That They Showed After The Main Show Was Over’ just didn’t have the same ring.

Once again, I must admit that Super Friends aired before my time – which is not to say that I didn’t experience my own Cartoon Network reruns, back when CN was a paragon of innovative cartoon revolution and classics. This batch of episodes seems to embody everything that I love about the Silver Age of comics, even more so than any of the previous collections. It’s not too long before you get Jayna turning into a giant crab to battle space robots the size of toys, and Superman being forced to garden by the awesome Mr. Mxyzptlk (which the show pronounces ‘Mix-Ull-Plik’… for shame). The screencaps for just about any scene in this collection are just beautiful examples of how absurd and great these cartoons were. They might not be the most amazingly plotted, voiced, or illustrated, but they provide more than enough ‘What The Eff?’ moments to make me happy.

It’s not as if the Super Friends are ever going out of style, either. Mattel recently offered a Zan and Jayna action figure 2-pack exclusively at San Diego Comic Con that people went insane over – and even more so when the remaining 2-packs were sold without their pet monkey, Gleek, on Mattel’s website later. And Gleek is definitely one of the most reprehensible things to ever happen to animation. Aside from that Bratz cartoon.

The DVD set is light on bonuses, featuring only a couple of scripts that can be downloaded from the internet using the DVD, but at this point, I’m sure that the extra features have been exhausted. To the best of my knowledge, and using the wisdom of TVShowsonDVD.com, WB has one more Super Friends related set to release, entitled simply ‘Super Friends’. This iteration featured teenagers Wendy and Marvin, who were precursors to Zan and Jayna, and was the very earliest Super Friends cartoon from 1973.

Pick it up. We’re almost at a point of completeness when it comes to collecting these old JLA cartoons, and even if they hold no nostalgia for you, they’ll be sure to tickle your modern animated sensibilities into submission.

So, I’m a big, dorky Green Lantern fan.

I feel an instant kinship with any hero who depends on creativity and willpower to thwart his enemies – and as an artist, I’m a little in love with the idea that a Green Lantern ring would allow me to will things into existence and they’d just BE. That, my friends, is an exceptional power. And I’d never need a girlfriend.

The whole Green Lantern thing has an even broader appeal to me than just that, though, as recent events in the DC Universe have revealed a whole array of colored Corps, from Red to Violet, which means a really stunning array of color-coded action figures that I can’t keep my hands off of and naturally dictate how I’m going to arrange them – not to mention a few zombified Black Lantern figures, because who can pass up a zombie Aquaman? Certainly not myself. Guy’s more powerful dead than he ever was alive. I might be selling a whole bunch of my stuff, but my GL Corps figures are staying put – if only because a color-coded team looks really neat, as opposed to the freewheeling, willy-nilly costumes that the Justice League uses.

So, I was pretty excited to check out the first Green Lantern animated feature, First Flight. In terms of animated Lanterns, we never really had a great look at how Hal Jordan would have turned out, as he made only one exceptionally brief guest appearance during Justice League Unlimited during an alternate timeline story, and was mentioned once during the Superman Animated Series. This was enough to spawn a JLU action figure from Mattel which stands as one of the most sought after action figures of all time, as only a few were made and given to personal friends of the company at a party.

That brief bit of history aside, GL : First Flight is probably one of the most explodey cartoons I’ve ever seen, and it’s great. Forget about lengthy introductions to who Hal Jordan is, and how he struggles to live a secret life as a hero while maintaining his everyday Joe persona, and forget about most of what you know of the GL Corps. It doesn’t apply to the animated revisions that this universe brings, and that’s okay. At least we still have the same Kilowog, even if heroes are suddenly bad guys and things develop in unfamiliar ways – that’s the freedom that these one-shot animated films bring. They’re not mired in nearly a century of story that all has to integrate with every other part.

It’s a completely predictable story, of course, and it probably appeals to a vast majority of Joseph Campbell’s’ ideas of the monomyth – but that makes it exciting. It’s exciting to see Hal Jordan punching Sinestro in the face, with his own hands or with giant, green hands that he imagines into existence. The monomyth appeals to us because we’re all a little bit Luke Skywalker – we’re just Luke Skywalkers who haven’t happened yet.

It’s animated excellently, though I’m always a little bothered by the visuals that are obviously computer generated and geometric which don’t flow with the pace and aesthetic of the surrounding animation. The PG-13 rating is appropriate, given some mild profanity, and an especially disturbing scene involving Sinestro and a sexually suggestive alien woman. I don’t know what the hell was going on there, but it was sadomasochistic, and I think I have to ask my mom about it ’cause I just didn’t get it.

Dedicated comic fans will get the pleasure of seeing all of their favorite Lanterns in there somewhere, even if they just make a background appearance, or might look a little different. The Weaponers of Qward, once unbearable goofy, have had a killer makeover for the 2 minutes they’re on screen. Geeks, however, will surely bristle. They’ll do that anyhow.

The bonuses on the single disc edition are pretty hollow – a collection of buzz-filled docu-mercials about the other DCAU films which have already appeared tacked onto other DVDs, and an 8-minute look into the Green Lantern universe with a few DC Comics folks. I can’t speak to whatever might be on the two-disc edition, or the fancy Blu-ray, either. If you seek to augment your experience with material goods, check out DC Direct’s maquette, made to commemorate the movie and in stores now.

I have to say that, like Wonder Woman, it was an enjoyable watch, but isn’t one of those rare gems that redefines a genre or destroys conceptions of the art of animation and its place in the world. Sometimes it’s okay to just have fun, too.