DC Animated Universe
 

I guess we can use this as a discussion for Batman: TAS and it's spin-offs, Superman: TAS, Justice League and so forth.

I loved all of these shows as a kid and now that I'm caught up with most of my TMNT I'm starting to collect these. I already got Batman vol. 1, any one know where I can get the rest of the DVD's for a low price? Most of them are $40 at FYE and around $30 at amazon.com. I know they're worth that, but I'm a tightwad :D

Well, of course, can try Best Buy. They might be a little less than Amazon.

I'm not sutre how much it cost to pick up all 5 series (BM:TAS, SM:TAS, BM:B, JL, and JLU.) There's also, to a lesser extent, so much so they haven't been released, Zata Project (Spin-off of Batman:Beyond) and Static Shock.

Your best bet is to hit up DVD/record store/comic/specialty shops, like Bullmoose Music, Newbury Comics, and SoundGarden (these are all Eastern based things, but I'm sure there's some similar shops). They usually sell DVDs less than other stores, and also have a wide variety of used DVDs that also sell for less.

Bullmoose specifically...I snagged seasons of Samurai Jack for 19 bucks.

I know for a fact that Bullmoose has a website, and you can order through them, and their prices are pretty ****ing good. All new releases are two dollars less than the lowest price of that DVD in the area. IE, Wal Mart sells the Mist for 20, and they sell it for as low as 16.88

Also, don't be terribly afraid of snagging dvds from the 'New & used' section of Amazon. You can get most of those DVD sets for around 20 or less.

Man, I was there a couple summers back, and saw the Electric Company Volume 1 at the cheapest price I have ever seen it. Even better than newburry. Of course, since it's in new hampshire, I don't go there too often.

Best Buy may have it for a decent price, but some of their box sets cost more than certain other stores.

i'm wondering if these are still available myself. The Batman TAS boxes that is.

Like To The Nines said, I recall seeing them at FYE recently too. Not sure about Best Buy, but would think so.


* Edit: Just remember -- If have a BJ's Wholesale around, I have seen the Batman TAS Sets there on-and-off in recent months too.

Thanks for all the advice. Deep Discounts (even though I hate them for slow shipping and customer service) is having a 20 percent off sale from 6-6 to 6-20 (enter: DDAF as a promo code) so I'll probably get the rest of Batman + Mask of the Phantasm and mabey a Beyond season.

Question: I remember watching Justice League a bit as a kid but I can't seem to remember how much Conroy changed his bat-voice in the series. I know he did atleast a tad, any one care to explain further?

One thing that I noticed in JL/JLU is that Conroy sounded a little raspier (in some eps you'd think he has a cold). His voice doesn't have the same deep tone that you can detect in Batman: TAS. It sounds a little closer to his eighty or so year old self in Batman Beyond, but also different. In the episode "The Once and Future Thing" Part 2, young Bruce meets his older self and there are differences in pitch, tone, etc. that are evident.

I often wondered about that too, but it makes sense since the Justice League is later in the timeline...

Cool, I thought so.

Another question to anyone who's seen most of the DCAU shows in whole: What order would you recommend watching them in? Right now I'm thinking Batman, Superman, Justice League, Batman Beyond then Justice League Unlimited.

You pretty much have it right. For me as a viewer, that's the order that I watched them in. Also don't forget the awesome "New Batman Superman Adventures" show between Superman and JL. Here's the intro, which gave me chills of excitement when I was eight because it was so full of awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JQ_spwuH_o

That order is important due to timeline issues. JL, for exmple makes a lot more sense if you watched both the Batman and Superman shows, and JLU only makes sense if you watched Batman Beyond (especially "Epilogue", the season 2 finale), etc., etc. Also, don't skip out on any of the direct to video/TV films if you can find them, especially Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Batman and Mr. Freeze:SubZero, and Batman Beyond:Return of the Joker, because they all matter to the continuity.

I thought that was just Volume 4 of Batman and Volume 3 of Superman played back to back. If not, I can't seem to find it on DVD.

I've seen all of those, they're great (only own BB: ROTJ). But what about Mystery of the Batwoman? I heard it sucks, is it even worth my money?

It sucks pretty hard, yeah. It doesn't have much repercussions on the DCAU other than being the final canonical appearances of the Penguin and Rupert Thorn. Bane appears and provides a pretty good fight at the finale, but that's really it.

The movie was made several years after the New Batman Adventures had wrapped up, so a few voice actors had been changed (Penguin and Robin). They also for whatever reason decide to go with a jazz soundtrack over the traditional gothic score and it sounds awful (particularly the "music video" segment in the middle of the movie at the Iceburg Lounge).

It can easily be skipped.

The short Paul Dini wrote for the DVD, the all jazz-score "Chase Me", is only five minutes long and is a better movie than "Mystery of the Batwoman"

Yeah, and it's You-Know-Where. I'd highly recommend it. My mom saw it on the DVD after the movie (which she rather hated), and she liked it too.

Mystery of the Batwoman was a huge let down, it really wasent up to par with the rest of the series. It had a plot that was quite interesting but the excution of it was horrible, like DrSpengler said they put in jazz scores which destroy the mood of the film all together.

On the other hand I have been watching the Return of Joker almost every week, I still get shills from the flash back scene. Espically when Joker is playing the little film of what they did to Tim Drake, just the line
"Behind all the sturm and bat-o-rangs, you're just a little boy in a playsuit, crying for mommy and daddy! It'd be funny if it weren't so pathetic."

Yeah, I'll prolly buy it used for completions sake.

One thing that annoys me alot about Batman vol. 1 but ain't a big deal: Penguin is on the spine! Firstly, I don't really even like him... plus he has one damn episode on the set, in which he gets beat by some little nerd. You'd think it would have been Joker, since he had 4 episodes (plus cameos) and he's The Joker. If not him, they should have used Two-Face, Mr. Freeze, Catwoman or Scarecrow ahead of the Penguin, or even an ally. I mean Aflred is way cooler than Cobblepot!

Batman Beyond and its style....
 

Did any of you guys think that Batman Beyond had a sort of futuristic 80s vibe, sort of like Back to the Future Part II's version of the year 2015? I say say this because of the design of the city, their clothes (i.e. Derek Powers' mullet), and the music (especially the stuff that plays when Terry and Dana go dancing, etc.).

Any thoughts on that?

Yeah that was really neat considering how Batman TAS took place in the 90's but the style was like the 40's.

Just thought I'd let everyone know, Batman DVD's are on sale big time at amazon (under $20) and Justice Leauge is $20 a season.

And about Mystery of the Batwoman. I still haven't seen it, but does the fact that I loved The New Batman Adventures make it likely that I'll enjoy it alot?

That movie is an eyesore.

Seriously, it has some of the most irritable characters ever conceived for the animated series. Burnett half-assed it, it's far too light-hearted, it's got some abysmal latin number in the middle and ending of the film...generally it's a disgrace to the New Batman Adventures and finished off the film run on a poor note. The sole highlights are a battle with Bane, a scene that essentially screams phone sex between Barbera and Bruce, the plot twist about Batwoman, David Ogden Stires as Penguin and a five minute jazz score short written by Paul Dini that's seperate from the movie.

I liked "The Mystery of the Batwoman" when it first came out (even though I hated seeing Bruce and that woman hooking up, since I'm fan of Barbara/Bruce), but I may not like it so much now.

I also noticed that sweet sale on amazon.com...but then I discovered something even better than that (If I were you, I wouldn't buy those individual sets if you haven't done so yet...):

Because on November 4th, 2008, Batman: The Complete Animated Series dvd set will be released (and amazon.com already has it listed for pre-order at $76.00)

http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/the-batman4.html

All I can say is...HELL YEAH (man, am I glad I decided to wait on getting the show on dvd...)

I have, and I'm keeping them. Imagine trying to make that big set look good standing next to Batman Beyond and Justice League on my DCAU shelf.

Don't mean to clog up this thread, but i felt it was better then making a new one . Wondering how you guys felt about Vol.3 of The Batman animated series vs Vol.4...the Gotham Knights one. I'm picking one up this week and just wanted to get opinions. The only thing I've really heard about vol. 4 is just that Never Fear is good...anything else stand out that makes it worth buying? How about season three?

Oh and...The movie was amazing :D

First off, we do have a DCAU thread.

But yeah, those are both great buys. Vol 3 has great episodes like "Shadow of the Bat", "Bane", "House and Garden", "Lock-up", and my favorite "A Bullet for Bullock"

I personally loved "Gotham Knights", mabey it's because I under-estimated it (because of the art revamp) but I watched the whole set in about 2 days when I first got it. Great episodes are: "Sins of the Father", "You Scratch My Back", "Growing Pains", "Over the Edge", "Old Wounds", "Mad Love", and "Judgement Day".

I don't recall dis-liking any episode and the only thing I can complain about is some poor re-casting choices... But the fact that Nightwing is in it makes up for it.

When I first saw it on TV, I remember not iliking the Joker's redesign, but the quality of the eps, in a way, outshone the previous seasons. They knew exactly what they were doing, and their goal was to make it edgier than ever (like the reference to The Dark Knight Returns in "Legends of the Dark Knight." And there was one ep which was a flashback where Robin (Dick) slugs Batman in the face.

TNBA was for Batman TAS what JLU was for Justice League. It took the mythology the show was built on and expanded it without satiring itself like so many shows end up doing.

And I rather liked Nightwing as well. I was saddened by his absnce in the later shows. He should have at least appeared in Batman Beyond somewhere. He would have been alive--Bruce, Tim, and Barbara all were. I bet he would been this laid back old guy that looked basically the same, probably keeping himself in pretty good shape like Bruce did, not ending up like Tim, with the potbelly and all.

Can anyone confirm that season 2 of Justice League is better than the first? All the reviews on Amazon say so, but I'd like to see what you guys have to say.

Season Two of JL is just as good as any season of JLU. Wait unitl you see "Wild Cards," "Starcrossed," and "Hereafter."

If you can, just buy it. I wish I could.

If you buy any season of JL make sure its JL season 2. IMO the order of best seasons are JL season 2> JLU season 2> JLU season 1> JL season 1. I dont think there was a single episode of Justice League season 2 I didnt like. Your doing yourself a disservice if you dont see it since it has some of the best episodes of a DCAU cartoon.

Cool, I was worried that I was the only one who didn't really like season 1 too much.

No, Season 1's stories were clunky. It sucked pretty hard, even to my ten or eleven year old mind at the time when I first saw the eps. On one of the DVDs, Timm and co. actually admitted that they were still finding their stride with the show during that season.

Best Buy seems to be having a sale on all the DCU animated shows as part of a The Dark Knight sale or something. I just got Batman Beyond season 2 which is normally $40 for $13 last week. Now all I need are the Phantasm and Batwoman movies to complete my DCU animated DVD collection.

Just got JL Season 2. I haven't watched all of it yet, but it's waaaaay better than season 1. In season 1 it was like they made every episode a 2-parter just for the hell of it, where in season 2 the stories fill out two episodes nicely.

I've read in several places that Tim Drake was at superman's funeral. I watched that scene twice and didn't catch him, Robin or Alred at the actual funeral. Am I dumb?

In JL or SMTAS?

Justice Leauge

Question: Does anyone know if the Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker/Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman Double Feature has the edited or uncut RotJ on it? Since it's both movies crammed onto one disc, I don't know what to expect. But, the case for my RotJ Uncut bugs me with the way it catches on everything and just looks out of place with the rest of the series. >_<

It's the edited version, sorry.

I'm in my second time through the whole DCAU right now, really excited since I'm about to hit The New Batman Adventures.

I'd skip the double disk and track down the Uncut version, me self. Same goes with Mask of the Phantasm. It only had it in Full Frame (Sesame Street is now being filmed in widescreen- that kills the myth that full frame is "Family (or kid) Friendly" IMO). It shouldn't be too hard to find... you may have to pay more, but its usually worth it.

Plus I heard Mystery of the Batwoman was pretty uneven anyway....

I just noticed something annoying: Two-Face should be able to figure out that Batman is Bruce.

In "Sins of the Father" Tim gives him crap, and then later he saves the day as Robin. So if he knows who Robin is, it wouldn't be long until he makes the connection.

Finally got Mystery of the Batwoman, and considering that I only paid 6 bucks for it: I liked it.

The story wasn't bad (ending was lame tho), music was better than what I was expecting, Robin was funny and Alfred was hillarious.

I actually liked this new Robin voice, no Matt Valencia but he was good. Hated Banes new voice, hated Penguins new voice, and while it was nice to see Rupert Throne... he kinda just stood there fidgeting with playing cards.

It was a pretty pointless movie, added almost nothing to the canon, wasn't even touched by Dini or Timm, but it was still enjoyable.