More Batman

[GOAT]

I am so tempted to pick up the Complete Series of Batman: Animated Series boxset that just dropped (I could have gotten it for like 60 bucks on DD with their sale) but am afraid it could come to Blu... there are SO MANY great batman series and movies I want them all on BLU. Im really hoping with The Dark Knight this could happen.

[Red Hood]

I'm tempted too, that boxset is nice.

[saprano]

That set came out in 2005, which one are you talking about?

EDIT- oh this one? http://www.cduniverse.com/productinf...66&style=movie

yea i just might get that, i loved that show. they dont make cartoons like that anymore.

[Afrobean]

No offense to the artists who worked on the show here, but the quality just isn't that high. This is traditional animation done during the '90s and it was intentionally made to look "old". Traditional animation already has a habit of not looking so hot when on a budget, and this one is no different. Disney can do BD releases of their old classics and they'll look great, because Disney was always about quality back then. But Batman TAS... there are all kinds of problems ranging from things as simple as miscolors, to wrong models, to characters being drawn offmodel, to say nothing of the heavy dirt present in the first 3 seasons (recall that they changed format in the 4th and final season to be more angular and "cleaner").

The show is great, and I have the whole thing on DVD (as well as the feature length films), but it wouldn't be prudent of them to put it on Blu-ray yet. The costs for the set (or season sets) would simply be too high. It wouldn't be worth it for them. If the quality of the animation was top notch, their best shot in the near future would be to put together a tie-in with The Dark Knight, I think, but that's definitely not gonna happen. Really though, there is all kinds of dirt and terrible things like that in the original, and it really was made to look like it was of the same vein as the Filmation Superman cartoons from the '60s. I'd love to see it come to BD at some point, but they won't put out a set that would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 dollars and is as niche as this. I'd guess that the price for BD software will need to get down low enough that a season boxset would be able to drop down to 30~35 dollars TOPS as a normal price, ala what DVD is right now.

they dont make cartoons like that anymore

They didn't make cartoons like that anymore back in the 90s when this was made either. They seriously went out of their way to make the show the way they did because they didn't want it to suck.

ps yeah I was kinda mad when I saw that complete set, because right before The Dark Knight came out in theatres, Best Buy was running a special on the season box sets so I snatched them all up.

[saprano]

But the low quality is one of the reasons the show was so great, it had that dark gritty look.

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by saprano

But the low quality is one of the reasons the show was so great, it had that dark gritty look.

Yeah, but just like how they're not putting out many classics that will look "bad" on 1080p, they're not likely to pull this out, especially considering that few would buy it because of the extreme cost.

That, and who is excited about 4:3 material on BD? It'd be an all-around bad choice for them right now, no matter how much you think it's a great idea.

And frankly, if they do a good job on it, it would be a great idea. But it's a double edged sword. Take a look at Sleeping Beauty for example. Looks amazing, right? But think: would Warner Bros. really put that kind of effort to go back and remaster this show? How do you think Justice League season 1 is selling on BD? I'd bet not too well... and if that's not doing too well, they're not gonna go after something that would require extensive remastering work and an even bigger price tag.

ps I think the dark look you're referring to is actually thanks to their style of backgrounds. I don't know if you heard the commentaries or things on it, but they basically just painted on black paper for their backgrounds. Something totally unique. And it worked really well. Except whenever they needed to show daytime... then it looked really weird.

[Vendetta-akk]

I am a hugh Batman fan and am always in favor of more Batman. However, I just bought the Complete Series boxset and it is really nice, so now I kind of hope I am not tempted with a BD release. Over at World's Finest they suggested that we might be seeing Batman: Mask of the Phantasm on Blu-ray next year...which would be great! And I am still hoping that despite the bad press and possibly low sales, we will still see Justice League: S2 and Justice League: Unlimited S1 & S2.

OK, and off topic alittle but I absolutely hate the new Batman: Brave and the Bold Cartoon Network show, but the reviews on World's Finest are pretty positive. Am I the only person not enjoying this one?

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by Vendetta-akk

I am a hugh Batman fan and am always in favor of more Batman. However, I just bought the Complete Series boxset and it is really nice, so now I kind of hope I am not tempted with a BD release. Over at World's Finest they suggested that we might be seeing Batman: Mask of the Phantasm on Blu-ray next year...which would be great! And I am still hoping that despite the bad press and possibly low sales, we will still see Justice League: S2 and Justice League: Unlimited S1 & S2.

Mask of the Phantasm would be amazing and would be a great and realistic step in the right direction. It was theatrically released, after all. The only issue I can figure is that the film clearly isn't a major draw... I think they ended up packaging it with Subzero and charging like 10 bucks for it.

I don't know about Justice League though... Seems to me that even that's too niche. Of the folks who might be interested in Justice League on BD, many probably don't care enough to drop another 35 bucks to replace their DVD boxset with an identical BD equivalent. Maybe if they did like, ALL of Justice League and charged like 50~60 bucks for it, I'd bite, but I'm not gonna rebuy that as easily as that. After all, it really is just a repackage of the DVD with higher fidelity.

OK, and off topic alittle but I absolutely hate the new Batman: Brave and the Bold Cartoon Network show, but the reviews on World's Finest are pretty positive. Am I the only person not enjoying this one?

I haven't caught it yet, but what I've seen and read about it, it seems like a step in the wrong direction. The Batman (that is, The Batman) was doing well in my opinion, even if some of the artistic designs missed their mark by a little. Have you seen Gotham Knight though? I don't understand why they can't just do a television program like that: dark, serious, and mature. It'd probably need to be primetime I guess, but that wouldn't be much of a stretch... didn't the animated series here from the 90s enjoy a brief period of primetime play?

[Red Hood]

The first ep of Brave and The Bold was ok, i doubt I will watch anymore.

[Vendetta-akk]

Originally Posted by Afrobean

but I'm not gonna rebuy that as easily as that. After all, it really is just a repackage of the DVD with higher fidelity.

I have seen JL on blu-ray over at a friend's house and it does look quite a bit better than dvd upconverted could ever hope to look....it looks real good. The big drawback is the aspect issue thing however, if it wasn't for that I would have bought it in an instant.

Originally Posted by Afrobean

... didn't the animated series here from the 90s enjoy a brief period of primetime play?

Yeah, you are absolutely right it did. I liked Gotham Knight ok, I thought the art was good but didn't get too much out of most of the storylines. But, I agree with you, I would rather seen them done a dark adult storyline and have it at night (adult swim style) but that is probably not as marketable.

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by Vendetta-akk

I have seen JL on blu-ray over at a friend's house and it does look quite a bit better than dvd upconverted could ever hope to look....it looks real good. The big drawback is the aspect issue thing however, if it wasn't for that I would have bought it in an instant.

I didn't mean that it's not any better than upscaled. I was just saying, it's not like it's a remaster or anything. It's the same thing as the previous release, just on fewer discs and with higher quality image and sound. If I hadn't already bought it on DVD, I would have grabbed it on Blu-ray. Actually, it's kinda funny, it was seeing Justice League season 1 on BD right after I bought it on DVD that made me take the plunge. I was like, "well, if something as niche as THIS could get on Blu-ray, the releases must be opening up and now would be a good time to make the switch".

Yeah, you are absolutely right it did. I liked Gotham Knight ok, I thought the art was good but didn't get too much out of most of the storylines. But, I agree with you, I would rather seen them done a dark adult storyline and have it at night (adult swim style) but that is probably not as marketable.

I didn't like the art of it so much (for most of them anyway) or the stories per se, I just meant the tone. That's how Batman should feel; I don't know why focusing on marketing to small children when Batman is so above that. They should at least be shooting for the kind of audience that the animated series from the 90s managed.

[Vendetta-akk]

Originally Posted by Afrobean

I didn't like the art of it so much (for most of them anyway) or the stories per se, I just meant the tone. That's how Batman should feel; I don't know why focusing on marketing to small children when Batman is so above that. They should at least be shooting for the kind of audience that the animated series from the 90s managed.

I sure wish the people in charge at Cartoon Network and/or WB and/or Fox felt the way you do, but I think they base their decisions on how many toy commercials they can have imbeded in the half our time slot of their cartoon shows. I can't complain though, I never thought we would get Batman feature films as good as Begins and Dark Knight, and we will always have the original 4 volumes of the animated series to enjoy. All of the animated series of any substance have always suffered from have the bulk of the animation farmed out to cheap asian studios anyway. It may be to much to dream of another great Batman animated series. I frankly hate The Batman and all of what I have seen of Brave and the Bold so far.