Superman: The Animated Series - October 18th

[Indiana Jones]

There must be some reason for it, perhaps that episode is particular was not stored well and suffered damage to the edges so thee zoomed the whole thing in to mask it?

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Indiana Jones

There must be some reason for it, perhaps that episode is particular was not stored well and suffered damage to the edges so thee zoomed the whole thing in to mask it?

Warner Bros. managed to do the same thing to some of the Wonder Woman episodes. I'd assume it's a QC issue or someone was asleep at the mastering wheel and their head hit a comically large crop/overscan button ...

[captainsolo]

Geez that’s weird. Has to be some sort of source issue or a screwup. I’m currently going through BTAS episode by episode and there’s a number of audio issues outside of the episodes with bad audio.

[drush9999]

Originally Posted by captainsolo

Geez that’s weird. Has to be some sort of source issue or a screwup. I’m currently going through BTAS episode by episode and there’s a number of audio issues outside of the episodes with bad audio.

Yep at least two of the episodes of BTAS have bad sound, which is fine on the DVD version. Plus they should have stayed away from the DNR button

[Mr Gitz]

Originally Posted by drush9999

Yep at least two of the episodes of BTAS have bad sound, which is fine on the DVD version. Plus they should have stayed away from the DNR button

Yeah the sound issue is awful. “Harlequinade” is one with bad sound. “House & Garden” is another. “Avatar”. Oddly enough they are all episodes from the 2nd season. Or whatever season it’s called. I break the snow up in 3 parts. The first 65 episodes which were made and ordered at the same time, and then the additional 20 or so episodes where the title was changed and then the re design where the title was changed again to “The New Batman & Robin Adventures”(or something like that). Anyways all the episodes with audio problems seem to be on that 2nd block of episodes. They might even be all on the same disc, I’m not sure.

[JAG2045]

Originally Posted by Mr Gitz

Yeah the sound issue is awful. “Harlequinade” is one with bad sound. “House & Garden” is another. “Avatar”. Oddly enough they are all episodes from the 2nd season. Or whatever season it’s called. I break the snow up in 3 parts. The first 65 episodes which were made and ordered at the same time, and then the additional 20 or so episodes where the title was changed and then the re design where the title was changed again to “The New Batman & Robin Adventures”(or something like that). Anyways all the episodes with audio problems seem to be on that 2nd block of episodes. They might even be all on the same disc, I’m not sure.

Not sure if its related but on the original DVD season sets "House & Garden" had a video commentary and "Harlequinade" had an audio commentary so maybe that's a factor for the audio quality? ("Avatar" didnt have either though)

[captainsolo]

It is those three episodes plus "Cape and Cowl Conspiracy" that have defective audio. They did do new transfers of the episode audio mixes because in every other show the difference can be quite dramatic compared to the DVDs. My guess is somehow someone pulled a bad tape or an issue happened in the transfer or mastering process and was missed. WB should have fixed these.

But what I didn't expect was the fluctuation in the opening title music. There's the version 1 that sounds perfect, the version 2 without the added sound effects like the Batmobile engine that pops up a few times, a version 3 that sounds like parts of the score is muted or folded down to mono which sadly pops up many times, and then if my ears aren't deceiving me there may be a version 4 that sounds a bit like Version 3 but not quite as bad. The bad sounding ones also have a hard cut in the fade to black instead of the extra second or two of music fading out as in the good sounding Version 1.
Sometimes a fraction of music is missing in the opening or closing titles-and on some shows the closing titles don't have the complete cue.

[Indiana Jones]

Finished the set last night and I didn't notice any other episodes cropped.

[batmaster]

Is there anybody here who has a scan of the cover and the inside. I bought the set for 20 euro's from amazon france because the discs are the exact ones as the american ones. But the inside and the episodes names are in french. I really don't mind about the outside cover, because it still says Superman, but the inside really irritates me. Now I don't know which episode I am.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by batmaster

Is there anybody here who has a scan of the cover and the inside. I bought the set for 20 euro's from amazon france because the discs are the exact ones as the american ones. But the inside and the episodes names are in french. I really don't mind about the outside cover, because it still says Superman, but the inside really irritates me. Now I don't know which episode I am.

Here you go, mate.

[batmaster]

Originally Posted by chip75

Here you go, mate.

Thank you so much!!!

[chip75]

Originally Posted by batmaster

Thank you so much!!!

Glad to help, mate.

[Blu-ray monster]

Does anyone have some screenshot comparisons?

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Blu-ray monster

Does anyone have some screenshot comparisons?

Go back to the beginning of the thread, they start on page 2.

[Mr Gitz]

It’s always bothered me that this show doesn’t get more love. Like…don’t get me wrong, I LOVE BTAS & I get why it’s the mother of all DC animated shows, but I do think Superman is probably the 2nd best show in the DCAU. Yet all the other shows seem to get more love(minus maybe Static Shock, which I never really considered part of the DCAU but apparently it is). The animation is just…it’s beautiful.

This show gets Superman right in a way the movies just haven’t. Superman is powerful but not overly so. His origin episodes could be easily expanded into a live action movie & it would be the definitive Superman. And also? They made Clark a capable interesting guy. In the Superman movies your always just waiting for Superman to show up. That’s an issue. We should be wanting to spend time with Clark. And Lois?

God. Lois Lane kicks ass in this show. She’s tough, smart and kind of a ***** but you can’t help but love her. She’s constantly breaking Clark’s balls. Her response when he asks “Have you ever been to Kansas?” is perfect. “God no”. And then there’s Lex.

I enjoyed the Snyder movies for the most part. But they still aren’t doing certain things right. This show gave them the perfect Lex Luthor to model off of and they didn’t use it. I could’ve seen someone like Idris Elba playing Lex and knocking it out of the park. Instead we got…whatever Jesse Eisenberg was doing.

[Mr Gitz]

Originally Posted by calmblueocean81

Posting this on both the UK and US threads, hope thats ok!

I just recently got the boxset and because there were slight marks on disc 1 (potential scratches) I watched the first 8 episodes in one sitting, keeping a keen eye out for any errors or glitches. Thankfully there were none, but I did have some thoughts:

The majority of the episodes are perfect and pin-sharp, but random shots/scenes in certain episodes were oddly soft, as if the image was shifting into SD rather than HD. They were brief but still a bit distracting. The episode "Feeding Time" had an unusually large number of this soft scenes. The remaining two episodes on disc 1 didn't have any (as far as I could see), so I'm hoping its an issue that is relegated to only the early episodes. Odd that I don't remember BTAS ever suffering from this issue.

Another slight annoyance was that the opening WB logo (with Bugs) at the start of every single episode is a dreadfully poor SD version. I don't know why they couldn't have replaced this with a HD version.

Apart from that, I'm extremely happy with the set so far.
Watching it again reminds me how much I loved this series!
Having only recently re-watched Batman Beyond, I must say that the animation in Superman is like a breath of fresh air in comparison; so much more flexibility, fluidity and personality to the animation throughout. Batman Beyond now looks (to my eyes) incredibly stiff, flat and lacking in colour and life (cheaper looking in general). I also could never get used to the faux-rock soundtrack that they applied in Beyond, so the traditional symphonic sound used in Superman is a welcome relief (and the episodes sound magnificent on blu).

Just my two cents, until an official review comes along.

I agree about Batman Beyond animation. And I think it’s because most of the show was done on computers instead of the traditional ink & paint like BTAS/STAS. You’ll notice the first season of Justice League has the same issues. It looks like shit compared to BTAS/STAS. The colours especially

One thing about modern animation I hate is that we no longer have the “human touch”. Everything is too perfect. Too clean. Watching old Simpsons episodes and STAS/BTAS reminds me how rich and warm the ink & paint aesthetic is & the computerized version is so much more cold & lifeless. You can’t get that beautiful airbrushed aesthetic. Sure sometimes the artists go off model but that never bothered me. It reminds me a human hand did the work and human are imperfect sometimes.

But another issue with everything after STAS is like you mentioned, the music. Batman Beyond has this now dated rock music sound, which I can’t stand. But then when you get to Justice League and JLU they cheaped out even more by foregoing the live orchestra all together. It’s all MIDI music. Done using synth samples instead. Sure we got the amazing JL opening theme, which is glorious, but then the episodes themselves just sound so cheap. Makes you appreciate and realize what a luxury full orchestrations were in the first place.

When I rewatch other shows from the 1990s like X-Men or Spider-Man, it’s crazy how much of the music is just recycled over & over. Meanwhile Batman & Superman had movie quality music for EVERY episode & the animation was miles above & beyond what they were doing.

Man. It’s a tired old cliche but they just don’t make em like they use to.

[drush9999]

Finally got round to getting this, now have all the main Timmsverse series and movies on Blu-ray (ignoring Static Shock and The Zeta Project).

[The Fish]

Dam! This thing is still £50 almost 2 years after it came out... I've been holding off waiting for the usual mid £20-30 price drop, ****er must be selling well.

Looks like the wait continues...

[chip75]

Originally Posted by The Fish

Dam! This thing is still £50 almost 2 years after it came out... I've been holding off waiting for the usual mid £20-30 price drop, ****er must be selling well.

Looks like the wait continues...

Keep an eye on the French release, their animated titles often drop below 20 Euros.

[hoejunter]

The French version is currently £17 on Amazon.fr. I’m assuming the discs are the same as the UK?