Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Justice League: Season One Blu-ray Movie Review

The Magnificent Seven.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 14, 2011

Bruce Timm appears to be a mild mannered producer, but one has to wonder if he’s secretly a super-powered alien from a faraway planet where cartoons are king and episodic television fare isn’t just for kiddies and relegated to Saturday mornings. Timm came up through the animation ranks, doing journeyman service for such iconic houses as Don Bluth and Filmation, before finding his true calling at Warner Animation, working with collaborator Eric Radomski initially on the Tiny Toons series. Timm and Radomski then moved on to reenergizing the DC Comics brand with an innovative collection of series and straight to video efforts that included Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker and Superman: Doomsday. In 2001 Timm brought Justice League to Cartoon Network. Much in the same way Timm had reinvigorated the two most iconic DC characters, Batman and Superman (you fans of other DC heroes can stop frothing at the mouth, please), Timm wanted to reinvent the frankly cheesy adventures of the old Super Friends series in a new, post-modern light. As is discussed in one of the supplements on the Justice League: New Frontier Blu- ray, there’s something exciting about seeing a gaggle of your favorite superheroes working together, not the least of which is the feeling you’re getting a special bargain by only having to plunk down your dime (and/or five dollars, considering what most comic books go for nowadays) and getting more than just one or two icons for your investment. The fact that Justice League did involve so many characters actually gave Timm considerable pause, as he discusses in a couple of the brief interview segments included on this Season One Blu-ray as supplements. Timm and his collaborators decided early on that the only way to give sufficient screen time to the seven or so main characters involved in this retooled Justice League was to make all the episodes at least two parters, with a couple of three parters thrown in for good measure. That gave the writers a chance to slowly build character arcs for all of the main players, as well as making sure that none of the heroes was relegated to just a few seconds of screen time in any given episode. The multi-episode format of Justice League is one of its best attributes, allowing a little more exploration than is traditionally the norm in animated fare which is often churned out without a lot of care or nuance.

The series gets off to a fun start with the three part “Secret Origins” story, which documents how this iteration of the Justice League comes together. The series starts with Batman investigating some mysterious scientists who are up to no good, and the Caped Crusader is soon joined by the Man of Steel, Superman, in a failed effort to thwart the bad guys. Justice League is actually quite interesting in this regard—namely, that the heroes often don’t smite the villains right off the bat, and in fact they’re often at a loss as to how to proceed to achieve their noble aims. In this arc, Superman is prone to deadly literal “mind games,” when he’s beset with horrible visions and auditory hallucinations which are ultimately explained as attempts by Martian J’onn J’onnz to contact Superman telepathically, attempts which are being filtered by the bad guys, thus leading to Superman’s disorientation. This opening gambit has obvious parallels, strangely, to H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, though in this case J’onnz is the last of the Martians and is a good guy, having survived a long ago attack on his home planet by the bad guys, aliens who are now intent on destroying Earth (or at least earthlings and the Sun, which they don’t particularly like). The design of the tripod aliens is obviously modeled on George Pal’s creature design for the 1950’s version of the Wells classic, but the storyline also tips a bit of the DC hat to (again, somewhat strangely) the White Martians of the brand’s comic universe.

J’onzz’s telepathic efforts manage to recruit most of the rest of what will become this reconstituted Justice League, but lovers of the franchise will notice a couple of salient differences to the usual lineup in this first season’s episodes. First of all, while Aquaman makes a “special guest appearance,” he’s not a regular participant. Instead, perhaps as a bow to political correctness, Wonder Woman is not the only female in this new gathering and is joined by the relatively little known DC character Hawkgirl. Also, this particular version features a somewhat cranky African American Green Lantern, one John Stewart (no, not that one—this one has an “h” in his first name), also probably a bow to racial diversity and political correctness. The rest of the team is the standard assortment of heroes, namely The Flash, bringing the character count to seven, with Superman, Batman, J’onn J’onnz (also known as the Martian Manhunter), Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern. That’s a lot of characters to stuff into even any given two part episode, but over the course of the first season, a surprisingly large amount of backstory and even development for individual characters is given, though (perhaps understandably) in dribs and drabs within the context of individual episodes.

Purists may decry some of the changes made to this Justice League, as well as the perhaps questionable decision to include some nascent romantic elements between Hawkgirl and the Green Lantern as well as between Wonder Woman and Batman. The startling regularity with which all of these superheroes get knocked down and/or out may surprise those who grew up with more invincible versions of the characters, but that vulnerability adds to the excitement of the overall enterprise. The series is well animated and within the somewhat confining strictures of mass produced television fare is often very well written, with some nice character developments along the way. This may not in fact be your father’s Justice League (or Super Friends, as it were), but it’s a fun and enjoyable rebooting of a venerable franchise that invests a lot of new life and energy into the DC universe.

Justice League: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

This "early days" Warner Blu-ray release gets started right off the bat with little fuss or bother—no endless unskippable previews, not even a main menu. Just the Warner logo and then the episodes start right up, in their VC-1 encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. How refreshing. There was some false controversy when this set came out regarding its aspect ratio. As the creative team explains in detail in one of the three commentaries included as a supplement on this set, the first season of Justice League was produced when widescreen televisions were just becoming the norm, though they hadn't yet ascended to their current market position. Therefore the decision was consciously made to produce this first season so that it could be matted at will for either 1.33:1 or 1.78:1 presentations (and in fact, as discussed in the Supplements section of the review, the creative team was thrilled that Cartoon Network took the time and effort to broadcast the first season in both aspect ratios). But those who claim they are "missing" content in this 1.33:1 presentation actually have it exactly backwards: the 1.78:1 framing actually removes content from the top and bottom of the image, though as the creative team explicitly discusses, they animated this series with that foreknowledge and so didn't really include anything earth-shaking at either the top or the bottom of any given frame, so really, when you get right down to it, the 1.78:1 aficionados aren't missing that much, either. While some of course would have preferred a 1.78:1 presentation, simply so that the entire width of their television was being utilized, the 1.33:1 image in and of itself is fine, sharp and clear with astoundingly vivid colors, solid black levels and very good to outstanding line detail. There are some niggling issues with banding, typically having to do with the Green Lantern's super-magical green ray, but otherwise this is a largely artifact free presentation that should well please the series' many fans.

Justice League: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Warner hadn't quite stepped up to the lossless audio plate when they released Justice League: Season One, and so a perfectly serviceable if somewhat unremarkable Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is the only option included on these three Blu-rays. Surround activity is decent and often quite well rendered, with lots of fun effects zinging around and through the soundfield, but the low end on many of these episodes is sadly lacking and surely would have been helped with uncompressed audio. Voice work is uniformly excellent throughout the series, and everything is presented very cleanly and clearly, with well prioritized dialogue, effects and underscore. While audiophiles are no doubt going to be disappointed by the lack of lossless audio here, there's not a lot to complain about with regard to this Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, other than a certain lack of "oomph" in the LFE department.

Justice League: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Feature Commentaries on Three Episodes with Producers Brice Timm, James Tucker, Glen Murakami, Rich Fogel and Director Dan Riba. These are actually rather informative little commentaries, broaching a number of subjects, including the previous series that Timm and his collaborators worked on, as well as how they sought to reimagine the Justice League for a new generation. They go into quite a bit of detail on various aspects, including the then revolutionary idea for Cartoon Network to broadcast the first season both in 1.33:1 and 1.78:1 (the series is old enough that flatscreens weren't yet the norm, though they were becoming so, and by the series' second season, it was being formatted only in 1.78:1).
• Inside Justice League (SD; 9:11 ) is a panel discussion hosted by Jason Hillhouse and including input from Bruce Timm, Dan Riba, James Tucker and Rich Fogel. They discuss the challenges of bringing an enterprise with this many characters to the small screen.
• The Look of the League: Character Design (SD; 4:17). Bruce Timm explores the animation style of the series.
• Justice League: The First Mission (SD; 5:53) is culled from the same panel discussion mentioned above, but includes the initial promo reel that Timm and Tucker used to pitch the series.
• Storyboards: The Blueprint for Justice (SD; 7:10) has Riba, Timm and Tucker discussing the storyboarding process, including side by side sequences showing how storyboards evolved into final product.
• Blackhawk Theme (SD; 2:40) is a sort of proto-music video the creative team put together for San Diego's Comic-Con.

Justice League: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

DC used to be the 500 pound gorilla of the comic book (and ancillary media) universe, but of course somewhere along the way Marvel came along to usurp that throne. Creative forces like Timm and his crew deserve a lot of praise for reinventing some iconic heroes for a new generation. If their choices are at least questionable some of the time, it can't be denied that overall Justice League is a lot of fun, with exciting action and well delineated characters. This release from the dawn of the Blu-ray age sports very good video and decent if underwhelming audio and has some interesting, albeit brief, supplements. Overall, it's Recommended.