JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time

Back in the day, Challenge of the Super Friends was the coolest cartoon on TV. It featured the superstars of DC Comics fighting against their deadliest foes (with the noticeable omission of the Joker). The new Target exclusive animated movie JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time is a heartfelt homage to that cartoon with a few added tweaks that make it feel much like a pre-Crisis team-up with two pre-membership the Legion of Super Heroes teens.

The adventure opens with a battle between the JLA and the Legion of Doom. The design is noticeably simplified, but the animation is superb. The action sequences are incredible and there is plenty of it throughout this feature. On the roof of the world and in outer space, the heroes and villains do battle with the fate of humanity hanging in the balance. In the aftermath, Captain Cold fires an ice blast at the field of battle, accidentally trapping the Legion of Doom’s leader Lex Luthor in a glacier.

Over a thousand years in the future Dawnstar and Karate Kid, two teenagers of a Utopian future world are awaiting word on their admission into the Legion on Super Heroes, an intergalactic team of super-powered beings from various planets and cultures throughout the universe. Wandering through a museum dedicated to the history of superheroics, Karate Kid mistakenly frees Lex Luthor from his ice prison. Seizing a time travel device, he journeys into the past with the teenage superheroes secretly in tow. Luthor reforms the Legion of Doom and sets about his most dastardly scheme, to rewrite history with the JLA missing.

The ensuing battle takes the heroes throughout time in a battle for the future.

A fun-loving romp through the annals of both animated and print history (with nods to the old Super Friends cartoon), Trapped in Time is suitable for viewers young and old. An exciting and nostalgic cartoon, Trapped in Time slipped past many fans (including this one until I stumbled upon it at my local Target). Don’t let the same thing happen to you!

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Exciting Christmas Stories with Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman

Happy holidays, everyone! There are some more reviews and such in the works, but for today here are three stories from the Power Records series in 1977.

These are the nuttiest oddities of comic book tie-in lore, with one over-ambitious actress voicing about five parts including a scratchy-voiced Lois Lane and a doe-eyed toddler. The Batman story is just bonkers with a tommy-gun-toting mobster obsessed with the holidays (apparently he’s harmless the rest of the year). The Wonder Woman adventure needs to be heard to be believed… really.
Superman Christmas Story: Light Up The Tree, Mr. President
“The annual tree-lighting ceremony on the White House lawn is about to begin. As the president speaks of peace on earth and good will toward men, he and all around him are unaware that a vengeful, deranged scientist has secretly connected the button that turns the light on the tree to the button that launches missiles that can start World War III. Only Superman can prevent the greatest tragedy of all time.” DC Comics – 1977

Batman Christmas Story: Christmas Carol Caper
“Batman receives an ominous singing telegram on Christmas Eve but dismisses it as the work of a crank. He and Robin go off to a Christmas party at the South Side Mission down town, but soon learn the telegram was no prank when attempts on his life are made by Rudolph the Red Nose Hitman, and then Maxie The Minstrel and Sammy The South Side Santa.” DC Comics – 1977

Wonder Woman Christmas Story: The Prisoner of Christmas Island
“As the world prepares to celebrate Christmas, a powerful nuclear submarine sails under the polar ice-cap to the North Pole. A laser drill cuts a hole up thru the ice, thru which Von Richter, a captain of the sub, enters the village above and kidnaps Santa Claus, taking him to Christmas Island, a barren atoll in the mid-Pacific. Only Wonder Woman can rescue him.” D.C. Comics – 1977

The All-New All-Different Justice League of America

Readers may recall that when I first started this blog back in 2007 there was a glut of comic book movie news. Chief amongst those rumors was a live action film based on DC Comics’ flagship superteam The Justice of America utilizing state of the art CGi animation similar to what was used on Beowulf. Happy Feet and Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome producer George Miller was set to helm the project, a casting call was made to fill the parts of Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash (rumored at the time to be played by Ryan Reynolds) and two unknowns cast as Batman and Superman. The movie was gearing up for production in Australia, but the WGA writer’s strike killed the project.

Fast forward to 2010 when the newly formed DC Entertainment has stated that they had no plans to produce a movie based on the JLA and seemed miffed that reporters were comparing the project to Marvel’s Avengers franchise.

Just this week, all of that changed. Apparently the JLA movie is back in the works along with a reboot of Superman and Batman (post Batman The Dark Knight Rises).

There is currently a tentative 2013 release date.

The Justice League of America (by Alex Ross)

Via CBR.com:

Erasing doubts about the Justice League movie mentioned in its profile of incoming Warner Bros. President Jeff Robinov, the Los Angeles Times reports a new script is the works, with the aim to have DC Comics’ top characters together onscreen in 2013.

That film would potentially serve as a launching point for other superhero movies — an approach mentioned in 2007, before director George Miller’s Justice League was shelved — including The Flash and Wonder Woman, a character whose NBC television pilot is being shot at this moment. Robinov doesn’t see the David E. Kelley revival as a conflict, though, pointing out that Superman Returns coexisted with Smallville.

But perhaps even bigger than the Justice League is Robinov’s acknowledgment that Warner Bros. will “reinvent” the Batman franchise following the release next year of The Dark Knight Rises — with Christopher Nolan and wife Emma Thomas remaining involved as producers.

It sets Nolan up as the architect, or godfather, of DC’s big-screen “universe” — he’s already producing Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot — a role that stands to benefit everyone involved.

As we noted earlier, Warner Bros. pulled the plug on Justice League even as it neared production in early 2008 because of a confluence of issues: the writers strike, Australian tax-credit uncertainties, the possibility of an actors strike and, the LA Times adds, concerns that another version of Batman might conflict with Nolan’s films. Some of the central cast was already in place, including Adam Brody as The Flash, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman and a then-relatively unknown Armie Hammer as Batman.

Additionally, there’s this missive from MTV’s Splash Page confirming that Warner Bros. is thinking of a complete reboot of Batman after the next Chris Nolan film:

The Many Faces of Batman

“We have the third Batman, but then we’ll have to reinvent Batman,” Jeff Robinov (president of the Warner Bros. motion picture group) told the L.A. Times. “Chris Nolan and [producing partner and wife] Emma Thomas will be producing it, so it will be a conversation with them about what the next phase is.”

Could Batman be headed for yet another reboot? It certainly seems that way.Nolan has made it clear on various occasions that “The Dark Knight Rises” will be his last Batman film behind the camera, but the filmmaker doesn’t appear to be done with Gotham’s vigilante. Robinov’s comment would seem to indicate that Nolan will replicate his role in the upcoming “Superman” reboot, and serve as a producer and shepherd to whatever big-screen incarnation of Batman follows his blockbuster three-film franchise.

Still, it’s worth noting that this timeline doesn’t leave much room for a new Batman to be introduced to audiences ahead of the “Justice League” team-up in 2013. While current “Superman: Man of Steel” star Henry Cavill might be persuaded to return for “Justice League,” it’s unlikely that Ryan Reynolds’ schedule will allow for another turn as Green Lantern — especially if “Green Lantern 2” gets the (*ahem*) green light.

All things considered, it looks like one fact is abundantly clear: fans should probably prepare themselves for a new Batman in a few years.