BTAS DVD's - Got em this morning

[BrianUK]

In the UK we have to import and pre-order our american DVD's and we get them a few days before the release date ... well ... Justice League, BTAS and Batman / Superman arrived this morning !!

Good - Great picture, clear sound and good transfers
The extras all start with a very cool Batman logo which pulls back and then the name of the extra appears. Quite spiffy.

Bad - Some of the extras are a bit tacky. The games are very very easy - Basically you can't really loose and they just use clips from the episodes on the disc. You'll see what I mean when you get yours.

The 'how to draw' section is basically a time lapse of an artist drawing either Batman or Superman at high speed. Kind of cool but doesn't give much away.

More Good - The best disc of the lot has to be BTAS - Legend Begins.

For a start on the menu there is a very cool track playing. It isn't the theme tune or anything I've heard before. It may have been used in the show but it suites the material perfectly.

There is an intro by Bruce Timm for each episode which is usually between 1.30 and 2.30 minutes. Basically a head shot of BT in front of a monitor which is playing 'On Leather Wings'. He goes into things like how Scarecrow was so hard to design and how they never really got him right until TNBA. He also talks about the origins of Harley Quinn and how she came about. This is mostly stuff that the die hard fan already knows but it's still cool.

The big positive thing is the way the pakaging has been designed and the way the menus have been put together. This would suggest that there are definately more BTAS episode discs to come. The inside cover has a big 'Episodes' title and then the lists of episodes appears. I can see this being repeated in another Volume. Would be very cool indeed !!!!!! :)

Perhaps one of you mods could email Bruce and ask him if he's recorded any more intros for future episode releases ?

Anyways, that's about all I have to say ... feel free to ask any questions.

-BrianUK

[mbaker]

Some Questions for "Batman: The Legend Begins" What exactally is A "timelaps"? Is that when the motion's speed is increased? I was hoping the "How To Draw" section would be like an art gallary with step by step drawing
lessons. (Sort of like A "How To Draw" book on A DVD) When Bruce Timm dose the intors, dose the entire episode play with the title cards intact? Also, is the show's opening (You know, the one where Batman's fighting the two thugs on the rooftop.) on the disc? I know the disc also has the original prototype version of the opening. It was used on an "HBO First Look" episode on "Mask Of The Phanyasm" many years ago.

[BrianUK]

Hey there, some answers ....

What exactally is A "timelaps"? Is that when the motion's speed is increased?

Yep, it lasts about 2 minutes. All you can see is an artist drawing Batman from scratch. Music plays over it, there are no instructions. You'll have to freeze frame it if you wanna work out the technique.

When Bruce Timm dose the intors, dose the entire episode play with the title cards intact?

On the screen with the list of episodes to the left of each episode title there is a little film reel icon. You click on it and Bruce Timm's intro appears.

Also, is the show's opening (You know, the one where Batman's fighting the two thugs on the rooftop.) on the disc?

As yet I can find no evidence that this is on the disc. I hope that it on there somewhere as an easter egg. All there is on the special features menu is 'How to Draw Batman' and the 'Crappy Game thin'. The Bruce Timm intros are on the episode title menu.

Anyone know if the prototype animations where supposed to be on there ?

-BrianUK

[BrianUK]

sorry, let me be clear about that third answer.

The shows opening, title cards and credits are all there for each episode right from the WB logo at the start to the WB logo at the end.

It is the test animation that I cant find but might be an egg.

-Brian

[PlopKat]

Brian UK wrote:
The 'how to draw' section is basically a time lapse of an artist drawing either Batman or Superman at high speed. Kind of cool but doesn't give much away.

This sounds similar to the "Get The Picture" feature on the Tom And Jerry - The Magic Ring DVD. Two drawings of Tom & Jerry are done in pencil within a minute and forty seconds.

-PlopKat

[GL2k2]

Actually it sounds more like what they show at the end of Static Shock. A hand drawing either Static or one of the other characters of the series in "time lapse" speed.

Well, that's kinda pointless. I don't think anyone's going to learn from that crap. They need to put my Arkham Rogue's gallery info in there. Each of the villians that appear on the disc will be featured in the gallery and gives you a episode spotlight of which the will have appeared in, and a origin, real name, accomplices, all that Who's Who good stuff.

[BrianUK]

Plopkat, that's exactly what they are :) They are even called 'Get the Picture'.

I hadnt seen the T & J DVD but it's evident that it's exactly the same thing.

Thanks for clearing that up :p

-BrianUK

[Randy H]

The highly-touted "Animation Tests" section, which was supposed to contain the original pitch film for BTAS (the 2min short Eric radomski and BT put together to sell the series), IS NOT on the disc, as far as I can tell. I went thru all the menus (unless there's a chapter search menu....), and it's nowhere to be found.

Unfortunately, that's the one thing I was looking forward to on this release. Wasn't that in an interview somewhere here on TZ? I thought BT had said that the pitch film would be there. Not to mention that all of the online info said the DVDs were to have an "animation Tests" section.....

Can anyone here at TZ get us some info on this?

Also, did anyone else notice how different ROTJ was? Not only the obvious cuts, but alot of the dialogue seems to be different. Not just the "ice wayne" or "kill Wayne" type variations, but the readings. Alot of the lines are the same, but the intonation and delivery are different. In may cases, I thought the readings they used for the cut version were actually better. That said, I was blown away by the Joker's death scene. I knew what was coming, had read all the reports on what it was like, but I just couldn't believe it.

I hadn't seen JL yet, so that was what I was looking forward to. I basically agree with the moajority opinion on it. It wasn't as weak an episode as I expected, but I can see some things that could be changed. All the voices had moments of weakness- even Batman, although he's undoubtedly the best of the group. the animation had some really strong moments and some really weak moments. I think I would ahve enjoyed it more if only Bats, Supes and J'Onn had been in it. They seem to fit together nicely. Overall it was nice to see all the other characters.

Oh well, enough of my jabberin....

Later,
Randy H

[JTurner954]

I just came back from Best Buy and none of the Batman DVD's were there. The only new DVD there was the Justice League one and they wanted $18.00 for it.

[Randy H]

You might check BestBuy again. JL was on sale at our BestBuy (in TX) for $14.99....

In fact ,JL was the ONLY one on sale... The rest were $17.99

Later,
Randy H
EDIT:

Also, the others were in short supply... Only one or two of each, and I got there right after they opened. JL was plentiful...

[JTurner954]

There were a whole bunch of Justice League ones. I think the reason it was so high was because it's next to Sawgrass Mills Mall which some consider a tourist attraction here in Florida.

[Randy H]

Too bad. Hopefully the otehrs will be back in stock there soon.

The BTAS and ROTJ ones are definitely worth buying, and Batman Superman movie has a pretty extensive intro by Bruce Timm, so it's probably worth it as well.

JL has no features, so if you've already seen it, it's not worth much. However, it might help out getting the rest of the series on DVD, which wouldn't be bad for all of us who don't have cable. :)

SubZero looks to be the worst of the set. It has no intro by Bruce Timm (arguably the best feature on any of the discs), and the music montage is laughable. It would help if they actually left the production art up on the screen long enough to tell what it was. An art gallery woulda been better.

All in all, I wish all these discs had commentaries.... Oh, I wish they had commentaries........ :(

Later,
Randy H

[ZorBrak]

here is what I have found:



title: World's Finest- store: Best Buy- cost: $18- date found: 2/20-number of copies I saw: only one

title:Batman TAS The legend Begins-Best Buy-cost:$18- date: 2/23-number of copies I saw: 4

title:Justice League-Best Buy-cost:$15-date:2/23-number of copies I saw: 10+


EVERYWHERE else that I checked had NOTHING NEW.

so I think WB may be pushing JL more than the others, they didn't have ROTJ uncut or Subzero, and when I went today World's Finest was not there, I find it disheartening that a store that has so many DVD customers don't even get things out on time...Apparently they didn't even order any shipments of Subzero or ROTJ Uncut LAME!!!

[Calhoun07]

Originally posted by JTurner954
I just came back from Best Buy and none of the Batman DVD's were there. The only new DVD there was the Justice League one and they wanted $18.00 for it.

Likely the shelf didn't have the sale tag on it, but it should ring up for 14.99 at the register. If not, whip out their ad and tell them it should.

My Best Buy also was sold out of them, except for the Uncut and JL DVDs. They only had one Uncut left when I went there, which was fine by me, as that was the one on back order from Deep Discount DVD. I had the others on order from them, so it didn't matter much to me. However, the space where they went was pretty small (and empty) so they sold out rather quick but I was surprised they didn't get in that many. Gee, do you think Warner underestimated how these things would sell?

[Meow]

Hmmm well, I have to take my dog to some training class in a little while. While my mom and I are out, I'll see if I can swing buy some stores and get some of those DVDs. (If they're even there :rolleyes: ) They'd better be there! I've waited forever for these dvds to come out and I really don't wait to have to wait any longer...

Just for the record, The DVDs I'm getting are: ROTJ uncut, World's Finest, and that Batman DVD with the first five episodes on it.

Fortunalty, I've already got the MOTP one.

[JTurner954]

Actually the label said $17.99. It looked like a 7 to me (and I looked at more than one).

[Randy H]

Ok, I don't know how this has come across so unclearly until now (this page has had several messages and replies regarding JL's pricing), but here's an explanation that will hopefully suffice:

The Justice League DVD, like the other Batman releases today, has a REGULAR RETAIL price of $17.99. However, it is currently ON SALE for $14.99. The sticker on the front of the package (just like every other BestBuy title) DOES quote the REGULAR RETAIL price. Best Buy doesn't sale sticker their products, but rather use shelftalkers to display sale pricing. Unless there's some kind of regional thing going on, the JL DVD should be on sale (at least at Best Buy).

However well WB thinks the DVDs may sell has no bearing on whether stores order them. Justice League is available in higher quantities because it is a NEW RELEASE, whereas the other films released today have been released before. Even most of the "Legend Begins" episodes have been released before. Best Buy isn't doing anything stunning by not ordering large quantities of rereleases.

Later,
Randy H

[Clayface]

I'm in MD. My Best Buy had none of the DVDs. My Suncoast had everything but the ROTJ uncut - they didn't even have a space for it, so I'm guessing for some odd reason they're not carrying it. Luckily, I've ordered all of these from Deep Discount DVD. Everything but the uncut ROTJ has already shipped to me.

[Joe Wagner]

In regards to the JL:TAS DVD check your K-Mart ad - it was listed in there for $14.99 or so. I'm assuming that K-Mart at least got the JL disc in since it was in their ad.

-Joe!

[halinar]

I hit circuit city for the JL disk. Can't beat 11.99 for it. The payback was that they didn't have any of the other disks so it was the only one I could pick up until friday now. Such is life.

[Salvor]

Am I the only one to be let down by the picture quality on BTAS: The Legend Begins? They should have made more efforts to clean the picture, cause it looks way too dusty...

[Brian Cruz]

Originally posted by Salvor
Am I the only one to be let down by the picture quality on BTAS: The Legend Begins? They should have made more efforts to clean the picture, cause it looks way too dusty...

That's probably dust that was present on the cels when the episodes were being animated overseas. The only way to get rid of that effectively is to spend millions of dollars to digitally clean each episode.

[Randy H]

Salvor, I think you may be forgetting some things when measuring the picture quality.

1.The BTAS series wasn't finished digitally like the later series' have been, so more dust could get on them during the camera stage. Also, the transfer is coming from the film print, not the digital source, as with BB: ROTJ.

2. The backgrounds in the series were always more "dusty" just because of the style they were painted in. The backgrounds were always painted with more detail and an overall "grungier" appearance than the later shows.

Personally, I thought the image quality was great, and much better than the MOTP DVD from a couple years back.

That said, I still find the character animation to be the worst of all the WBA shows. And there's a number of places where the editing in the shows was quite lacking in comparison ot the later efforts.

Overall, though, this disc is really good, and I can't wait for the other episodes! Wouldn't it be great if WB would release a disc a month? And even better, if they released a Superman disc every month! That'd be nice..... :)

Later,
Randy H

[Salvor]

Originally posted by Randy H
Salvor, I think you may be forgetting some things when measuring the picture quality.

1.The BTAS series wasn't finished digitally like the later series' have been, so more dust could get on them during the camera stage. Also, the transfer is coming from the film print, not the digital source, as with BB: ROTJ.

2. The backgrounds in the series were always more "dusty" just because of the style they were painted in. The backgrounds were always painted with more detail and an overall "grungier" appearance than the later shows.
I did think about all this but I was still hankering after something better. I mean, the version of 'On Leather Wings' I taped looked almost better than the DVD version! But Brian is right, I guess BTAS is no Snow White...

[Calhoun07]

Another thing you have to consider is that the video they mastered these DVDs from may have suffered some more wear and tear since they were aired, so it is quite possible you would have a better quality version on tape than on DVD.

If Warner could only see the cash cow they were sitting on they would invest some money and clean these things up. Batman animated sets would sell just as well as the Simpsons or Transformers.

[Adam Tyner]

Transformers, maybe. I can't imagine sales even coming close to The Simpsons, though. Sales of the first season set shattered Fox's already lofty expectations.

[MAXIMUS]

I have just one question.....will the WB be doing more episodes of Batman TAs on DVD? Possibly a box set? I just hope we get the standard 5 (which are great by the way). I would really really love to see other episodes that go into more character detail , such as Two-Face or Its Never Too late. That too me would be something you realy have to pick up.

Wow i wrote alot