Releases - DVD - Batman Beyond: The Complete
First Season
Announce Date: 12/7/05
Street Date: 3/21/06
Closed Captioning: Yes
MSRP: $26.99
Packaging Type: Digi-Pack
Subformat: Multi Disc
Media Quantity: 2
Disc Configuration: 1) 9-Dual Layer 2) 9-Dual Layer
Sound Track Language: English
Run Time: 280 |
Subtitles:
Francais, Espanol
Aspect Ratio:
Original Aspect Ratio - 1.33, Standard [4:3 Transfer]
Sound Quality:
English (Stereo, Dolby 2.0)
|
Episodes:
Disc 1
Rebirth Part 1, Rebirth Part 2, Black Out, Golem, Meltdown, Heroes,
Shriek, Dead Man's Hand
Disc 2
The Winning Edge, Spellbound, Disappearing Inque, A Touch of Curare,
Ascension
DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:
Rebirth, Pt.1 Audio Commentary: Audio Commentary with Bruce Timm-
Producer, Alan Burnett- Producer, Paul Dini- Producer, Glenn Murakami-
Producer, and Curt Geda- Director.
Shriek Audio Commentary: Audio Commentary with Bruce Timm- Producer,
Alan Burnett- Producer, Glenn Murakami- Producer, Curt Geda- Director,
and Stan Berkowitz- Writer.
Interviews: Inside Batman Beyond: Every Batman fan wishes they
could sit at a table with it's creators of the series. Well, now here's
a chance for that to take place with a few surprises.
Music Only Track: Music of The Knight: Bruce Timm intro's the
music from five key scenes of Batman Beyond as you choose which one you
would like to hear with dramatic music only.
Synopsis: Terry McGinnis was just an ordinary teenager...until
his father was mysteriously murdered. Suspecting foul play at his
father's company Wayne/Powers Corporation, Terry meets Bruce Wayne and
learns a secret identity hidden for decades. Now too old to battle
injustice, Wayne refuses to help. So Terry does what any brash young kid
would do: steal the Batsuit and take matters into his own hands! Vowing
to avenge his father's death, Terry dons the high-tech suit: tricked out
with jetpacks, a supersensitive microphone and even camouflage
capabilities in search of his father's assassin. Get in on the action
from the beginning of a new partnership between an ex-crimefighter and
his apprentice.
Review: A strange occurrence happened around Batman Beyond.
Back when WB released the single disc releases, either by accident or
choice, they ended up all of season one, sans the final episode
(“Ascension”). Those who purchased those releases will no doubt already
feel familiar with this set, but that final episode will be a welcome
sight for those that haven’t since Batman Beyond stopped airing
on Cartoon Network.
Batman Beyond arrived on Kids WB! at a time when they wanted
younger shows. Instead of simply making a younger Batman show (hello
The Batman!), the crew of The New Batman / Superman Adventures
decided to take it all in a new direction: Bruce Wayne’s retired and a
new Batman, Terry McGinnis, takes over the mantle to fight crime in the
future Gotham. Fans were just about as angry with this series as they
were when Teen Titans first showed up, saying that it’s not what
they wanted and that they didn’t want to see an old-man Wayne. Years
later Batman Beyond still has a few naysayer's, but most have
quieted down, especially after the direct ties that future Justice
League and Justice League Unlimited episodes referred to.
Comprised of two discs, this entire first season of Batman Beyond
is rock solid. There’s not a single episode in it that I didn’t enjoy,
both as a kid and now as an adult. The episodes are all top notch in
writing and animation, with the premiere two-part “Rebirth” and the
Inque episodes being particularly beautiful to look at. Batman Beyond
is certainly a fun show to watch and experience.
The packaging for Batman Beyond: Season 1 is very, very small. A
single digi-pak, double layer tray and cardboard wrapping makes up the
packaging. Those wanting to compare it to any existing packaging on the
market may have a hard time, as I can’t think of any current releases
that look like this. You could compare it to a Thin-Pak (the style of
case that Futurama and Family Guy are in), as one easily slides into
Batman Beyond’s cardboard slip.
Menus are spectacular looking. I assume since the show was originally
intended to be “kiddie” and the fact this release is under the “DC
Comics Classics Collection” banner that they made the show a lot darker
in tone for menus and packaging than I would have thought. Dark reds and
blacks make up the animated menus. You can tell they seemed to have a
lack of model images to use, however, as models for an April Moon Gang
member (Krul) and Zander (Kobra leader from “Curse of the Kobra”) were
used.
Video is as good as you can get for cel-based animation. It’s all a
pretty clean transfer, very little interlacing and popping colors. The
audio is strong and the loud rock music really comes out crystal clear
and sounds great when you have the speakers turned up.
Special features are surprisingly good for such a small release. Only
two commentaries, but the “Inside Batman Beyond” and “Music Only”
featurettes are simply awesome. While the features aren’t too lengthy,
they’re satisfactory for such a small release.
Lots of cool information in the “Inside Batman Beyond” featurette
is to be had from the roundtable discussion moderated by Jason Hillhouse.
The “Music Only” track, featuring all music that wasn’t on the Rhino
Batman Beyond soundtrack release from years back, was great fun to
watch as well. It’s a shame we can’t get more of the Batman Beyond
score released on discs, but I guess that’s too niche of a market for
Warner to tackle.
The commentary for “Rebirth Part 1” is very informative and those
doubtful of “Shriek”’s ability to sustain a full commentary will be
pleasantly surprised. There’s some great commentary in this one and we
even get to hear from Stan Berkowitz this time around.
With the future of Batman Beyond’s DVD releases looking bright,
we should have the entire series by winter of 2007/2008. As long as they
keep up the content, but maybe throw in a few more commentaries, I’ll be
incredibly happy with these releases. After all, it’s really just the
show I want on DVD and this release more than adequately delivers one of
my favorite shows as a kid. |
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