Justice League: Gods and Monsters
Studio: Warner Bros. Animation
Release Date: July 14th, 2015 - Digital; July 28th, 2015 - Blu-ray, DVD

Synopsis: In an alternative history Zod is Superman's father, Batman is a vampiric Man-Bat, and Wonder Woman is the child of Ares, God of War. When these dark heroes form an alliance, the question everyone asks is will they save the world, or rule it?

Blu-ray Bonus Features
-Alternate Realities: Infinite Possibilities - Justice League: Gods & Monsters falls into a category of storytelling where our well-known characters and the worlds they inhabit are re-imagined. This documentary explores the various attempts by writers to have a little fun and tinker with the characters, resulting in exceptional storytelling that posed thought-provoking questions to audiences.
-Calculated Risks: The Making of Gods and Monsters - Justice League: Gods & Monsters was an idea that pushed the boundaries. It began with that challenging question writers face: "What haven't we seen before?" Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett audaciously answered that challenge, resulting in a fresh and exciting film that forces us to think differently about the DC Universe.
-The New Gods - Encore presentation of 2010 documentary about Jack Kirby's New Gods.
-A Sneak Peak at DC Universe's Next Animated Movie - An advance look at the next DC Universe Original Movie.
-Bonus cartoons from the DC Comics Vault
*Some bonus feature above are included with the digital release of the film.

Single-Disc DVD Bonus Features
-A Sneak Peak at DC Universe's Next Animated Movie - An advance look at the next DC Universe Original Movie.

Justice League: Gods and Monsters Blu-ray Review
by James Harvey

As with the home video release of Batman Versus Robin, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has thrown in some support for the physical release of Justice League: Gods and Monsters by releasing a Deluxe Edition of the Blu-ray title. The Deluxe Edition features the Blu-ray release of the movie packaged with a special collectible Wonder Woman figure, and we'll dig into that a little further down in the review.

As usual, starting off with the movie's audio and video presentation, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has done a stellar job. The movie looks nearly perfect, save for the usual minor banding and macroblocking that seems to haunt these titles. The quality is around the same levels of previous installments in the DC Universe Animated Original Movie line. It's fantastic, yeah, but there are a few small little issues that pop in. Nothing distracting, and even easy to miss, but it's still there. The audio quality is really impressive and just monstrous at times. The action sequences are thunderous and bombastic, and everything sounds crisp and clear. Be it a small action, like drinking from a glass, or something a bit more severe, like Batman lunging onto his prey and digging in, everything sounds fantastic and distinct. It's a great DTS-HD Master Audio mix that makes full use of the speakers, and sounds crazy great on a home theater system. Make sure to turn it up, folks.

As for the bonus content, it's a nice helping of extras, though not as robust. The major bonus feature that fans will really enjoy is "Calculated Risks: The Making of Gods and Monsters." Running 24 minutes, the featurette covers the origins of this DTV, originally a television series, and how it grew into something that, as is noted time and time again, quite risky for the home entertainment market. It's a great watch, and features interviews with the main creative team behind the movie and a few other notable big names from DC Comics. After that is "Alternate Realities: Infinite Possibilities," a nearly 20-minute featurette about DC Comics' frequent use of alternate realities in storytelling. Some of the publisher's most well-known alternate-universe works are covered here, and makes for an fun, fluffy watch. The last of the new content is a lengthy preview for Batman: Bad Blood, the next installment of the DC Universe Animated Original Movie line. Running over 14 minutes, the preview includes finished animation, interviews and production artwork hyping the movie which. Naturally, it looks fantastic. And hey, it features the animated debut of Batwoman and Batwing, and that definitely has my interest piqued.

There is some repeated content in the form of the "The Fourth World: The New Gods" featurette, which previously appeared on the Superman/Batman: Apocalypse home video release.

The disc rounds off with a couple bonus episodes, the Legion of the Super-Heroes episode "Phantoms" and the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Brave New Metropolis, some trailers, and both a standard definition and digital download copy of the main feature.

Also, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has included a nice bonus figurine for the Deluxe Edition Blu-ray editions of Justice League: Gods and Monsters. It's a nice looking figurine that'll look good in a collection. There's no movement of playability factor to it, but the quality is there and the studio should be commended for making the physical release of Justice League: Gods and Monsters a collectible (the sticker on the packaging says this is a Limited Edition release that's number 19575 of 60200). I hope Warner Bros. Home Entertainment continues to support the physical release of these titles in this manner.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has put together a solid Blu-ray release for Justice League: Gods and Monsters. The audio and video quality is fantastic and the bonus features are solid, particularly the worthwhile featurette looking at how Justice League: Gods and Monsters came together. It's great to see another Deluxe Edition release of a DC Universe Animated Original Movie title, and it's something I hope the studio continues doing. I encourage fans to pick up the Blu-ray Deluxe Edition of Justice League: Gods and Monsters and show some support for these great animated movies. It goes without saying that the Deluxe Edition release is the best version of the film to snatch up. I'm all for emphasizing the collectability of these titles, and it's great to see the studio throwing support behind the physical release of one of their titles, especially a fantastic movie like this one. Justice League: Gods and Monsters is worth grabbing off the shelves right away. Highly Recommended!

[ Continue on to the Justice League: Gods and Monsters Feature review ]

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