The World’s Finest has added new content to the dedicated Batman: The Animated Series and Batman: The Brave and The Bold subsites. First, details have been added for Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s upcoming repackage DVD release Batman: The Brave and The Bold – The Complete Second Season. Hitting shelves on April 7th, 2015, the release collects previous DVD releases of the acclaimed animated series in a new package. There is no new additional content. Click on the image below for further details. The World’s Finest has also added new Batman: The Animated Series production art, which can be viewed by clicking on the second image below. The additions feature early design work for the series by Kevin Nowlan.
Batman: The Animated Series and Batman: The Brave and The Bold discussion can be found on The DC Animation Forum.
Click on the links below to check out thousands and thousands of archived news stories. News coverage includes episode and comic previews, interviews, artwork and so much more. Features programs and movies include Batman: The Animated Series, Young Justice, the DC Universe Animated Original Movie line and much, much more.
First off, apologies for the rather bland subject line up there. It comes off more ominous than it should. Sorry about that! Anyways…
With 2014 now done and over with, the last news story from The World’s Finest has officially been posted up. As I mentioned on this site a year ago, it’s time to ease back on the overall workload of this site, and that starts with wrapping up the daily news post for the foreseeable future. Thousands and thousands of news posts, including three straight years of news posts at least five days a week, without a single weekday missed. And, with 2015 now here, that ends as The World’s Finest will return to its roots as an unbeatable resource for fans. An archive of content, a collection of materials covering a host of different shows and movies, a wealth of information – call it what you will, but The World’s Finest will be embracing that once again.
What does that all encompass? Well, don’t get alarmed … it’s all good! As the site shifts into a content destination, certain aspects of the site will stop while an emphasis will be placed on others. Daily news posts will cease, as I said, and no new subsites will be added to the site as of this time. Does that mean the end of updates and new material? No – there will always be new content added here, but the site will now just be easier for me to manage.
Site updates will continue going forward, reviews will still be posted, more content will be added (images, behind-the-scenes material, etc.), along with the odd interview. However, now, the site updates will now fall more onto the resource side of things. As I said, there will be no new additional subsites added to The World’s Finest going forward, with the possible exception of smaller pages dedicated to installments of the ongoing DC Universe Animated Original Movie line. Assorted DVD, Blu-ray, and other media releases will also still be covered. A new Batman: The Brave and The Bold Blu-ray? We’ll cover and review it – 100%. New soundtrack release? We’re on it – count on it. The only thing really changing is the end of daily news posts (which, honestly, it didn’t seem like a lot of people noticed anyway, given how so many stories broken here went unnoticed or stolen over the years).
A lot of factors played a role in this decision. For one, this site is too unwieldy for one person to handle. I cover about 95% of the work on the site, the forums and social media outlets. This includes emails, press work, reviews, finding reviewers and content, all of that. I spend many hours a day working on this site, volunteering countless hours. Juggling that with a regular job, a family, etc., and, well, something has to give. I have more responsibilities than ever before and there are just not enough hours in the day. But I can’t just abandon the site – no way. Given how long I’ve been working on this site, from its first iteration back in 1997, and how attached I am to it, I opted not to pass the torch. I did ask for help, more than a few times, but no one came to bat. So, I opted to scale the site responsibilities down to its skeleton in order to keep it going. I am expecting to reduce my presence and update rate overtime, though. The forum duties will be passed over to someone else entirely, for example. Still, with this, I’m able to balance my workload easier, have a bit of a better life, and explore other options.
This site is not going away. It’s not going anywhere. It’s going to stay right here. There’s no way I could let it go, anyways. All the content that you see here is not budging an inch. The only thing really changing is the removal of daily news updates and an easing back on the frequency of updates. This site will always be here for you to access and explore. In fact, to this day, there are some nifty secrets still not uncovered here on the site, which tells me there’s plenty for all of you still to explore.
For those worried, this isn’t the end. All you need to do is keep an eye on the “Site Updates” section to see that. Over the next few days, you’ll see the main page here change a little. The news will be replaced with links to the major site sections here, and the daily news shuffled off into an archive (where it will be readily accessible to look through). All portions of this site, I think, will be more easily accessible for those wanting to look around and just see what we have to offer. This site is the biggest DC Comics-animation (and Batman animation) site out there to this day, and I doubt that’ll change, even with the evolving trends of internet culture. But hey, no matter how much all of that changes, The World’s Finest will always be right here.
If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to drop a line. The social media portals for The World’s Finest will remain up until I decide what to do with them. I can be easily reached there, or through the contact links scattered throughout the site here. If all that fails, just catch me on the forums.
I’d like to express a quick “thanks” to all the folks who have helped me over the years. Zach, Ian, James, Barry, Eileen, Brian, Michael and a wealth of other people I can’t thank enough. This seems like a nice moment to tip my hat to them as I follow the site through a few minor changes and lifts. For your daily news fix, which plenty of you are clearly already getting elsewhere, I suggest you keep it tuned to Toonzone and DCAU Resource. The forums right here are also a good spot for any developments or concerns, as well. I may post the odd piece up from time to time there.
And that’s all from me for now, folks. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to ask. Don’t hesitate. That’s what I’m here for. Thanks!
The World’s Finest has a look at the package artwork for a selection of recently released DC Comics superhero-themed releases from Warner Archive, the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment specialty label. The images below for Batman: The Brave and The Bold – The Complete Second Season, Young Justice: Season One and Beware The Batman – Season One, Part Two: Dark Justice provide a look at the front and back cover design, plus the discs for each collection. All three titles, released within the last three months, are currently available for purchase through Warner Archive and online specialty vendors. Click on the thumbnails below for a closer look at each image.
More details and a review for the Batman: The Brave and The Bold – The Complete Second Season can be found here at The World’s Finest. Additional information, including a look at the DVD release of Beware The Batman – Season One, Part Two: Dark Justice, can be found at The World’s Finest by clicking here. And, as with the other two, more details and a closer look at Young Justice: Season One can be found right here at The World’s Finest.
In additional updates, Warner Archive recently announced the Blu-ray release of the entire second season of Young Justice, in a two-disc set titled Young Justice: Invasion, will be available for order starting Tuesday, November 18th, 2014. Further details on that highly-anticipated release can be found here. The label also announced that Thundercats: The Complete Series, a two-disc set collecting the 2011 short-lived Cartoon Network series, will be available on Tuesday, November 11th, 2014. Lastly, Warner Archive is expected to announce the Blu-ray release of Batman: The Brave and The Bold – The Complete Third Season before the end of the year, but details on that have yet to be confirmed.
Stay tuned for more home video updates in the coming weeks here at The World’s Finest. To discuss any of the three releases covered above, please click on the following discussion links.
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has provided the following press release promoting current and upcoming titles from the Warner Archive Collection. The details below cover forthcoming titles, including the highly-anticipated Beware the Batman: Dark Justice Blu-ray title, along with current releases, including Batman: The Brave and The Bold – The Complete Second Season and Young Justice: Season One. Warner Archive is the manufacture-on-demand specialty label from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Continue below to check out the press release.
FROM YOUNG JUSTICE & BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD
TO LOOPY DA LOOP, SHIRT TALES & GILLIGAN’S PLANET,
ANIMATION ABOUNDS AT WARNER ARCHIVE COLLECTION BEWARE THE BATMAN: DARK JUSTICE COMING 9/30/14 TO BLU RAY
WARNER ARCHIVE INSTANT RIPE WITH AQUATIC ANIMATION
INCLUDING UNDERWATER CLASSICS AQUAMAN & MARINE BOY;
GET YOUR FREE ONE-MONTH TRIAL SUBSCRIPTION TODAY
Warner Archive Collection (WAC) and Warner Archive Instant (WAI) continue to serve as hosts to some of the most treasured animated productions of the past half-century. The most seasoned animation fan can find plenty of WAC and WAI offerings to their liking, running the gamut from Blu-ray releases of recent super hero favorites like Young Justice, Beware the Batman and Batman: The Brave and the Bold, to classic 1950s and 1960s cartoons like Hanna-Barbera’s Loopy Da Loop and the landmark anime series Marine Boy, to the playful silliness of the 1980s with Shirt Tales and Gilligan’s Planet. All of these titles can be found at wbshop.com.
Animated aquatics are currently receiving a featured place on Warner Archive Instant, where you can find episodes of both Filmation’s Aquaman and the first two seasons of Marine Boy. And with WAI’s offer of a free one-month subscription, there’s no reason not to sample the rich catalog of titles available for streaming. Check it out at Warner Archive Instant.
Pre-orders are now open for Warner Archive Collection’s Blu-ray™ release of Beware The Batman: Dark Justice. Featuring the final 13 episodes of the groundbreaking, all-new CGI series’ first season, the single-disc Blu-ray™ will be released on September 30. Beware The Batman: Dark Justice pits Batman, Alfred and swordstress Katana against the underworld likes of Anarky, Professor Pyg, Mister Toad and Magpie. Over the final 13 episodes, the rogues gallery expands with appearances by Killer Croc, Man-Bat, Deathstroke and more. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, this action-packed detective thriller deftly redefines what we have come to know as a ‘Batman show.” Pre-orders for Beware The Batman: Dark Justice” can be placed now on directly at the WB Shop.
Here’s a glance at other animated offerings now available at WAC and/or WAI…
Shirt Tales
Meet the world’s cuddliest crime-stoppers: Pammy Panda, Tyg Tiger, Rick Raccoon, Digger Mole, and Bogey Orangutan they’re cute, they’re furry and they have a secret. Whenever the purple mushroom by the giant tree they call home starts to flash, they swing into action as the crime-sleuthing squad called the Shirt Tales. Racing down to their secret lair hidden underneath the tree (and under the nose of Park Ranger Mr. Dinkle), they answer the Shirt Tale Alert from the Commissioner who clues them in on the current crime via holo-phone. Then it¹s off to their shape-changing supersonic craft where they use their wiles and their fantastic gadgets to solve the mystery and nab the bad guys. While these message-wearing T-shirted critters started out as adorable greeting card characters, it took the genius of Hanna-Barbara to take the cute and mix-it up with a blend of Batman and Scooby-Doo to create a fan-and family classic. This is the 46-episode, complete series collection.
Loopy da Loop: The Complete Collection (1959-65)
Between leaving MGM and building a TV empire, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera served up a series of theatrical shorts about a charming, tuque-wearing French Canadian wolf by the pun-tastic name of Loopy De Loop. Distributed to theaters by Columbia, these 48 shorts depict the misadventures of wolf with a mission to change the bad image that people have of wolves, and make them appreciated as warm and generous fellow creatures. Not an easy job, even for a loup as charming as Mssr. Loopy, and the poor fellow is usually rewarded with a terrified cry for “Help!” and a clout to the head. But hope springs eternal in the heart of this un-savage beast as he tries to undo his kind¹s big, bad image by rendering aid and assistance to the likes of Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Little Bo Beep, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, D¹Artagnan, Dr. Jeckyll and more to injurious and hilarious results. Rarely seen due to their unique genesis, Loopy De Loop is an unusual charmer (Much like Loopy himself) in the illustrious Hanna-Barbera oeuvre, combining the funny animal sit-com antics of classic H-B with the kind of satire associated with the work of Jay Ward. But now’s your chance to enjoy them all with this complete collection that will have you crying “Sacre-iliac!”
Batman: The Brave and the Bold – The Complete Second Season (Blu-ray) Bigger, bolder, blu-er! The fearsome fan-addict forces behind Batman: The Brave and the Bold fired on all bat-cylinders for this fantastic sophomore season that skillfully blends super-heroics, sly satire, and a leviathan scope for an animated concoction embracing the fun of the past with the pow! of the present. Thanks to the series first season, Batman goes even farther beyond the expected grim and grit of the Dark Knight in both their narrative approach AND in the fun. Across the 26-Episode second season – presented in HD and widescreen as it was meant to be seen – you’ll find a vacationing Aquaman, a requiem for a Scarlet Speedster, the legendary Justice Society, the celebrated Justice League International, the Super Batman of Planet X (voiced by Kevin Conroy), Batman’s Strangest Cases featuring a team-up with one snack-loving, mystery solving mutt and an overarching story arc that climaxes in a stunning battle against Starro the Conqueror! Joining Diedrich Bader (Batman) are some very special guest voices, including Adam West, Julie Newmar, Paul Reubens, Mark Hamill, Tom Kenny, John DiMaggio, Tara Strong, Stephen Root and many more! And making this collection even more fab is the fact that the episodes are presented in the producer’s preferred order for the first time anywhere – including the “The Mask of Matches Malone!” in the correct aspect ratio! Batman: The Brave and the Bold, The Complete First Season is also available via WAC.
Young Justice – Season One (Blu-ray)
The two-disc, 26-episode Young Justice: Season One features Greg Weisman (Gargoyles) and Brandon Vietti’s (Batman: The Brave and The Bold) critically acclaimed and fan-approved tale of titanic teen heroes. Strap in and get ready for this dashing and daring new take on Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Superboy, Miss Martian and Artemis as they splash across the 16×9 widescreen. In this first season, a “junior” Justice League bands together for purposes both light and dark – to honor the legacies they will one day inherit, and to be the Justice League’s secret weapon. From within their HQ The Cave, they embark on covert missions that would be impossible for the high profile Justice League. Batman (naturally) is their mission handler, Red Tornado supervises and Black Canary trains them. But the lads and ladies of Young Justice push their mission envelope and discover the dark secrets hidden behind the scenes of this alternate DC universe.
Gilligan’s Planet (1982)
It’s a brand new story about The Castaways! Leaving their tiny island after years and months and days, they built a little spaceship, crude but it could fly. They left their home and lost their way, between the stars and sky, they went from an island to star, lost on Gilligan’s Planet. It’s true The Castaways are now lost in space! They¹re all here, in this strange, new world, Gilligan (voice of Bob Denver), the Skipper (voice of Alan Hale, Jr.), the Millionaire (voice of Jim Backus), his Wife (voice of Natalie Schafer), the Movie Star (voice of Dawn Wells), the Professor (Russell Johnson) and Mary Ann (voice of Dawn Wells). Now joined by Gilligan¹s alien sidekick Bumper, they begin a whole new life on a whole new world while still trying to repair the now space-worthy SS Minnow and return home from their near-infinite three hour tour. It¹s something old, something new in this Saturday morning cartoon sit-com sci-fi romp!
Magic Boy (1960)
Magically-gifted boy Sasuke lives in peace, deep in the forest with his animal pals and his elder sister, Oyu. After their forest sanctuary is violated by a demon witch who devours one of Sasuke’s animal companions, he vows vengeance. Leaving the forest, the boy sets out to master his magical gifts by making a pilgrimage to the home of the wizard, Hakuunsai. While Sasuke learns the ways of magic, Yakusha, the demon witch, terrorizes the countryside, and Sasuke works to complete his training in time. Magic Boy aka Shunen Sarutobi Sasuke is a classic piece of anime history – the first full-length animated feature produced in Japan to reach the shores of the United States. With much of the original storyline left untouched and centering on pop culture staple hero Sarutobi Sasuke (think Bomba the Jungle Boy crossed with a ninja), Magic Boy is an enchanting precursor to decades of imported Japanese ani-magic. Presented in 16×9 Widescreen.
Marine Boy: The Complete Third Season (1967-68)
Marine Boy, the amazing aquatic hero of the American anime action classic, surfaces for a final volume of sea-faring sci-fi adventures! This 3-Disc, 26-Episode Collections rounds out Marine Boy’s excursions for the Ocean Patrol Marine Headquarters with a series of fantastic confrontations against fearsome foes side by side with some fabulous friends. Thanks to the inventions of his father, Dr. Mariner, Marine Boy is super-scuba geared up and ready for the full fathom fighting form with his propeller shoes and bulletproof wet suit, not mention his boomerangs and Oxy-gum! So take a swim with Marine Boy, his dolphin Splasher, mermaid gal pal Neptina, hero-worshiping little Clicli and the stalwart crew of supersub P-1 as they go up against evil electronic brains, haunted island, ghost cruisers, mutant plankton swarms, militarized red dolphins, and attacking icebergs. It’s just another day under the sea for Marine Boy – brave and free!
And on Warner Archive Instant …
Aquaman (1967) Swim along with the King of the Seven Seas in his swingin’ sixties animated incarnation from Filmation. Aquaman, alongside teen sidekick Aqualad and his Queen, Mera, uses his astounding powers to defend the ancient undersea city of Atlantis and endangered sea life everywhere. And, to sweeten the super-action, his adventtires are presented as originally seen, with segments featuring The Justice League, The Teen Titans, The Flash, Green Lantern and more! Check it out at Warner Archive Instant!
Marine Boy – Season 1 & 2 (1966-67)
Suit up for some undersea superheroics with Marine Boy, the original “American anime” classic! Produced in Japan but intended for first run in the US, Marine Boy lead the wave that included such color anime classic as Kimba the White Lion and Speed Racer (with whom it shares a number of voice actors). Operating out of the Ocean Patrol Marine Headquarters, superscientist Dr. Mariner has outfitted his stalwart son with all the aquatic accoutrements he will need in his quest to keep the seas safe for all mankind. From Oxy-Gum and bulletproof wet suit to flying subs and propeller shoes, Marine Boy has what it takes to face a variety of fearsome foes above and below the ocean¹s surface. Check it out at Warner Archive Instant!
Click on the links below to discuss certain titles mentioned in the press release above. Stay tuned for further updates right here at The World’s Finest.