Customer Reviews

Batman Superman Movie [VHS]

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This will be included on the Superman Volume 2 set from the Animated Series. So don't waste your money unless you want the special features.

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the work of Paul Dini and Bruce Timm in their quest to bring the greatest adventures of Batman and Superman to the small screen in a throwback animation style, and I was overwhelmed with joy upon seeing THE BATMAN SUPERMAN MOVIE released on DVD.

Not only do you get the world's greatest detective with Batman but also you're treated to the world's greatest superhero (Supes) in a tale that combines their arch rivals, Lex Luthor and the Joker, in a tale linking Gotham to Metropolis. In short, a money-hungry joker offers his services to murder Superman to Lex Luthor for nothing short of one billion dollars. However, complications arise when Lois Lane falls head over heels for ... Bruce Wayne?

Kid-friendly in its cartoon violence, THE BATMAN SUPERMAN MOVIE is a must-see for family entertainment.

What always worked about these animated series was the fact that the characters were always starkly portrayed in vocal direction yet simply drawn in fundamental lines. The circa 1940s artwork to the buildings and cityscapes only further enhanced the viewing pleasure.

The transfer is crisp and beautiful, and the colors are as vibrant as ever. The soundtrack is only 2 channel, but it works well for the presentation.

The disc includes an introduction by Bruce Timm, a DVD game linked to watching the movie, as well as how-to exercises in teaching anyone who likes how to draw the animated versions of Batman and Superman.

This is truly one of the world's finest!

WORLD'S FINEST originally aired on the Batman Superman Adventures as a three-part miniseries. As always expected, Bruce Timm and Paul Dini deliver first-rate production and screenwriting for this movie. Kevin Conroy once again delivers a superlative performance as the Dark Knight. The antagonism and reluctant team up of Batman and Superman is very credible and true to each superhero's character. My favorite events must be the way each superhero uncovers the other's identity, along with the animosity over Lois Lane's affections.

While great, this storyline is perhaps not as riveting as some of the other Animated features, yet it is great to see The Last Son of Krypton and the Dark Detective battle the Prince of Knaves and The Very Rich Bald Guy. Some of the best scenes include Batman's awesome gadgetry (On flight: "When in Rome...") and the battle with the robots. A great comic scene is watching Joker and Lex negotiate as Mercy and Harley Quinn duke it out in the background.

On the whole, I must say this is a great film for every fan of Batman and Superman, and for all lovers of first-rate animation.

Worthwhile use of the "World's Finest" title for this first animated meeting between the Bat and the Big Blue Cheese. (For many years, the comic titled "World's Finest"'s lead story every month was a Batman/Superman team-up, in an era when hero's team-ups were not common)

Batman and Superman's first meeting, herein portrayed, is rather nice, especially because they really just don't like each other a heck of a lot. Especially because Lois Lane falls hard for Bruce Wayne.

Their mutual discovery of secret identities plays nicely on the two characters' strong points, with Superman using his superpowers and Batman demonstrating why he's the world's greatest detective.

Harley Quinn's running feud with Luthor's female bodyguard/chauffeur, Mercy, is one of the high points.

The Joker's "Dance of Death" over the fallen Superman, adding shocks from his super-charged handbuzzer to Big Blue's suffering in his kryptonite death trap is rather chilling; in this and a few elements of violence this production (originally aired in prime-time, and then as three episodes of the television series) goes a bit beyond what the afternoon TV series can usually portray, and the Mark Hamill-voiced Joker is truly scary. The Joker's raving laughter as he (apparently) goes to his death as a result of one of his own traps gone wrong is both chilling and in character. (Harley Quinn, on the other hand, is just a *bit* too broadly portrayed.)

(There is, by the way a comicbook/"graphic novel" adaptation of this material -- now sadly out of print. While it doesn't bring much new, it's a good counterpoint to this film, as it gives alternate, slightly more "adult" views on some things -- if you have one, you really need the other.)

One question -- does Lois Lane have a trust fund or something? Otherwise, how does she afford that Simply Incredible apartment on a mere reporter's salary?

Also -- a couple of scenes, notably the lab where the robots are kept and where Superman fights them, and Superman straining to (just barely) prevent a huge aircraft from crashing into buildings strongly suggest deliberate homages to the old Fleischer Bros "Superman" cartoons, specifically to "Metal Monsters" and "Japoteurs".

This may be an animated movie, but it is excellent in every sense of the word. In this tape we see that Batman and Superman are selfless heroes, but they are not without human weaknesses. Despite their benevolent characters, their egos make it difficult to work with each other at times. As someone who cherishes the writings of Charles Dickens, I have noticed that Dickens is usually careful not to make his heroes perfect. (Usually they have at least some human flaws.) The Joker and Harley Quinn STEAL this movie. Whatever people may have thought of the Joker up to this point, NO ONE is likely to underestimate him now. First he quickly hammers down the local thugs and lets them know it's either their loyalty or else. He finds the weaknesses of his opponents, takes advantage of the dissension between Batman and Superman, and fights them both quite well. Despite their crimes the Joker and Harley are a real lovable couple. They function as a team, they stand by each other, and it is clear that their relationship is a happy one. Lex seems little more than the Joker's stooge in this movie. The Joker manipulates him to get a shot at Superman; later the Joker's fight starts to spell trouble for Lex; Lex makes the fatal error of thinking he can outsmart the Joker and Harley; all too late, Lex realizes that PSYCHOTIC DOES NOT EQUAL STUPID!!! I never forgot the chills I felt when the Joker and Harley Quinn flipped the tables on the naive Lex. It is in this movie that we can see why the Joker and Harley Quinn are Batman's most dangerous enemies. The minds of most criminals follow a pattern and they hope to gain something. Usually they will not bother with criminal activity that digresses from their goal. The Joker and Harley Quinn DO NOT follow this pattern. Any kind of chaos gives them joy, and they do not have to gain anything to win. Their total revenge on the helpless Lex shows us just how dangerous the Joker and Harley Quinn are. What is even more frightening is that throughout this movie, it is so easy to cheer for the Joker and Harley Quinn every step of the way. In all honesty this movie never drags. So we have a great story, super heroes that display heroic benevolence as well as human weaknesses, and a tour of psychotic terror by the Joker and Harley Quinn. If you like Batman or Superman, you will not want to miss this movie.

Many people have ripped on this movie for being improbable (Ex: could Batman toss Superman around?) and that it looks less impressive than the previous Batman animation, but all of that is nit picking that distracts you from a well told, well thought out, well executed story. We get to learn more about these characters than we have in all 4 of the live action Batman movies, plus we get a wonderful set-up and conflict, pitting everyone against each other. Timm and Dini are obvious fans of these worlds and know what they would like to see from the characters, and that's to have them all be rivals, not instant, simple friends. The electricity during the first meetings between good guys and bad guys is great, and they manage to carry that through to the end. It's too bad more people can't get past the hang-ups to see that this is a great show.

The pairing of the world's two greatest superheros (Batman first, Supes second, of course) has never been done well. Until The Batman Superman Movie, that is. Dini, Timm and crew are the first to capture the relationship between the Bat and the Boyscout that has existed for decades in the comics.

Wonderful movie, and I love the new animation style! Crisp, easy to follow, and often copied by many new comic artists.

Bought this for my son who is 4 and he loved the interaction between Batman and Superman. As a mom, i found it interesting and not boring at all. Joker is really funny. I recommend it.

In 1997, after producing at least 3 seasons of "Batman: The Animated Series" and one season of "Superman: The Animated Series", the creative minds behind both TV sensations decided to craft a story focusing on what would happen when the two greatest heroes in the DC Universe came together.

"The Batman Superman Movie" finds Batman (voiced by Kevin Conroy) and Superman (voiced by Tim Daly) having to join forces to thwart a new evil scheme being hatched by the nefarious duo of the Joker (voiced by Mark Hamill) and Lex Luthor (voiced by Clancy Brown). One problem for Superman and Batman being able to work together, is that they both know the others secret identity, and making matters even worse is the fact that Bruce Wayne has begun a relationship with Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (voiced by Dana Delany), and this is just what was needed to make Clark Kent jealous. Will these two heroes put aside their differences to save Metropolis from the clutches of the Joker and Lex Luthor, or succumb to their petty rivalries?

After a very successful outing with their first animated feature film "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm", and a not as successful, yet still entertaining sequel "Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub Zero", both Warner Brothers and the producers of the two series' were leery of jumping into another animated feature film. So instead of trying to come up with a story that exists outside of the standard continuity of either series, they opted instead to have the movie's storyline take place over the course of 3 episodes within the second season of "Superman: The Animated Series". This way, the continuity is left intact for both characters, and if the 3-part story arc is successful in terms of ratings, then release them all together as a feature length direct-to-video film. Well, obviously since I'm reviewing the film, it means that the 3-part arc was successful, and proved to be very entertaining.

One nice piece of trivia about the 3 Batman animated movies that had been produced thus far, including this one, is that with "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" and "The Batman Superman Movie" the two series' creators Bruce Timm, Alan Burnett, and Paul Dini were producers for those movies and also served as co-writers; however, on "Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub Zero" none of them are credited. This piece of trivia may prove to be why the two of the movies were very successful and entertaining on many levels, while the latter was somewhat inferior.

One more thing for fans of these two characters respective animated series' and their animated movies, you can find the entire 3 episode story arc that comprises this DVD movie in the recently released to DVD second volume of "Superman: The Animated Series". It's up to you whether or not you choose to view the episodes as they originally aired within the season, or stand alone as a movie. Either way, they are still great additions to 2 excellent animated series'.

"The Batman Superman Movie" is unrated and contains violence.

First off, this series of episodes was one of my favorites as I liked the bit of tension between Batman and Superman. The animation was great when it was released so why does the dvd look like garbage? Okay, okay, it's not that bad, but it's no Batman Beyond either. The Batman Beyond Return of the Joker disc was beautiful to watch while the Batman/Supeman movie made me wince with each line noise I saw. It's definitely a weathered copy and if clear visuals is your thing(I'm assuming it is if you own a dvd player), you'd be thoroughly annoyed like I was. I guess that's why they can keep that low price point. No really good extras on the disc and deterioted animated to boot. Oh well, if you can get oer that, you'll see what a great storyline this disc has, but for me, it's really hard considering how a dvd copy should always look crisp and clear.