Customer Reviews

Superman - The Animated Series, Volume One (DC Comics Classic Collection)

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Knuckle up, and join the Man of Steel in his fight for truth, justice, and the American way in Superman: The Animated Series - Volume One! From the producers of Batman: The Animated Series, Superman featured fun, intelligent, and action-packed stories; a magnificent main title theme by Shirley Walker; and the phenomenal voice talents of Tim Daly, Dana Delany, Clancy Brown, Corey Burton, Malcolm McDowell, Lori Petty, Brad Garrett, Brion James, and many, many others. This 2-disc set contains the show's first 18 episodes (all 13 Season One episodes, plus the first 5 Season Two episodes) which includes the 3-part pilot "The Last Son of Krypton", and the Superman II homage "Blasts From the Past" Parts I & II. Another highlight is the Superman Vs. The Flash charity race in the classic "Speed Demons", the first episode of the animated series to feature a guest-star superhero from DC Comics, and no doubt influenced the creation of the Justice League series. This collection features Full-Frame video, English Dolby Surround Stereo 2.0 audio, along with English, French and Spanish subtitles. Here are the contents of this super-set:

Disc 1:
The Last Son Of Krypton Part 1
The Last Son Of Krypton Part 2
The Last Son Of Krypton Part 3
Fun And Games
A Little Piece Of Home
Feeding Time

Disc 2:
The Way Of All Flesh
Stolen Memories
The Main Man Part 1
The Main Man Part 2
My Girl
Tools Of The Trade
Two's A Crowd
The Prometheon
Blasts From The Past Part 1
Blasts From The Past Part 2
Livewire
Speed Demons

Special Features:
Commentary: "The Last Son Of Krypton Part 1", "Stolen Memories", "The Main Man", and "Tools of the Trade" by Bruce Timm (Producer), Paul Dini (Producer), Alan Burnett (Producer), Dan Riba (Director), Curt Geda (Director), and Glen Murakami (Art Director)

Featurette: "Superman: Learning to Fly" - Explores the creation of Superman: The Animated Series, including interviews with talent, creators and DC Comics (10:00)

Featurette: "Building the Mythology: Superman's Supporting Cast" - Focuses on the supporting cast of Superman including Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, and Jonathan and Martha Kent (10:00)

Bonus: "A Little Piece of Trivia" - Pop up trivia over the "A Little Piece of Home" episode (22:00)


Worth the wait, and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

IMHO, Superman was just as good a series as Batman, the Animated Series. The stories were not on a higher level, but a different one. Batman reflected film noir dramas as well as having a classic, vintage feel. Superman was a little more lighthearted, more epic, and had a modern feel. As with the Batman series, each Superman episode can be a stand alone episode in itself, yet it all adds considerable detail to the series as a whole making it a signicantly rich world. The consequences and the results of certain episodes are also touched upon from time to time and even lay the foundation for even more dramatic storytelling.

This DVD set includes the first 18 episodes of the series I believe. Starting it off is the 3-part "Last Son of Krypton," which retells the origin of Superman and does a good job establishing the series. Other favorites of mine that are on this DVD set are "Stolen Memories," " The Main Man, Parts 1 & 2," "My Girl," "Blasts from the Past, Parts 1 & 2," and "Speed Demons." This set does include all the episodes on the single disc release "Superman: A Little Piece of Home." If you're a fan of the series I recommend this set over the single discs. If you're a parent looking to simply amuse your children, the single discs may be an option to consider, but even so this set can be bought for less than $25 and has 18 episodes to boot. The only drawback in this set that I can think of is that the second disc is a flipper, where one side contains 6 episodes and then the other side contains the last 6. It's a minor complaint, as I'm just all too happy to have this series as a box set, but it may be an issue to some.

With the latest Big Screen Superman film stuck in seemingly endless mud, Warner at least had the good sense to follow their successful Batman Animated series by giving one to the Man of Steel, and its the best thing that happened to Superman on-screen since Superman 2, even if it is the small screen.

This set collects 18 episodes in all, 13 from season one and 5 from season two. It features the same great, yet simple animation that made the Batman series so popular, although it's strikingly brighter and the colors bolder than that grittier series. In the three part opener, We see young kal-El sent to earth before his some planet of Krypton is destroyed. We see him grow into manhood and go to Metropolis and assume his role as Superman. Tim Daly provides the voice of Clark/Superman with Dana Delany as Lois Lane and Clancy Brown (Carnivale) as Lex Luthor.

I'd be hard pressed to say which is my favorite episode but here are a few of them:

"A Little Piece of Home" Lex Luthor discovers Superman's vulnerability to Kryptonite, and attempts to exploit this weakness to rid himself once and for all of the Man of Steel.

"The Way of All Flesh" - Lex Luthor poisons a terrorist named John Corben and withholds the antidote until he has extracted a promise: that Corben will become Metallo, a flesh and metal Kryptonite-hearted cyborg with evil intent and no emotions. His only mission is to destroy Superman.

"The Main Man" - One of DC Comics most popular characters the Intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo is employed to capture the Man of Steel, but thanks to a double-,cross by the rare-species-collecting Preserver, both Superman and Lobo end up trapped in the Preserver's personal zoo.

"Speed Demons" The Flash guest stars as he and Superman team-up to battle 'The Weather Wizard' who holds Metropolis hostage with the threat of unleashing a killer hurricane.


"Tools of the Trade" Bruno Mannheim and his Intergang terrorize Metropolis with high-tech weapons supplied by Kanto, an agent of the Darkseid who strikes a devil's bargain with Bruno, leaving him deeply indebted to Darkseid yet well equipped with weapons that can destroy Superman.

The thing so great about both the Supeman and Batman cartoons is seeing guest appearances by so many other characters from the DC comic universe. This never used to happen in cartoons from way back when. The stories stick pretty well to comic continuity and really have the look and feel of golden age stories with a modern edge. Highly recommended!

Superman is THE most overdone character in comics history. Movies, toons, TV shows, books, etc it is no wonder we are not sick of him by now... Which is why I give this show praise. It re-invented the character and made him more interesting than he has ever appeared before (until Smallville came along). From this first volume I enjoyed the episodes featuring LiveWire, Parasite, Metallo, Brainiac and the brief introduction to Darkseid. These episodes were all extremely well done and in the same mold as the much superior Batman: The Animated Series. However there are a few clunkers, too. The Prometheon is torture to sit through, as our the ones with the released Phantom Zone inmates and (I know I'm in the minority here) the Lobo episode.

I do have to give much kudos though for the Toyman! What an excellent and frightful interpretation of that character! Bravo! That face/mask alone would give any kid nightmares!

Again, I rate this beneath Batman because the writing and characters seem subpar. In the Batman universe you connect with his villians because each one has an emotional scar (much like Bats himself) that propels them to be who they are. Mr. Freeze and the love for his sick wife, Harley and her obsession with the Joker, Mad Hatter and his quest for love and Ivy and her inability to have children...all of these characters are so muli-dimensional that they make the Superman villians pale in comparison. Lex Luthor is a rich guy who wants power, Brainiac wants to collect information, LiveWire got shocked, Parasite got doused with toxic chemicals, etc. There is no human connection. The only one who remotely achieves this is Metallo.

In all, I cannot wait for volume two!

Superman TAS isn't the best of Bruce Timm's series, but it's still nicely designed and animated. There are some very good episodes in this set, such as the 3-part pilot, plus some interesting special features.
But with Warner there's always a problem. Here it's the presence of a double-sided disc. In fact, this was supposed to be a 3-disc set ; but they chose to put in 1 single-side disc + 1 double-sided disc. Double-sided discs are much more fragile and sometimes split into 2 unusable discs. The DVD-case is also problematic: it's almost impossible to take out the discs without pulling them hard and risking breaking them (which make the double-sided disc even more fragile). Next time, Warner, make this perfect : put only single-sided discs, in an appropriate package (such as the ones you used for the last Batman TAS sets).

I know it's not fashionable to call Superman cool, but he is. The key to Superman is that he's refreshingly down to earth. The guy has all this power, and in the end, he's just one of us. Sure, he'll fly off to stop a giant robot from crushing Metropolis, but that's just because he's a good guy. I'd like to think if I had those powers, I'd be a good guy too. But I'd probably be a jerk, like nearly all of us. But not Clark Kent. You can call him a boyscout if you want, but being honest, good, and helpful aren't such terrible things to be.

On to this series. It's great. I wish it had lasted as long as Batman. It's got the same maturity, the same depth as that series. It's also got giant robots, alien invaders, weird mutants, and all sorts of super sci fi bad guys to distinguish it from Batman. Personally, I enjoy both these series immensely for pretty much the same reason. Great animation. Great stories. Great dialogue. Just great period.

If you're on the edge about the Man of Steel, but you love Batman: the Animated Series, give this a shot. You'll be glad you did. And if you're like me and just like Superman because of everything that makes him Superman, buy it.

After a long wait, WB is finally putting out not only BTAS boxed sets, but STAS volumes as well! This set collects the first 18 episodes of the Superman animated series (basically a third of the entire series) and tosses in some commentary tracks and other goodies. The thing about the Superman show is that while BTAS was groundbreaking and Batman Beyond/Justice League were heavily promoted, Superman kinda fell by the wayside. The series has always been the middle child of the DC Animated Universe, and had such a brief run on KidsWB that most fans have not seen all the episodes. This is especially unfortunate because the second season of Justice League drew heavily from the Superman rogues gallery and unfinished plot threads started by this show (Darkseid, who appeared in the JL episode "Twilight", first appears here in "Tools of the Trade".)

This is a pretty solid collection of episodes. The Superman series got a little erratic later on, with bad animation and poor scripts, but the episodes presented here are some of the best. You get first appearances of major Superman villains (Lex Luthor, Darkseid, Metallo, Parasite, Toyman), a hilarious two-parter with the obscene bounty hunter Lobo, and the first animated appearance of the Flash (another JL note: the episode "Paradise Lost" borrowed some stock footage from here...see if you can find it!) In all, this is a faithful adaptation of DC Comics' flagship character. If you've never seen Superman but love the Batman and Justice League shows, this set is definitely worth picking up.

The legendary Man of Steel continues to protect Metropolis from injustice in "Superman: TAS - Volume One". Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! You know the rest. From the pages of DC Comics, the lone survivor from the doomed planet Krypton travels to Earth and becomes the world's strongest superhero. In his quest for truth and justice, Superman will face such powerful enemies as scheming nemesis Lex Luther, the menacing supercomputer Brainiac, high-voltage villainess Livewire and the ruthless bounty hunter Lobo. From the creators of the award-winning "Batman: TAS", this enjoyable animated series is the most faithful adaptation of the popular comic book character in recent decades. All episodes contain entertaining storylines, refreshing characters and rousing action. The animation is brighter and more colorful than the unique gothic style in "Batman: TAS". The series features the fine voice talents of Tim Daly (Wings), Dana Delany (Tombstone) and Clancy Brown (Carnivale), and guest voice stars like Malcolm McDowell, Brad Garrett, Michael York, Lori Petty, Ron Perlman, Joely Fisher, Miguel Ferrer and more.

No comic book DVD collection is complete without "Superman: TAS - Volume One". All 18 episodes are presented in their original full screen format. The 2-Disc set contains a respectably detailed video transfer with some bits of dust, and a clear Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Its supplemental material includes audio commentaries by series creators on four episodes (The Last Son of Krypton Pt.1, Stolen Memories, The Main Man Pt.2 & Tools of the Trade), an interactive trivia option and the short "Learning to Fly" and "Building the Mythology" featurettes. If you haven't bought the single disc editions then "Superman: TAS" is a highly recommended DVD and receives a worthy "B+".

Back when I was younger I used to watch this series a lot. Being so much younger, I enjoyed seeing superman's exploits as he defeated criminals in a variety of ways, and even putting up with the terrible cereal ads that WB played all over their network. However NOW we finally get to see the series in one tidy package. Of course, I would have loved it if this series could have come out at the same time as the New Batman Animated series, which played along with this show back in 1997 (hopefully WB and DC will release that soon as well). But until you can enjoy both at once, relive the greatness that is Superman, and that shaped the Superman we see today in the Justice League show on Cartoon Network, by buying this set. It's worth your money.

Superman: the animated series was quite a good show fromt the creators of Batman: the animated series. In this box set it does not feature the first season but the first volume (the first 18 episodes out of the approximate 55 made). So probably there will be three in total. the episodes for this release are as follows....1-3 "the last son of krypton,tells of supermans origins. 4. Fun and Games, the toyman is the bad guy. 5. A little piece of home, lex learns of superman's weakness. 6. The Way of all Flesh, bad guy is Metallo. 7. Feeding time, bad guy is the parasite. 8-9 the main man, is a two parter, obviously, ha ha. 10. Stolen memories, braniac is bad guy. 11. my girl, lana lang comes to metropolis. 12. Tools of the Trade, involves darkseid. 13. Two's a Crowd, man goes into a coma and s-man must find out information from him...somehow. 14-15. the main man, another two parter. 16. Ghost in the Machine, braniacs back..again. 17. Action Figures, involves metallo. and....18. Livewire, obviously is about bad girl named Livewire. AND THAT, MY FRIENDS IS THE EP. GUIDE FOR SUPERMAN: VOL. 1, (UNLESS IT IS CHANGED FOR SOME UNKNOWN, RANDOM REASON) recommended. also recommended: BATMAN:TAS vol. 1 and 2