Saturday Morning Cartoon

This week in direct to DVD releases featured another in the long line of Warner Brothers original animated movies based on the DC Comic book line. Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is based on the first 6 issues of the once popular Superman/Batman comic. The comic was written by Jeph Loeb - a screenwriter (of such classic movies like Commando and Teen Wolf) turned comic book writer. He gained some fame for writing a couple of popular Batman stories - The Long Halloween and Hush. And now the circle is complete. One of his mediocre comic stories is now an animated movie. The really interesting thing about this release is the return of voice actor Kevin Conroy as Batman. He was the voice of Batman in the innovative Batman Animated Series from the 1990's.



Batman had been in a variety of cartoons throughout the 60's, 70's and 80's but it wasn't until 1992 that they finally got it right. With a unique visual style from artist Bruce Timm and a team of excellent writers lead by Paul Dini, the series was darker than most cartoons out there and was leaps and bounds better than the live action movies that Warner was releasing into theatres at the time (cough Batman Forever, Batman and Robin cough). It was such an innovative series that several characters created for the cartoon had made their way into the comics and a permanent part of Batman's lore like Joker's girlfriend Harley Quinn. Warner soon brought in a variety of superhero and various spin offs - Superman, Justice League, etc. And then Warner replaced the series with a dumbed down kid friendly version called The Batman in 2004.