Netflix Animation, Warner Bros. Bat-Embargo, and the Arrowverse

You are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek. Hello and welcome to Altered Geek. I'm

your host, Steve Megatron Phillips. This is the

third time that I've tried to record this intro

without screwing up the title. I've said Future

Imperfect and all things Transformers prior to

saying Altered Geek. I don't have a clue why.

I think it's because of the inflection I did

on the original intro. Anyhow... flying solo

on this episode Birdman Dive was supposed to

be on however He had some XLR cable issues that

were causing microphone problems and so I opted

to record solo because well I had to get an episode

out that I Was trying to cover a lot of the various

geeky news things that have popped up and so

this episode may go over the 20 -minute mark

it which is fine if The Friday ones do. The Tuesdays,

I'm still gonna try and stick to that strict

one -topic schedule. So, without further ado,

gonna get into this episode here and start off

with some animation stuff. And we actually get

our first look at Netflix's She -Ra TV series

and it's not too bad. It's being done by DreamWorks,

which honestly, a lot of the 80s properties that

are coming out I used to not be a really big

DreamWorks fan as far as their works concerned.

However, I've been loving everything they've

been doing in the recent years with their various

revival series and I think the She -Ra series

will be no different. I think it was kind of

ahead of its time in the 80s and trying to appeal

to girls and it... I don't think it got the recognition

it should have because Mattel killed it off back

in the 80s. However, in today's age, it would

be a very strong series, and it would be interesting

to see He -Man periodically pop in, which I'm

sure will happen, but it'll be nice to see this

on the flip side, like seeing how this series

does, because we did get kind of a proper He

-Man send -off a few years back on Cartoon Network,

and I guess, too, that it's kind of in the sense

that the new thundercats thundercats roar with

the the kind of choppy animation style I'm not

I'm not a fan of the new thundercats roar and

I think it's the animation more so than anything

else and it's not even like me you know you're

crapping on my childhood blah blah blah like

I honestly don't care thundercats is not my show

it is not something I'm I'm passionate about

but I did watch the original when I was a kid,

it wasn't that great. The Cartoon Network series

that was out years ago was good, the only problem

is the time slot sucked, which seemed to be the

reason Cartoon Network killed off a lot of the

intensive action shows like Young Justice and

some of those other shows like that. And I can

understand it from a money perspective, but from

a show perspective, if you put it on a death

slot purposely to get rid of it, then that's

your problem. I think this animation is cheaper,

it's easier, to me it's not really the same thing.

I'm loving what DreamWorks has been doing between

Voltron and She -Ra. It's definitely going to

be nice to see how this plays out on Netflix.

Again, it kind of gives proper resurgence just

in style. I think if you keep the tone, like

even looking at Ninja Turtles and Transformers,

those are like two of the most prominent rebooters

every couple of years, they'll finish a run,

they'll change up everything in it, they'll keep

the majority of the aesthetics the same, but

the animation style may change, but it's not

drastic, which I think is why Thundercats Roar

got such a polarizing attack. and so I think

She -Ra will definitely be very well received

especially with Netflix doing it because Netflix

seems to have this grasp for returning to animation

series and bringing them back with a much appreciative

take on the originals while also reinventing

it and so I think that that's definitely a good

thing for this series so I'm looking forward

to seeing what they do with it And then, of course,

we're going to have another animated series by

Netflix of Carmen Sandiego, which I've alluded

to. And they kind of mention how, again, it's

going to be another reboot. Gina Rodriguez is

doing the voice of Carmen Sandiego in this. I

look forward to seeing how they take on this

new approach to Carmen in today's world with

today's technology because a lot of the stuff

like I even played the games back in the day

where you know you had Cell phones were still

very early you had you had dial -up. I mean there

really wasn't The same level of technology that

we have now and so I think that it's gonna be

very well received as well again This is this

kind of goes to that that thing that Netflix

has the knack for, and that's animation. So again,

I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with

it. But I can honestly say that with the way

Netflix is treating animation, it definitely

would make me resubscribe to it just on that

front alone. Because it seems like they're doing

very good things on that side of things. So moving

into a little bit of television, well, actually

before that, I forgot about this other two series

that are coming up. There's a new Scooby -Doo

coming on. Scooby -Doo and guess who? They got

the similar style of the old 60s, 70s Scooby

-Doo type of intro text, and then they're gonna

have Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs for like a new Flintstones.

So, you're going to get, in 2019, Warner Bros.

Animation producer Chris Bailey and Executive

Producer Sam Register are going to have Scooby

-Doo and Guess Who with a start date in 2019

featuring Scooby and the gang teaming up with

celebrities to solve new mysteries. So, it'll

be kind of like the old shows with celebrities

kind of popping in. You know, you might remember

the Harlem Globetrotters, Batman, things like

that. So, anyways, the first season will include

NBA star Chris Paul, who I have no idea. who

that is, recording artist, Ricky Gervais, Kenan

Thompson, that'll be hilarious, Bill Nye, Neil

deGrasse Tyson, Mark Hamill, that will be freaking

awesome, I can't wait for that. Steve Urkel,

voiced by Jaleel White, oh that is epic, Batman,

that's kind of a given, they worked with Batman

before, I hope, I hope that they make the official

Batman. debut in this and and I say that from

a pure love of the the voice and that's Kevin

Conroy I hope that they have that Batman because

we got Adam West in the originals and that was

In some of the originals I believe which was

spectacular and they're gonna Sherlock Holmes

the flash So if whether they get Grant Gustin

or they get the animated from Justice League

The Flash in there, Wonder Woman, same thing,

and more. I'm definitely stoked for the new Scooby,

gotta say. It's gonna be a boomerang series.

I hope the aesthetics aren't terrible, because

we really don't get to see anything for this,

but I'm still kind of excited to see this. A

Flintstone spinoff, also. from Warner Brothers

Animation on Boomerang. It's going to have Pebbles,

Flintstone, and BamBam Rebel, as they set off

with Dino, to seek adventures in the wilderness

known as the Craggs. It says, Fred, Wilma, Barney,

and Betty will be keeping the home in Bedrock,

and apparently may make debuts in that as well.

Yeah, it's going to be in 2019 as well, just

another series. Although the animation for Yabba

Dabba Dinosaurs looks pretty... pretty basic

it looks very kiddish but it looks um it doesn't

look like thundercats roar terrible it looks

more like fairly odd parents which i could understand

that animation more uh than i could doing the

the roar style i find the roar in the steven

universe just to be atrocious to even look at

um but yeah i i'm definitely looking forward

to seeing some of this stuff come to come to

pass, and who knows, these could turn out to

be some good things. So, definitely wanted to

touch on that, and then Matt Groening, Groening,

however you say his name, has a series coming

to Netflix that's very much in the style of Futurama

and Simpsons, but it's called Disenchantment.

I mean, it's coming in 2018, just for those that

love his stuff, just another reason to get...

Netflix. They were having hopes of having another

series similar to the essence of fairy tales.

It's basically going to be about an alcoholic

princess named Bean who resides in the crumbling

medieval kingdom of Dreamland and has a pompous

elf companion, Elfo, and a personal demon named

Lucy. And being an accrual encounters sprites,

orgers, herpes, walruses, rolls, imps, and other

horrible beasts called humans along the way.

Of course, John DiMaggio, Billy West are going

to be in it along with Maurice LaMarris, Tressa

McNeil, David Herman, Matt Berry, Jeannie Batten,

Rich Fulcher, Noel Fielding, and Lucy Montgomery.

No Phil LaMarris has been listed. So anyways,

Groning's D &D geekery is showing itself here.

They're gonna also have Gary Gygax voicing himself

in Futurama in a few episodes slash movie of

this. I don't know, it looks kind of interesting.

Groaning says that it's gonna be about life,

death, love and sex and how to keep laughing

in a world full of suffering and idiots despite

what the elders and wizards and other jerks tell

you. I don't know. It could be interesting. I

may check out a little bit of this. I don't know

how much I'll stick with this particular series.

I'll probably stick with the Scooby -Doo one

just because I like the celebrity aspect. It's

interesting seeing something fresh coming and

not just a reboot. We'll see how things play

out here. So anyways, moving into television,

like I was hoping, we have Gotham teasing Bruce

Wayne's final steps to becoming Batman in Season

5. So it sounds like he's actually going to wear

the cowl, which is possibly going to happen,

but they said that they were going to see him

go all the way, like they don't want to do like

the smallville. It's definitely gonna take arcs

from No Man's Land and aspects of that with all

the villains and then you're gonna see Bruce

Wayne Batman getting closer to Commissioner Gordon

or Captain Gordon as it were. Gordon's supposed

to get the mustache and all that fun stuff. So

I'm looking forward to seeing how that turns

out as they round out the series and finish it

off. It'll be nice to actually see a Batman on

television for once. So yeah, it's again. It's

gonna be really cool to see this this take place

and since we're on the Gotham kick There's a

reason and I didn't realize this But there's

a reason why Jerome in Gotham cannot be called

the Joker or Jeremiah, or whichever. It has to

do with that stupid bat embargo, the same reason

why we couldn't see Batman on television. That's

so stupid. You can have every other villain,

every other, you know, you can have a Batman

series without, you know, the officials. So anyways,

they confirmed that his character is not the

Joker, but that Gotham is borrowed from using

the character at all, as Warner Brothers perhaps

only wants the Joker to appear in the DC Extended

Universe films, which is terrible. and the standalone

Todd Phillips Joker film. So Monaghan's not even

allowed to sport the trademark green hair, which

is why he's got the purple hair in the series.

I find this such a stupid thing. It says they

did various hair tests, pure green was off limits,

as well as the name Joker. Decision from high

up is they wanted to reserve those for the films,

a decision which was respected by Monaghan and...

You know, they didn't know how to dilute their

lucrative brand. The other problem is that their

film universe actually sucks, and their television

universe and their animated universe are great.

So like, I think it's because Warner Brothers

has their hands too far into that cookie jar

that they're like, no, no, no, you can't touch

this. Don't do this. Stay away. Sorry for my

terrible Adam Sandler impression, but anyways,

it's so stupid. Like, it's such a dumb decision

that they're playing into this. And Warner Brothers

seems to hurt themselves more than they help

themselves I think if you honestly got people

used to it on television And you did it correctly

and you were able to use Batman and the Joker

like I mean honestly Why can't we have Batman

show up in the CW universe? You know it at least

is like another earth or or jumping in from time

to time There I wouldn't see a big issue with

that just like having Superman show up Another

one of those long list of things Stephen Amell

wants is like you know I want to see Batman I

want to see you know, Superman. I want to see

a supernatural crossover. I mean, he just wants

all kinds of stuff, which, whatever. I mean,

it's fun to think about, but still. I just, I

don't understand it. You know, they can have

everybody else show up and have their names,

but, you know, the Joker and Batman are like

those two. But again, it's another one of those

stupid... Policies of Warner Brothers on characters

appearing in multiple forms over different media

platforms. I mean they did it with the Arrowverse

they killed off They they killed off the Suicide

Squad and then completely wrote them all out

because They had the film which I feel cheapened

their characters in Arrow and just made it as

like, hey, we're gonna get you familiar with

these guys and yeah, screw them, we don't care,

we're not gonna have them anymore, none of your

characters are allowed to come back. I mean,

that's why Slade came back briefly because they

didn't have anything with him in the films coming

on and they brought him back for a couple episode

arc and then he was gone again. To me, this is

just the dumbest thing in the world to have an

embargo over, so. Obviously, they had this policy

in 2001 when the Justice League cartoon was unable

to use certain Batman villains in reference to

the newer, unrelated Batman series. Whatever

one was out at the time. The Batman. Again, two

different animation styles, two different things.

I don't see the reason to have no cross -pollination

there. Marvel does it all the time with their

various aspects. I mean, they have different

series running concurrently and it kind of works

for them. So anyways, this issue obviously, like

I said, came up with Hero 2 and, you know, they

killed off just about everybody. They had to

do a suicide squad and then... But they have

no problem with having two flashes cast at the

same time. Which is honestly, like, mind -boggling.

Like, you can have a character called the Flash

that has the Flash. You can have, you know, all

these other things, but, you know, if it's related

to Batman. Nope, nope, can't touch it. Nope,

nope, stay away. I don't know, it's so frustrating

just listening to WB shoot themselves in the

foot. I honestly cannot stand WB on a lot of

their policing of their own content. It's so

dumb. So anyways, Legends of Tomorrow comes out

with a new poster. They've got the Adam. They've

got Vixen. They've got Constantine. They've got

Citizen Steel. They've got Sarah Lance, White

Canary, back. They've got Heatwave. And then

they've got... I can't remember that lady's name.

Obviously they're gonna have Ava back in there

again, but... Zari. Yeah, Zari will be in there

too. So anyways, they have all these people returning.

That's the only ones. There is an omission of

Wally West. Kid Flash on there. But, I don't

know, we may see him rejoin the Flash. It's just

kind of hard to say at this point. I wonder if

he's gonna be more of a when they need him type

character. And it's kind of difficult to pigeonhole

that and think of where they're gonna go with

it. I don't know. What do you guys think on that?

I'm so, so confused. Maybe they're gonna do a

Wally West flash movie. I have no idea. So the

Arrowverse is hinting at they're gonna be heading

to Gotham City and bringing Batwoman along. Another

one of those Batmanisms here, playing favoritism

with the bat. So they're gonna have Batwoman

show up as the CW's kind of built up its universe.

There's obviously characters that they can and

cannot use like Deathstroke and Deadshot But

they can have lesser known characters. So like

Arrow the flash which the flash I wouldn't even

consider a lesser character. He's like one of

the mainstreams Supergirl Legends, you know and

anyway, so they're gonna have all these shows

crossing over for a mega event again Obviously

they did the alien invasion Arrows mentioned

Bruce Wayne And Gotham, you know Gotham City

has been alluded to numerous times. So anyways,

they're gonna have Kate Kane aka Batwoman coming

to the show In in a teaser art they they had

Michael Schneider Revealed that this year's CW

DC crossover will introduce Batwoman Which is

fine My only gripe with this is that I have this

feeling it's gonna be cheapened. And I say it's

either gonna be cheapened because she's gonna

be like a one -off crossover type thing, or she's

gonna be the villain of it. Which I know that

she kind of plays this weird card of, you know,

good, bad, or the other thing, and... It's kind

of it's gonna be kind of difficult. So anyways,

they're gonna finally interact with Gotham and

the major, you know crossover and You know, they've

named dropped it before they've named dropped

Bruce Wayne. They've named up dropped You know,

they've had they were able to use Superman briefly

and Supergirl And started building up Gotham

a little there in that universe so anyways, they're

gonna have the casting for Batwoman and It doesn't

mean that we can only have Batwoman though like

it depending on how they go with it We could

have only Batwoman or we could end up with Red

Robin Nightwing which I sincerely doubt on one

of those two just because We're going to get

this this particular point where the CW Won't

be allowed to touch characters because it'll

be on the Warner Brothers streaming app. That'll

be coming So I have a feeling that some of those

with the Titan show, I have a feeling a couple

of those are gonna be non -characters that won't

be able to cross over unless you get on their

app, which I think could be detrimental to the

shows if they try to do a crossover because that

would require somebody to sign up. But we could

start seeing some more iconic Batman villains

show up. Although, to what degree, I am unsure.

Although, the introduction of this could be also

good because, think about it, we've gotten Gotham

to get us familiar with the uprising of a lot

of Batman and his villains in Rogue Gallery.

So, you get that. Then you get Batwoman showing

up here in a variety of trickling mentions of

Gotham and Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight. Think

about this they could have theoretically a new

Batman series come out and have it exclusive

to this to the the Warner Brothers app or streaming

service Which would be good because it wouldn't

have to be on cable television. It would force

people to sign up to it Which would mean that

eventually they could make all of these different

series on their Warner Brothers app forcing people

to sign up for it Although they own the CW I

feel that they wouldn't put Batman on it because

it would give people a reason to sign up for

the Warner Brothers streaming service but I Think

that we're leading to that point where we could

see a Batman series come out and I'm okay with

that as long as they they do it, right? I would

just like to see them do it sooner than later

at this point We've already gotten a taste of

Arrow and a variety of odd timelines there. I

would just like to see them do a Batman series

at this point. We have nothing in animation world.

We have nothing in films. I mean, Batman is kind

of non -existent unless you consider Bruce Wayne

on Gotham and I don't really see that. So, what

do you guys think on that? So anyways, I'm going

to cut this episode short. I'm going to come

back in another episode on Tuesday and be talking

about, well, some movie stuff, some other possibilities

in Star Wars, and then some gaming. So until

next time, get altered, get geeky with the Altered

Geeks.