Justice League: The New Frontier Review

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

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Welcome again to another special crossover episode

of Animation Aficionados, Tooncast Beyond. This

is continuing our series looking into the DC

animated original movies. I am your host, Ben,

and we're joined by my co -host, TeeVee Smith

and Neil. With this proton energy pill, I get

the power of 20 atom bombs for a period of 20

seconds. And we also have with us a host of Tooncast

Beyond, TFT1 Mike. Yes, that's right. And for

the Tooncast Beyond listeners, this will be episode

three in our DC movie spotlight And tonight we're

going to be talking about Justice League new

frontier Such a breath of fresh air compared

to last week's episode Well, what I love about

this is the original comic itself was a love

letter to That little transition period between

the Golden Age and the Silver Age of comics.

It was post -World War II, pre -Red Scare. It's

just like this little butter zone of awesomeness

between the Golden Age variations, the Green

Lantern where the Lantern was like a genie lantern

and the Flash got his... Was jay garrett guys

powers from breathing hard water and uh, yes

that did happen and And you know the the silver

age versions, you know with barry allen the flash

who got his powers from lightning and uh and

uh how jordan the green lantern got his ring

from a from a space police corps and Really that

that's that's the difference. It's you don't

actually see, you know the the golden age versions

of these characters in this but What I did like

was you actually did see the Golden Age versions

of Batman and Superman in this and their transitions

into their Silver Age versions. Yeah. You know,

this movie, as I said, coming off the heels of

just a sour taste that doomsday left in our mouths,

New Frontier was so much better. It was better

written. Voice cast was amazing. Um, oh neil

someone listened to you because he always said

somebody cast her they did Awesome lucy lawless

as wonder woman Yeah That's a little weird to

me, okay. Well, that's that's neil's dream, right?

and like I said that The reason why I think a

lot of love came through is because the original

comic book was a love letter to the Silver Age

and a lot of people that are working on the movie

understood this and a lot of that same love translated

perfectly. Well, to really set the stage here,

the film was written by Justice League writer

Stan Berkowitz and it also had consulting on

it the guy that wrote the comic, Darwin Cook.

That's true. full interpretation. Even on the

DVD set, there are two separate commentaries,

one with Bruce Timm and the producers, and one's

just with Darwin Cook talking about the movies.

So I mean, this wasn't like Doomsday where they

may have talked to the writers of the Doomsday.

They didn't. I'm just saying, they may have consulted

with them, but they didn't bring anybody in.

to actually consult on the movie and what it

is, whereas this, they actually brought the guy

that wrote the story in to consult on it to make

sure the vision was done properly, and it was.

And also the change in the animation style to

not quite mirror exactly, but mirror what I would

like to call the artistic intent of the comic

was brilliant. It was beautiful and it was brilliant.

And really what I love about this is yes, there

are segments with Batman and Superman and all

these other characters But to me in my mind,

this is really a Barry Allen story. I Would well

I would say that yes, I would say that the main

focus here is on Hal Jordan Barry Allen and Martian

Manhunter Batman and Superman are there Wonder

Woman's there but Mean they're just there. I

wouldn't say they're background characters because

those are the big three of the DC but The story

isn't focusing on them. It's more so focusing

on them as a part of the team But as far as the

overall individual stories you have Barry's Howls

and and and Martian Manhunter story I I just

I really like this movie and when they When we

started hearing rumblings of that horrible horrible

live -action Thing that happened with the yellow

fear monster My initial thought when they before

they even mentioned who is going to be The Green

Lantern in that movie as soon as I heard David

Borean is voicing him. I said He would be perfect

for a live -action Green Lantern. I don't care

how old the guy is, whatever else, he can carry

himself on screen as an actor. And him voicing

Hal, honestly for me, is probably one of the

best voices of Hal ever. I agree and it's really

hard to cast Hal as a voice because it's hard

to reconcile the expectation people have for

Hal and who Hal really is as a character because

Part of the thing is lots of fans memorialize

and outright worship the myth of Hal Jordan.

Sadly, some of these fans are actually writing

the books now. That sort of makes it to where

it's an unattainable ideal that's not who the

character really is. Hal Jordan is a flawed person.

He has done wrong. He has driven drunk. He has

slept with an underage girl. He isn't the best

man, but he is a hero. When did you guys first

see this? Did you guys run out and pick this

up on DVD as soon as it came out or did you wait

for the premiere which happened on October 18th,

2008 on Cartoon Network? I waited for the premiere

personally because Superman Doomsday left a bad

taste in my mouth. No as soon as I saw the the

the trailer and all you know nowadays with the

internet the special features like the The the

making of stuff always leaks on the YouTube first

whenever I saw those I was like, yep I gotta

go out and get this and I immediately went out

and got it What about you Neil? I just waited

for the premiere You guys suck No, we if you

punch a dog in the nose, it doesn't come back

to you immediately You can't say the dogs dumb

Well Right, but this like I like we've said this

was a completely different story completely different

Animation type style compared to doomsday so

by the same team Well, but that doesn't matter

though because they they're still doing very

well I mean, you know granted doomsday was a

misstep but you know, this kind of makes up for

that I think it does it really does and I really

like I said, I enjoyed a lot of the what I enjoyed

personally was the segments with Batman especially

how you know it actually had my god, it's the

it's it's goddamn original detective 27 Bob Kane

Batman in there with with with the big ears and

They had it had the it was the perfect translation

of what the Bob Kane Batman originally was except

he didn't carry the dual pistols because that

was something that they just sort of stripped

out of the character. And for people who don't

know, yes, Batman originally carried two pistols

in the original comics just like the Phantom.

And one of the bloodiest original issues you

can get is the one where Batman fights the Mad

Monk. Yeah, the only complaint I have about Batman

in this movie is that... They should have gotten

somebody else other than Jeremy Sisto to voice

him. I like Jeremy Sisto as an actor, but His

voice just does not fit Batman to me even even

in the Silver Age Batman I don't know. I just

it doesn't feel delivered one line perfectly

It was when he was talking to Marcia Manhunter

and he said I have a million dollar rock for

the one in Metropolis Yeah, all I need for you

is to drop a dime for a box of matches Yeah.

Yeah, that was awesome. And he delivered that

line perfectly. Yeah, he did. I will give him

that, but just, I don't know, just the overall

feeling. Again, as I said, you know, the big

three are almost second fiddle in this movie

because, you know, Hal, Martian Manhunter, and

Barry are the ones that are really with the story.

As far as the cast goes, as I said, David Boreanaz,

Miguel Farrar, Neil Patrick Harris, What the

hell is Peter McAllister doing in here? John

Heard as Ace Morgan? Wow. Huh. Well, one thing

to keep in mind is I really do see this more

as a Barry story than a Hal story or even March

of the Manhunter story because March of the Manhunter

made a decision to come here early on. How Jordan

is in the military, he made the decision to fight

long ago. Barry Allen was just a citizen. and

you know he made a decision to fight crime and

then all of a sudden because he's wearing red

or something people aren't trusting him and he

and then you know he has to make that decision

again in in the in the face of everybody not

trust you know in the face of everything he has

to make the decision again right that's right

but Still, I don't know, maybe it's because it

starts off with telling part of Hal's story that

I think that the movie is solely for Hal. But

as I said, it's more of a team effort, really.

And as Neil has always wanted, Lucy Lawless is

now Princess Diana. Although I kind of wanted

her as the physical representation, but I'll

take it. Well, she kind of is almost a little

bit. That's why he wanted her cast in the movie

But Neil in your opinion in your opinion, would

you say this is a Barry Allen story or Hal Jordan

story? um, I'm gonna lean toward Barry Allen

is the just because the the Green Lantern part

of the story was kind of slow and developing

and He didn't become the Green Lantern until

very late in the movie and in the last eight

minutes Basically say that it is it is a Barry

Allen story to the point where as soon as we

see him It's mainly focused on like the police

are going after him He's using his powers. He's

stopping Captain cold He's the one that has to

run at super speed around this around the centaur

thing to to destroy it I will I will give you

guys that but Just the way the movie starts out

most people might think most people that don't

know a lot about comics your everyday mainstream

audience might think that it's a Hal Jordan story

Because it starts out with him in the war and

doing all the flying and then going to Ferris

aero space and all that And then you have which

I would actually have preferred Adam Baldwin

over this you have Kyle McLaughlin as Superman

Well, in the head this leads me to one thing

there's there was it I know it was the the scene

was exactly the same in the comic but the scene

near the end where we're Aquaman shows up dragging

Superman out of the ocean saying He's been he's

been crying for a woman named Louis for the last

10 minutes and wouldn't shut up I'm like, well

gee that was very tacked on and I guess Alright,

yeah, we have Aquaman, I guess. Okay. Yeah And

then and that's it. That's about as mean as I

can be to this movie because everything else

is great. Yeah. Well, yeah You know and you got

Vandal Savage Phil Morris as King Faraday that's

pretty awesome like slang as Rick Rick flag and

then a Much better voice for Lois than and hache

ever could be which is Kara Sedgwick the closer.

Yes And I like how it harkens to a lot of a lot

of silveries that a lot of new people would know

about like the fact that Lois is a TV reporter

Mm -hmm. It's not many people remember those

days Yeah, um Overall, I mean I really like this

movie. I like I like all the little Nuances in

it like with the flash and the way he uses his

super speed And really one thing we have to say

is in the end the villains itself You know this

unspeakable horror from beyond the stars is Not

that important because it's basically just there

to bring everything together and that's perfectly

fine for what the story is the story isn't about

The villain the story is about is about you know

team exactly. Yeah And the only really great

thing about the villain in this movie is the

fact that it's Keith David doing the voice Keith

David has an amazing voice for voiceover and

he has this really epic evil voice in this and

that was really great But I mean It's a giant

floating living island and we also The animators

did a great job of when Hal flew his plane into

it and it got really trippy. Oh yeah, that was

awesome. The effects in this are great. They

went real trippy with the animation there. It

was nice to see some good, honest to goodness,

experimental animation once again. Yeah. Neil

what are your overall thoughts or any thoughts

you have on this? Well, the only thing that we

haven't covered yet is the mark the Martian Manhunter

and that I kind of like the early development

the movie where he's he's watching TV and I think

that's actually how he learns English so it's

kind of like a flash And I've mentioned it didn't

they also do I'll let you go ahead Neil. Yeah

one point He's sitting there for the TV any he

morphs into Bugs Bunny and not just any Bugs

Bunny the classic Bob Clampett, Bugs Bunny. That's

what happened in the comic, Neil. That was wonderful.

Yeah, Martian Manhunter, and this was great.

Because as you said, he's learning the culture.

He just arrived. He's learning the culture. And

honestly, this movie is more so a testament to

humankind rather than the superheroes. Because

you have all these people coming together in

the end to to fight this thing all the all the

military fights The fact that John portrays himself

as a policeman and you also have you also have

the scene where where where John is actually

being affected by the living island and it took

it it took a human's bravery for him to stamp

out of it and You know hero up Where's a rimshot

app when you really need one? I'm not allowed

to say hero up Well, I guess you live in superhero

city then right next to Villainville Now it's

big damn hero time. That's that's not that's

not from a superhero show That's from that's

from firefly. Yeah Overall, this movie's great.

The animation's great. The voice acting, even

though I wish we had different... And it didn't

matter. They could have gotten anyone else. I'm

not sitting here saying I want Daly or Newburn

or Conroy as either Superman or Batman. I'm saying

they could have gotten anyone else other than

Kyle McLaughlin and Jeremy Sisto. as those two

characters. I just didn't like their voices,

regardless of that one great line that Batman

had. I just didn't like it. I didn't like either

one of their voice portrayals. But then again,

they are barely in the movie, when you look at

it. They were working more to cast a perfect

Hal Jordan and a perfect Barry Allen. I mean,

Neil Patrick Harris took it home as Barry Allen.

Yeah, he did. That's what they were looking for.

Do you spend a lot of time casting for what's

in the end is almost 10 minutes of dialogue from

somebody or do you spend a lot of time casting

someone who is like 50 minutes of dialogue? What

else can we say about this one? I guess I could

go into the special features that are on the

DVD. That both commentaries are great To actually

have a commentary by the guy that wrote The actual

comic is very insightful The behind -the -scenes

stuff was great Well Warner Brothers animation

never skimps on the extras. I mean, you know

Even the even the god -awful mystery of the Batwoman

had tons of extras. I mean, it's not like they

were you know Bought by bit Disney who doesn't

give extra salt Marvel Yes, I could see that

setup coming a mile away Yeah So to date Justice

League new frontier has made five million two

hundred and thirty seven thousand five hundred

and sixty seven dollars and it is sold over just

over three hundred thousand units so it definitely

more than made its money back, but It also didn't

make what Superman Doomsday did, which is kind

of a shame because this is obviously a superior

product. Oh yeah. It's a hell of a lot of shame

here because as you said, superior product, much

better story, much better animation, way better

voice casting. I think it really helps that they

told a story that That wasn't you know, that

wasn't vilified for for ten years and try to

decide okay We have to get what's vilified to

make it work because New Frontier as a graphic

novel is is loved not well -known but loved around

the circles that do that do know it I think that's

what really helped it because because it was

fairly recent to it wasn't as old as the death

of Superman storyline either so you know it was

fairly recent it was fairly loved so those two

things helped it you know push through with especially

with the actual author helping you know now how

much of this is condensed from the actual story

it's actually a very good near faithful adaptation

oh cool and i love how they use the the kennedy

bits at the end yes You have no idea what I'm

talking about. No, I do. I know the speech you're

talking about, yes. I thought that was very awesome

because it's the Kennedy speech up against the

heroes fighting this great evil at the time.

And in the end, Flash saves the day. So going

into the IGN replacement crew one through four

one is don't watch this even if it's free two

is worth a watch if it's free on TV three is

worth adding to the Netflix list which it is

currently not on Netflix instant which is a shame

and For is this is a must add to your DVD collection

Ben wonderful. What do you give new frontier?

I give it a definite for this is really this

is really the team you know you shaking off the

cobwebs really you know they They got their act

down now, they know what they're doing. This

is definitely a four. Neil? I'm going to give

this movie a wonderful review of... I'd say three.

I'm not quite the DVD collector, so I'd say watch

it on Netflix if you can get it. And if you're

just really that superhero fan, go for the DVD.

Yeah, I'm gonna give it a four as well because

this this is a movie I could watch you know once

every three or four months and just really still

love it You know as we've said this movie is

very well done This movie surprisingly This DVD

came out when we were still having the blu -ray

versus HD DVD war That's hilarious. More like

a backyard brawl. Yeah, ain't that the truth?

Yeah, everyone knew Blu -ray was gonna win. I

knew a lot of early HD adopters, HD DVD adopters

that were very pissed off after they put some

time down on some HD DVD players. Like, you do

know that Blu -ray is gonna win. I mean, they

got all the studio support. That's what counts.

And they're like, no, you're wrong. HD DVD is

just better. It's... I'm like... That doesn't

mean anything. It's the same thing with Betamax.

You know, Betamax is technically a better picture

than VHS, but which one won again? VHS. Entertainment

Weekly talking about direct -to -videos and Superman

Doomsday revealed that preorders for the new

Frontier were tracking further ahead than expected.

So that's saying something. I mean, regardless

of how bad Doomsday was, if the pre -orders for

this were tracking ahead of what they're expecting,

that says something about this movie. It certainly

does. And so something about the people who,

you know, word of mouth really helped too, because

like I said, the graphic novel is fairly well

loved. Yeah, I honestly would love to pick this

up on the graphic novel just to read it and just

to see. the visuals in the graphic novel, but

the movie is a great adaptation. So with that,

here on Tooncast Beyond, I think we're gonna

take a break. You're gonna hear some crazy ads,

and then we'll come back with our final thoughts.

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Tune in. We are back here on Tooncast Beyond

in Animation Aficionados. Neil, final thoughts

on New Frontier? Um, hmm. Good movie. Um... I'm

not familiar with the with the comic but Ben

would be a better candidate to kind of wrap it

up, but I Liked it. It was it was a fun movie.

I like the flash in it. I like the Martian man

hunter Wasn't too crazy about the Green Lantern

part of the story, but you know It's not it's

not that much of a flaw. So Yeah, go go watch

it kids My final thoughts, because we'll let

Ben go last, seeing as how he'll have the most

to say. My final thoughts is, as I said, the

voice cast in this is great. All of the stories

for the team coming together are great. The animation's

great. There really isn't a single misstep in

here outside of my little nitpicks of Superman

and Batman's voices, but they really aren't the

characters for this movie, so I can overlook

that. What about you, Ben? What are your final

thoughts? I think this is one of the best...

near direct adaptation of an existing graphic

novel because there's not that much adaptation

decay. Having Cook as part of the team really

helped it. The animation style is beautiful and

really hearkens to what the book's art style

is. And other than the Aquaman, this man keeps

on asking for Lois. Does anyone know who Lois

is seen at the end? This is actually a great

movie and I just sort of stopped it right before

that. That's funny. Alright, so thank you for

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and join us next time when we will be continuing

the DC Universe animated movie spotlight with...

Batman Gotham Knight. For now, I am TFG1Mike

with... Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

We will see you next time good night I'm willing

to put my life on the line to do what I have

to but it has to be mine. No one else is