Superman & Batman: Public Enemies Review

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

imagination. one Steve the opposite of Batman

oh yes you're nothing but a boy in a play suit

crying for mommy and daddy people try to do Joker

imitations and like There was someone on the

Behind the Voice Actors website that tried to

do a Joker imitation and Steve - Oh my god, he

was batshit horrible. Steve had to rip them a

new one because it was so horrible. I'm not claiming

to be the best, but that - this guy was just

ass. And the only Joker that Steve really does

is the Hamill version. He doesn't do the Heath

or the - or the Nicholson version. Look at me.

Look at me! Yes, I do the true Joker. Oh wait,

that's right We have both Kermit the Frog here

tonight because Neil does a Kermit and Steve

does a Kermit. That's awesome Hi -ho Kermit the

Frog here Wow, that's really good Kermit the

Frog here It's like it's like Whitmire versus

Henson time to start the puppet show That's that's

definitely Whitmire, you know, you don't have

the same gentleness as Henson That's like saying

somebody's going to top Hamill as the Joker It's

just not gonna happen. I know people who still

say who still wear on the Caesar Well, I mean

that's live -action that's completely different

I Could go back and forth with with live -action

but the the fact remains that there's only one

that's still with us on the live -action and

There's been many on the oh Neil we forgot to

mention the Sega CD Batman video game adventures

of Batman Robin video game because it has Some

segments of animation that was never in any episodes.

Oh Where were we supposed to mention this? Oh,

he's talking about the video game episode we

did. Oh, okay. I was going to say, what the hell?

As you know, Batman, you know, he had an axe.

Neil, you have the show image, right? Yes, I

have the show image. Knock it off. I won't make

sure he has the show image at all. It's like

I deleted it in the meantime. Alright, let's

get this show on the road. You can go whenever

you've already been. Alright. Oh god, this hurts

still. Okay. This can't hurt as much as Doomsday.

But go ahead and start. Hello and welcome again

to Animation Aficionados, crossing over once

more with Tooncast Beyond. We are continuing

our series going through the DC animated original

movies. I am, of course, your host, Ben, and

we're joined by my co -host, TeeVeeZerSpiel.

I have summoned you here for a purpose. And we

also have with us the host of Tooncast Beyond,

TFG1Mike. Hello. And the co -creator of the GeekCast

radio network, Steve Megatron. Ha ha ha, he cares.

And tonight we're talking about the Superman

Batman public enemies. Oh, come on Oh this movie

rocks. Well, let me let me let me start. Let

me start from the beginning This is an adaptation

of a graphic novel by Jeff Lowe drawn by Ed McGinnis

and To put a perspective I will give you an overview

overview of what the graphic novel is And I will

just say that everything that's different from

the graphic novel to the movie is Bruce Tim trying

to make the graphic novel make sense. That's

all the adaptation is, is Bruce Tim saying, okay,

this doesn't make sense. I have to write like

in the margins. So this is why this happened.

So basically what you're saying is as much as

we love Bruce Tim, he loves the polished turds.

Yes, this is this movie is literally Bruce Tim

polishing the turd that is Superman Batman public

enemies and to to understand my distaste for

the Superman Batman public enemies graphic novel

is to understand that I think Superman Batman

as a series as a comic series is dumbing down

of icons because the original title that Trade

paperbacks and graphic novels were given when

Superman and Batman teamed up in the 90s and

the 80s in the 70s was World's finest, you know,

and then afterwards it became a descriptive title.

Oh, it's just Superman Batman it's it's so dumbed

-down stupid and the in the the Storyline in

public enemies is the following in the graphic

novel, right? There's a kryptonite asteroid hang

through or towards earth Lex Luthor announces

Superman's responsible somehow and Everyone believes

him because he's the president At what point

did they send Bruce Willis up to take care of

this? Bad Armageddon joke But it wasn't it wasn't

ten times cooler than autumn are getting I swear

I just need a space rock. Okay Okay, so What

happens is superman is now in the lamb and only

Batman believes him so they're teamed up together

trying to trying to figure out how what Lex Luthor

is doing and this culminates to a fight in Antarctica

in in issue four That I actually shared with

Neil because I wanted to make sure that I had

a witness to Verify what happens in this issue

four of Superman Batman public enemies So ran

and Batman are you know Lex Luthor sends Hawkman?

and Captain Marvel to take in Superman Batman

and in the fight Superman says castling like

the chest move and throws Captain Marvel at Batman

and Batman drop kicks Captain Marvel into a mountain

hard enough to make him fucking revert into Billy

fucking Batson The animated movie doesn't have

that no Bruce Tim scribbled that out and wrote

Batman uses a missile The animated movie makes

the graphic novel Just Insignificant the the

animated movie for me is is way better simply

because of the fact that you have Tim Daly Kevin

Conroy Clancy Brown, you know you have Essentially

because wonder I don't think wonder I don't even

know she wasn't she was yeah essentially those

three voice actors are the big three of DC animation

when it comes to their respective characters

And that's really what sells the movie for me

is is them white even the fact that I don't like

the animation on Batman's model in this movie

Kevin Conroy still sells it this to me is a lot

better for his voice to fit to the animation

than Gotham Knight ever was. Hence why I didn't

want to be on Gotham Knight. Because Gotham Knight,

I watched it and I immediately, because I rented

it, I never bothered to pick it up. Despite it

having Conroy and my liking him playing Batman,

that movie was utter garbage. I can see where

Tim Daly, Kevin Conroy, Clancy Brown fit their

respective roles in this because they actually

look like their Justice League and original series

counterparts. Amanda Waller is also played by

the same actress from Justice League. Yeah. The

only, and I'm going to get this out of the way

right now. Okay. I'm a fat guy. I don't care

if people are fat, skinny, or whatever else,

I'm sorry. The animation style for this movie

versus the comic book art versus what Amanda

Waller looked like in Justice League Unlimited,

that scene literally nearly made me puke. Yeah,

the problem I have with the animation style is

they're trying to Bruce Timmify Ed McGinnis'

shitty artwork. Okay, I'm going to get a lot

of emails. I don't care. Ed McGinnis is a shitty

artist. He draws everything like he's doing a

parody of Akira Toriyama doing Super Saiyan 2.

He's calling you out Ed. Ed knows I don't like

his work, but let me finish the brief synopsis

of the comic just really quickly because I'm

almost done with it. We're here to talk about

the movie. I know, but to talk about the movie

we have to talk about the source material and

how the source material differs. And basically,

what happens is Superman and Batman disguise

themselves as Hawkman and Captain Marvel to show

up at the White House to sort of give Lex Luthor

a scare. Lex Luthor kisses Amanda Waller and

injects himself a liquid kryptonite, which only

years ago almost killed him, and to put on the

Silver Age green power armor suit to fight Superman

once more. And then they go to the Forges of

Solitude. where they team up with Toyman, where

they pay Toyman to build a composite Superman

robot, which is half Superman, half Batman, to

destroy the asteroid. And Superman pays him with

what Toyman won in the comics was a date with

Power Girl. And Superman's like, no, I can't

do that. How about I give you an exact robot

duplicate instead? Wow. And then Toyman just

goes, I'm going to wreck this thing. Captain

Adam flies the robotic monstrosity towards the

asteroid and all through the flight there, he's

not thinking, gee, I can't be as good as Superman

Batman. I can't be as heroic as Superman Batman.

I'll never be as great as them. Look at them.

They're great. They're best of friends. I will

never be that. All while he's flying to his doom.

And then it gets the story that everybody has

a hearty laugh at the end. And that's how the

graphic novel is. And I have to hand it to Bruce

Tim. He did what I said. He made changes from

the source material to make the story make fucking

sense. He had this part in the beginning where

where Lex Luthor asked Superman to go on the

mission in the space and he has, you know, metallo

disguised as an astronaut and like shows like

hastily cut footage to make it look Superman

went crazy. You know, he had that so all of a

sudden all of a sudden it's a little bit more

credible that all the heroes think Superman's

turned bad now versus just Lex Luthor said so.

which was in the graphic novel. And like I said,

instead of Batman drop kicking Captain Marvel

into a mountain, no, he uses a missile. So that's,

again, a little bit more credible. Now, when

did this comic come out? Because I could swear

that I, speaking of that giant robot, I could

swear that I've seen this episode of Dexter's

Laboratory. I'm checking it. It was it was it

was the early 2000s. It was a 2003 2003 so it

wasn't it wasn't Dexter's lab referencing that

it was more like the other way around Yeah, it's

like like I said, it's Whenever Jeff Lowe writes

Superman he writes Superman is super duper creepy

because he builds sex dolls and gives them to

teenagers This is not right Yeah. But anyway.

And like I said, I'm giving Bruce Tim credit.

I'm giving Bruce Tim credit that somebody up

ahead probably told him, OK, we have to adapt

Superman, Batman, Public Enemies into a movie.

But the thing that strikes me so much is every

single change in the adaptation is him trying

to make the story make sense. And yet, Batman

still gets thrown around and crushed and knocked

into walls and doesn't ever sustain any sort

of injury. The thing about this movie is and

the thing about any of these movies really but

this one specifically I think Bruce Tim said

this I don't remember I think I remember hearing

him say this about adapting it is that As Ben

said you have to have it make sense for the main

like okay Superman Batman world's finest all

that stuff those comic books comic book readers

are going to be, you know, people who are invested

like Ben, you know, in comic books. Those are

the people that are going to read those books,

but for a mainstream audience you have to make

the adaptation make sense. To be fair, the original

graphic novel didn't make sense, even to a comic

reader. Jeff Loeb is that shitty a writer. Right,

right, but that is still overlooked versus, like,

okay, if it doesn't make sense to comic book

readers, it that's kind of like hey here you

go here it is who cares if it makes sense we

don't care about our readers whatsoever we reboot

and fifty two and blah blah blah blah all the

friggin time but where is you know these animated

films these direct dvd animated films have to

make sense sort of but i'm still i'm still sorry

it's it's it that's still is the funniest thing

to me because i've never seen that adaptation

happened before where the person is adapting

it is explicitly making the adaptation changes

just to make the story makes sense i've never

seen that before all bruce tim cares neil what

about you for thoughts on this one was i was

getting into the this comes off as kind of like

a batman way oh yeah there are plenty of times

in this in this movie that batman you know he

should have just been dead I mean he was fighting.

I was good. I was get the tube mixed up. It was

a metallo Yeah, yeah, he's fighting with how

and metallo should have just killed him and somehow

he survived he used Superman as a as a shield

to Block a thermite grenade. I think or whatever

the hell that was and I'm just like what the

hell This guy should be dead. He's just a normal

guy They don't try to write it well thing is

this like I said, there's enough of the Jeff

Lowe up the DNA in the story that it still doesn't

quite make it there But like I said Bruce Tim

probably what this feels like is Bruce Tim should

have been the editor -in -chief of DC Comics

because that's what he's doing here He's the

editor although I got to call Bruce Tim out on

one part is because Bruce Tim put Batman in the

in the pilot seat at the end of the movie and

That should have killed Batman, too Well, you

know what? At least it has an ejection pod versus

Katharine thing. Gee, I could never be as great

as Batman or Superman. All right You know and

I honestly think putting Batman in the pilot

seat of the monstrosity Was a reference to the

end of Justice League season 2 when he was piloting

a watchtower. Oh, yeah But like I said, it's

at least they like made an ejection pod, you

know, right which makes more sense than oh by

the way this is a one -way ticket and Yeah, Captain

Marvel, Captain Amigo, you're not as popular

as the title characters. Oh, gee, you're right,

and I'll just keep on thinking about how come

that's true. And my only other point here is

that I gotta bring up Power Girl, because I'm...

Oh, the design sucked! Yeah, the thing is, I

know Power Girl's hair is supposed to be really

short, but usually it has a little bit more volume

than that. I mean, it's just kind of this weird...

I don't know what you would call that. Hairstyling

with the animation aficionados! It's her whole

body design. It just didn't have the power and

the oomph in it. It was like a caricature of

the oomph without the power. Honestly, who really

pays attention to Power Girl other than her boobs?

That's what I mean. What we need is the Amanda

Conner version stat. What we need is the Call

Me Poe version stat. What about you, Steve? What

are your thoughts on public enemies? Well, honestly,

I'd have to say, other than Under the Red Hood,

I'd have to say this is my favorite next to that.

Just because you have the return of those specific

voice actors, you have some of the Tim verse

type of animation to this, but not 100 % that

direction. It's more of a gritty version. Yeah,

and you have tons of references as well. Oh,

yeah, and you have like damn near you know every

hero or villain showing up with the exceptions

of you know some of the main Justice League members

or you know the Joker and some of those other

ones, but you do have a lot of them showing up

in here and You know despite what you guys know

about the comics of it I'd say that they did

it really well with this animated version You

know, I do have to praise it for one thing. It's

a they didn't have there was a they basically

gave a lot of There was a Supergirl character

in the comics that wasn't any of the Supergirls

you all know I know that for sure because she

was only around for like six months Sorrell in

Sorrell by the way was like was like Lois Lane

and Superman's daughter from the future travel

back in time and oh, I know who you're talking

about Yeah, yeah, and they basically gave a lot

of power power girl a lot of her lines Thank

You Bruce Tim. Oh wow I mean power girl was pretty

much pointless other than to help move some of

the dialogue along Yeah, and by the way, and

by the way, this is this is sorrel and yeah Like

I said, I'm just glad that she didn't show up

because that would have required more explaining

And her design was terrible Yeah So Power Girl,

aka Chloe Sullivan. Wow, I forgot all about that

Allison Mack voice Power Girl. Well, if they

would have given Power Girl that kind of hair,

it might have looked better. Yeah, exactly. I'm

kind of transitioning over to the voice actors

because there's a couple in here. There's one

particular in here that I didn't even register

with me. We've had many Alfreds in animation

over the years. Of course, Ephraim Zimbalist

Jr. is the main one that we know. But, um...

Yeah! Skeletor is Alfred! Wow, Alan Oppenheimer

voiced Alfred in this. I did not know that. You

know, he also voiced the butler in Big O. Not

surprising. Okay, the Big O is... It's an anime.

Okay, yeah, I I don't do anime so well, it's

actually really funny because big O is pretty

much pretty much an American product is pretty

big O is pretty much like the Japanese trying

to do Batman but with a mecha and and the main

character has a butler who And it's kind of like

yeah, it's kind of like Voltron. We're the only

people who really care about it are Americans

It was cancelled in Japan and Adult Swim paid

for the second season. Adult Swim will pay for

anything. Except for your DVDs. Well Adult Swim

will pay for anything seeing as how they show

a bunch of Family Guy reruns. Anyway, the other

one that kind of really threw me and I had to

actually click on the link and look it up because

they list Michael Goff as Hawkman and Captain

Cold, but it is not the Michael Goff that played

Alfred in Batman 89 and returns and all that

stuff. It's a different person. But every time

I just see that name, it always makes me think

of the live -action Alfred from the Batman movies.

Oh, that's another thing. I'm trying to remember

if this movie actually gave Hawkman the goddamn

Eye of Horus glove. Did it? Don't remember okay

in the comics when when Batman Superman decided

to switch opponents and Batman gave the kick

that Shouldn't have ever happened Hawkman gave

the punch that never should have happened where

Hawkman punched out Superman with a magic glove

called the eye of Horus I love this bit of trivia.

At one point, Batman tells Superman it's your

funeral, to which Superman replies he already

had one. Obviously, he's referring to the aftermath

of his first battle with Doomsday. However, when

I first heard that line, the first thing I thought

of was... Hereafter? Yup. They've made so many

references in this movie to Justice League, Justice

League Unlimited to the DCAU That's the only

thing that I can always think of when it comes

to those little quips is that's the first thing

I go to And of course the box office for this

eight million Around eight million. It was five

hundred and thirty five thousand six hundred

and fifty six units sold so this Almost wish

this would have made more money than doomsday

Why then you'll just encourage Jeff love to write

more shitty comics, but then Bruce Tim can always

polish them This wasn't a perfect polish let's

be honest with each other here like this wasn't

the perfect polish there was a much there was

two there was enough of the lobe DNA here to

Taint the product I'm not as invested, well actually

I'm not invested in the comics at all. My perspective

on this movie is not exactly what Ben's is. I'm

not saying that I really love this movie, but

if I take it as a campy approach I can appreciate

it. And then all my comments about how Batman

should have died will just kind of go away. I

mean Toy Man was okay. Well, he kept on he kept

on he kept on mentioning power girls boobs badly

drawn boobs at those I'm sorry that her design

was was not goodness It could have been better

but Steve any other thoughts well, I wouldn't

say that it's 100 % perfect, but it's it's quite

possibly one of the best out of all the animated

ones next to like, you know the Under the Red

Hood and the Justice League crisis of Two Earths.

But I think that being that you're from a comics

perspective, that it's not as good to you, whereas

to me, having little to no experience with modern

Batman comics, except for what I collected growing

up and what little I've read now, I Don't particularly

pay too much attention to the comics or the writers

or anything associated with it whether it be

good or bad So that that's why in my opinion

this movie is better than what you would probably

rate it So speaking of the rating for the IGN

replacement crew Steve we actually added a zero

and Neil What is the zero the zero is find someone

who owns this and punch them in the mouth? That's

hilarious, so that would be Gotham night for

me. Yeah, exactly. That's what we rated Gotham

Steve zero to four what do you give this I give

it a four Neil You know What what was three again

three is Netflix, but it's not actually on Netflix

instant You can get it through DVD on Netflix,

but there it's not on the actual instance streaming

anymore which sucks I'll give it a 2. I can't

quite recommend spending money on it, but it's

worth seeing. $10? You can't throw away $10?

In this economy, who can? I've seen worse shit

go for $10. True. Ben, what about you? I'll give

it a 2 because I think it's worth seeing just

because... Like I said, if you've read the graphic

novel, I have to commend Bruce Timm for going

out of his way to actually not do the graphic

novel straight up and actually try to fix it.

I have to give him credit for that because he

could have gone straight up and just did a direct

adaptation, but no, he cared enough to try to

make the story make logical sense, so I had to

give him credit to say, yes, you have to watch

it. I would never spend money on it. And as far

as the home media, it was released on standard

DVD and single and double disc editions along

with high definition Blu -ray release. On September

29, 2009, special features for the double disc

edition include an inside look of Wonder Woman,

Batman Gotham Knight, Justice League The New

Frontier and Green Lantern First Flight, DC Comics

2009 crossover event Blackest Night, Two production

feature ads, a sneak peek of Justice League Crisis

on Two Earths, trailers for Green Lantern, First

Flight, Fringe, for some strange reason. I don't

know why there's a Fringe trailer on a superhero

DVD, and Batman Arkham Asylum, digital copy download.

Two episodes of Superman the Animated Series,

picked by Bruce Timm. The Blurry Edition has

all the features of the double disc, standard

definition release, including three additional

Justice League episodes, selected by Timm. So

with that, I think we're going to take a break

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when you register. i think it will go to get

coming this week so neil final thoughts on public

enemies not a complete train wreck actually it's

okay uh... like i said i i'm not invested in

the comic so can take it for what it is about

being tainted by the uh... the the source material

I particularly, I'm just now, because I didn't

comment on it earlier, I really love Toy Man's

line of, yeah I made the robot back when I was

big into superhero worship. I thought he made

it back when he was big in Dexter's lab. Overall,

I really like this movie. This is one of my favorites

out of the ones that we've done out of the ones

we reviewed so far This is high and above both

doomsday and Gotham night. What about you Steve?

Well, yeah, this is a hell of a lot higher than

doomsday or Gotham night I mean those are just

the bottom of the barrel That I wouldn't even

like show those to anybody I know I'd have to

agree I'd have to punch him in the face and burn

it but No, I would say that this one, Public

Enemies, is, I'll give it that it's not the greatest,

and it's got horrible source material. Which

I just showed them. Yes, as I've seen. But Bruce

Tim did do a very good job making it into something

that is at least enjoyable and watchable. For

the general public that haven't been scarred

permanently by the source material and Ben I

give it to bat drop kicks into a mountain Now

you're joining us here on tuned gas beyond in

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we will continuing the DC Universe animated movie

spotlight with Justice League crisis on two earths

for now. I am TFG one Michael with Steve Megatron

Philips TV's Mr. Neil and Ben the host thank

you for listening until next time goodbye good

night you guys forgot your lines what the hell

on a parallel Earth. My world is similar to yours

in many ways, but very different in others. Luthor's

new Justice League is not to be underestimated.

Super -villains rule the planet. We were systematically

destroyed by a group of super -powered beings

known as the Crime Syndicate. They have the same

superpowers as the Justice League, but with an

evil twist. Take them down. They're willing to

kill. Get ready for an all -new animated original

movie from DC Universe. Superman, Batman, Wonder

Woman, Green Lantern and the rest of the Justice

League. It's okay. We'll take it from here. In

a battle against their criminal counterparts.

I'm the baddest of the bad. Anybody who ever

stood in my way is dead. Two Earths. Two Leagues.

One epic battle. Justice League. Crisis on two

Earths. Nice place. Missed the president. I think

I'm gonna like it here.