Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths Review

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

imagination. 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. Mr. President, I think I'm gonna

like it here. Hello and welcome again to animation

fish and I was crossing over with to cast beyond

We are again continuing our look through the

DC original animated movies. I am your host Ben

and of course for joining my co -host TV's Mr.

Nail such heroic nonsense Those bad. Yeah, we

also have with us the host of to cast beyond

TFG one Mike Blanchard. Hello And also from the

Joker also from Tooncast beyond we have Steve

Megatron Yes, hello All right, and we of course

are talking about Justice League crisis on two

earths and Start out with this. This is was actually

originally intended to be a bridge movie between

Justice League and Justice League unlimited and

There's still a lot of that DNA left in there,

but this totally stands on its own. Oh, yeah,

it does. I love the DNA that they left in there.

But yes, sadly, from season two of JL to season

one of JLU, they just couldn't get worlds collide

off the ground. And I believe Dwayne McDuffie

turned this around within like 48 hours as far

as like an initial script, like an initial rewrite

of the script. Pretty much, but you know, like

I said, even then a lot of the changes, you know

changing, you know, John Stewart to to Hal Jordan

In other edb changes, you know, you can still

see some of the elements that were meant like

for instance the invisible plane Yeah, that was

introduced here was obviously intended to be

the explanation of how Wonder Woman got the invisible

plane and Jlu. Yeah And the fact that the watchtower

was being constructed here was obviously a hint

of you know at the end of season 2 of JL But

like I said blew up. Yeah, like I said, even

with that even with these remnants of DNA That's

not a detriment to this at all. I think actually

adds to it I think I think if anything it just

makes it even more interesting and I really did

love this movie except for one minor nitpick

that Just is so minor that I'm just gonna get

out of the way right now and we're never gonna

mention again Okay, Marsha manhunters costume

sucks. Oh Okay. Well, I didn't like Martian Manhunter's

design in this so it doesn't really matter to

me either way The one nitpick I have to get out

of the way and I actually looked this up Yes,

I understand this was supposed to originally

was a bridge movie. It was Justice League World's

Collide which Joy McDuffie turned it into this

but I did a little bit of research. You know,

Infinite Earths and all that stuff has been around

for a while, but Earth Prime and all that, the

first time I saw that before I saw this movie

was Turtles Forever. I swear to God, this is

Turtles Forever with superheroes. Well actually,

Turtles Forever is Crisis of the Infinite Earths

with turtles. Exactly. You know, it was just

only a couple of days ago what we were praising

the hell out of Turtles forever on on the animation

aficionados so you can check that episode out

pretty quickly but you know, this really is a

great a Great movie because it is because even

the itty -bitty parts You know, it's it's it's

a blink and miss it sort of thing. But those

those blink and miss it scenes are great I mean

for someone who doesn't quite understand the

comics, it doesn't hurt. But the ones that do

it's like, it's like a little extra added bonus,

like, like, you know, the made men, like, like,

you know, the, the crack in the crime syndicates,

Superwoman's made men were pretty much the Marvel

family. Yeah. And I love that because he has

even had even had the, you know, The the goofy,

you know the goofy uncle from from the original

boss of comics as a badass and that was kind

of funny but in Another thing I loved was you

had you had you know, you know Deathstroke the

Terminator Slade Wilson as the president Yeah,

that's and plus you had what's his name? Oh You

had senator Kelly from x -men 2000 voicing him,

Bruce Davidson. One of the things for me on this

one was, first of all, outside of the original

DCAU voice cast, this Superman is the one that

I like the best, outside of New Bern and Daly.

Mark Harmon really knocked it out of the park

as Superman, I think. I was waiting for him to

slap someone in the back of the head. And William

Baldwin did a pretty good Batman, too. He did

pretty good. I like his better than Sisto's and

better than Oswald. Oh, we're not even going

there. That's for a much later episode. Go ahead

and another thing I liked was just you know the

number one as we said, but this does definitely

take take a lot of DNA from the intended bridge

movie between JL and JL you but also took some

took some hints from a I think it was a Grant

Morrison comic from the early 90s called, you

know, you know JLA earth to yeah, it which is

great to find because because it's because you

know grant morrison come on grant freaking morrison

and And a lot of the hints like everybody on

earth two has their has their anatomy reversed

For instance, you know the heart's on the wrong

side. That's that's the that in this movie is

how superman figures out that this lex luther

is from another Is from another universe and

what I did also liked was the fact that he knows

himself as alexander luther, which is what the

earth two Luthor does you know versus saying

I'm Lex he's Alexander so In oh good and another

thing I have to praise is, you know James woods.

Oh, yeah as I will man. I mean talk about a creeper.

Holy crap But that guy was awesome as hell, man.

The one thing I'm not too sure about this, I

know Bruce Timm had said it in the commentary

for A Better World, but he mentions in that commentary

that they wanted to make the Justice Lords sort

of like the Crime Syndicate, but you couldn't

make them, because he had read the Authority

comic apparently at the time, you couldn't make

them totally... the crime syndicate, so I think

this is again a leftover piece of that where

he wanted to do that and this is kind of where

he went with it. The only other nitpick I have,

and I don't know because I'm not too up on the

comics, but the gestures, Harley being a monkey,

that's a little weird to me. you know what that

was more of a cute little nod versus versus anything

that means anything so i i i i i i i i i i i

i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

i i i i i The animation in this movie is beautiful,

and the designs really suit the studio. This

is, again, one of the more expressive ones, especially

with the faces. I really enjoyed watching this.

What about you, Neil? What did you like about

this one? The fight choreography. Oh, yeah. There

were some awesome wrestling moves going on between

Wonder Woman and Superwoman. I mean I saw at

one point Wonder Woman actually dropped an elbow

on Superwoman and she did and hogtied her and

it said it said submit submit and then there

was the thing with the spear I don't know the

name of the character but Wonder Woman slams

his other character into a wall and lodges a

spear right next to her head, and then thwaps

the spear against this character's head. It was

hysterical. I love that, yeah. There was a lot

of fun with the fight choreography, I can tell.

What about you, Steve? What are your thoughts

on Crisis? I like the interesting twists and

direct parallels of the hero to villain ratio.

Nice touch for for instance like the Joker's

alternate owl man and Batman just They they look

similar enough, but to tell clearly who they're

supposed to be duplicates of and I like the the

animation style and all the fighting in it because

it's pretty much just an all -out brawl the whole

movie Yeah, I mean this one was... This so far,

out of them all, out of all the ones we've covered,

honestly, this one is probably my favorite up

to this point now. It was so well done, as Neil

said with the fight choreography, with the animation.

The fact that it almost reminds me of JL, JLU

animation style. Exactly, and what I also loved

was... Was i was watching as a friend the first

time i watched it and when batman was in the

was in the uh power loader and he showed up to

fight the uh to fight the the supers supers yeah

You know, I I me and my friend both shot at the

same time get away from her you bitch And we

couldn't help it it was just like The one thing

that creeps me out about that mechanical bat

suit on on the tower is I didn't when I first

watched this I when I first watched it was when

it first came out I haven't seen it since then

up until obviously right before this recording

the first time around I didn't notice the only

thing I noticed about that that mechanical suit

he has was the the claw arm thing And going back

and watching it today, I did not notice that

it actually has actual regular hands for his

arms and his hands. And it just creeped me out

so much that his hand movement is moving the

claw. I mean, I know that's how you normally

do it. Your hand movement moves the... the appendage,

but it's just so freaky to me. I actually screen

capped it and put it on Facebook. It's just a,

I don't know. It's a creepy, creepy image to

me. Well, you did, you did the screen cap of

him doing the, the come on gesture. Yeah. Like

I said, like I said, that's what me and my friends

shot it because that was the power loader. Come

on guys. It was. Yeah. I'd have to say, ultimately

my favorite part of this movie is the very end

where Owlman and Batman are duking it out between

not only their wills, but uh their Gadgets. Yeah,

they're gadgets. They're they're detective skills.

I mean all that is coming to a head. It's almost

like Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty against each

other at this kind of point. Oh Yeah, and what

I did love was Batman did give out man the means

to save himself about man. Just grinch and says

it doesn't matter And then Batman sends him to

another planet to blow it up Know but he did

he left he left one of those devices behind so

Alman could have saved himself if he wanted to

Yeah, because Batman doesn't kill. Yep, and I

like that man also tricked Flash's counterpart

Johnny quick. Yes It's a cause in the whole thing

to happen knowing full well that he was going

to die He did trick him but also at the end when

he came out He did scream, Johnny, you can stop.

I mean, we knew that something like that was

going to happen, but I don't know if it was to

try to save him or to stop him from maybe spontaneously

combusting from going that fast. I don't know.

When I first saw the image of him going full

speed, the first thing I thought was, oh, it's

alternate flash going into the speed force. This

movie is so awesome Every like that there is

an adult scene in this film there really isn't

I mean this another movie that I would not skip

around just to watch the cool scenes I Watch

watch all the way through scene is cool You know

I know that Mark Harmon is mainly known for NCIS

and all that stuff, but Chris Noth as as Luthor.

Oh my god What the hell's a detective from law

and order doing in a Justice League movie? Well,

he's also mr. Big Yeah, I don't give a shit about

that But no, this is this was really this was

really fun I especially I especially enjoyed

Aquaman's little fight scene in this Yeah, that

was kind of awesome. Batman's like, they're too

powerful for you, we'll see about that. As he

wipes blood off his chin. Yeah. The one thing

I really loved about this, because I was, this

character has always been a favorite of mine

ever since I was a kid watching the super power

shows and stuff like that, the super friend shows.

I love seeing Firestorm. That was awesome. Okay,

in silence. Firestorm's okay. Well, I mean if

you grew up liking the character and see I think

this is the first time He's been in animation

since then because I know he wasn't in Justice

League. He was in JLU Well, he one scene maybe

I don't think he talked did he? You know how

many heroes they had in scenes that never talked

I know I mean they had they had freaking Aztec

and the blue in the blue devil in JLU background

shots I mean the blue freaking devil who remembers

the blue devil Well Aztec did talk in a couple

episodes because he he was the one that was looking

for Luthor in the initiation. That's right. So

getting into the cast we've kind of you know

talked about the cast a little bit but I mean

this by far stellar voice casting by Andrea Romano.

just amazing. You have, as I said, Mark Harmon,

William Baldwin, say what you want about the

Baldwins, Chris Noth, Gina Torres as Superwoman,

James Woods as Owl Man, Jonathan Adams as John

Jones, Martian Manhunter, Brian Bloom as Ultraman,

Bruce Davidson as the President, Josh Keaton

as Wally West of Flash, he was also Aquaman as

well, but he was uncredited for that. Just an

overall really great voice cast and this is a

voice cast that you don't need like you would

think since this was originally for The DCIU

you would think oh, well, they're gonna get every

single Justice League voice back No, and it doesn't

need it. It doesn't even as much as I love as

much as we all love Kevin Conroy as as Ben said

William Baldwin did a fairly decent job as Batman,

and you don't need any of the DCAU voices in

this. You really don't. Like I said, it has the

DNA, but it really does stand out as its own

product. I mean, that's the beauty of it, that

you don't need the backstory. You don't need

to know two seasons of JL to jump into this.

You don't need to know where it goes from this.

It is. It simply is a great movie. Oh, yeah,

totally agree any other thoughts Neil Just that

the way they brought in the invisible jet the

way that you really didn't know that it was the

Invisible jet until the very end and then and

then it doesn't wonder on basically say can I

keep it? Yeah, yeah And then you go. Oh That

was very clever One is even more clever about

this is when she uses it in For the man who has

everything and Batman doesn't like her flying

skills cuz he almost pukes in the invisible jet

That'd be hard to clean up Steve any other thoughts

initial thoughts on crisis Initially, I almost

didn't give this one a shot being that I saw

that, what was that other Justice League movie

that I didn't care to watch? New Frontier? Yeah,

I saw part of that one and that kind of turned

me off to some of the movies. So I looked at

this one almost in that way and then heard that

the original voice cast wasn't in it so I was

kind of a little off on it but then after I started

watching it, it turned out fine for me. Like

you guys said, it does have the vibes of JLU

but it does stand on its own. I was glad I watched

it by the end of it and I would definitely say

that it's among their best of their DC animated

movies. I also love the fact that they referenced

the Jedi mind trick. That was hilarious. Poor

Flash. This is like the JMI track. This is not

like the Jedi mind trick. Yeah And I I didn't

I didn't even see this but apparently More tie

-ins for DCA you people the javelins were briefly

seen in the watchtower. I totally missed those

Yeah, I saw the invisible jet, but I didn't see

the javelins off to go back and watch it Well

watch it Getting into the box office here crisis

on two earths made a gross of Five million three

hundred thousand dollars. It's sold three hundred

and fifty eight thousand three hundred nineteen

units So it made pretty good money still nothing

at this point is gonna touch that shitty doomsday

movie again People love shitty movies Yeah, then

didn't that the other one The other shitty one

make pretty good money too Eight million. Yes.

Yeah for Gotham Knight. Yeah. Yeah, and then

the other shitty one did pretty good, too But

yeah, this is this one definitely was the best

one so far I mean in my opinion this is this

is you know, this one actually topples what was

once the best one Wonder Woman this one topples

that I mean because I Wonder Woman was great,

but this is this is so much of a So much of a,

you know, as great as Wonder Woman is, this is

much better. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. I

mean, Wonder Woman is great as a single, like,

OK, you've had three movies so far with the big

three. You've had Doomsday, Gotham Knight, which

both suck. And then you had Wonder Woman, which

was really, really awesome and great. As far

as the two team up movies so far, you've got

New Frontier and then you've got this. No, you

forgot another team up movie. the shitty one,

the turd polish. Well, we haven't done that one.

No, no, no. That's different. I mean, Justice

League team -up movies. Okay, okay, you have

to clarify. Right. You had New Frontier and then

you have this, and of course, the singular team

-up movie of Superman and Batman, Public Enemies,

which the Ecast Radio Network does not support

the opinion of Ben Carver on that movie because

that movie was awesome. Yes. We're not going

to talk about that movie again, and they sent

you the comics. You're the one that brought it

up. You're the one that brought it up. Exactly.

Anyways, this one, I like New Frontier for what

it is, but this one, because it is so close to

DCAU stuff, I love this even more. And this is,

at this point, my new number one favorite out

of all the ones that they've done. What about

you, Steve? Any other? Stuff you want to bring

up? Um, I would definitely rank it very high

among the DC Universe movies I wouldn't put it

at my number one spot because of what's coming

up in the episode Thus far thus far we go by

thus far. Yeah. Yeah, but thus far I would have

to say it's the best one and I still claim that

second for me is public enemies, but That's that's

a different topic. But anyways, uh No, the whole

movie does stand on its own So I mean that's

that's a nice thing about it and I just love

the the constant brawling in it if that's just

my favorite part is the fact that you've got

that and then Batman still the only one that

still has a freaking clue what's going on? the

only slow scenes and I don't mean slow as far

as Boring scenes, but like slowly slow paced

scenes Are the scenes with the president and

the scenes between John and and the president's

daughter? The rest of this movie is non -stop

action. Well, the interesting thing is the president's

daughter rose I mean the they were making a joke

about that because in because in all other standard

continuities Deathstroke's daughter is also a

villain a villainous named Ravager and she tore

out her own eye to be like her father and stuff

happened and yeah I got a vibe of, um... Oh,

what's that Stallone movie with Sandra Bullock?

Uh, I got a Demolition Man vibe. With John and

Rose. Are you saying they had sex in the car?

They had sex with their minds, dammit. Alright,

so we are the IGN replacement crew 024. Neil,

what do you give it? I'll give it a four. Ben?

Definitely a four. This is one I own and I don't

regret it for one moment. Steve? I'll also give

it a four. Yes, I give it a four as well and

as far as the DVD release and all that stuff

it is on DVD. Single disc, double disc, it's

on Blu -ray I believe. The 2Disc Special Edition

also includes an animated short featuring the

Spectre, which we really haven't talked about

the animated shorts too much with the films.

Was this the first one that started the animated

shorts, or was there one on Wonder Woman? I think

that's the first one that started the shorts.

This was the first one? Okay. So from here on

out, when we talk about the DVD release stuff

on Tooncast Beyond Animation and Fishnado's Crossover,

we will mention the shorts. The specter isn't

a character. I ever really knew I liked the short.

It was good. It was very gritty Yeah, and the

specter short was was interesting but at the

same time no one who really this this really

wasn't an apt introduction to the specter to

people that might be interested in this is more

of a shout out to the specter fans, right because

Because it's because it really doesn't have a

superhero feel to it. I mean that this was this

was almost a straight up golden age story, you

know, it almost felt like something from from

from, you know, LA confidential Hollywood land

or something. Yeah, yeah. And the other thing

is we mentioned earlier that, as I mentioned

about Bruce, Tim and a better world, a better

world both parts. are on here as well for the

two disc edition. So I think we're going to take

a break here on Tooncast Beyond. You're going

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are going to have this week because I have not

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when you register. We're about to do this. So

we are back in I think we've pretty much already

settled our final thoughts, but I'll go around

the room again. Neil? Well, you know, this movie

was awesome because not only did it have Wonder

Woman, but it hit Superwoman. So the perv in

me gives it two thumbs up. Yeah, it had Superwoman

voiced by Jasmine. And oh my God, was that awesome?

I was surprised that Superwoman didn't start

eating people or absorbing people. to be some

sort of demon wench. Only fans of Angel will

get this reference. Gina Torres as Superwoman,

just amazing. Ben, what about you? This was definitely

a great movie. I say, number one, Christmas is

coming up. If you don't have any friends that

don't have it, this makes a great stocking stuffer.

You know do it, you know, make sure that you

get a couple more copies of this sold so that

way you can be thrown the doomsday Steve final

thought definitely a must -own. That's all I'm

gonna say I Wonder what Megatron would sound

like saying Forrest Gump lines anyway Thank you

for joining us here on Tooncast Beyond, the Animation

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For now, I am TFG1 Mike with TV's Mr. Neal, Steve

Megatron Phillips, and Ben the host. Thank you

for listening, until next time. Good night! Train

wreck.