You know I’ve got a soft spot for these DC Comics animated adaptations. I’ve given fairly positive reviews to the two previous efforts in the series – Wonder Woman and Green Lantern: First Flight. So you’re probably expecting more of the same from my review of Superman/Batman: Public Enemies on Blu-ray disc. And you’d be right! In fact, I think it might be the best of the bunch!

From what I can tell, that’s probably not the popular opinion. I got my copy of the Blu-ray disc quite late and so had the opportunity to browse other reviews kicking around internets. While the disc itself would be constantly highly rated, reviewers seemed unanimous in slamming the simplistic story. I felt like the simplicity really worked in this case!

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is essentially a one-hour fight scene. There isn’t much character or story. But plenty of excitement. And, at the end of the day, isn’t excitement what draws us to a superhero adventure? Here’s the setup, in a nutshell – Lex Luthor has swindled his way into becoming the president of the US and declares Superman and Batman public enemies. Villains and heroes alike hunt them down and try to beat the crap out of them. Awesome! That’s pretty much all there is to it. But you know what? With such a a short runtime, that’s okay. What drags the production down for me is the character designs. Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is an adaptation of a DC Comics miniseries (I didn’t read it so I can’t comment on how faithful the script is to the original Jeph Loeb story.) As such, the filmmakers attempted to mimic the character designs of the comics’ artist, Ed McGuinness. To the productions detriment, if you ask me. The designs, while looking a whole hell-of-a-lot like McGuinness’ are too chunky and muscled and despite some champion work by Lotto Animation, the characters don’t animate very well. Give me the old, simplified Bruce Timm models any day!

The Blu-ray looks fantastic! Really well done. Probably the best looking disc of all the DC Comics adaptations that Warner has released thus far. And, despite the lack of an uncompressed soundtrack, it sounds strong and pretty dynamic! Where the Blu-ray fails for me is in the bonus feature department. Aside from the requisite collection of trailers and six Bruce Timm best-of-Justice-League episode picks (all looking better than ever compressed with the VC-1 codec, I might add), the only extra materials on the disc are a short featurette exploring the relationship between Superman and Batman, and a sit-down dinner with the actor who performs the voice of Batman. Don’t get me wrong, what we’re given is pretty cool. I can take or leave the featurette but the dinner chat, running almost an hour long, is really great. Just like the Green Lantern: First Flight disc, however, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is sorely lacking in any detail on the production itself! One again, we’re robbed of a commentary track, or making-of featurette. Come on, guys! As cool as it is to hear Kevin Conroy chat about his almost twenty years voicing Batman, I’d rather know something specific about the film I just watched. How about an interview with Sam Liu? If this Newsarama interview with the director is any indication, he has a lot to say about the production. What about Stan Berkowitz? Having adapted the comics to screen, he most likely has a few insights to share. Urgh…It’s so frustrating to feel like nobody at the studio cares about this end of things anymore. Here’s hoping they rethink their position of avoiding production docs and commentaries for next years Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths Blu-ray Disc release.

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What can I say? Another DC Comics animated adaptation about to hit Blu-ray and I’m as excited as can be. Especially after watching this clip that Warner just sent over. I admit to not reading the comic (not a big fan of Ed McGuinness‘ chunky style of drawing people) but the story looks to be a hell of a lot of fun. This is what Warner has to say about Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, which hits the shops in a couple of weeks (September 29th to be exact):

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is based on the popular Jeph Loeb/Ed
McGuinness comic series/graphic novel. Bruce Timm (Superman Doomsday,
Green Lantern) is executive producer. Michael Goguen (Justice League:
The New Frontier) is supervising producer. Sam Liu (The Batman) is
directing a script written by Stan Berkowitz (Justice League: The New
Frontier).

In the film, United States President Lex Luthor uses the oncoming
trajectory of a Kryptonite asteroid to frame Superman and declare a $1
billion bounty on the heads of the Man of Steel and his “partner in
crime,” Batman. Heroes and villains alike launch a relentless pursuit
of Superman and Batman, who must unite – and recruit help – to stave
off the action-packed onslaught, stop the asteroid, and uncover
Luthor’s devious plot to take command of far more than North America.

“Superman/Batman: Public Enemies” features a star-studded voice cast
filling the roles of super heroes and villains alike, including Kevin
Conroy (Batman), Tim Daly (Superman), Clancy Brown (Lex Luthor),
Allison Mack (Power Girl), Xander Berkeley (Captain Atom), Ricardo
Chavira (Major Force), John C. McGinley (Metallo), LeVar
Burton (Black Lightning), CCH Pounder (Amanda Waller) and a host of others.

Check out the list of special features on this bad-boy! Looks like we’ll be getting a sneak peek at the next DC Comics adaptation here – Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths!! Click the image of the back cover below to see for yourself:

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