Aquaman:
King Of Atlantis
(2021/DVD*/**)/The Bad
Guys 4K
(2022/DreamWorks/Universal 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray +
Blu-ray/DVD Set)/King
Tweety
(2022/DVD/**)/Scooby Doo!
And Guess Who?: The Complete Second Season
(2021/DVD**)/Teen Titans
Go! and DC Super Girls: Mayhem In The Multiverse
(2021/Blu-ray/DVD set/*all DC Comics/**all Warner)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: C+/B & C+/C+/C+/B+ & B-
Sound: C+/B+ & C+/C+/C+/B+ & B- Extras: D/C+/C/D/C+
Main Programs: C+/C+/C+/C/C+
Up
next, a new slate of family-aimed releases, all animated...
Aquaman:
King Of Atlantis
(2021) is a comical animated version of the classic superhero (the
older blonde version now has green hair!) and is somewhere between
SpongeBob and an Aquaman LEGO project. Running over two hours, this
is some of the early animated programming made for the new HBOMax
streaming service and sillier than any previous version of the
character.
The
money is in the production, but much of it is obvious and this is
overly long, yet it does not let up and at least comes up with a new
twist for the character. I still like the sometimes unintentionally
funny, original 1967 Filmation version of the character, his
first-ever incarnation on any screen, but this is aimed at younger
children or megafans, so they will like this more than most.
No
extras.
The
Bad Guys 4K
(2022) is the new DreamWorks animated feature film, this time with a
group of 'criminals' (Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Mr. Snake (Marc
Maron), Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson), Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina) &
Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos) as a criminal group that has been getting
away with crimes for many years. When they finally get caught, Wolf
comes up with a con game to get them out and start a propaganda
program that they have been 'reformed' and with 'never do anything
bad again' if they can help it.
Of
course, he's just up to his next heist and grand robbery with his
gang, but things will not go quite the way anyone expects in this
sometimes very amusing romp meant for kids and the whole family.
Though some things are here we've seen before, there are undeniably
some fun and amusing moments. The result is not bad and the
additional voice work of Alex Borstein, Zazia Beetz, Lilly Singh, and
the ever-reliable Richard Ayoade keeps this one going for a decent
100 minutes. The result is worth a look if you are interested.
Extras
in both sets include Digital Code, while the discs (per the press
release) add
and ALL-NEW ORIGINAL SHORT ''MARASCHINO RUBY'': In this original
DreamWorks animated short, The Bad Guys are at it again, but not in
the way you think. They've gone good! Find out what happens to the
team after they go rogue in this sweet original short.
DELETED
SCENES:
DEVISE
THE PLAN: MAKING THE BAD GUYS: From book to storyboard to the silver
screen, join the cast and filmmakers as they devise how to bring The
Bad Guys to life.
ASSEMBLE
THE CREW: Go face to face with the voices behind our favorite
animated bad guys: Mr. Wolf, Mr. Snake, Mr. Shark, Ms. Tarantula &
Mr. Piranha.
IT'S
SHOWTIME: CAST TABEL READ: Teamwork is the ultimate ingredient in
pulling off a job without a hitch. now that they've agreed on the
plan, it's time to bring the cast of The Bad Guys together for their
first table read.
SNAKE'S
FROZEN POP SHOP: Want to learn how to make your own version of Mr.
Snake's favorite frozen pops? With these easy recipes, you'll be on
your way to chill-ville in no time. Want to go the extra mile?
Create your own frozen pop disguises.
FROM
THE DRAWING ROOM: Learn step by step from The Bad Guys head of
story, Nelson Yokota, how you can create your very own storyboard
and draw the film's main characters
How
To Storyboard
How
To Draw Mr. Wolf, Mr. Snake, Mr. Shark, Ms. Tarantula, Mr. Piranha
and
FEATURE COMMENTARY: Feature-Length Commentary with Director Pierre
Perifel, Producer Damon Ross, Head of Story Nelson Yokota, Head of
Character Animation JP Sans, and Production Designer Luc
Desmarchelie.
King
Tweety
(2022) is one of the oddest use of Tweety, Sylvester and Granny I
have ever seen, with odd animation (Tweety looks like an ad for his
favored Blue Bunny-brand icy) with strangely flat animation that is
semi-3D, but a world away from the best art ever done for the
characters. Why this style was approved is odd, but here it is and
some will agree it is off-kilter, so expect not to necessarily like
it.
An
island queen disappears, but somehow, Tweety is a relative of this
character and happens to be next in line for the throne to run the
island. That does not please Sylvester, but off they all go and this
runs for about 90 minutes. The results are mixed and not your usual
for these characters. I guess it will be a curio for some, but can
this develop into its own series? We'll see how much this odd art
style catches on. See for yourself.
Three
bonus episodes of The
Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries
are the only extras.
Scooby
Doo! And Guess Who?: The Complete Second Season
(2021) continues the sort-of revival of the second-ever Scooby
series, The
New Scooby-Doo Movies,
which we discussed when covering the debut season of this new show
here:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15846/Scooby+Doo!+And+Guess+Who?:+The+Complete
At
only a half-hour, it was not as good as the longer original show and
this time, the guest stars are not always as impressive or even as
known, resulting in a poorer season.
We
get several new sports stars and a few well-knowns, with the best of
them being multi-Super Bowl-winning former Pittsburgh Steeler Terry
Bradshaw, some TV stars like Alton Brown make an appearance that
works better than you'd think. Dynomutt is back, but the biggest
surprises are that they landed Carol Burnett (a great match, of
course) and returning in almost the same style and mode as she first
appeared decades ago, Cher!
Morgan
Freeman (whose original Electric Company was as hot a hit as anything
Scooby when it arrived back in the day) is another plus, but the
saddest, yet one of the best episodes here is the gang appearing on
Jeopardy! and the host is still Alex Trebek! He apparently made this
towards the end and the show delivers. I'll save the rest of the
guests for you to discover, some of whom I also liked, but we'll have
to see where this goes next and how long the show can last with some
of the odder choices.
No
extras.
Lastly,
we have Teen
Titans Go! and DC Super Girls: Mayhem In The Multiverse
(2021,)
jumping on the multiverse bandwagon and crossing over their two DC
animated series to craft a new animated film aimed at the kiddos.
The animation style is similar to that In The
Teen Titans Go!
series and is pretty flashy and clean looking on the whole. Some of
the characters featured here are kid versions, but older fans will at
least enjoy how many classic characters they have crammed into this
thing.
The
Legion of Doom hatches a plan to wipe out superheroes and a riff in
the multi-verse opens pitting the DC Super Hero Girls with Teen
Titans Go! in an epic team-up to defeat the bad guys before the
nature of reality and the space time continuum are destroyed forever!
The
impressive voice cast of Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero
Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse includes Kimberly Brooks (He-Man
and the Masters of the Universe) as Bumblebee, Greg Cipes
(Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) as Beast Boy, Keith Ferguson
(Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends) as Batman, Will Friedle
(Batman Beyond, Kim Possible) as Lex Luthor &
Aquaman, Grey Griffin (Scooby-Doo franchise) as Wonder Woman, Young
Diana, & Giganta, Phil LaMarr (Samurai Jack) as The Flash,
Hawkman, Green Lantern/John Stewart, Scott Menville (Stretch
Armstrong & the Flex Fighters) as Robin, Max Mittleman
(ThunderCats Roar) as Superman, Jessica McKenna (Star Trek:
Lower Decks) as Aqualad, Khary Payton (The Walking Dead)
as Cyborg, Alexander Polinsky (Blaze and the Monster Machines,
Charles in Charge) as Control Freak, Missi Pyle (Galaxy
Quest, Gone Girl) as Cythonna & Speaker of Nations,
Tara Strong (Loki, Ben 10, Unikitty!) as Raven &
Harley Quinn, Nicole Sullivan (Family Guy, Black-ish)
as Supergirl, Cree Summer (Rugrats, Better Things) as
Catwoman & Hippolyta, Fred Tatasciore (Family Guy) as Jor
El & Solomon Grundy, Myrna Velasco (Star Wars: Resistance)
as Green Lantern Jessica Cruz, Kari Wahlgren (Rick and Morty)
as Star Sapphire & Zatanna, and Hynden Walch (Groundhog Day)
as Starfire.
Special
Features include these episodes of shows with the two teams:
Teen
Titans Go!: Season 2: Operation Tin Man
Teen
Titans Go!: Season 4: Titan Saving Time
DC
Super Hero Girls: Season 2: #SmallVictories
As
mentioned, this animated feature is definitely aimed at the younger
crowd and does a good job of at least introducing them to some of
these classic characters, even if the spin they have here is a bit
silly at times.
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HECV/H.265,
2.35 X 1 HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition
image on Bad
Guys 4K
just edges out the rest of the releases here, including its own
fairly-good-looking 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on
the also-included regular Blu-ray. However, the 4K edition tends to
look a little richer and offer a better color range and richness.
Both have Dolby
Atmos 11.1 (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) and easily
offers the best sonics here, a mix that has its moments, if not
anything of demo quality.
An
anamorphically enhanced DVD with lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is
included in the Blu-ray/DVD set and is soft and barely passable, but
there it is.
Teen
Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse is
presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4 AVC
codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78 X 1, and a lossless, English
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) mix. Also included is a
standard definition DVD with the same widescreen spec and a standard,
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Both versions of the animated feature
look fine on their respectable formats, but the HD version obviously
looks a good bit better.
All
three Warner DVDs sets offer anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 images
with lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and are about as good as they can
be in the format, but have good color, though can look soft in
various shots.
-
Nicholas Sheffo and James Lockhart (Titans)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
