Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths, Part Three (2024/Blu-ray)/Super Friends!: The Complete Collection (1973 - 1985 aka Superfriends/Blu-ray + DVD Sets)/Watchmen: Chapter One 4K (2024 animated/4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray/all DC Comics/Warner)

4K Ultra HD Picture: A- Picture: B-/B/C+/B+ Sound: B/B-/C/B+ Extras: C+ (Crisis: C) Main Programs: C/B-/B-/B+

Up next are a new wave of animated superhero releases that are classic or connected to classic DC Comics....

Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths, Part Three (2024) concludes the animated adaption of the classic 1985 to 1986 comic book series that had DC Comics decide to eliminate all kinds of various versions of their superheroes that they had been creating and innovating since the 1930s in a bid to sell more comics, be more like Marvel and bit and give them a boost after the Superman feature film franchise and Super Friends! TV series had ended. We covered the 4K versions of the first two animated versions at these links:

Part One

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16404/Fortunes+Of+War+(2023/101+Films+DVD)/Impuls

Part Two

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16449/Justice+League:+Crisis+On+Infinite+Earths+Part

Well, my fellow critic was only so impressed and despite my admiration for the original comic book series, for better and worse (elements of those other worlds made comebacks later, by little surprise) but this is four decades later, multiverses all over the place and a much-less unique or special idea. Also, the whole DC world has changed, so all the scripts can do is represent all the world now and re-separated ones at that, so it just seems a bit banal and this has some of the poorest animation art and art design I have ever seen for any DC Comics TV/straight-to-video series since it all started with the 1966 Filmation Superman. They also toned-down the graphicness of the art form the original comic books, further blunting any impact.

If you must see this, read the comic books FIRST, then watch the three films in chronological order and in 4K. Otherwise, I was very disappointed and can see why so many are particularly disappointed here.

Extras include Digital Movie Code, the disc adds the featurettes: A Multiverse of Inspiration and John and John: Stewart and Constantine.

Super Friends!: The Complete Collection (1973 - 1985) is a sort of surprise release, a huge set of discs covering all 13 seasons of what is still the longest-running animated superhero TV series of all time, issued in a DVD set that represses all the individual DVD sets issued over many years and introducing all the episodes on Blu-ray, which is the biggest event of all of this. Here is our coverage of the early seasons on DVD for you to get up to speed on things:

Season One, Volume One

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9421/Super+Friends!+%E2%80%93+Season+One,+Volu

Season One, Volume Two

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10182/Super+Friends!+%E2%80%93+Season+One,+Volu

All New Super Friends Hour: Season One, Volume One

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6685/The+All+New+Super+Friends+Hour+%E2%80%93

All New Super Friends Hour: Season One, Volume Two

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8476/The+All+New+Super+Friends+Hour:+Season+One

Super Friends: The Lost Episodes

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9175/Super+Friends+%E2%80%93+The+Lost+Episodes

The show can be divided into four eras: 1) Vintage shows with Wendy, Marvin & Wonder Dog, 2) second kids wave with The Wonder Twins aka Zan, Jayna & Gleek era, 3) classic era concludes with new characters added and 4) 1980s revised heroes (especially their costumes) ushering in the new era we know still today. This was enough to get DC to The Dark Knight Returns and the rest is history.

So how do they play for me? I like the first episodes and along with the arrival of The Six Million Dollar Man as a huge hit show with its toys and the 1977 Star Wars with its huge-selling toys and those are the three moments in superhero/space opera/action history that became the foundation of megahit movies and their toy ties-ins we still live in today. Those first shows were the most child-safe ever, to the dismay of some fans, which I understand, but the PBS effect was in full swing by then. The second era with the Wonder Twins was not as good teleplay wise, but they had their moments, though where Wendy, Marvin & Wonder Dog was never explained and that was a bad move still an issue to this day. Once the second child duo was out of the way, we landed up with more heroes and villains from the pages of DC and it was also a mixed bag for me, repetitive, with uneven tales and some that were just bad. A few good shows did turn up and the show even got darker than expected in spots before it was finally cancelled. More than any other show, including anything from Marvel and they did make some good animated shows to their credit, Super Friends tracks the rise and changes in the genre that finally formed into one piece with 1978's Superman: The Movie and live action hits like Wonder Woman and The Incredible Hulk only added to the underappreciated superhero mania of the time.

Recently, Warner and DC have issued a few retro Super Friends toys and tie-ins, including new Mego-like action figures (usually 8-inches, with actual clothing and accessories on them) for all the eras, so the show has had a sort of mini-comeback with fans, so these new sets totally make sense. For the Blu-ray set especially, some hardcore fans would say it is long overdue.

As for extras, both sets retain all the extras of the old DVD sets as linked to above, plus the Legendary Super Powers Show adds five audio commentary tracks on select episodes, The Super Powers Collection: The Effect Of The Toy Industry On The Super Friends (though I could argue vice versa) and how the series was ahead of its time I diversity with the featurette Evolution: New Heroes, Vile Villains and Ethnic Additions. Finally. the Super Powers Team set adds Super Friends Redux: Galactic Guardians Retrospective. So you get no new extras, though an updated and expanded featurette on the toys since 1973 that happened because of the show might be a good idea.

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen is one of, if not THE most celebrated graphic novel of all time. It has also been adapted to visual media several times. Of course, there's the infamous Zack Snyder 2009 film, which got things mostly right (except for changing the last act dramatically. In conjunction with that film's release, there was an animated tie-in film, billed then as a motion comic that went direct to video, that was faithful to the source material, but oddly had one male voice actor for all the characters (who even voiced the female characters too). After the dust settled on the property for a few years, a mostly interesting HBO series sequel of the same name was launched to mixed responses from fans, and all of which is reviewed elsewhere on this site.

Here we are with yet another Watchmen animated film from Warner Bros., Watchmen: Chapter One 4K (2024,) this time with a bit cleaner animation which faithfully adapts the source material and brings it to animated life. The end result is fine. There's nothing wrong with the animation here and they even include The Tales From The Black Freighter subplot as it appears in the original graphic novel in a very fun way. This being Chapter One, this is obviously the first of several releases in the coming months.

Watchmen Chapter I features all all-star voice cast which includes Matthew Rhys (Dan Dreiberg, Nite Owl), Katee Sackhoff (Laurie Juspeczyk, Silk Spectre) and Titus Welliver (Rorschach, Walter Kovacs), along with Troy Baker (Adrian Veidt, Ozymandias), Adrienne Barbeau (Sally Jupiter, Silk Spectre), Corey Burton (Captain Metropolis), Michael Cerveris (Jonathan Osterman, Dr. Manhattan), Jeffrey Combs (Edgar Jacobi, Moloch), Grey DeLisle, Kelly Hu, John Marshall Jones (Hooded Justice), Max Koch, Phil LaMarr, Yuri Lowenthal (Wally Weaver), Geoff Pierson (Hollis Mason, Nite Owl), Dwight Schultz, Jason Spisak, Kari Wahlgren (Janey Slater), and Rick D. Wasserman (Edward Blake, The Comedian).

Set in an alternate version of America during the Cold War era, Watchmen realizes a world with real superheroes that have done more damage to society than good. While only one has true super powers (Dr. Manhattan), the cast of vigilantes all bring their own complex and hardened stories set against a ticking doomsday clock and the horrific realities of the world they live In. When one of the Watchmen ends up dead in a shocking murder, an investigation is started that spirals into a heavy study into the superhero genre unlike any other story ever has, and which is frighteningly relevant to today's world.

Special Features :

The Art of Adaptation: Introducing the Story

Dave Gibbons and Watchmen: Chapters I-VI Featurette

While I wouldn't say this release was necessary or really in demand by fans, the end result passes with flying colors and should please those new to the material or those that are thirsty for more Watchmen content in their lives. I myself am looking forward to future chapters!

Now for playback performance. Watchmen: Chapter One is presented in 2160p on 4K UHD disc with HDR10 (Ultra HD Premium), an HEVC / H.265 codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and an audio track in lossless, English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) sound. The animation style is clean and nicely done with a look similar to that of the original graphic novel. I would say this is definitely a bit flashier than the motion comic feature mentioned earlier, and falls more in line with some of Warner Bros.' animation's other recent ambitious DC projects, if not better. It seems more of a three dimensional, computer animated animation this time around with clean moving shots that are sharp and nice looking. Overall, I am impressed with the animation here - definitely more than I expected to be.

Also included is the animated film presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and a lossless, English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) mix as featured on the 4K edition. The presentation is similar, but not quite as pristine as the 4K UHD disc, but is fine for most home entertainment set-ups.

The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Justice League is not as good as the previous releases that we received in 4K, though some style choices hold this all back no matter what the definition. Color also suffers and it is softer than it should be be transfer or design. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is a but better, though nothing special, so the combination is not up to the animated DC releases of the last few years, regardless of the format.

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on the Blu-ray set of all the Super Friends! episodes can show the age of the shows more from the dated, limited animation than the source materials, which look good overall and better than expected for the earliest seasons. Filmation had made all the first DC Comics TV animated cartoon series from 1966 (Superman) to the early 1970s when the contracts apparently ended. Hanna-Barbera had to make a big showing and now that we can see them in HD, the first 1973 episodes have even a little more money and more work in them, though nominal, impressive enough for its time despite other art errors all over.

The color continues to be good for the Wonder Twins shows and color is not bad to the end, but seems to get slightly more limited in range and slightly less vibrant as the animation can get courser and a little rougher as Hanna-Barbera started to allow overseas entities to do some, most or all of their animation. By 1977, the Filmation New Adventures Of Batman (reviewed on Warner Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) actually looked a little better and a little more expensive by comparison to what ewe get here at that time.

Filmation had Technicolor doing their lab work and prints and it shows, though it looks that good for at least the first Super Friends shows, whether Warner had any dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor materials of these shows to work with. What is clear is that the 13 years of 35mm camera materials were not only stored very well, but handled and survived very well, so unless you were somehow lucky to see a solid full color print of any of the episodes, you have NEVER seen these shows look this good before and a 4K version of any of them would bring out more flaws in the limited animation with better color, so who knows if we'll ever see that. But once again, yet again,

The sound on the Blu-ray discs are a series of DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes until the last Super Powers shows, which are in DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mixes and all sound better than their lossy versions on the old DVD of the shows that are exactly the same as in the DVD set here. To my eternal disappointment, most of the series on DVD was in poor, lame, lossy Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono and even the latter, last of the shows in lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo were not that hot. The DTS version on the Blu-rays are much more like it, especially for the early shows, which sound even better than I thought they could and they will never sound better.

The 1.33 X 1 image on all the DVDs are the same old transfers to, as good as they can get for the old format, but I cannot strongly recommend the Blu-ray set over it enough.

- Nicholas Sheffo and James Lockhart (4K)

https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/