watchmen: the motion comic

rightfully considered the greatest comic book ever written, this dvd set is the original comic book brought to life with limited animation.  purchased as a part of the watchman ultimate edition dvd set, this motion comic is a retelling of the original 12 part series.  what exactly is a 'motion comic' you ask?  well, its pretty simple really, the comic panels themselves are slightly animated while a narrator reads out the word balloons.  if its an image of a person standing there, the light on their face may change slightly, or if something is on fire the flames pulsate a bit.  its a little strange at first, but you quickly grow used to its limited movement.  its basically a visual audio book.  the most unusual part of this particular production is the choice that was made to have the same actor read all the parts- including the women!  the strangeness of it all quickly fades away because the story being told is so engrossing that none of it really matters.  the most amazing part was how quickly it passed by, the 12 episodes total almost five and a half hours!  many  people had a problem with the live action movie because it skimped out on the story and completely missed out on some of the themes, but this production misses out on nothing, considering it includes every single word of the original series!  despite the limited animation and only one voice talent taking on all the roles (which, to his credit, tom stechschulte does very well), it is a worthy adaptation of the seminal source material.

batman: the dark knight returns part 1

like every good comic book nerd, i've read the frank miller classic dark knight returns, but its been a while.  most of it had been forgotten, so it was with almost new eyes that i was able to watch this animated adaptation.  i dont remember much of the comic, which meant that most of the story was unfamiliar to me.  the basic premise is this: its been ten years since bruce wayne hung up the cowl, and since then crime has escalated.  no longer content to drink away his feelings of responsibility and justice, he decides to step up and deal with this new 'mutant' gang thats plaguing the city.  this first part of the story deals with bruce getting back into the cape, gaining a new sidekick, and confronting the mutant menace head on.  it also sets up nicely where the story is headed.
like with all of these dc comics animated movies, there is a learning curve to jumping on board.  the animation isnt always the greatest, but for a direct to dvd release, its as good as could be expected.  also, the vocal acting is a bit stilted and doesnt really flow well, but thats kind of what these things are like.  its like listening to shakespeare, it takes about 10 minutes of it sounding like a different language before you get your barrings and are able to be immersed into the world.  after about the first 15 minutes, the mediocre animation and stilted voices melt away and the story is able to take you away.  its a little weird to watch an animated batman and not hear the voice of kevin conroy coming out, but peter weller is an acceptable substitute for this aging bruce wayne.  i know this movie added some things to the original story, but almost all of it worked pretty well and blended in to give the story a little richer context.  almost all of it- the race scene at the beginning just did not feel like it belonged at all.  come on, gotham during the day time?!?  no one wants to see that!  overall though, a nice job, and now i look forward to part 2!