Today’s Warner Animators Praise the Past
Brandon Vietti is just two weeks away from his solo directorial film debut with Warner Home Video’s looming release of Batman: Under the Red Hood, a dark, emotionally wrenching journey as Batman’s past and present collide.
James Tucker is enjoying another successful season producing the Warner Bros. Animation/Cartoon Network hit series, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, a much lighter take on the Caped Crusader’s adventures
Ironically, the super hero roots of both contemporary animators can be found in the same content – Super Friends, the one-hour ABC series that began in 1973, inspiring generations of young imaginations and spawning numerous cartoon series sequels.
Warner Home Video and DC Entertainment will release Super Friends! Season 1 Volume 2 on DVD on July 20, 2010. Available for the first time since its debut in 1973, this highly-anticipated deluxe two-disc collector’s set features eight exciting one-hour episodes starring the most recognizable DC Comics super heroes and villains of all time.
Super Friends! Season 1 Volume 2 follows the adventures of Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman and Aquaman as they join forces to save the world from unthinkable disasters. This crime-stopping squad, along with heroes in training Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog, combine their special superhuman skills to defeat the evil villains at hand. The collection also features DC Comics favorites Plastic Man, The Flash and Green Arrow. Each hour is packed with timeless adventures of the universe’s greatest heroes as they pave the way for a brighter future.
Both Vietti and Tucker fondly recall the wide-reaching impact Super Friends had on their young lives.
“The Super Friends show was my first exposure to the world of DC
super heroes,” says Vietti, who also co-directed Superman Doomsday
and was the director for much of the first season of Batman: The
Brave and the Bold. “The show was on TV during the first 12 years of
my life so I was the prime audience. From the first episode I ever
watched, I was hooked! My parents bought me the DC action figures, the Super
Friends bed sheets, and, of course, the Underoos. I guess the Super
Friends show was a rather formative influence on me as a kid since I
now have career making cartoons about DC super heroes.”
“To me, Super Friends really represented what Saturday morning
cartoons were all about,” remembers Tucker. “When I think of Super
Friends, I’m really reminded of waking up at 6 a.m., getting my bowl
of cereal, and camping in front of the TV for about four or five hours
of cartoons.
“It was probably the first show I saw that featured DC Comics characters
that wasn’t in reruns. It was just cool seeing heroes in animation that
I was reading in the comics at the time. And even though I knew the
cartoon wasn’t at the same intensity level as the comics, it was still
cool. The novelty of watching animated super heroes was enough to make
up for the goofy stories and non-violence.”
The series also placed some important design and character seeds in
minds of two of the leading super hero animation veterans in the
industry today.
“I loved the scale of the adventures in Super Friends,” Vietti
adds. “Episodes would often take place in fantastic locations under
ground, under the sea, or in deep space. There was no end of aliens,
monsters and evil scientists that had to be stopped before executing
some evil plan. The Super Friends show was my first exposure to
stories and characters like that, so that kept me tuning in again and
again.”
“I thought the designs were appealing at the time – I didn’t know Alex
Toth had done them, but they felt like the comic book designs,” Tucker
says. “They had the anatomy that the comics had, and there was a
simplicity to them that I can appreciate now but I probably wasn’t aware
of back then.
“Super Friends was a consistent version of the DC characters when
you just didn’t get that in another cartoon show. It kept those
characters alive in my imagination, and I know it has had a direct
effect on the way I work in animation today. I always say that Batman:
The Brave and the Bold is the show I was watching when I watched
Super Friends. The spirit, the fun, the excitement and the innocence of
that series is what I wanted to capture with Batman: The Brave and
the Bold.”
“The ‘Super Friends’ show was my first exposure to the world of DC super heroes,” says Vietti, who also co-directed Superman Doomsday and was the director for much of the first season of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. “The show was on TV during the first 12 years of my life so I was the prime audience.”
Brandon makes me feel old–My first exposures to DC Comics’ heroes were THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, starring George Reeves (in reruns) and the BATMAN series starring Adam West & Burt Ward (first run).
Andrew Laubacher
"The 'Super Friends' show was my first exposure to the world of DC super heroes," says Vietti, who also co-directed Superman Doomsday and was the director for much of the first season of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. "The show was on TV during the first 12 years of my life so I was the prime audience."Brandon makes me feel old–My first exposures to DC Comics' heroes were THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, starring George Reeves (in reruns) and the BATMAN series starring Adam West & Burt Ward (first run).Andrew Laubacher
I watched vol.1 and never realized, Toth’s designs notwithstanding, how bad the animation was. The animation on the Filmation DC cartoons was better.
I watched vol.1 and never realized, Toth's designs notwithstanding, how bad the animation was. The animation on the Filmation DC cartoons was better.