Couple of Movies/Shows I've Been Watching

So, a couple of my friends lent me some dvd's this past week. I had been looking for something new to watch since I just about ran through everything I own and my buddies did not disapoint.First up, we have the 1966 Filmation cartoon, The New Adventures of Superman. This show captured the essence of the character beautifuly. Everything about this show was terrific. The animation was great for it's time, the voices nailed the characters and the stories were pretty good as well. Most of the episodes revolve around Superman, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen and whomever the villian is. The villians are well represented as Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Toyman and Mr. Mxyzptlk show up as well. Superman's classic trademarks from ripping the shirt off to "Up, Up and Away" are also incorporated into the cartoon. What I loved most is Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander, who did the voices of Superman and Lois Lane in the radio show as well as those awesome Max Fleischer Superman cartoons in the 40's, both return for this series as Superman and Lois Lane respectively.

There are 36 episodes of the show on 2 disks in this collection. There is also some trailers and a documentary called Superman in 1966, which discusses the character's history up to 1966 as well as how Filmation, who never had produced any cartoons up to that point, got the rights to do Superman.

I know some of Filmation's later efforts turned out less than perfect, I think this show turned out real well and I want to see the other Filmation/DC offerings like the Aquaman and Green Lantern cartoons they produced. I'm still waiting on that Adventures of Batman cartoon show
from the 60's on DVD as well. I know the New Adventures of Batman and Robin from 1977 is out on DVD, so I will have to hunt that down.

My only question; after watching this and knowing how well Grantray-Lawrence did the Spider-Man show in 1967, you mean to tell me Grantray-Lawrence couldn't do a better job with The Marvel Super-Heroes show?



Then I got to watch The Spirit. I wasn't expecting much out of this movie, but it was better than I expected. Frank Miller is quickly turning into one of my favorite directors. His use of imagry in this movie should leave no one who seen 300 or Sin City shocked. The writing was pretty good and acting was ok. I thought Sam Jackson's Octopus was a little over the top, but that's to be expected.

I never read a Spirit comic, so I don't know how well this movie holds up to Wil Einser's character, but I enjoyed it and will probably add it to my superhero movie collection. And Eva Mendes, Va Va Voom!

So, if you have some down time, I suggest you give these DVD's a shot. They may not be Sense and Sensibilty, but you will have fun watching them. Pass the popcorn and don't skimp on the butter.