Justice League-Secret Origins (2001) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Poster Main Menu Audio Biographies-Character Listing-Cast & Crew Trailer-Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker Trailer-Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero Trailer-The Batman Superman Movie Trailer-Scooby Doo Sneak Peeks DVD-ROM Extras
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	59:57
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4	Directed By	Butch Lukic Dan Riba
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Kevin Conroy Maria Canals Susan Eisenberg Phil LaMarr Carl Lumbly George Newbern Michael Rosenbaum
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	Lolita Ritmanis

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Screen, not known whether Pan & Scan or Full Frame	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None
16x9 Enhancement	No
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	Yes
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    'Secret Origins' tells the story of how the Justice League came to become a team through an attack on Earth by a race of odd-looking aliens. With Earth under threat by 20 storey alien predators, current heroes Superman and Batman are helpless to save the planet. It is only when they meet Martian Manhunter that they can fully understand what will happen to the Earth after this invasion. Manhunter came to Earth well before the invasion began to warn of the impending attack, but was captured by the government (of course!) and could not tell the people of Earth how he had defeated the aliens when they invaded his planet.

    Together with the other superheroes that walk the streets of Metropolis, Batman, Superman and Martian Manhunter discover how to defeat the invaders and make the world a safe and happy place again. (cue 'Full House'esque "Ahhhh" effect)

    The animation in Justice League is OK at best, with some sequences screaming of a cheapness found only in Scooby-Doo style cartoons of yesteryear. It is a far cry from some of the spectacular animation seen in the last few years, but then again, it is made for TV. The storyline is good enough, but as I touched on above, the invading aliens look completely B grade and do not have any sort of character whatsoever - as for the 'Brain Bug' style Imperial Alien, he just looks ridiculous. (For those of you who do not know what a Brain Bug is, then please RUN to the video store and rent Starship Troopers.)

Video

    The picture on screen is sharp and clear throughout the film and shows no lack of shadow definition or grain.

    Colours are bright and colourful due to the comic book feel portrayed on-screen. All colours stay rock steady throughout and there is no sign of colour bleed or any other colour related artefacts.

    There are no MPEG artefacts to be found, and no film artefacts either.

    The ugliest film to video artefact to be found here is a huge amount of aliasing. Due to the number of fine black lines outlining the characters, almost whenever a character moves there is a huge amount of this distracting artefact to be found. Some specific examples can be found at 4:24, 10:11, 11:04, 12:22, 13:22, 30:12, 39:44, 40:05, 40:27, 56:16 and 58:57. These are only some of the examples of aliasing in this transfer, but there are plenty more on offer - this artefact alone almost single-handedly wrecks this entire transfer as it distracts from the action so much.

    Another film to video artefact that can be found on this disc is one that rarely gets a mention here at Michael D's. Because this  is an NTSC transfer, we are open to seeing one of the most objectionable DVD artefacts you can find - the NTSC '3:2 pulldown' or 'judder'. There are a countless instances of judder in this transfer with some horrible examples to be found at 6:40, 8:10, 27:16, 29:09, 30:26, 31:38, 40:56, 42:02, 43:01, 45:02, 46:45 and 57:15. Along with these instances where the prime colours take jerky steps as the camera pans across the screen, the picture itself appears very jerky and uneven as the picture moves. These artefacts are hardcore folks - it is worth having a look at just so you can comprehend how superior your PAL DVDs are!

    There are no subtitles recorded on this disc and this is a single layered disc.

    As this film is made for TV, every so often the screen fades to black and then come back up at the next scene where ad breaks would have been taken. For mine, this detracts from the viewing experience and probably could have been tightened up for the production of this DVD. It would not have been too hard to go back into the editing room and bring these breaks together to help the flow of the film and give it more of a theatrical and professional feel.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The surrounds are used heavily despite this disc's 2.0 treatment. They are used a lot during action sequences and constantly have light effects and ambient noise coming from them.
 
    The subwoofer does not get used much.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Theatrical Trailer-    Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

Theatrical Trailer-    Batman & Mr Freeze: Subzero

Theatrical Trailer-    Batman & Superman Movie

Theatrical Trailer-    Scooby Doo Sneak Peeks

Character Bios

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing

• Nothing

    Justice League- Secret Origins is a pretty cool cartoon that is intended to play to a much younger audience than myself (I am not very old). Its production values are not all that flash, but anything with Batman in it is interesting enough for me.

    The video quality is terribly flawed and almost unwatchable.

    The audio quality is very good for what it is.

    The extras are short and sweet, but they are better than nothing.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall