"Blue Beetle" DC Showcase Animated Short Talkback (Spoilers)

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  • Total voters
    3

Yojimbo

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From the creative forces behind the DC Universe Movie line, DC Showcase puts the spotlight on favorite characters from throughout the annals of DC Comics in fascinating, short-form tales sure to entertain longtime and new fans alike. DC Showcase Presents...Blue Beetle.

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DC Showcase: Blue Beetle
Included On: Batman: The Long Halloween - Part Two Home Entertainment Release
Release Date: Digital HD - July 27, 2021 and Blu-ray - August 10, 2021

Synopsis: Sufferin' Scarabs! Silver Age Blue Beetle is back! And, had he ever starred in a 1960s Saturday-morning limited-animation cartoon with its own jazzy earworm of a theme song, it would have been just like this! Welcome to the adventures of Ted Kord, alias the Blue Beetle, as he teams up with fellow Super Heroes Captain Atom, The Question and Nightshade to battle that nefarious finagler of feelings, Doctor Spectro.

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Please post all discussions and comments about the Blue Beetle animated short in this thread! Please discuss the other aspects of the home video release of Batman: The Long Halloween - Part Two in the proper talkback, as linked below.

Related Threads:

-Batman: The Long Halloween - Part Two Animated Feature Talkback (Spoilers)
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-DC Showcase: Green Arrow Animated Short Talkback (Spoilers)
-DC Showcase: Jonah Hex Animated Short Talkback (Spoilers)
-DC Showcase: The Spectre Animated Short Talkback (Spoilers)
-Batman: The Brave and The Bold "Fall of the Blue Beetle!" Talkback (Spoilers)
-Batman: The Brave and The Bold "Menace of the Madniks!" Talkback (Spoilers)
-Young Justice "Intervention" Talkback (Spoilers)

Note: Remember, this talkback thread is for discussion of the animated short only. If you wish to talk about the home video release, please click on the appropriate link (s) above. We appreciate and encourage discussion, but please keep your posts civil, relevant and insightful. Please do not post any improper or inflammatory material, as we will issue warnings if we believe it necessary. And remember to keep the discussion ON-TOPIC!
 

Classic Speedy

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This was great, especially after The Losers. A fun throwback to the superhero animation of the '60s and '70s, back before B:TAS changed the world for the better. Animation mistakes galore (see if you can find them all!), cheesy voices and music, wonky execution, it's all here. I had a big grin the whole time.

Best moment was when the diamond falls really slowly and Blue Beetle just holds his hands out waiting to catch it, only for the villains to snatch it before it reaches his hands. Doesn't sound like much in text, but it's hilarious in motion.
 

khuddle

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I dunno, I was less than impressed. I liked the story and ir was nice to see The Question and Captain Atom make an appearance, but the animation was god-awful, some of the worst I've seen from DC Animated to date (ironic that it should be on the same BR as Batman: TLH Pt 2, which was visually stunning). The short had a number of funny moments, but I just couldn't get past the terrible animation.
 

Classic Speedy

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I dunno, I was less than impressed. I liked the story and ir was nice to see The Question and Captain Atom make an appearance, but the animation was god-awful, some of the worst I've seen from DC Animated to date (ironic that it should be on the same BR as Batman: TLH Pt 2, which was visually stunning). The short had a number of funny moments, but I just couldn't get past the terrible animation.
...it was supposed to be terrible.
 

Yojimbo

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I loved it. Like Classic Speedy, it took me back to the 60s/70s superhero animation like the Spider-Man one and the terrible animation on purpose to harken back to that era. But the cheesy and bad animation got me chuckling and all nostalgic. I would have watched a Blue Beetle series like this. The Question was hilarious, loved the urologist line heheh. The bit with Blue trying to hide his secret identity was classic Ted Kord. Meta plug for Charlton Comics was the best. Was surprised to hear Blue being voiced by Matt Lanter, totally playing against type and I loved it. David Kaye does a great Question! Knew going in it was Doctor Spectro as the bad guy but it was a nice bonus the Squid Gang was also in the mix, I believe both appeared on Batman: The Brave and The Bold previously.
 

Otaku-sempai

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I dunno, I was less than impressed. I liked the story and ir was nice to see The Question and Captain Atom make an appearance, but the animation was god-awful, some of the worst I've seen from DC Animated to date (ironic that it should be on the same BR as Batman: TLH Pt 2, which was visually stunning). The short had a number of funny moments, but I just couldn't get past the terrible animation.
Take a look at the 1967 Spider-Man animated series or the DC shows by Filmation during the same era. The animation here is deliberately reflects those shows, even including the coloring errors.
 

khuddle

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Take a look at the 1967 Spider-Man animated series or the DC shows by Filmation during the same era. The animation here is deliberately reflects those shows, even including the coloring errors.

I get your point, it was supposed to be deliberately cheesy, and again, I really liked the story and some of the characters (The Question, Captain Atom, and Nightshade), but I just couldn't get past the animation (deliberately bad or not).
 

Otaku-sempai

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I get your point, it was supposed to be deliberately cheesy, and again, I really liked the story and some of the characters (The Question, Captain Atom, and Nightshade), but I just couldn't get past the animation (deliberately bad or not).
Well, I know of people who can't seem to get past the visual style of Justice League: New Frontier and I consider that to be one of the best DCU animated movies. So I won't [hold] that against you.
 
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khuddle

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Well, I know of people who can't seem to get past the visual style of Justice League: New Frontier and I consider that to be one of the best DCU animated movies. So I won't that against you.
(Ironically I absolutely adore Justice League: New Frontier. But I didn't think the animation was half bad in that).
 

Rick Jones

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I saw a screengrab previously and noticed that it was going to go in a retro direction. From what I saw, I also thought that it reminded me of when the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon series had a segment that was sort of a parody of the 1967 Spider-Man series. I really wasn't expecting to start watching this and see even more 67 Spider-Man parody. I'm not mad at it. I wonder if the Ditko connection influenced that. It's hard to see Beetle and Question working together like this and not think of Nite-Owl and Rorschach as well.

I love to see them playing around with different tones and styles and trying new things. There's a part of me that still would have been really interested in seeing a lot of the hero characters from this second batch of showcase shorts and short s that were more akin to the first batch though. It was sort of like watching all of these DC B-characters get really cool cinematic features that matched their style.

Jim Krieg reveals he tried to cast Paul Soles as Pops but "not meant to be" (Soles passed away in May) so I guess he was retired or too ill.

I should have noticed that Mr "Viva Spiderman" was involved.


Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 
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Fone Bone

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DC Showcase: Blue Beetle

The first thing I wanted this Vintage Saturday Morning Parody to do is be G-rated the entire way through. There are a couple of subversive things that wouldn't pass muster in the 1960's, but this entire thing could air on Cartoon Network and Boomerang today with no problems.

And why the heck not? Nobody actually demanded all of the DC Showcase shorts be PG-13. Why CAN'T they do a kid-friendly one? I think this actually goes for the movie line too, but that's an entirely different argument that I don't feel like getting into right now.

I have always loved the phrase "It's the ginchiest." Good to hear it here. Somebody lend me their comb.

The Question knowing it's Ted, and Ted ridiculously trying to pretend it isn't was great, as was the Question sort of being a little bit annoyed with the fact that he has to explain he didn't get to the answer because he's an amazing detective, but because it's obvious.

Do you know would have been neat? Booster Gold! But I understand only wanting to spotlight the Charlton stuff for this one.

That was great. *****.
 

Frontier

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This was absolutely amazing. Can we get a sequel to this made? A full series? I need more of this in my life :D.

It takes a lot of effort to make not only a retro cartoon but something that looks as believably bad as a retro cartoon with deliberate animation errors, reused footage, and slow character movement. Which just goes to show you how much genuine love and attention went into this short, especially for the Fawcett heroes :).

It was fun hearing Matt Lanter as Blue Beetle and watching him play a more straightforward, heroic, role with a good dash of comedy :proud:.

The Question was awesome in this. Like, I know they call it "DC Showcase Blue Beetle" but it felt like Question really stole the show, and he was the one who saved the day in the end with his sheer existential pragmatism. I just love the idea that this was a kids show and Question was both believably the Question and still an Ayn Rand mouthpiece as if Steve Ditko himself was writing for the show ;).

They totally kind of robbed that beatnik, huh...

The Ted Kord gag with Ted unmasked in the eyecatch was the best :anime:.

Seeing classic Captain Atom and Nightshade was a treat, especially seeing Nightshade get to do more in a DC Animation. Ashly Burch also doesn't dish out that kind of voice often, so that was really fun :cool:.

Blue Beetle taking out a Fawcett comic with them all together literally killed me. I only wish Punch and Jewelee had actually been in this :p.

I love how Captain Atom has such a strong sense of self that he was able to fight the brainwashing :elle:.
 

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