Have Cheetah,Will View #92 – “Justice League: Secret Origins” (2001)

It’s 1:42 pm

With the excitement building towards the new live action “Justice League” movie that is dropping in November,I have to admit,I’m curious on how well this DECU movie will do.
DC Comic films have done well at the box office but the after taste if you will has been lackluster outside of “Wonder Woman”. No one is jumping and down about having seen “Batman V Superman” or “Suicide Squad”. Certain performances were noted (Ben Affleck,Will Smith) but you don’t hear the movies being loved by the fans.
Well,I think that can that change if everyone took a peek at Warner Brothers animated DECU series. I can hear you laugh,a CARTOON is better then the movies? Well in DC’s case,yeah,the animated series are light years better (except Wonder Woman and Nolan’s first two Batman films) then anything live action.
Starting with Batman Beyond and Static Shock,the animated series and films that DC and Warner Brothers have put out have been outstanding. Superb stories,great animation and most importantly,the best voice talent in the game. All three elements have made DC Comics the best and it isn’t even close.

 

 

I went to the library for my weekly hunt to see if anything new had come in and while the pickings were pretty slim this week,I was pleasantly surprised to spot a “Justice League: Secret Origins” sitting on the new DVD shelf. I went ahead and after looking at the disc,I picked it up. I knew this would be a fun one to review and it was.
Justice League: Secret Origin is taken from the first Justice League series that was shown on TV back in 2001. It was a three part episode that Warner Brother decided to package as a full length film and it was a good idea to introduce people who may not had had a chance or time to watch the animated series.

The film starts out with two astronauts on Mars who are exploring the surface. One of the men,Carter sees a unique looking rock. When he chips away at it and picks it up,it starts a chain reaction that sends Carter down a steep shaft. The two men lose voice communication with each other. Carter sees he is in a immense building with strange writing on what appears to be doors. He pries open a small disc and the room lights up and huge doors open….a bright white light rushes towards him….

On earth in the present day,Batman is at a telescope complex at night. He watches as the night shift leaves except for three workers. As he watches,the three workers exhibits super-strength as move equipment around and grab a weird looking device.
Batman swings into action but despite the workers looking old,they are far stronger then Batman as they plant the device and hold him off. Just as it looks like Batman will be overcome,Superman rolls in to help. He attempts to help but is suddenly stopped by a multi-colored mental attack and is knocked out.
The device explodes,destroying the complex,Batman grabs a dazed Superman and carries him off into the bushes,both men are stunned and the three attackers leave unharmed.

Superman recovers and apologizes….he hands Batman a watch to call Superman if he needs him and flies off. Batman us duly unimpressed and goes “Riiight” but hangs on to the watch.
At the UN a dynamic young American politician is urging the world to get rid of its nuclear weapons because the world won’t need them,not with the ultimate peace maker and introduces Superman.
Batman is back at work,he has traced those three beings to Metropolis and has figured out they have cloned the original hosts and are keeping them prisoners in a pod.
As he frees one of the humans,he is attacked by a guard dog….but the dog is also not of this earth. The dog slams Batman into a shelving unit which collapses on him,he presses the button…..which Superman hears and comes to Batman’s aid.

Suddenly there is a HUGE meteor rock that slams down into the city and huge tripod being come out and start attacking. Superman attempts to stop them but gets roughed up. Batman,after shaking the cobwebs off,joins the fight in the Batplane but finds his weapons are ineffective against the alien tripod.
When Superman suddenly turns and leaves,Batman follows him to a remote outpost where they find the one being who save Earth….but who is being held captive by the U.S. Army and they aren’t in the mood to let him go….its going to take more then then Batman and Supes to save the day…….

While one can argue this is not set in the DECU,the story of how the Justice League formed is a loving homage to two classic science-fiction classics, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The War of the Worlds and is cleverly written by Rich Fogel and Stan Berkowitz. The action is pretty much non-stop as these heroes,who are meeting first the first time must learn to trust and work together (except for Bats of course)
The voice talent is impressive and is led by the perfect voice actor for Batman,Kevin Conroy. They are joined by fellow stalwarts George Newbern (Superman),Susan Eisenberg (Wonder Woman), Phil LaMarr (Green Lantern) and Michael Rosenbaum (The Flash).

This is a great little movie to introduce yourself to animated side of the DC Comics. Justice League would later morph into the very best animated series called Justice League Unlimited but we’ll chat about that later.

Justice League: Secret Origins has a run time of 60 minutes.
Special features are very lean here with a little trailers section.
This would be rated “G”.  You can buy this title at the Warner Brothers website.

Are you ready for the new Justice League live action movie? How do you think it will do?
Leave a comment below and share your thoughts!!