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DC Collectables- Batman the Animated Series: Jervis Tetch (The Mad Hatter)
Continuing my quest to re-watch all the DC Animated features to date and give some thoughts regarding 3 key touchpoints: Animation Style, Voice Acting & Story. These are really just rough notes as I watched the movie and might not make a whole lot of sense unless you have recently watched it. See 290-2, 303-2, 318-2, 331-2, 344-2, 358-2, 369-2, 371-2, 385-2, 399-2, 414-2, 426-2, 441-2, 453-2, 462-2, 468-2, 481-2 & 490-2 for my previous instalments
Justice League: War- 2014
Animation Style: Because Justice League: War follows the Flashpoint Paradox, a film where everything about the DC universe changed, the Animation style has been updated to match the DC New 52 designs. Overall it has a more realistic, detailed style that I am very fond of. That said, some of the actual character designs might not be everyone’s cup of tea as they deviate from the more traditional look.
Voice Acting: Much like the designs, the voice cast has all been changed for this new universe and 4 that are reoccurring in these New 52 DC movies are Jason O’Mera (From Agents of SHIELD, The Good Wife and Vegas as well as some other voice over projects) as a more gravelly voice Batman that I initially hated, but have grown to love over the course of the DC movies, Shermar More (SWAT and Criminal Minds) who initially sounds way to old as the high school football star Victor Stone, but works well as Cyborg, Christopher Gorham (2 Broke Girls, Once Upon a Time and Ugly Betty) grew on me as The Flash and the one and only Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings, Rudy, Goonies) as Captain Marvel, but credited as Shazam. As far as I can tell the rest of the cast is pretty well one and done for voice overs in the DC movies. Green Lantern played by Justin Kirk (From Weeds and Modern Family) is a decent stand in for Nathan Fillion, Wonder Woman is played well by Kathryn Bigelow (Mission Impossible Franchise and a bunch of other movies). Lastly in odd voice decisions, the amazing Alan Tudyc (Literally everything that you like) takes a stab at an extremely normal sounding Superman.
Story: DC was not pulling any punches with Justice League: War and basically jumped right to what Marvel fans equate to Avengers Infinity War/Endgame; the only difference is that all these heroes just met. In fact, and I’m surprised that I just realized it, this movie is basically the live action Justice League movie with more heroes, a better story and is actually watchable. There is a lot going on in this story including introductions for all the heroes, with the added difficulty of a full origin story. I really enjoyed Batman and GL’s start and how they spent more time on Cyborg as a newer member. I also like that Shazam was featured as a new member of the Justice League as I don’t think he gets enough love. For a reason that is unknown to me, Superman is a dickish bully throughout, but softens throughout the movie. The overall story is fairly predictable throughout: the team comes together to defeat a super strong opponent, but has a tough time dealing with each other’s personalities. It’s a decent start to a fantastic series of DC movies that will carry over the next few years.
Pros: Jervis Tetch is a bit obsessed with the Alice in Wonderland stories and would probably like to be referred to as The Mad Hatter. It’s a very interesting DC character given that the Alice in Wonderland and the character of the Mad Hatter exist in both the universe of Batman and the real world. In a sense, it would be like if Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck made an appearance in an episode. Overall I feel that DC Collectables nailed his sculpt for Tetch with the super toothy grin, appropriate hat and overcoat. I also like the heart shaped axe, no doubt in homage to the Queen of Hearts.
Cons: Unfortunately his sculpt is the only good thing about this figure given that the articulation is pretty well useless. I mean, he has some movement in his arms, but due to the jacket pretty well every other joint is useless. I also don’t get what we are supposed to do with the card deck computer thing. And while we are on the topic of accessories I can’t figure out why DC Collectables would have advertised 15 pieces when there are only 11 if you count the figure and stand. I suppose if you break down the combined pieces of the stand it might equate to 15, but that is like saying the head is a piece if you just remove it. I have to wonder if there was more planned for this guy and it was scrapped due to budget.
