The first in these features is Catwoman, who is voiced by the lovely Eliza Dushku known for her work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse. She made a quick appearance to introduce some early footage from her role as the title character. The sequence involved some thugs who were attempting to gun down a stray cat. It is rescued by the femme fatale and she follows the thugs to a known strip club. The leader of these goons is named Rough Cut (John DiMaggio). She infiltrates the club and goes after the 3 criminals which lead to an exciting and well animated chase sequence culminating in a massive explosion on the wharf. We discover after the excitement dies down, that Rough Cut was trafficking humans, more importantly young girls and it was one girl in particular whom the stray cat belonged to.
The short film was done well and sets up Catwoman as a hero rather than villain, though in truth her status as either has always been ambiguous at best.
After that footage was completed the panel was headed up by the famous Bruce Timm, who has been involved with DC animated shows and films since the days of Batman: The Animated Series back in the early 1990's. Paul Dini, who was not present at the panel, had his usual hand in writing and helping developing the feature while Andrea Romano was there to discuss her work with ADR.
The next feature to be discussed, and which is available to purchase on demand October 18th, is Batman: Year One. For those of you who don't know, this was one of the most influential graphic novels written in the last 30 years. It tells the story of Bruce Wayne and hi first year as Batman; paralleled with that story is the arrival of Jim Gordon in Gotham City and their eventual meeting. The book was written by Frank Miller, who also wrote Sin City and 300. Once again Eliza Dushku will be making an appearance as Catwoman, while Ben McKenzie will be voicing Bruce Wayne and Brian Cranston will be taking on the role of Jim Gordon. Once the film gets screened there will be a review up online.
The last film to be discussed was a new feature titled Justice League: Doom, which will be coming to DVD in February of 2012. This film will feature a lot of familiar voice actors who stamped their identity onto these characters, most notably of those is the return of Kevin Conroy as Batman! Conroy was also at the panel that day to discuss his role and work on the famous character. Conroy was made famous in DC culture by providing the voice of Bruce Wayne and Batman back in the 1990's on Batman: The Animated Series. Returning also to voice their Justice League counterparts are Michael Rosenbaum as The Flash, Tim Daly as Superman, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern, and Carl Lumbly as Martian Manhunter.
A trailer was shown in which the League faces off against a new roster of villains calling themselves The Legion of Doom. The story for the feature is based on a graphic novel written by Mark Waid titled The Tower of Babel. In it, the League is taken down by one of Batman's villains when he obtains secret files that Batman compiled on each of the League's members and their weaknesses.
Clearly there is a lot of love and hard work that goes into making these features. Everyone involved has been a fan of these characters growing up and to be able to bring them to the screen is a joy for everyone. To be frank, it is in animation that comics really shine. While seeing them on the big screen is fun, it is rare that film makers get the tone or look right and the film winds up being hokey. It is unfortunate that animation is still viewed as a children's arena because it is in that arena that some of the best stories have been written.
But regardless of all that, anyone who is a fan of DC and their animated movies has a lot to look forward to in the coming months. Let's hope that they never tire of bringing us these wonderful stories to the screen.
