SupermanHawaii.com

by Scott Shinsato and
Lawrence E. Pacheco

A “World’s Finest” film, by any other name, is still a “World’s Finest” film. As October celebrates the birthdays of Jerry Siegel (co-creator of Superman) and Bob Kane (co-creator of Batman), Occasional Orb's resident World's Finest team give their review of the latest Warner Animation production entitled Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. Be careful, there may be spoilers ahead.

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Scott Shinsato: Based on the comicbook series, Superman / Batman: Public Enemies was based on the comicbook… and, at the same time, it wasn’t. There was a lot left out, sometimes skipping over issues (like issue number 2). What it did do, however, is make the story its own. Longtime readers of the issues probably got the inside jokes, but if you were watching it for the first time, you might have missed out on all the little things that the comic series had.

I really liked the Bruce Timm / Eddie McGuiness team-up. I naturally like Bruce Timm’s work, but it’s nice to see subtle differences. It was almost like seeing McGuiness’ work brought to life.

Lawrence Pacheco: I thought the car chase sequence that followed the opening credits was spectacular. It was concise, and yet it gave the right amount of emotion that an arrival of Superman should have. That was something that I wish they would put into a live-action feature film. The battle with all the villains was extremely epic. I loved how they took something out of print, which I thought couldn’t be done right, and actually do it one better. Villains were coming out of nowhere. Some people are not going to know who some of these villains are because their names aren’t mentioned.

SS: But as a fan, you start pointing out, “hey! That guy’s there!”

LP: Exactly! I thought that was extremely well done.

SS: When we were in San Diego Comic Con this year, some guy in the crowd asked if Warner Bros. could return these to the theatres, like Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. I think that with the quality they put out with features like this one, they could really do well.

LP: One thing that bothered me was why, of all places, does Superman take Power Girl to the rooftop of the Daily Planet, a highly populated area in the heart of Metropolis? Knowing that these big, bad villains are looking for you, wouldn’t you take her somewhere else?

SS: In the comicbook, there’s no mention of where Superman takes Power Girl. I guess it’s plausible that that’s where they went.

LP: True.

SS: It’s always good to have Kevin Conroy back with Tim Daly and Clancy Brown. Right after Conroy’s voicing of the Arkham Asylum video game, we get this. I always say that it’s great when he voices Batman. It was also great to see him at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. I’m really looking forward to his next Batman gig.

LP: You and I both noticed a little "nitpick" moment during the big fight with Captain Marvel.

SS: Yeah! If you watch the movie with closed captioning on, whoever inserted the text during that scene, you'll notice that it read “Shizam” instead of “Shazam”. As soon as I saw it I said, “What?”

LP: Then again, if you listen to Billy Batson, he does kinda say it that way.

SS: Yeah, he does say “Shizam”.

LP: A lot of these Warner / DC animated features are, in my opinion, far superior to almost anything that’s out there.

SS: Right!

LP: Not just because I’m a Superman fan or, hopefully, not just because you’re a Batman fan…

SS: I'm biased. Ha ha.

LP: I feel that this animated feature is one of their best works. They took a pre-existing storyline and made it into something very tangible, very compelling, and something that does the characters justice. So much so that I couldn’t help but think, “continue this as a series.” It also made me realize how much I miss Justice League Unlimited.

SS: I enjoyed this. All the little nitpicks are minor points compared to how good this is. I enjoyed it enough to watch it five times so far. Every now and then I’ll grab it off the shelf and pop it into my DVD player just to watch it while I‘m doing something else.

LP: Basically, congratulations to the team that produced this. You’ve done an excellent job.

SS: Please do more! Bring Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, and Clancy Brown back for more!

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