Justice League (TV series)

Justice League is an American animated television series which ran from 2001 to 2004 on Cartoon Network. It is the seventh series of the DC Animated Universe. The show was produced by Warner Bros. Animation. It is based on the Justice League of America and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics. It serves as a prequel to "Batman Beyond" and as a sequel to "," "" and "The New Batman Adventures". After two seasons, the series was rebranded as "Justice League Unlimited", a successor series which aired for three seasons.
Production.
Bruce Timm, who co-produced ' and ' in the 1990s, became producer on an animated series focusing on the Justice League. The roster consisted of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (John Stewart), The Flash (Wally West), Martian Manhunter (J'onn J'onzz), and Hawkgirl.
According to audio commentary on the DVD release of Season 2, the second-season finale "Starcrossed" was expected to be the final episode of the series. However, in February 2004, Cartoon Network announced a follow-up series, "Justice League Unlimited", which premiered on July 31, 2004 and featured a larger roster of characters.
Casting.
Kevin Conroy reprised his voice role as Batman from ' (1992–1995), "The New Batman Adventures" (1997–1999), and "Batman Beyond" (1999–2001). Batman's costume was redesigned, but this time, his costume was a combination of his last three costumes. The same costume from "The New Batman Adventures" is retained, but with the blue highlights from the "Batman: The Animated Series" costume and the long-ears from the "Batman Beyond" costume are added to the costume. Tim Daly, who voiced Superman in ' (1996–2000) was initially involved but was unable to continue his role due to involvement with "The Fugitive" (a short-lived remake of the original 1963 TV series), and was replaced by George Newbern. Superman was initially redesigned to have a bit of a squint to his eyes and slight wrinkles that was also meant to make him look older, in addition to having a noticeable shining streak to his hair; he was redesigned to appear larger in physical girth than in the previous series. Fans did not like the older appearance and in the second season the streak was toned down to the point of almost disappearing and the squint was removed, in essence reverting Superman to his earlier animated look. As an in-joke, Superman's season one facial designs are used for an older Jor-El in the "Justice League Unlimited" episode "For the Man Who Has Everything".
Several actors who voiced members of the League's villains in previous DCAU shows also returned to reprise their roles, including Mark Hamill, Clancy Brown, Corey Burton, Ron Perlman, Arleen Sorkin, Peri Gilpin, Mark Rolston, Ted Levine and Michael Ironside as the Joker, Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Clayface, Harley Quinn, Volcana, Firefly, Sinestro, and Darkseid, respectively. Additionally, Michael Dorn returned to voice Darkseid's son Kalibak, Lisa Edelstein reprised her role as Luthor's former bodyguard Mercy Graves, and Brad Garrett reprised his role as the bounty hunter Lobo. Other villains were re-casted for various reasons. Brion James, who had previously voiced Parasite, died in 1999 and was replaced by Brian George. Due to budgetary reasons in the episode "Hereafter," Corey Burton replaced Bud Cort, Malcolm McDowell and Miguel Ferrer from their respective roles as Toyman, Metallo and Weather Wizard (although both Cort and McDowell would return for "Justice League Unlimited"). Maria Canals (who provides the voice for Hawkgirl) replaced Lori Petty as Livewire in the same episode.
Most of the characters retained their general comic book origins and continuity, with Wonder Woman being the notable exception. In the "Justice League" series continuity, the premiere story arc "Secret Origins" revises the plot of Diana's competition against her fellow Amazons to be the ambassador of peace to man's world, and she is referred to as a "rookie" superhero during her first encounter with the League. (Subsequent episodes touched on her attempts to adjust to her new world). In an interview segment on the Season One DVD, Bruce Timm stated that he initially ran into some legal issues in using the Wonder Woman character, but was adamant that she be used in the series. Additionally, the character of The Flash was portrayed as somewhat younger and significantly more brash than his comic book counterpart, taking on a number of personality traits of Plastic Man, who provides a similar comic relief function in the "JLA" comics. Charlie Schlatter, who voiced the Flash in one episode of "Superman: The Animated Series", was unavailable to reprise the role and was replaced by Michael Rosenbaum. Major changes were also made to the Hawkgirl character. The character of Hawkgirl became romantically involved with the John Stewart Green Lantern as the series progressed. A romantic relationship between Batman and Wonder Woman was also "shown" (hinted at but never "official" unlike Hawkgirl/Green Lantern) by the show's creators, who disliked pairing Wonder Woman with Superman despite fan requests. Robin is not paired with Batman in this animated series like he was on "Super Friends".
In addition to Conroy, Newburn, Canals and Rosenbaum, the rest of the main cast includes Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman, Phil LaMarr as Green Lantern and Carl Lumbly as J'onn J'onzz. Canals, Rosenbaum, LaMarr and Lumbly had all appeared on different shows within the DCAU, all appearing as different characters before their casting on "Justice League".
Although the series itself is animated in traditional 2-dimensional style, the opening credits are rendered in 3D with toon shading. The intro is a "stock" intro used throughout the series until "Justice League Unlimited" premieres.
Home media.
From 2006 to 2011, Warner Home Entertainment (via DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Family Entertainment) released the entire series of "Justice League" on DVD and Blu-ray, and presented in original broadcast version and story arc continuity order.
Season releases
Warner Home Video also released another DVD set titled "Justice League: The Complete Series." It contained all 91 episodes of "Justice League" and "Justice League Unlimited" on a 15-disc set with the 15th disc containing a bonus documentary. This was later re-packaged and sold as a 10-disc set without the bonus documentary.
Soundtrack.
A 4-disc soundtrack of musical highlights from both seasons of Justice League was released by La-La Land Records in July 2016. It is a limited edition of 3000 units and can be ordered at the La-La Land Records website. The set includes tracks from fan-favorite episodes like A Better World, Hereafter, Wild Cards and Starcrossed.
La-La Land are hoping to release a soundtrack for "Justice League Unlimited" as well, provided that sales of the Justice League soundtrack improve significantly and that there is sufficient demand from fans. A second Justice League volume may also follow if fans support the existing release.
Broadcast history.
The series premiere on November 17, 2001, set a Cartoon Network record with over 4.114 million viewers. This made it the channel's highest rated premiere ever, a record it would keep until September 13, 2009, when the world premiere of Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins gathered over 6.108 million viewers.
The show was aired in the Republic of Ireland on TG4 in both Irish and English from 6 September 2002 to 2007.
Reception.
The series has received acclaim. In January 2009, IGN named "Justice League/Justice League Unlimited" as the 20th best animated television series of all time.
Cancelled film and reboot.
Circa 2004, Bruce Timm announced that a direct-to-video "Justice League" feature film was in the works. The film was intended to make a bridge between the second season of "Justice League" to the first season of "Justice League Unlimited". The film was planned to reveal how Wonder Woman acquired her Invisible-Jet, and also planned to feature the Crime Syndicate as the main antagonists, an idea that was originally conceived for the two-part episode "A Better World", until the Syndicate was replaced by the Justice Lords. Dwayne McDuffie wrote the script and Andrea Romano assembled the cast, but Warner Bros. finally scrapped the project. However, in 2010, the film's plot was used for the non-DCAU film "", but removing all references to the continuity of the DC animated universe, and replacing John Stewart with Hal Jordan as the Justice League's Green Lantern.
Adaptations.
Justice League Adventures.
DC Comics published a series of 34-issue numbered comics based on the television series, between 2002 and 2004.