Superman/Batman: Ennemis publics

Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly work well off each other in their quest to prove Superman's innocence. The animation is smooth and seamless. Everything has a clean texture. The action's cool. The fight scenes are intense and every blow delivered you can feel. The voicing acting's pretty good. While mostly serious, there're some well placed comedic moments such as the Toynaster attempting to ask about Supergirl's bust size. All in all, it's a good movie for both fans and regular movie goers. Fly in and check it out.

In the middle of a deep recession, Lex Luthor's third party alternative manages to win the race for the presidency on promises of change and tough orders. As part of his winning campaign he brings in several superheroes and aliens to be part of his team and work directly for the government rather than being a law onto themselves. Neither Superman or Batman follow this dictate and, at a meeting to discuss a meteorite heading towards Earth, Superman is framed for murder by President Luthor, who then turns the public against the vigilante superheroes with spin and presentation. Whenever Superman escapes capture, Luthor offers a billion dollar reward for Superman which brings every hero and alien on the hunt for him and Batman.

I stumbled onto this cartoon by chance but gave it a shot since I have enjoyed this sort of DVD before and am a Batman fan. Things start really well with a lot of promise. The opening sequence depicts a society in collapse, with "normal" people turning to petty crime just to stay alive, communities living in tent lots and an economy collapsed, leading to the election of Luthor and a well designed title sequence and dramatic score. This scale and excitement either is followed up or isn't followed up, depending on your point of view. What follows is essentially one fight sequence after another and, as such it is distracting fare for those that are happy with this. It looks good with typically square-jawed heroes and well animated sequences throughout.

The downside of it is that there doesn't appear to be much to it beyond the punching and the flying. Dialogue is minimal but more disappointingly the film seems to lack the dramatic atmosphere that the first few minutes and the title sequence created. It was a problem for me simply because I do look for some darkness in these cartoons and it is disappointing for them to have none – making it harder for me to swallow the spectacle of the whole thing. The voice cast has some good names in there but the lack of any meaningful substances means that they can't really bring anything other than their names and their "oh it's on the tip of my tongue" recognisable voices. Brown, Berkeley, Pounder, McGinley and a few others are strange finds while Conroy and Daly do solid enough work with their deep voices in the title characters.

Public Enemies is a solid enough cartoon. The fights and animation are big and distracting enough but it is a little disappointing to find it lacking atmosphere or genuine drama – particularly when it all starts with so much promise ahead of the titles. Good enough for a look if you like this sort of thing but not good enough to win over the casual viewer.

Fun animated movie based on an enjoyable comic book story by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness. The story has Lex Luthor becoming President of the United States (!) and using his new authority to go after Superman. Batman steps in to help his buddy and the two find themselves pursued by their government and their friends. A solid script with nice banter and one-liners. Not as meaty as the original story but still good. There's some subtext about patriotism and the difference between loyalty to country vs loyalty to government. But, for the most part, this is just an exciting action story with lots of superheroes and supervillians and big fight scenes. Nothing at all wrong with that.

The voicework is excellent with Kevin Conroy, Clancy Brown, Tim Daly, and CCH Pounder all handling the characters they have perfected so well. In addition there's solid work from Xander Berkeley, Allison Mack, LeVar Burton, and many others. The animation is fluid, colorful, and bright. The story is smarter than it had to be, which I appreciate. It probably plays better to fans but I think the uninitiated can still enjoy it. I'm not a big supporter of the direction DC animation has taken in recent years. I loved their stuff from the '90s and early '00s but lately they only seem concerned with appealing to the lowest common denominator. This one was made after their prime but when there was still a little bit of magic left. Very entertaining and packed with action.

This is the first Superman/Batman team up movie I have ever seen. And it's fast-paced with some entertaining and cool action. The story isn't all that great, but it also didn't seem like it was something that was just there to make the two heroes team up. The animation on the other hand is fluid and well animated, although the design might not be appealing to everyone. So the story is this, Les is the president of the united states and has some heroes under his thumb by winning their trust. That is except Batman and Superman who he puts a hit out on. So the two heroes are running and fighting other heroes while finding out a way to delve into the source of the matter at hand and take down Lex Luthor. The premise isn't anything super original, but it's a Superman/Batman team up movie and that in itself makes it worth a watch.

7.2/10

The sixth DVD project from Warner Bros's DC Animated Universe unit, "Superman/Batman: Public Enemies" is a fun, socially-conscious adaptation of the six-part comic book story/graphic novel by writer Jeph Loeb and artists Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines. Sure, it's short (67 minutes) and not to the letter (no continuity-oriented sidebars), but it's action-packed coolness.

America's plagued with crime, economic despair and war, making it easy for unethical corporate shark Lex Luthor (Clancy Brown, "The Shawshank Redemption" ) to run for and win the White House. There, he initiates that meta-humans and costumed crime-fighters serve the U.S. government, but the Big Two, optimistic Kryptonian boy scout Superman (Tim Daly, "Private Practice") and brooding urban detective Batman (Kevin Conroy, "Dynasty") rightfully feel he's full of it (including the "sh"). That gives the mastermind reason to frame the Man of Steel with the murder of "reformed" Kryptonite-powered cyborg Metallo (John C McGingley, "Scrubs"), marking him a wanted criminal and Bats as an accessory. As the Big Two fight both friends and foes, there's a huge chunk of Kryptonite headed towards Earth. The stakes are very high.

With a script by Stan Berkowitz ("Justice League: The Animated Series"), director Sam Liu ("Jackie Chan Adventures", "The Batman") gives "Public Enemies" the blockbuster-with-a-brain treatment, a fashion used in previous DC animated projects. Reprising their roles from the heroes' solo shows, Conroy and Daly are great, emphasizing their characters's differences on how to mete out justice. Brown, also doing a reprisal, nearly counters with their heroism with his callous insanity. The standard but lively animation interestingly echoes the art by McGuinness and Vines.

The other voice actors are competent: CCH Pounder ("The Shield") replaying government liaison Amanda Waller from "League"; Xander Berkeley ("Shanghai Noon", "Year One") as the noble Captain Atom and Richard Chavira ("Desperate Housewives") as his volatile counterpart Major Force. It's weird hearing Allison Mack ("Smallville") as Power Girl, due to the character's…well, you know, but she's durable in the role, even with a subtle, but funny sexual gag, validating the PG-13 rating.

"Public Enemies" should be on every DC Comics fan's wanted DVD's list.