I finally hold in my hands the DVD boxed set for Batman: the Animated Series. it was the best $35 that I've ever spent. I have been literally waiting 10 years to see some of these episodes again, and they are every bit as good as I remember. I have oinly half of the episodes, the rest of them are in the second volume which i am saving up for.

(For the benefit of the uninformed, Batman TAS was a cartoon that aired from 1992-1995. Although it was produced mainly as a kids show, it had excellent writing (by todays much lower standards) so adults can enjoy it too. It featured a new style of animation called Dark Deco, in which predominately dark backgrounds are used with higher contrasting foreground images, which really works with the dark atmosphere of Gothlam. The animation is quite simple, but highly effective, and it appeals to me b/c it is the good old fashioned American animation that i grew up on instead of the anime-inspired stuff you get everywhere today. TAS embodies quality that you can't find anywhere now on network TV.

linkage: http://batmantas.com/



.....post your best DVD purchase!

I remember watching those. Most of them were pretty good.

And DVD purchase? The Extended Editions of the LotR Trilogy.

I got the special edition of The Thing for 3 dollars at a Gamestop is probably the best value. The best purchases would be the LOTR:EE. So much goodness.

I loved the animated Batman series! Every day after school I would rush home to catch it. It was a quick hello to my mom and dad, then straight to the TV. Good times...

My best DVD purchase is probably the Oliver Stone collection. LotR does not compare to Stone's work.

My favourite was (and still is) the "Heart of Ice" episode. Mr Freeze is the best, no questions asked, and will always be my favourite character. I loved how they reinvented and improved him for TAS, and also I wanted to kill Joel Schumacher after what I found out what that hack did to my favourite character.

I'm actually tempted to buy the Batman DVD's, but there's something holding me back. Anyways, best DVD purchases have been the LOTR EE.

Best DVD purchase....

's hard.

Probably Army of Darkness, if not just for the insane amount of hours I've logged watching it countless times over and over.

Clerks 10th Anniversary Edition. Funny as hell.

based on the number of times i've watched the DVD... Spaceballs

I miss BTAS so much. Even today it would knock the socks off definitely anything that WB is showing.

I loved B:TAS and TNBA series (although the new animation for the Joker was pretty bad in TNBA). Favourite episodes: (B:TAS - Almost Got 'Im, The Man Who Killed Batman, See No Evil, Harley's Holiday, Harlequinade, and A Bullet For Bullock) and (TNBA - Mad Love, Judgement Day, and Never Fear)

Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamil are perfect as Batman and The Joker respectively.

Edit: Batman Beyond is also pretty good too.

Though I didn't really love the when it was on I definitely watched it a lot. Also, it's the only Batman cartoon series I remember liking.

My best DVD purchase would still be the Monty Python boxed set though. ALL THE EPISODES, BABY!

Batman beyond WAS ROCKIN'

Though... it apparently died.

I liked the first episode of Batman, The Animated Series. IT had that freaking KILLER tune to it. And the robot clown thing was scary.



Best DVD I've bought as of late was The Wall DVD.

The only thing I liked about Batman Beyond was seeing the old characters, like Bruce, and Batgirl, who was now commissioner.

Best DVD purchase...

easily the .hack//SIGN anime series. Then again, I love that show more than is normal for a person to like a show

Akira

Cowboy Bebop - Full Series

Yes, it's a pirate, but it's damn good quality.

Best DVD purchase... Futurama seasons 1-4, followed (very) closely by Band of Brothers.

The anime thing? With the motorcycles in the beginning? I got that from the library thinking it'd be interesting.

By the time it was over, I wanted to rip my eyes out and cleanse my brain in napalm. It was quite possibly the WORST movie I have ever seen. It went from semi interesting, to completely and totally whack in minutes.

"I'm kidding, really, I swear!"

I hold you to your tag.

Dang yo, the animated Batman was sweet. Well, for the most part. I envy you.

I missed those classic animated shows I remember from my childhood. I also miss Invader Zim. There is nothing good on these days (although I don't watch cartoons much anymore.)

I have no recent DVD purchase, but that Batman was (and is) utterly awesome.

The Blob ('88 version). $8. Unfortunately, I wish I could've paid more for it. It's such a great, under-rated movie. The effects were HUGE for its time, and it had a lot of great actors and a great storyline. GO GET THIS MOVIE in anticipation for the 2005 remake!

Ahhh. Good ol' Batman: TAS.

My favourite episode was probably the one with the man with a multiple personality disorder, one of them being a sociopathic mobster mastermind which acts out through a dummy he keeps on his hand. Pretty dark stuff for a kids' show. Either that one or the one where the kids are talking about their different perceptions of Batman, recounting different events which mock the previous styles and incarnations of Batman, including a gaudy gag-loaded old 60's one and Frank Miller's the Dark Knight Returns. Every episode with Mark Hamill as the Joker in it tends to be pretty good too though.

Best DVD purchase? The boxed set of Spaced series 1 & 2.

i love batman the animated series. and batman beyond.

I want to know where in the hell my TMNT DVD's are. I've seen some lame ones with 3 episodes on them, but I want every season. TMNT was HUGE, and while no one seems to really care about it anymore, I'd kill 3-4 Power Ranger fans to get my hands on them.

I'm just going to let this slide. Saying that any of the LotR movies are as good as something like JFK or Platoon is just inane fanboyism.

What's next? The LotR trilogy is better than Godfather? What about Seven Samurai? I'm sure it's better than anything Kubrik made too. I bet if Apocalypse Now had hobbits and shoddy cinematography it might be as good as LotR!

Give me a break.

LOL! I wanna see a hobbit get napalmed!

Well no one ever considers those things. The LotR movies are hailed for their set design and costumes and jackson's directing, but that's about it.

As far as acting and cinematography goes, there's not alot to like. The shot selection is totally average, which is why none of the movies were EVER recognized for cinematography by ANY major awards organization. Now don't get me wrong, I don't usually agree with awards orgs... but they're just plain right this time.

And the bottom line is, film is a visual art, and most of what makes art good is composition. I go to an art/film school, and our teachers (regardless of what they teach) preach constantly about composition. In a movie like LotR, it's almost hard to believe that the shots could be so standard, and for that, I give the movies about a B-.

Movies are supposed to be well rounded. They should have it all if we're going to praise it. The Passion of the Christ had amazing cinematography, but it failed because it didn't have a story. LotR had a great story, but I think it fails as a movie because it doesn't have good cinematography.

EDIT: Oh yeah and not to mention the fact that half of the LotR movies is some crap where it's slow motion with voice over by one elven character or another. People criticize the matrix for excessive slow motion. Have they ever SEEN a lotr movie? At least one out of ten shots is slow motion! There's a rule of thumb about film and it goes like this "if you can't solve it, then dissolve it, and if it's not a transition, then slow it down." Basically what this says, is if you're going from one shot to another, and it seems crappy, then you should use a dissolve. And if it's a scene in and of itself that seems crappy, then you should use slow motion.

And if you need to use a crap load of voice over, then the screenplay isn't well written enough. We shouldn't need voice over every ten minutes to help us understand some bogus and disorganized screenplay.

The bottom line is, LotR movies are just average. They're not anything great. The movies flat-out fail on several levels.

Uh yea, I go to art school too and understand what you mean about composition, but I dont see how you can say that the shots in LOTR are merely "standard."

They ARE standard. That's just how it is. They're average, as in nothing special. It's just standard textbook cinematography. Great cinematography breaks rules, it doesn't follow them.

Watch these movies for great cinematography:

Fight Club
Man on Fire
The Matrix
Snatch
The Shining
Face Off
JFK
Any Given Sunday
Spiderman 2
Kill Bill 1 and 2
Pulp Fiction

There. That's a short list of movies with amazingly good cinematography. They're average in any sense of the word. A concept as huge as lotr deserves better than what it got. It's got cinematography like you find in any small budget movie. Standard shots. That doesn't really make it bad, but it's not good either. It's just standard.

EDIT: And I'm willing to see your point too. If you think the LotR movies have great cinematography, then post a screen capture. Show me where the great cinematography is.

Just to add to the de-railing, all three Lord of the Ring movies are in the top 10 (as voted by users) at the IMDb. To me, that just doesn't seem right, considering they managed to beat out movies like Schindler's List. Personally, I didn't find the Lord of the Ring movies to be that good. Yes, they were entertaining, but nowhere near as much as many other movies I've seen.

The worst part, spud, is that Return of the King is number 2! The imdb users consider it to be the second best movie ever made?! And if you go to the Seven Samurai page, people post comments about it not being any good.

The same goes with any great classic movie. The Shining, for example, has people posting left and right wondering why it is good...

Imdb.com users are idiots.

Bound was awesome too. To me, I think the Wachowski...siblings...are respectable because of Bound.

that is all.

You stole my post.

Clerks X
All other Kevin Smith movies (minus Vulgar and Jersey Girl).
Ren and Stimpy seasons 1-2
Scarface
Snatch/Lock, Stock
Terminator 2
Beavis and Butthead Do America
RvB seasons 1 and 2

Invader Zim Volumes 1,2&3 (gift)
honestly, I'm not a huge movie person...but I love the series-on-dvd things so I need to get
Simpsons (all)
Futurama (all)
Seinfeld (all)
and if there's a fraggle rock one, then that too