I’m always a little weary of computer animated television shows, just because they can often look so cheap. However, beyond any other facts, I knew I was going to check Green Lantern: the Animated Series for one simple reason — Bruce Timm (creator of one of my favorite shows of all time, Batman: the Animated Series) is the executive producer. Come on, I had to at least check out the pilot! I’m not the biggest Green Lantern fan because I was really only exposed to the character through the 2000s Justice League cartoon, so I invited GL fan Brittany to watch the pilot (Beware My Power pt. 1 and 2) and chew the fat on this new interpretation of the super hero.
Katie: Thanks for joining me, Brittany. What did you think of the show?
Brittany: I liked it in general, but I don’t see it as being appointment TV for me. Bruce Timm’s always made great animated series (going back to Batman: TAS), but this doesn’t have the same kind of atmospheric feel as that. When I watched BTAS, I always felt like I was stepping into a separate world – a darker, grittier one. Not so here.
I’m also not a huge fan of CG. It makes the whole thing kind of look like Reboot to me. Carol Ferris’ giant head and smallish neck was totally distracting. I know it’s a cartoon, but I think I like my cartoons with a sense of realism and not quite so cartoon-y, if that makes sense.
Katie: I’m weary of CG in television cartoons, too. I did enjoy the ring powers in CG, but the character designs were just so-so. Did you get a kind of cheaper “Incredibles” feeling from the episode?
Brittany: YES. I was thinking something like that … I just didn’t make the Incredibles connection! But I think it’s distracting — if I’m going to take my characters seriously, I want not to be laughing at the size or shape of their heads.
And I started laughing when I realized that was Tom Kenny (yes, Spongebob!) as bad guy Zox.
Katie: Yeah, Tom Kenny is also the Ice King in Adventure Time, so I’m used to hearing some Spongebob in my bad guys. I know you’re more of a GL fan than I am – how did you like Hal in the show?
Brittany: Hal Jordan has never been my favorite GL. This is totally personal preference though – I came in during the Kyle Rayner era, when Jordan was busy going nuts. And I also thought John Stewart (of Green Lantern Corps) was a bad-ass. But when there’s Green Lantern on TV, it’s usually Hal, with the exception of Justice League Unlimited.
Katie: Because I watched the Justice League cartoon, I know the more stoic John Stewart as Green Lantern better, but I don’t mind Hal the hotshot in this series. His one-liners worked a lot better than I expected.
Brittany: John Stewart in the comics was pretty bad-ass (although as a kid, I was horrified when they killed his chipmunk sidekick Ch’od by running him over with a truck).
Oh, if you’re into any of the DCU animated movies, I just looked something up and Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths is like $6.57 for the two-disc DVD and $2.90 for the single-disc. It has Mark Harmon and Gina Torres in it.
Katie: Oh, I absolutely loved Crisis on Two Earths. I was actually looking it up on Netflix right after I saw the Green Lantern pilot, but it’s not on Instant right now.
Despite the rather frustrating art style, what did you think of the writing for Green Lantern? For me, the dialogue and character development was pretty damn strong, and it really felt like a lot of care went into getting the characters right, especially Kilowog. I saw the climax coming a mile away, but I found myself emotionally invested in it all the same.
Brittany: I do like the writing. I love how there was enough exposition to clue in the people who are newbies (like, you know, the bunch of people who will now equate GL with the movie), but we didn’t get a throwaway first episode full of it.
Will I watch it every week? I don’t think so, but that’s because of me – Cartoon Network isn’t a channel I normally watch so I’ll probably space. Hopefully, the movie (as horrible as it was) will inspire some people to check this out and maybe dig a little deeper into the rich tableau that is GL history…even if GL history has now been jumbled by DC’s “new 52″ reboot, sadly.
Katie: Funnily enough, Cartoon Network is one of my favorite channels! I agree that it was bold and smart to not devote the pilot to Hal’s whole back story, leaving the first storyline to be something new. I might not watch this show religiously, but I wouldn’t mind catching it every once in a while — I might even DVR it. And I would recommend that DC fans at least try it out.
Clacked by Katie Schenkel 
on Nov 11, 2011 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
