This weekend I made my yearly travel to the mysterious land of Toronto, Canada, to see quite a few of my Canadian friends and those international friends who could make the trip. And because many of these friends are superhero nerds, I made sure to bring JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time, the straight-to-DVD WB release only made available in the US as of last month. Sitting down and rewatching the kid-friendly adventure with my buddies, I got to appreciate just how good the movie is

I was worried about the superteens from the future Karate Kid and Dawnstar simply because they were the only characters I didn’t know much about going into the movie, but truth be told, I like them. Even when they were doing the “I’m from the future and don’t understand how taxis work” schtick, it was pretty charming. More than that, the story did a decent job of setting up their personal flaws as young heroes and how they had to deal with it. They’re also the ones to come up with solutions the two times things get really bad for the heroes. And they happen to be two non-white characters whose costumes are appropriate for their age (I looked up Dawnstar’s comic costume and this is a vast improvement, especially considering she’s a teenager here).

One of the smartest things JLA Adventures did was not specifically say which Flash this was — Barry Allen or Wally West. For fans of Wally West desperate to see him in more stories, it was very easy to see this Flash as Wally. Truth be told I would have loved a few more quips from him, but the Flash has a cute moment with Martha and John Kent that felt very Wally along with some good food jokes that work for the character. And as I mentioned in my original post about the DVD coming out, Young Justice’s Jason Spisak voiced him, so yes I’m calling him Wally.

But something else I noticed was that Robin was also only named Robin in the credits, which means there are four different Robins he could be (not including Stephanie Brown because this Robin wasn’t wearing eggplant purple … obviously this rules her out). This Robin is too belligerent to be Dick Grayson, too reckless to be Tim Drake and is too much of a normal kid to be Damian Wayne. I am absolutely convinced that the Robin in JLA Adventures is Jason Todd. That makes this only the second DC animated feature with Jason Todd and he didn’t die this time! So if you’re a fan of both goofy teenage Jason Todd and goofy teenage Jason Todd not getting beaten to death with a crowbar, do I have a DVD for you!

Besides the characters, the animation on the fight scenes in particular is gorgeous. Easily my favorite bit of animation was the two-on-one fight between Robin and the new kids. And sure, the dialogue was silly at times, but the tone of the whole movie fit that silliness because it’s aimed for kids. It is, however, still clever enough for adults who like these characters. The worst thing I can say about it is that at 52-minutes long, it’s very short. Expanding the villainous plot to include messing with the various Justice League members’ pasts (or at least Diana and Bruce as the big trio) would have given the story the depth it needed to feel like a full movie. As it is, JLA Adventures works much better if you think of it as a one hour TV pilot … which just makes me wish we were getting a JLA Adventures TV show. Why aren’t we getting a JLA Adventures TV show?

When I picked it up, it was $12.99 at Target (it’s being sold exclusively at Target as of now). I really don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t want to get this if you at all a fan of these characters.

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This was not something I expected from this week!

Through his twitter account, Green Lantern: The Animated Series producer Giancarlo Volpe has been teasing for a while about a special super-secret project, including letting people know he was working again with Green Lantern composer Freddie Wiedman and posting pictures with some of the cast of GLTAS in the recording booth. Because he was quick to explain that the project was not Green Lantern related, and because I know he’s been working on some video game projects since GLTAS ended last March, I didn’t even think the project was going to be a cartoon.

Welp, turns out I was wrong. Announced on Wednesday, JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time is the actual secret project that Volpe directed. It’s a DC cartoon. And it has a ton of my favorite voice actors in it. And Jason Spisak is voicing the Flash.

And this was around the point where I started flailing at my desk like the nerd that I am.

So here are some things we know about the 52 minute cartoon thanks from the mouth of Volpe — several of the Green Lantern cast members (Spisak, Grey DeLisle, Kevin Michael Richardson, Diedrich Baker) are indeed lending their voices to the cartoon. GLTAS writer Mike Ryan helmed the script and like I said earlier, they got the very talented Freddie Wiedman for the soundtrack. I’m also looking forward to DeLisle’s Avatar: The Last Airbender cast members Dante Basco and Jack DeSena joining the others. The choice for DeSena as Robin is particularly inspired. Almost all of these actors have worked with each other before and that can breed such great performances. I can’t wait to hear all of these particular voices in one production. Oh, and the character designs were headed by Lynell Forestall, who created the excellent Black Lightning shorts from last year. From the look of the DVD art, the designs are really classic and promising. I’m looking forward to see if the animation holds up.

What’s really outstanding about this announcement is that JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time is a kid-friendly story of the Justice League fighting head-to-head with the Legion of Doom. So many of the made-for-DVD DC features are clearly written for adult audiences (last year’s Flashpoint Paradox, for example); it’s refreshing to know we’re getting a more lighthearted adventure story with these characters. Knowing they’re going for that tone, it makes sense that they chose Bader to once again voice Batman since he was outstanding as the Silver Age-esque Dark Knight in Batman: Brave and the Bold.

The big question that almost immediately went though my brain is if Spisak (who voiced Wally West as Kid Flash in Young Justice until that show broke my heart and ended in March along with GLTAS) would be voicing Barry Allen Flash or Wally West Flash. Even though DC announced recently that Wally will finally be back in the comics, we haven’t seen him in the animated features for years now. I posed the question to Volpe, who was gracious enough to answer. Basically, they’ve intentionally not mentioned in the story which Flash it is so the audience can decide which Flash it is. While this doesn’t guarantee that this Flash will seem like the Wally we love, this is certainly better than when Justice League: Doom had JL/JLU’s Michael Rosenbaum cast as the Flash but had him be Barry. But yes … in my mind, Spisak will be voicing Wally again and you can’t convince me otherwise. Let me have this.

JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time is coming out this upcoming Tuesday, January 21st, but it has a very limited release — only in the US and only at Target stores. It’s frustrating, but just another reason it’s important for American fans of these actors, animators and characters to go and support this DVD.

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