The 10 best DC animated films
From The New Frontier to Gotham By Gaslight to Justice League Dark, the most incredible cinematic feats of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are often animated
Film Features Hal Jordan
The release of the Snyder Cut of Justice League on HBO Max spurred renewed discussion of Zach Snyder’s vision for the DC Extended Universe, the answer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe that kicked off with his 2013 film Man Of Steel. But while it’s unlikely that Snyder will ever fulfill his dream of making the child of Bruce Wayne and Lois Lane into the new Batman, DC Comics fans can actually find a host of films that are just as weird and dark on the same streaming service.
Since 2007, Warner Bros. has been releasing a steady stream of direct-to-video animated films based on DC Comics. Some take place in a shared universe based on The New 52 comics relaunch that kicked off in 2011, while others are adaptations of popular arcs from years past. Unlike previous releases such as Batman: Mask Of the Phantasm, these films don’t directly tie into any DC animated TV shows. They’re mostly rated PG-13, which lets them delve into decidedly more violent and mature stories.
As of the release of Justice Society: World War II on April 27, there are 41 DC Universe Animated Original Movies, and the vast majority are available to watch on HBO Max. The average quality is surprisingly high, so the odds are you can find a good entry point by picking your favorite superhero or comic event. But if you want a more curated dive into the wild world of DC animation, we’ve put together a list of the top 10 films to watch.
133 Comments
I’m not sure I can take a “Best DC Animated Movies” list that doesn’t include Under the Red Hood.
Yep. Same here. IT contains one of the best Batman speech about the not killing rule. Honestly it should be mandatory watching it for anyone tackling the character in any movie, animated or otherwise. Cheers
Definitely the best Batman-centric DC animated movie, and John DiMaggio’s Joker is super underrated.
Without having read any of the comics, is there any kind of viewing order necessary for these?Flash and Ghost Rider were my favorites as an 80’s kid, but I haven’t read an actual comic book in decades, probably. I loved the first couple seasons of Flash, as well as Doom Patrol, and Titans. Recently, I’ve been watching Harley Quinn (love it), and since I have HBO Max I’ve thought about jumping into more of the animated movies/shows but I have no idea where to start, or if it even matters.
For the most part no. Most of them can be watched and enjoyed as standalones. From the animated side of DC there has really only been 2 notable times that there has been any substantial cross over between either several Tv shows and/or movies but even then I feel like pretty much all of them can be enjoyed as standalones.First was the “DC Animated Universe” (DCAU also known as the Timm/Dinniverse) which I’ll list below for the most part.(Note: I did exclude a couple of the ones I haven’t seen like “Static Shock” & “The Zeta Project” which would both be before “Justice League” but here are the ones that I’d consider to be the main entries):i) Batman: The Animated Seriesii) Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (film)iii) Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero (film)iv) Superman: The Animated Seriesv) The New Batman Adventures (i.e. Season 4 of the Batman: The Animated Series)vi) Batman Beyondvii) Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (film)viii) Justice League (2001-2004 series)ix) Justice League Unlimited (Direct sequel to above Justice League series)x) Justice League vs. the Fatal Five (film)
2nd is the more recent DC Animated Movie Universe (DCAMU) Note: I don’t know if HBO Max has like a specific section which has these films in order but you can find the watch order on Wikipedia or another site after a quick Google search if you so wish.This fairly loose connected universe technically consists of 16 animated films starting with “Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox” & ends with “Justice League Dark: Apokolips War”However I never watched “Wonder Woman: Bloodlines” & felt that “Constantine: City of Demons – The Movie” worked better as a standalone than working within the continuity established with the character in other films.But despite that there is some nice development/payoff for certain characters and some call backs to previous films if you do watch these ones in order.Anyways, sorry about the length of my response but I do hope it helps.
The vast majority of films on this list are standalone so you don’t need to watch anything else to enjoy them, though I do recommend watching all of the Batman, Superman and Justice League animated series’ just because they’re excellent. The one exception is that Justice League: Doom is a direct sequel to Crisis on Two Earths so you should watch those in order.
I was never clear if JL: Doom was supposed to be a direct sequel to Crisis on Two Earths, other than both being Justice League movies loosely based on plots from the 2000s JLA comics. The continuity doesn’t really line up between the films and the voice cast is different. I know the character designs are the same and so is the opening theme, but I chalk that up to the production staff reusing assets to save time (also see Superman: Doomsday and Superman vs The Elite use the same Superman theme, but that’s just Robert Kral reusing a theme he’d previously composed).
I don’t read much of the comics. I was never into the name heroes even when I did. Other than Batman, who I’ve seen in many adaptations, my knowledge of most of these characters comes from JLU. I have watched most of these movies based on what I was in the mood for and had no trouble getting them or getting into them.
There is some continuity in the newer movies. Like the Justice League ones start with them meeting for the first time. And then a sequel as the official team. And the same Batman from those Justice League has a series with a definite timeline including meeting Damian Wayne and a whole arc with his development. Which ties into the whole Teen Titans series where Damian joins the team. The Constantine movies are mostly stand-alone, though he does interact with the same Justice League characters. And it all wraps up in Apocalypse War.
I came into to say this. under the red hood is fantastic, especially the dialogue between Joker, Jason, and Batman in the final confrontation scene.
agreed. i kind of wish it had been a live action film but i don’t know if they would have done it as well.
That ending still hits me in the feels. Fuck.
Especially when it puts up Flashpoint in its place!
I would’ve put Under the Red Hood or Red Son, probably over The New Frontier.
To me, as good as they were, none of the movies listed ever gave such a melancholy moment than this…
Yeah, it’s a great ending. That tag wasn’t in the original script – that was Brandon Vietti’s addition. He told me he was really nervous what Judd Winickwas going to think and when he ran into him at a con the first words out of Judd’s mouth were, “great ending!”
It’s heart wrenching, and likely one of the best things about the animated medium to have a moment of time frozen. Oddly enough, it also makes you smile a bit to see that maybe at one point, this broken person, really did have at least one wonderful moment in their life.
THAT is how you end a tragedy. Such a great final moment in a deep film. One day, someone will create something like this in a live action Batman.
my #1 is batman ninja by faaaaaarmy #2 might be batman: assault on arkham asylum
I couldn’t get past Tony Hale’s super annoying Joker voice/laugh.If I ever rewatch it I’m going to go with the subbed version i guess.
It’s a little crazy to me that Apokolips War isn’t on here. It should get tons of credit for pulling zero punches and telling an original story that satisfyingly ended the movie continuity that existed before it. Also Batman: Assault on Arkham remains the best Suicide Squad adaptation to date. Hopefully Gunn blows it out of the water but it is excellent.
The story was ok but I hate that era’s depiction of Darkseid.
I always hated their depiction of Darkseid, he’s such a fun a character and they made him such a dull robot in the first film.
He finally gets some lines by the last film, but if they were going for the silent and deadly type, they failed completely on making him intimidating.
Once you go Ironside, there’s really nowhere else to go from there.Just watch the Harley Quinn show on HBO Max for further proof.
I enjoyed Apokolips War but I don’t think it a top tier. It’s easy to kill everyone off when Flash can just reset the table, which already happened in a better “end of the world” movie. But I do give it credit for it’s portrayal of King Shark.I’d probably swap out Under the Red Hood or Assault on Arkham for Justice League Doom
KING SHARK IS A SHARK still makes me smile. And in the midst of a movie as bleak as JLD: Apokolips War, that says a lot.
Me, too. Even though I love him in Harley Quinn, the moment I see King Shark, it’s all I can think.
Yeah it’s easy to go for broke if you don’t have to worry about fixing your toys afterwards. Fun to watch for the shock value and still a pretty ballsy way to end an animated universe.
i would swap out justice league dark for under the red hood. surprised it wasn’t on the list.
What’s crazy about it? The whole thing eliminated the Justice League and treated characters who had premiere movies and story arcs like disposable tissue paper. And their wasn’t any central focus to any character (was it kinda Superman? Robin? Constantine?). Flashpoint at least told a solid story with an inventive ending within the chaos.
The movie doesn’t have a central character because it’s meant to close out loose threads from a number of other movies that came before it. That’s what was impressive about it to me – it felt like a true comic book event that tied into years of material that came before it. Flashpoint was good too and would also be in my top ten. But that movie had nothing to build upon and followed the comic book story pretty faithfully. So IMO, not nearly as big of a swing.
You can’t say it doesn’t have a central character when only a few select characters are given the majority of lines.
Clearly it does, it just doesn’t do a good job of it.
Flashpoint didn’t treat the supporting cast like throw away either; so we’re given a whole movie about the importance and power of Aquaman, and he get’s killed off with less than two lines? What loose thread did that clear up?
I mean…read your first sentence again. Your argument is literally that the movie does have a central character (singular) because multiple characters share the limelight.I never said the movie didn’t have focal characters. It clearly does. But it doesn’t revolve around any one of them because it is tying up loose ends from multiple movies which came beforehand. And yea…Flashpoint does treat a ton of its cast like throwaway. It has a ton of notable DC characters die just to set up how screwed up the world is. And just to be clear, I’m not complaining about that at all.
Why don’t you read, I said it does a lousy job of it. Some of us prefer good movies over Snyder Cuts.
I did read your post, it didn’t make sense to me for the reasons I already gave. If your overall point is you disliked it, then fine. You can have your own opinion and disagree with mine, no skin off of my back.
I don’t see any big swing taken by Apokolips War. I enjoyed it as a finale of sorts, it’s fun to see all of these characters together, but it was a snow globe movie conveniently meant to reset everything (again). Focusing on Constantine and giving Batman a heel turn was somewhat bold, but the writers were clearly given a sandbox with which to slaughter characters without any consequences since they reset everything the exact same way Flashpoint already did. Flashpoint story might already have been there to adapt, but I find the Elseworlds of it much more creative.
And come on, the letter from Thomas Wayne. That’s hard to beat.
I agree with you that both Flashpoint and Apokolips War allowed the writers to do whatever they wanted because they were both going to be reset. The difference to me is that the former didn’t have to worry about anything that came before it (as the first movie in the continuity) and took all of its notable story beats from an established comic event while the latter resolved multiple storylines established beforehand in a satisfying way, heavily altering a comic book story to do so.I really don’t get how anyone could see the writing on Flashpoint (the movie, not the comic) as more impressive. It’s a by-the-book adaptation while Apokolips War isn’t.
It’s a by-the-book adaptation while Apokolips War isn’t. I don’t see why I’d handicap a film because it’s an adaptation of a good story rather than a unique new story. I like them both, Apokolips War nicely balanced and wrapped up 5 different new 52 threads (Justice League, Titans, Suicide Squad, JL Dark, Batfamily). But on their own, I find the alternate reality in Flashpoint and Eobard Thawne more interesting than Darkseid using super parademons. I think a bigger swing for the fences would have been if Flash had died. Remove the dos Deus Machina, find another way to hit reset.
Apokolips War is certainly audacious and I do absolutely love its portrayal of Lois Lane and Harley Quinn plus its insights into Constantine dating life. But I think Flashpoint is the better lets kill everyone and reset the timeline film.
I found the story largely enjoyable but I did not like the way that it threw all of these characters I had grown to like and wanted to see in new things into the garbage, killing them then destroying the Earth and completely wiping out the timeline.I wouldn’t know much about the DTV movies post-Apokalips War, as I’m not going to risk getting invested seeing how they “reward” such investment.
They basically chose the worst way to handle everyone as well, in the most offensive way possible.
So wonder woman was a trapped servant, deformed and mutilated, but needed a man to free her from her bonds?
Why would you do that to her? Superman got away with just a green tattoo, but somehow he suffered more than Diana? I doubt it.
Too much fridging going around in that movie, it’s disturbing because it’s cringe.
As a post-apocalyptic potential future centered around Superman, Damian, Raven, and Constantine that’d be fine, but as the grand finale of several years worth of movies that was terrible. In the former case she’s clearly a side character and will get her chance to be the main one in a later film but in this case it’s the culmination of her own story and everybody else’s and nobody gets to star ever again.Frankly all that would make me happy would be some indication that this new universe is related to Flash’s running off to create a new timeline here.
You spelt “JLU: Task Force X” wrong
I definitely agree about Assault on Arkham. Wish it had made the list. Had a great balance of humor and action and the right level of gore without being gratuitous. Also, not too much Batman, just the right amount.
Couldn’t believe “Assault on Arkham” wasn’t on here. In fact, it’s likely David Ayer saw it, since his Suicide Squad lifted so much from it.
The Dark Knight Returns seems an odd omission – it was a pretty great adaptation, but I guess maybe too faithful for this list?
Dark Knight Returns and Year One are neck and neck. I’d put Dark Knight Returns ahead for the way it adapted Frank Miller’s artwork – I didn’t feel like the simplicity of David Mazzuchelli’s artwork was translated all that well. Peter Weller was perfect as old Batman.
Maybe the artwork had something to do with it, Public Enemies was a good adaptation…but that art style they decided to go with just boggles the mind, especially since the story does have a few dark and serious tones to it.
Yeah, I give credit for Public Enemies adapting the artwork of the comic book, but it was ugly to start with.
The follow up with Supergirl was perfect with the style though, and another film i’m surprised wasn’t on this list.
Was that Batman Superman Apocalypse? It was better than Public Enemies, both the story and designs, but it’s not one of my favorites.
I like it, but I think that’s mostly because of the part where Wonder Woman and Barda beat the shit out of the Furies.
Dark Knight Returns is when I realized that, as much as I had griped when my favorite books were changed for the movies, I really didn’t want a literal translation to the screen.
Please rename to ‘10 best DC animated films [excluding the DCAU for reasons]’
Almost all of them are great movies. Perfect for comics fans.
If Berlanti’s Green Lantern project on HBO gets the same level of effort and care to the lore as they have been giving to the Superman & Lois series, we may finally see a live-action GL and his world done right.
I still wish they included this scene from the comic in All-Star Superman. Also, why isn’t Superman vs. The Elite on this list?
That sequence is one of my absolute favourite in comics. Just beautiful.
Superman vs the Elite is kind of a bizarre entry, and the animation is so wonky. I always thought Superman Unbound was really underrated, John Noble voiced a great Brainiac.
I like it because it’s a direct rebuttal to people who think Superman should just kill his enemies.
I’m always up for a Superman story that does more than make him evil or kill him.
Apparently iT’s hArD to WriTE sUpeerMAn
I blew that up, printed it, and laminated it to hang in my classroom.
He has the compassion and the wisdom to know when super powers won’t do the job.
Does everyone really mean it when they say they hate the Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern film? Because it is a good, watchable film that didn’t even do that bad at the box office. I think some kind of mass hypnosis, probably Sinestro, is reponsible for the mass halluciantion that makes people believe it’s a bad film.
Hate to respond with a YT link but this sums up my problems with it pretty well
My absolute first thought was the Batman “Heart of Ice,” so as I read the list I kept thinking it’d be #1, of course. But that was part of the Animated Series as an episode. Somehow all these years later I thought it was a stand alone movie.
You’re most likely confusing it with Sub-Zero.
Needs more Mask of the Phantasm.
How is ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ not on this list? or do the AV Club staff just hate Frank Miller?and where is the DCAU stuff? Otherwise, Mask of the Phantasm and Return of the Joker would undoubtedly be on this list.Most of the Nu52 outings were utter rubbish.
Mask of the Phantasm, Sub-Zero, and Return of the Joker are all considered part of the DCAU continuity (Batman: The Animated Series, Superman, Batman Beyond, Static, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited).This list features DC Universe Originals that began production in 2007 after Justice League Unlimited concluded.
Mask of the Phantasm was amazing. And they had a Frank Miller one on this list with Year One.
Leaving off the DCAU films is an incredible disservice. Mask of the Phantasm is, without a doubt, better than all of these films, and arguably the greatest Batman movie of all time. It is a true masterpiece, introducing a classic character, and bringing in elements of classic stories but varying them in amazing ways. I’d also add that Return of the Joker is likely in the top five as well. So, this list is woefully incomplete, and in a particularly appalling way.
It may sound like splitting hairs, but those two films were expanded stories based on their respective TV Shows.
The “DC Originals” began production in 2007 after the conclusion of Justice League Unlimited and are mostly stand-alone movies that adapt popular comic story lines or New 52 (Batman & Harley and Justice League vs the Fatal Five were produced as an extension the DCAU, and even that was done so they didn’t have to spend time on new character models).
Everyone knows Phantasm is great, no reason to be appalled at its omission here.
Yeah, I called out Phantasm in my intro to make it clear that I know about it and love it but that’s not what this story is about!
This is a very specific line of movies. It started as the response to Marvel’s own line of DTVs that crashed and burned.
The article directly addresses the DCAU and explains that this list isn’t going to touch on it. Read better.
I understand their justification for not including it; I just think it’s inadequate to exclude the best animated DC film in existence.
I was under the impression that this list was focused on films within the last decade. Otherwise, hell yeah Mask of the Phantasm is the greatest of all.
It even got the legendary thumbs up from Siskel and Ebert, I don’t think any movie in DC history even got that.
this list is woefully incomplete, and in a particularly appalling way.Calm down, dude.
I’ve been rewatching the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited cartoons on HBO Max, and man do they hold up well. The writing, the animation, and the voice performances are all top notch. As far as I’m concerned it would be very hard to watch more Justice League movies without that cast, Kevin Conroy specifically.
It is a little jarring at first, but Jason O’Mara and Bruce Greenwood are pretty good Batman. That being said, JL/JLU are some defining versions of onscreen DC characters for me as well, so I get it.
I just re-watched Superman>Justice League>JLU and agree, it never gets old. Since Batman The Animated Series, the shows have always featured a spot on voice cast. The only one that never clicked for me was George Newbern’s Superman – he was always far too stiff compared to Tim Daly’s more human take.
Agree Bruce Greenwood is great as Batman, love that he carried over into Young Justice which is also pretty solid.
Young Justice is pretty great, and I’m excited for the fourth season (whenever we get it).
Jason O’Mara and Bruce Greenwood are pretty good Batman.
Ben McKenzie (Batman Year One), however… Such a bizarre, wooden performance.
This is what confused me about JL vs The Fatal Five, it seemed like they went through all that effort to get the legendary gang together…just to push a new character?
It’s been over a decade since they were able to join all the amazing voices and chemistry they had, and they squander it on trying to give ANOTHER Green Lantern their own start? Someone got fired on that decision.
That’s also one of DC’s problems – constantly adding new Green Lanterns. The endless options throughout the galaxy and one country on a single planet sports like 5 GLs?I read an interview with Bruce Timm and they didn’t want Fatal Five to be a New 52 continuity, but it was quicker to use established character models since they also were using the old voice cast (even though they updated the Fatal Five from the JLU appearance). It was still fun to see the old gang back together.
This…sloppiness has been a recurring thing recently and I never liked it. Fair enough there are actual production constraints, but I wish the talent that created the old DCAU would respect it a bit more by having continuity line up better. Fatal Five, Batman & Harley Quinn, and the recent Adventures Continue comic by Paul Dini & Alan Burnett are all guilty of this.
Certainly could’ve been a lot better, but I still really enjoyed JL vs The Fatal Five due to the nostalgia.
Love the JL/JLU universe stuff and agreed, they hold up really well (will prob rewatch it, yet again soon), though finally watching Batman the Brave and the Bold, and it holds up pretty well too.
How do they compare with Young Justice? I’ve been watching that lately, and I really liked the first season, but as it progresses (in Season 3 now) I find it less and less compelling (all plot and events, much less of a focus on characterization and emotion.)
Terrible, terrible list. TDKR and the new The Long Halloween are great. And Under the Red Hood seems to be incredibly popular. But, also, Batman vs. Ninja Turtles. That movie understands the problem with the crossovers and addresses it when even the big-budget movies fail to do so. It understands that the entire appeal of any crossover is the interactions, conflicts, and team-ups. Yet, so, many movies spent half of their duration setting up these meetings and the conflicts. This movies skips right ahead to the fun stuff. And it presents endless combinations of people and the lores interacting with each other in interesting ways, while also have them comment on the many absurdities of each franchise from an outsider’s perspective. I am sorry, this list has massive omissions.
Wait, where is Mask of the Phantasm? I know I’m old, but that’s seriously one of the best animated DC comics movies ever. How did they not add it to the list?? The animation quality alone should qualify it but it also has an interesting plot and good characters.
As the article states:Since 2007, Warner Bros. has been releasing a steady stream of
direct-to-video animated films based on DC Comics. Some take place in a
shared universe based on The New 52 comics relaunch that kicked off in
2011, while others are adaptations of popular arcs from years past.
Unlike previous releases such as Batman: Mask Of the Phantasm,
these films don’t directly tie into any DC animated TV shows. They’re
mostly rated PG-13, which lets them delve into decidedly more violent
and mature stories.
Is ‘Justice League vs The Fatal Five’ considered to be part of the DCUA?because that film was great (and definitely better than some of the films in this list like Flashpoint)
It is, yeah.
It was ok, it just made no sense having to finally reunite all that great talent after over a decade when the show finished…and they focus on a new Green Lantern.
Because we certainly don’t have enough of those hanging around…on earth…located in the U.S….
I would have used recently released Batman: The Long Halloween as the inspiration for this list rather than trying to keep Zack Snyder’s vanity project relevant. But really, no excuse is needed to talk about the good DCAU films! Assuming we’re going with the original direct-to-video movies that started with Superman: Doomsday, my Top 10, looks like this:10. Justice League: New Frontier (2008)
9. The Death of Superman (pt 1) 20188. Justice League: Apokolips War (2020)7. Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010)6. Superman vs. The Elite (2012)5. Justice League: Doom (2012)4. Wonder Woman (2009)3. Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013)2. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (2012-2013)1. Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010)Honorable Mentions: Assault on Arkham, Gotham by Gaslight, and Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. Of the 41 movies, there are a few other solid entries, but most of them are meh, especially when they bungle some of the more notable adaptations like Killing Joke or Hush. But what I really miss is how they’ve stopped trying to emulate the iconic art styles of the source material. The Long Halloween really could have used its comic’s noir look instead of going for… Archer?
I also wish they’d have used Tim Sale’s artwork as an inspiration for Long Halloween’s aesthetic, like WB Animation used to do. The New 52 character designs weren’t my favorite, but it was a little more interesting than the bland 1970s comic book look they’ve used lately. It does, however, work better in the much darker Long Halloween than it did in the Justice Society or Superman films. Fans have been asking for films that aren’t Batman-related, so it was refreshing to see Justice Society and Flash in the spotlight. The two Wonder Woman films are pretty solid. I agree it was a mistake retooling the end of Hush. Sure, a majority of the audience knew the ending going in, but revising it just to subvert expectations is pointless if it’s already a good enough story to adapt. As for Killing Joke, I don’t think there’s any salvaging that, I think it’s an ugly story with a tone-deaf ending.
Maybe we’ll get Kingdom Come one of these days…
omg, Kingdom Come would be amazing.
I love Kingdom Come, but a large part of its appeal is the Alex Ross artwork, which will almost certainly be lost in translation with anything short of near photo-realistic CGI.
You’re right: https://bleedingcool.com/movies/anime/dc-wont-animating-kingdom-come-bruce-timm-talks-10-years-dc-animated-movies/I don’t think it has to be photo-real, I’d be fine with this:
For non-DCAU movies, the answer is clearly Under the Red Hood, easily.Please no more slideshows.
As of the release of Justice Society: World War II on April 27, there are 41 DC Universe Animated Original Movies
Batman: The Long Halloween pt. 1 came out on June 22, bringing the number to 42. How did you miss this?And leaving out The Dark Knight Returns invalidates the entire list.
All-Star Superman is the second greatest Superman movie of all time. Full stop. Speaking of which, one of the men responsible for giving us the greatest Superman movie of all time has passed. 🙁
https://deadline.com/2021/07/richard-donner-dead-superman-lethal-weapon-director-1234786372/
The latest one, Man of Tomorrow was really great I thought. I loved the character designs and the slightly different origin take. Also one of the scariest iterations of Parasite in recent memory.
I just watched Justice Society WWII and Man of Tomorrow and I completely disagree regarding the new character designs. I’m all for a fresh take, but they look almost artless – like bland corporate advertising storyboard artwork. And what is with Flash’s mask hanging on his nose all wonky?
But my main complaint is NO ONE EVER BLINKS! It’s the easiest way to bring an animated character to life, but everyone is just staring dead eyed.I haven’t seen Long Halloween yet, and it looks better visually, but so far I’m not digging the look of the latest DC animated films.
the 2009 Wonder woman movie> Wonder Woman 1984.
Russell was such a good Diana. Wish it got a sequel
My top 10:1. JL: Flashpoint Paradox2. JL: Doom3. Gotham by Gaslight4. Dark Knight Rises (pt 2 in particular)5. Under the Red Hood6. Death of Superman7. Batman vs. Robin8. JL: War9. Batman: Year One10. JL: Gods and MonstersBONUS11. Assault on Arhkam12. JL: Crisis on Two Earths13. Batman: Bad Blood14. Son of Batman15: Emerald Knights16. Wonder Woman: Bloodliens17. GL: First Flight18. JL: Apokalips War19. Deathstroke: Knights and Dragons20. JL: Throne of AtlantisMy whole ranking of the DC animated filmshttps://boxd.it/behNC
Gods and Monsters is my favorite on this list. Then JL: Dark and New Frontier. Wish Assault on Arkham had made the cut, that was definitely better than the live action Suicide Squad movies by a large margin.
I’ve only seen a couple movies, none of which are on the list. My favorite animated DC film is Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.And while it’s as uneven as some of the newer animated films (if not all of them, not sure how good these are?) Supergirl vs Darkseid is always my go to for how I imagine Supergirl to be, and not the awkwardly hover flailing in one spot version on the CW.
I thought maybe I could make my way thru the “universe” that Flashpoint Paradox starts. Even during pandemic, I couldn’t make it past the 20 minute mark. Really god awful character and concept designs, significant down grades in casting from the early DC Animated high points.
The only one I strongly disagree with is Emerald Knights, it’s a fun look at the wider GL Corps (and adapts a couple of key Alan Moore stories) but being an anthology it doesn’t really have a dramatic core.I’ve always found Justice League: Doom to be one of the best films if you’re just getting into DC animation, but a bit of a retread if you’ve watched the Justice League series or some other DC projects. The animation is fantastic though, it’s one of the last times if not the last time they got Japanese studio TMS on the animation.
Will never understand the praise for Flashpoint. It’s more a means to an end than an actual good story, to me. It’s become the go to retcon/reboot device at DC too. Idk, outside of Thomas Wayne it does nothing for me.
Hard agree.
what about the dark knight returns which is almost exactly like comic
…I just can’t get into these, and for most of them, it’s the art style. The flashpoint trailer; I dislike the art. Not the animation, that’s fine, but most of these the art is … Meh? It just seems so generic and cheap.
The designs are god awful. What’s with the pinheads and elongated torsos?
They look so bland and odd in almost all of these trailers. New frontier gets a pass, obviously, but it’s heavily working with Cooke’s artstyle. Imo it still doesn’t go far enough. ean lines aren’t the issue. Timm/Dini did clean lines and that art remains iconic and beautiful. It doesn’t do it for me. It just screams average generic Saturday morning toon.
“Average generic Sat morning toon” with swear words, blood and some one’s immature idea what “sex” is.
New Frontier is so damned good.
I haven’t seen most of the movies on the list, but I liked the recent “Red Son” adaptation (based on the what-if comic book where Superman landed in Stalin’s Soviet Union and became a defender of the Soviet way while Lex Luthor becomes the American President).
Redhood not being on the list and Apokolips War is Batshit crazy. They are probably the two best DC movies since The Dark Knight (even better than live action Wonderwoman). Fuck Wonderwoman movie cartoon movie was great and so was Suicide Squad. I have to strongly disagree with this list. Like a fucking alot but we all have our own opinions.
The 10 Best DCU Films!…The cartoons will always be better.
“He’s not dead. He’s up there fixing the sun. And when he’s done, he’ll be back.”Lois draws a lot of great voice acting performances (particularly from Dana Delany), but Christina Hendricks knocks it out of the park in All Star Superman. Her performance does so much heavy lifting. It’s probably not worthy of a spot on this list (the only entries I’ve seen that it might have a shot at displacing are Flashpoint Paradox or maybe Emerald Knights) but it was fun watching all four hours of the Snyder cut, then putting on Justice League: War, and watching them tell pretty much the same story in under 80 minutes, clean and easy.
I’ve come to appreciate JL: War a lot more recently, its problems are mostly inherent in the source material, mainly everyone being jerks to each other and Wonder Woman is cluelessly naive. Plus I get why they left Aquaman out but they should’ve tightened the focus instead of replacing him with Shazam.
Fucking finally: a listicle I support.
This list is missing one of my favorites.
This slide show format is terrible…
Under the Red Hood.How.Does this List.Not have.Batman: Under the Red Hood?
Most DC animated stuff is pretty much gold. The marvel stuff can’t compare in any manner. Live action, however, is the exact opposite. Baffling really.
But while it’s unlikely that Snyder will ever fulfill his dream of
making the child of Bruce Wayne and Lois Lane into the new Batman…wait, what?
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I dream of the day when Zach Snyder isn’t mentioned in connection to DC.Man of Steel turned me into a Man of Sleep and everything after that is pure trash. He wants batman to be ass raped in prison…he’s terrible