advertisement >   On the subject of episode count, there's a curious lack of consistency involved that betrays WB's current bias most obviously. Shows like Batman and Superman, which do not air in American markets anymore, have has single-disc releases of no more than four episodes (also for Justice League - a pain, given that two episodes make up a single story). Batman Beyond had six on a disc, but there hasn't been hide nor hair of those releases for over a year. Justice League Unlimited's recent release "Saving the World" has only three episodes, a very unpleasant treatment for a show that blatantly takes superheroics very seriously. (Oddly enough, the upcoming release for The Batman also sports only three episodes; perhaps the ratings have been disappointing? They certainly rerun episodes a lot.) Only Unlimited regularly plays these days; even the first two seasons of Justice League has stopped rerunning on Cartoon Network. Because these Timm shows do not sport kiddie-style approaches and are not rerun in any markets that current children can view them, I find their involvement in the DC Kids line to be confusing. There's no attempt from the scheduling or marketing departments to package and promote the shows in that way. Batman used to be quite the merchandise generator, but the children of Batman's day are the high school and college students of today. So, again, unless the episodes on the single-discs are really that important (and maybe they are: Superman's "A Little Piece of Home" release sports my favorite episode of the show, The Late Mr. Kent, as of yet unreleased on a box set), I cannot understand why Timm fans of any age would cough up the cash for them. It is Teen Titans that seems to get the most lavish attention in DC Kids. The recent release "Switched" has a whopping seven episodes on the one disc; between this and "Divide and Conquer", they've already released the first season inside of eight months. Titans is getting around a lot these days, and it's clear that WB is pushing the show about as hard as humanly possible. It airs constantly on both the WB and on Cartoon Network, and although the show only premiered in 2003, they're on their fourth season already. It's clear where the money is going if they can afford to keep these artists working like a well-oiled factory. Obviously, because the episode count is the best on these Titans releases, they're my primary recommendations if you plan on buying anything in the DC Kids line. It's just plain cost-effective to buy a disc with seven episodes over one with three. The list price of "Saving the World" is 14.97 while "Switched" is 19.97 - five more dollars for over double the amount of content. Is the show worth the effort from an adult perspective? Sometimes. It's a lot sillier than the Timm shows, which parents can probably sit back and appreciate as easily as an action show like 24. Sometimes it's a lot of good silly fun, though, like with Mad Mod on "Switched". More importantly, if you're buying the disc for the operative word in the collection title - "Kids" - they're probably already big fans. WB's competitors have flooded the TV-to-DVD market with their box sets, even getting one of those shows (Family Guy) brought back from cancellation. It's a great thing that WB Home Video has started to break into the market with Batman and Superman, but one hopes that they still don't expect shows like Unlimited to get great returns when parents have to shell out 15 bucks for three measly episodes. One is reminded of the exchange from the Futurama episode Raging Bender: "Sales of Bender Brand bath soaps are down 20 percent." "[sniffs soap] Those morons! I said peaberry, not sandalwood!" "If you can't move sandalwood, you don't belong here!" If Timm shows can't move single-discs with three or four episodes, do they not belong here either, even though Titans gets to move single-discs with seven episodes? That's a catch-22 if ever I've heard one. Rival studios are commanding the booming TV-to-DVD market, and WB is sitting on a lot of shows that could rake in a lot of cash. They need to recognize that only the shows that really get advertised for kids should be get kid-like treatments. Titans is a kids' show. Fine. But the rest of the DC Comics Kids Collection doesn't really belong there. Even Warner Bros. doesn't believe that they do, as evidenced by their haphazard attention. They need a box set blitzkrieg, because those are popular shows that nobody gets to see anymore. They should also strike a deal with Steven Spielberg and stop sitting on classics like Tiny Toons and Animaniacs, and revisit the heights of those shows' considerable popularities. Until they do, WB Home Video is merely a kid in the world of DVD.

A critique by Alex Weitzman
First Published on April 17, 2005

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