The next release in Warner Bros / DC Animated movies came out today (June 7, 2011). Feeding into the marketing frenzy of the live action Green Lantern movie is Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. Like Batman: Gotham Knight, GLEK is 6 chapters that wrap into one overall story. But you already knew that.
To me, as a fan, there are a few things that stand out more than the movie itself. Advertising. Where is it? I feel like this WB/DC release has not only been poorly advertised, it has completely fallen off the radar. Maybe I’ve been busy. Maybe I’ve been watching the wrong TV channels. But there seems to almost be a void in relation to letting people know this movie is out there.
Our friends at Best Buy once again offer a mini statue. I always visit Best Buy when these new releases come out. They always put related product on sale. This often includes prior movies and boxed sets of seasons or entire series. On a visit for a release within the last year, I picked up the complete Superman Animated Series (with an extra disc) for $30. It was labeled as normally $45. My son and I enjoyed watching an episode every evening right around dinner time for over a month. Well worth it.
=== TOYS ? ===
Speaking of toys, Mattel has the master retail DC Comics license, so the main toys would come from them. When Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths came out, fans asked "Where are the toys?" Mattel’s answer was that they did not have enough time to prepare. I think it is doable. Why?
1. Mattel knew long enough in advance to make Swamp Thing for the DCUC line to have it ready to reveal almost the day after the comic was released which brought Swamp Thing back into the DC Universe. And Mattel kept it a secret. Surely WB/DC could give Mattel enough lead time to put together a wave of singles and 3 packs.
2. Its too expensive. Not with all that Justice League Unlimited tooling already in existence. These are animated style movies. The figures should be animated in style. JLU would be close enough. Mattel has 4 adult male bodies and at least 1 female body. The only thing we need are heads.
3. Packaging. Don’t pay for new graphics at all. Make a deal with WB to use the art from the DVD package for the toy line. Use this to emphasize the relation between the product and the movie.
4. Limit the offering to one wave. No wondering how many waves will this last. Set it up from the beginning to be just one. 4 single figures, 2 multi packs, 1 mega pack.
5. To maintain retail space, have the lines for each movie use the same overall UPC.
6. Many of the figures could be re-releases with updated paint apps where needed. Movie lines are aimed towards kids. There are new 5 year olds every year. Most of them would not have Superman and Batman yet.
7. The best reason of all. They’ve already done it. Mattel made new figures for Superman/Batman Public Enemies. If they can do it once, they can do it again!
Its a shame we did not get animated 4" figures from Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. And now we have Emerald Knights. Yes, there are a ton of GL figures right now, but none of them are animated to go with this movie.
Good ideas on the toys. However, neither of us work in the business, so what do we know, right? /eyeroll
Seeing as how I am not a fan of the (live action) movie designs, I would be all over some comic or animated style figures!
Matty missed out on getting my money this GL season.
Completely agree with the advertising for this movie. I completely forgot about it until someone mentioned it was coming out in the forums on Sunday.
As far as the toys, I agree with every point but number 5. Retailers will screw that up royally.
i agree mattel dropped the ball when it did not do the toy tie in for crisis on two earths. and also looks like emerald knights which given the live action green lantern movie is about to hit mattel would make a small bit of money on the toys . seems the one part of the dc license mostly the rights to have toys tie into the animated stuff is being unused by mattel. hope they get on the ball with the next movie after emerald knights.
Just finished watching Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. All in all really neat! It’s classic “Tales of the Green Lantern Corps” style stories including some truly classic GL stories taken straight from the comics.
It will be insanely confusing to anyone who’s only experience thus far with GL was Green Lantern: First Flight. The character designs are IDENTICAL but the story is totally separate as it can in no way fit into the timeline established by First Flight (for example Hal and Sinestro are both veteran GLs in Emerald Knights while in First Flight Sinestro goes rogue on Hal’s first misson as a GL.)
The voice acting is rather jarring too. It’s good but so different than First Flight. I think Nathan Fillion is a better Hal, but I think I prefer Michale Madsen as Kilowog. Initially I much preferred Victor Garber as Sinestro, but by the end Jason Issaacs really grew on me. Arnold Vosloo is quite good as Abin Sur.
But how can you not like a film with Roddy Piper doing a voice!
I agree. Specially with what you said regarding tooling. When “Under the Red Hood” came out, I saw a bunch of basic Red Hood customs that looked damn good. The figure itself was faily simple to put together. The only tools needed were: paint, a Mr. Terrific body and an Amazo head. Which left me wondering why Mattel hadn’t done this? The answer brought me to my next realization as evidenced by the Public Enemies fiasco. And that is… Mattel is painfully oblivious to the idiosyncracies of their customers as it pertains to their various lines and scales. Customers who buy DCUC are looking for realistic interpretations of the various DC characters. They hated the animated look/style that was given to them as part of the 6″ Public Enemies line. Fans of the Animated DC Universe (in all its incarnations) mostly collected figures in the 4.5 inch scale. The ones that were provided to them were in the wrong scale. And sadly, they would have bought those Public Enemies figures in a heartbeat. Specially those who had been requesting a Power Girl figure, along with a new Superman sculpt. The only ones who lucked out were the ones collecting the 3.5 scale. They got the characters they wanted, along with the look they were looking for.
I just wished they would clean up the language with these animated movies. There were maybe only two instances during Emerald Knights, but why have words like “damn”, “bastards”, etc.? I believe these movies should be all-ages, but with the dialogue in instances, I really don’t want to show them to my nephews.
You must have been up in arms with Batman Under the Red Hood. Personally, I agree 100%. WB/DC has repeatedly stated they are aiming for an older audience, while stores consistently ignore this and place them next to Disney stuff.