GREEN LANTERN Takes Flight 11.11.11
“Green Lantern: The Animated Series” premieres Friday, November 11. And thank heavens, it’s not an origin story. How many of those have we seen now? Between the Green Lantern movie starring Ryan Reynolds, “Justice League: New Frontier”, “Green Lantern: First Flight” and the Emerald Dawn mini-series in the comics, the origin of Hal Jordan as Green Lantern of sector 2814 is old hat now. And with yet another origin of a certain Kryptonian on the horizon, it’s a nice change of pace to see the beginning of a series with the character already established.
At least, that’s what it looks like from the preview material. I’m hoping I’m right.
This show picks up with Hal Jordan already practicing the art of Ring Fu, and it looks like we’re going to get right into the action with a two-part story set on the frontiers of space, as Jordan (Josh Keaton) and Killowog (Kevin Micheal Richardson) have to face a Red Lantern menace. Atrocitus has assembled a Red Lantern Corps, and from the looks of things, he’s bent on the destruction of the Green Lanterns, whatever it takes. The show is obviously going to take its cues from the Geoff Johns post-Parallax crazy-Hal era, where every color has its own power. So in addition to the Red Lanterns, I’m predicting the other color clubs will show up eventually.
The cast also features Kurtwood Smith (no newbie when it comes to the Corps), Grey DeLisle (best known for playing Daphne in the current iteration of the Scooby gang), and Tom Kenny (Plastic Man, Spongebob Squarepants). Star Josh Keaton has some geek cred, too, having voiced Spider-Man in a number of video games and the Flash in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. Richardson also has a good history with the capes, with credits such as the current “Thundercats”, “Young Justice” and “Batman: The Brave and the Bold” among his many animation credits. (First chance I get, I’m asking him if B’Wana Beast is really dead…)
Bruce Timm returns as the executive producer, although this is the first DC animated anything without Andrea Romano’s name attached. She’s been involved with these projects since “Super Friends”, and it’s odd not to see her name on the IMDb listing (which doesn’t look complete…). And while you might not recognize their names, the cast is solid. It will be interesting to see how it plays.
It’s also one of the first ventures into CGI animation for this group. Likely this is due to the success of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”, but it’s nice to see these characters look more like action figures than woodcut totems.
Here’s the opening scene:
[youtube=http://youtu.be/C8O4TCIdDos]
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The show airs Friday nights at 7/6c on Cartoon Network.
[All photos: Cartoon Network]
