Animated Theatrical Superhero Movies

[Soviet Heavy]

There's an ungainly title if I ever saw one.

I'm surprised that next to no Superhero films these days are animated, given how successful both Warner Brothers and Disney have been with their straight to DVD adaptations of DC and Marvel comics, respectively.

With the Dark Knight Trilogy complete, and a breather until the next wave of Marvel films and Man of Steel coming, I'm wondering if now would be the time to really consider a serious attempt at making an animated Superhero flick for the big screen.

The only film that I can think of that did this before was Mask of the Phantasm, and that was only on short notice, leading to it bombing at the box office. Despite it's poor sales record, Mask of the Phantasm is still one of, if not the best Batman film ever made. If a film of its quality was given the promotional backing and ad campaign of a big film, I can see it being commercially successful.

One of the leading reasons that animated films that aren't Disney, Dreamworks or whoever does the Ice Age movies tend to fail is because they aren't promoted. But if there was a concentrated effort to bring an animated Superhero movie to the screen, with the advertisement backing, would it not be awesome?

I'm envisioning a Bruce Timm and Paul Dini written Superman film, that has a budget to allow them to go hog wild in bringing the character to life. I repeat, would it not be awesome?

What do you think? Is this the prime time to bring back superheros into the realm of theatrical animation? It might be just the thing we need to put the next batman movie apart from the ultra gritty Nolanverse.

Captcha: taco tuesday.

It's monday you moron.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Depends,
all the animated superhero movies a quick Netflix search gives me are 2d animation,
which is almost non existent in theaters these days.

I don't believe a mature (PG13) 3D animated superhero movie would do well either,
because 3D animated movies have a stigma for being kids films.

 

[Dandark]

A lot of people insantly assume that animated = for children. It's also a superhero movie so people will assume that it's for children or feel like they are watching a childrens movie.

This is what I have alway's assumed is the reason though, my parents assumed I was alway's watching cartoons when I was watching anime like Hellsing or Elfen lied. Pro tip they are not child friendly.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

There's a /ton/ of PG-13 animated superhero movies being made, they're just all direct to DVD. Marvel and DC both have been adapting graphic novels into animated movies for the better part of the last decade, with Marvel doing a lot of new stories meant for animation, too. As for why none of them are getting a theatrical release, if I had to guess I'd say it's a combination of the niche audience of comic books and the perceived lack of people who want to see a traditionally animated movie. The comic book niche is the bigger killer, though. As sad as it sounds, there are a lot of people who will go see a live action comic book movie, but will turn up their noses at the source material, or at a cartoon based on it. Which reminds me, I've had the animated adaptation of Justice League: The New Frontier sitting on my shelf for the last year, and I haven't even pulled it out of the shrinkwrap. I need to remedy that.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

There's a /ton/ of PG-13 animated superhero movies being made, they're just all direct to DVD. Marvel and DC both have been adapting graphic novels into animated movies for the better part of the last decade, with Marvel doing a lot of new stories meant for animation, too. As for why none of them are getting a theatrical release, if I had to guess I'd say it's a combination of the niche audience of comic books and the perceived lack of people who want to see a traditionally animated movie. The comic book niche is the bigger killer, though. As sad as it sounds, there are a lot of people who will go see a live action comic book movie, but will turn up their noses at the source material, or at a cartoon based on it. Which reminds me, I've had the animated adaptation of Justice League: The New Frontier sitting on my shelf for the last year, and I haven't even pulled it out of the shrinkwrap. I need to remedy that.

That one was pretty good, if I remember correctly. Sadly no Kevin Konroy. Superman: Doomsday is pretty awesome too.

 

[Casual Shinji]

It is a shame that there's such a lack of animated superhero movies, because among the many things The Incredibles did well was show how great animation can bring superhero action to life in a way no live-action movie ever could.

But especially in these times no audience will ever accept a superhero cartoon as something that can bring real drama. Animation will always play second fiddle to live-action, so neither Warner Bros. or Marvel Studios will ever put all their muscle behind an animated superhero movie in the same way they did with The Avengers or Dark Knight.

Yes, it would be awesome, and it would be no more complicated than making a live-action blockbuster, but it is never going to happen.