Poll: Has anyone noticed that the quality of the DC Animated FIlms has gone downhill?

[Kenbo Slice]

It seems like after The Flashpoint Paradox, their animated films have gone severely downhill. Every other movie they've done since hasn't been good, like at all.

Do you guys think they're going downhill?

 

[Pandalisk]

Really? You didn't like the Aqua man one and the Son of Batman? I get that Flashpoint was fucking brilliant on a grand scale of action and blood, but I liked the others like Assault on Arkham and sure Batman vs. Robin will have the court of owls and undying zombie assassins!

 

[Zontar]

DC Animated Movies have always been hit or miss even more so then their big screen project. It's television series where they really shine, though they're well past their prime in that field as well, the days of the DCAU long gone, though despite this they still shine through due to the quality of a lot of other animated works falling as well (you'd think that with Disney buying Marvel they'd have made better works, but nope, once they have a series that could give Marvel the title of best animator between the two, they cancel Earth's Mightiest Heroes)

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Yup. JL War was unbearable, Throne of Atlantis was just lazy, Batman and Son was easily the worst, and Batman vs Robin was just mediocre.

Their biggest problems are voice acting and art style. After people like Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, everyone sounds like amateurs trying to do Bale's Batman voice. And for some reason they went for the realistic anime style. This makes them look weird, and even Superman looks a little scrawny. The action is pretty good, I just wish they didn't move around the camera as if they were filming real people. It makes it look choppy.

Assault on Ark ham is the only standout, and even that film has it's problems.

Bruce Timm is making a new movie with Justice League Unlimited style animation, but it features this weird Elseworlds story. It will be good to see that kind of animation again though.

 

[Crazy Zaul]

Yeh they used to be almost always good but have been a bit inconsistent lately, but at least they finally stopped telling the same Darkseid story over and over. The latest ones seem to have lot more build up and less actual main story too.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

For better or worse, I like their ability to handle a large, diverse cast. It's not something DC has been able to do in live action, and frankly, the live action stuff could learn a few lessons.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

Maybe I'm getting old, but it seems that all comic book based media has gone down hill. As high as Marvel can bounce the quality ball it has to come back down sometime. It seems that every few years we get a fantastic job done, then the quality starts to slide again. But even the comic books them selves slide down hill. DC is just not ever very great IMO, none of their good guys have real problems, and the villains are always more interesting than the heroes. It's not a good super hero story when it's more satisfying for the villain to win.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

Eh, I thought the DC animated movies were a bit of a mixed bag even before they New 52'd everything up. Some good stuff like Crisis on Two Earths and Under the Red Hood but a lot of stuff I thought was either mindless or pointless like the Superman/Batman ones

 

[Chaos Isaac]

I'm sorry. I don't remember animated DC Films ever being good, at most barely decent, and typically laughably bad.
Now i'm interested in seeing how bad they got of people who liked the other stuff is complaining about it now.

 

[Scarim Coral]

While I didn't like War but I thought the other films after that were better than War especially Throne of Atlantis. Also it seen DC has reverted back to their safety net due to the recent Batman related films (Son and Vs) since I read that Superman Unbound did not sell enough.

Still I still have faith in them especially with the upcoming film Jutice League: Gods and Monster (don't let the blank thumbnail fool you, it's still working). The animation look like the old JL series!-


Before you asked WTH is going on, it's a original story created by Bruce Timm and it's not based on any comicbook other than it's pretty much an "elseworld" sort of story (standalone stories that are not cannon to the main comics and itis has alot of "what if" scenarios and alot of changes to the characters).

DC has always had some animated stinkers despite how good some of their movies are but I will admit that's it's been more miss than hit post-Flashpoint. I just hope the new Bruce Timm's JL: Gods and Monsters gets them back on track. Either way, they're still superior to Marvel's animated lineup which is essentially non-existent (outside of anime, but come on, that's anime).

You should see their old animated films when they let Liongate be involve (the Iron Man movie, Dr Strange, Avenger Next and the Ultimate 1 and 2). Those were god awful!! Granted the other Marvel films after that were somewhat better like Hulk vs and Planet Hulk. I haven't watched that Thor animated movie before Thor can out nor do I want to watched it.

 

[flying_whimsy]

I actually don't think the animated stuff itself has gone downhill (the animation, direction, and voice acting are better than ever); rather, I think it's that they have been basing it on terrible stories. They started using it to try and push the more recent moves in the comics, but that stuff has been awful. Consequently, the animated features have been awful. (It doesn't help that they've had two features focused on Damian Wayne: a character poorly conceived, implemented, and inserted into the bat-verse.)

It's such a shame, since this is all coming on the heels of the animated Dark Knight Returns; which is probably one of the best animated things they've done that wasn't a full blown series. (And to be fair, as much as I didn't like the Flashpoint Paradox, it did give me a new insight into the Flash.)

I think they'd be better off going for iconic stories like Kingdom Come or original tales rather than basically acting as marketing for the comics. Could you imagine how awesome a full-blown animated feature(s) based on Kingdom Come would be as a theatrical release?

 

[Little Woodsman]

Much of the quality was lost when Dwayne McDuffie passed on (heart attack).

His vision, and his gift for bringing his vision to the screen are sorely missed.

 

[FPLOON]

I don't think it's the quality of the animated movies that had gone downhill, per se, but rather the material that these specific movies are adapting... For some reason, most of the adaptions of the new 52 I've seen haven't really been worth the wait to watch no matter how cool-looking those trailers make them out to be... On the other hand, everything else that gets adapted has peaked my interest and then some after the first viewing...

Overall, I pretty sure someone else has made a better point about the actual declining quality of the DC animated movies, but in my opinion, it's only the quality of the source material being used for the DC animated movies that seems to be declining in general...

 

[Trek1701a]

As others have said, the physical animation hasn't really degraded but what they are sourcing the material from (New 52) is. Add to that, from my perspective that they have been concentrating on Batman as the main piece.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

I watched Batman vs. Robin and it was amazing.

The reason is probably because all the characters are explored thoroughly compared to the Son of Batman, and some people might complain that it should have come first. Regardless, they managed to do this and have a lot of great action set pieces, a few good twists here and there, and it makes me hopeful for another film with Batman, Damian Wayne, and Nightwing.