Static Thoughts - Back to the Future Animated Show

Last week the world celebrated ‘Back to the Future Day,’ a general celebration of the classic film trilogy that coincided with the day Doc Brown and Marty McFly were supposed to appear in the future in the 2^nd film.  It was a fun time had by all that mainly consisted of people meme-ing the film online and celebrating how much the movies still rock, and with good reason.  Aside from a few questionable aspects with Marty stealing rock ‘n’ roll music in the first film the Back to the Future trilogy is one of the best film trilogies of all time, a wonderfully written and super engaging sci-fi comedy series that was instantly beloved and remains a cultural touchstone to this day.  

Back to the Future was such a massive hit that even Ronald Reagan quoted in his 1986 state of the union address.  With a  hit that big it’s only logical that there would be some kind of extended universe material to continue the adventures of dweeby Marty McFly and crazy Doc Brown, especially given that the 3^rd film gave Doc a wife, kids, and a flying time travelling train car.  Well, in 1991 some cruel madmen decide to tell us what future Doc Brown and family did make for themselves and the abomination that is the Back to the Future animated series was birthed into the world. 

Week of Review - The Batman

Edited by Robert Beach

By the mid-2000s, the superhero multimedia landscape had decidedly reversed fortunes. DC was still dominating the television landscape with monster hits like Smallville and the twin animated powerhouses of Justice League and Teen Titans; however, in the world of film, Marvel had more or less supplanted DC’s previously held stranglehold on the superhero genre. After Batman & Robin’s major failure, DC had spent nearly 7 years rebuilding its brand image while Marvel had cranked out adaptation after adaptation. By the year 2004, we had Blade 1 through 3, X-Men 1 and 2, Spider-Man 1 and 2, The Punisher, Hulk,and then Daredevil, Elektra, and Fantastic Four waiting in the wings. 

By this point, it was obvious the superhero genre was not only back from the dead, but it was enjoying an unprecedented boom in adaptation and success. Quite surreptitiously, DC began plans to reintroduce their most successful hero back to the big screen. Plans that culminated in 2005’s Batman Begins. Before that, DC first worked to get Batman back on TV in his own solo show, and thus we got The Batman.