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Title: Birds Of Prey: The Complete
Series
Region: One
Genre: Superhero Action Drama
Stars: Dina Meyer, Rachel Skarsten,
Ashley Scott, Shemar Moore, Mia Sara and Ian Abercrombie
Guest Stars: Joe Flanigan, Lori
Laughlin, Brian Thompson, Mitch Pileggi, and Mark Hamill as the voice of The
Joker
Based On The DC Comic Book
Executive Producers: Mike Tollin,
Brian Robbins, and Joe Davola
Feature
length: 541 minutes
Extras:
All Three Seasons Of Animated Web Series Gotham Girls, Original
Languages:
English Dolby Stereo Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Subtitles For The Deaf And Hearing Impaired
Packaging:
Four-Disc Single Size Keep Case
Sound:
Dolby Stereo Surround Sound
Television
Season Of Broadcast: 2002 – 2003/DVD Release: 2008
Home
Video Distributor: Warner Home Video
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera
Warner Brothers Television and
Tollin/Robbins Productions, the creative collaborative force that reinvigorated
the Superman mythos with the hit television series Smallville
attempted to do the same thing for the “Batman” franchise with the short
lived TV series Birds Of Prey. Based on the DC Comic, Birds Of Prey
opens with a narration by Alfred Pennyworth (Ian Abercrombie) on the night where
one of the biggest crackdowns on crime in the history of New Gotham City
dismantles the Joker’s crime organization. However not before the Joker has
Selena Kyle AKA “Catwoman” murdered in front of her daughter and personally
cripples Barbara Gordon AKA “Batgirl” with a single bullet. Seven years have
now passed and Barbara has reinvented herself into “Oracle,” the overseeing
eye who watches over New Gotham from her Clock Tower Layer, which looks a lot
like the Chrysler Building while the secret daughter of Bruce Wayne and Selena
Kyle, “Huntress,” nightly fights the forces of crime that destroyed her
mother and drove her father out of Gotham.
When a clairvoyant young girl
arrives at New Gotham, circumstance draws her to the crime fighters as the
legacy of the past threatens to destroy the future unless the Birds Of Prey
can stop it. The trio is made of genre film veteran Dina Meyer as Oracle, Dark
Angel alumni Ashley Scott as the busty Huntress, and Rachael Skarsten as
Dinah. The casting is excellent because collectively the three women cross the
age barriers between the thirtysomethings of “Generation X” who grew up with
syndicated reruns of the Adam West’s Batman series as well as The
Dark Knight Returns graphic novel that set the tone for Tim Burton’s
visually stunning feature film adaptations. Twentysomethings will likely relate
to Huntress who is just getting herself all together personally despite being a
professional crime fighter, and there is no doubt that teenagers will find
interest in Rachael Skarsten’s Dinah, who at once reveals great potential as a
budding crime fighter while living the out the ultimate teenage runaway fantasy.
The look of the show is very
cinematic and yet very much like a live action comic book complete with kick-ass
fights sequences, cartoon like CGI, and enough visual references to keep
continuity with the look of the feature films that had preceded it at the time
while still maintaining a style unique on to itself. The series a slightly self
referential with a dialogue nod to Marvel Comic’s Spider-Man not unlike
the Superman nod heard in the Sam Raimi feature film and there appears to
even be a subtle nod to Smallville with mention of “comets” or
whatnot having fallen to Earth lately. (Maybe kryptonite?)
The prologue and flashbacks show Dina Meyer as Batgirl and to describe
her look I would say she looks a bit like the 1960’s Batgirl from the Adam
West TV series, but she definitely looks much better than Alicia Silverstone so
in short she is still the best looking live action Batgirl I’ve seen yet. The
costuming for Huntress in the pilot became a work in progress with her official
series outfit appearing in the second episode and thereon. There is also an
interesting if not rocky mentor/student relationship presented here and judging
by some dialogue shared between Huntress and Oracle, Ashley Scott manages to
convey a sense of dangerousness to her character that is more in keeping with
Catwoman than someone like Robin. We also get to see the image of Batman and The
Joker, who is voiced by Mark Hamill in the flashbacks. Mia Sara is a reserved
“Dr. Harley Quinzel,” a character introduced in Bruce Timm’s Batman:
The Animated Series, but I was fortunate to screen the original version of
the pilot, which features Sherylin Fenn as Harley Quinn, who was a far better
choice for the role and looked more like the animated character than Sara.
Fortunately the original pilot is included within this four-disc set as one of
the extra features.
Six years after the series aired on
television, Birds Of Prey now looks and feels more dated because the tone
of Batman has changed since Writer/Director Christopher Nolan
reinvigorated the franchise for the new millennium with Batman Begins and
The Dark Knight. Genre films and television are also a bit more subtle or
subdued now than they were and also more dramatic if not soap opera like. So the
focus is not so much on costumes and makeup as is the storytelling as can be
seen in highly successful TV shows that have aired in this decade like Smallville,
LOST, and the new Battlestar Galactica. I imagine there will be a
change back since things go in cycles, but even then it will be different
because today’s genre film and television fans are more sophisticated than
ever and demand more and they deserve more too.
For reasons I cannot explain at this
time, all thirteen episodes of Birds Of Prey are presented in a
letterboxed aspect ratio of (1.78:1) while the unaired original pilot (49:52) is
presented enhanced for 16 by 9 televisions. The results are terrible if you have
a widescreen HDTV, which more people do now because depending upon the player
settings, the image will appear windowboxed within a (1.33:1) aspect ratio and
as a result what should have been a visual treat becomes a visual
disappointment. The original English Stereo Surround Soundtrack is provided here
along with English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired encoded as an
option. If the unaired original
pilot had been presented in a letterboxed aspect ratio too, I actually might not
be as harsh to the entire series presentation on DVD as it is, but to me having
all thirteen episodes letterboxed and then the unaired original pilot enhanced
for 16 by 9 televisions is like rubbing salt into a wound. The entire series
should have been enhanced for 16 by 9 televisions on DVD.
All of the mini animated episodes of
the web-based series Gotham Girls are included across the first three
DVDs and the episodes can be watched individually or as one reel. They are all
presented in a (1.33:1) aspect ratio and look quite nice despite the choppy
animation. The series features Catwoman, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy in
misadventures of sorts with Batgirl usually stopping them before they succeed in
their crimes. The animation gets better in the second and third seasons, appears
to be based on the Bruce Timm animated style, and the last season episodes are
serialized as opposed to more standalone episodes.
The 16 by 9 enhanced interactive
menus are well rendered and easy to navigate. The four discs come packaged
within a nice single size keep case and the insert contains liner notes by DC
Comics President and Publisher Paul Levitz. Birds Of Prey: The Complete
Series is available now on DVD at retailers on and offline courtesy of
Warner Home Video.
© Copyright 2008 By Mark A. Rivera
AKA The Brooklyn Critic
All Rights Reserved.
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