It's a good thing the glowy ball turns up, to tell Orin he doesn't actually need his magic sword-hilt to make his shiny blade... he can spurt it out of himself like a giant white spurty thing. The people of Mineworld have been taught to worship Zygon, and told that there's nothing but Hell and damnation above their little cavernous world, and if they don't keep digging out the shiny red crystals, they'll starve. (Even though they don't actually eat the crystals.) But Orin goes on a hero's journey kind of thing and discovers the truth, not unlike the City of Ember and a million other stories including that Star Trek episode that Orin almost names the title of. Those red crystals are actually fueling Zygon's war machine, allowing him to conquer the rest of the humans. And afford lots of bitchin red skull insignias.

The rest of 1985's Starchaser is a pretty blatant Star Wars rip-off, complete with a desert planet populated by racist Arab stereotypes. It does have an awesome break-dancing soundtrack, that sounds like Herbie Hancock's "Rockit." And the Han Solo character smokes a gigantic cigar and says things like, "That bot's about to get a laser enema." What more could you ask for? Oh, and it features some of the first computer animation, mixed in with the regular kind.

We already featured a promo reel for this Animatrix-style tie-in with The Dark Knight, but this trailer gives more of a feel for the range of styles in the finished product. We'll be seeing six different visions of the Bat here, but it looks like they mesh pretty well, partly thanks to consistent voice talent across all the films. [HD trailer at Yahoo Movies]

Here's the official plot synopsis:

When a $5 billion NASA probe disappears into an intergalactic wormhole, the agency recruits Ham III, the grandson of the first chimpanzee in space, to help retrieve the wayward craft. But Ham is a free-spirited circus performer, more interested in in zero gravity hijinks than living up to his illustrious heritage. The simian slacker becomes a reluctant hero and and learns the true meaning of courage as he and his crewmates, the fearless Lt. Luna and their uptight commander, Titan, risk everything in an effort to save the peaceful inhabitants of a distant planet from an evil dictator.

[Kung Fu Rodeo]

The story starts out in the 1950s, and heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman are fighting in Korea and Indochina, but she takes a mucher harsher stand than he does, letting victimized women deal out there own brand of murderous justice. He warns her that's the reason Batman is now a fugitive and the Justice Society is disbanded.

We're also introduced to both The Martian Manhunter and Hal "Green Lantern" Jordan in short order, long before they become the heroes we've come to know. We find out how the Manhunter comes to Earth, and how Hal loses his nerve during the Korean war and spends time in a psych hospital. While the Manhunter is trapped on Earth and spends his time watching television (there's an amusing scene where he emulates Groucho Marx and Bugs Bunny), Jordan tries to get into the space program, and eventually gets hired by the Ferris company, run by the boss' wife Carol Ferris.

Over the course of the film, while Jordan develops into a stand-up test pilot and gets drafted into a mission to Mars (sans ring), and the Manhunter fights crime as detective John Jones, different heroes begin unraveling a plot by something called The Center. At first it's not clear if it's a cult, some form of mind-control, or an alien invasion. Additionally, certain heroes like The Flash are being sought by the government, who want to unmask them and expose them and have them register, just like in the recent Civil War series from Marvel. The trouble is, it feels tacked on and cheesy, even though it's the most interesting idea in the film.

In the climactic ending, a whole slew of heroes including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Martian Manhunter, Adam Strange, the Blackhawks, and a ton of others do battle with the Cthulhu-like Center. When things are at their bleakest, Hal Jordan finally accepts the role of Green Lantern, and the ring he was given by the dying alien Abin Sur comes to his aid and gives him a little instruction manual brain-video lesson. They triumph over the dinosaur-spewing baddie, and thus the Justice League is formed. Montages of many more heroes (including the Teen Titans) and villains scroll by as portions of John F. Kennedy's 1960 Democratic National Convention speech play in the background.

Darwyn's art-style is retro-vintage hipster cool, and the heroes are extremely well voice acted (by a pretty impressive list of stars including everyone from Kyle MacLachlan to Lucy Lawless to Neil Patrick Harris... who aren't distracting), but the plot feels mish-mashed together, and needed to be either a miniseries, or a two-part movie. The Flash's "the government is oppressing us!" speech on television could have been the start of a terrific storyline about the persecution of heroes, but it ends up feeling like it was excised far too early.

Also, there are a lot of heroes tossed into the mix who aren't given any lines at all, like Green Arrow and Ted "Wildcat" Grant, and fleeting scenes of folks like Adam Strange. There's a lot of DC comics history being presented in only an hour and a half, and as a result it feels lacking. Some of the animated scenes feel a bit like afternoon cartoons, but other sequences (especially those in space or with planes in flight) are extremely well-done, which add to the feeling that the whole project is uneven.

It'll be interesting to see this when it comes out on DVD, seeing as how they excised certain scenes and changed the story from the graphic novel. There are a slew of extra materials and interviews on the disc, which will hopefully fill some holes. While it's not perfect, it's much preferable to the nothing, which is all we've had in the form of original animated films based on DC Comics properties. If they could spend some more time hammering out the stories and improving the animation, this could be a series that lasts for years. Just give us some Kingdom Come pretty darn soon.

Sadly, the above video contains a few boring interviews, saying things like "Most of Batman's adventures take place at night." But the animation itself is great. The direct-to-DVD Batman anime is similar to The Animatrix, the DVD which tied in with Matrix sequels. Warners is also working on a version called Termination in tandem with Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. The segments are written by Josh Olson, David Goyer, Brian Azzarello, Greg Rucka, Jordan Goldberg, and Alan Burnett, and will each have their own distinctive look. Just think of it as an animated version of Batman: Black and White except you know, with color.

In fact, it would really be worthwhile to see DC just hand over the reins to anime directors like Satoshi Kon, to see what they could do with characters ranging from Green Lantern to Captain Marvel. In fact, maybe the entire Justice League film that's been put on hold could be saved, just by making a big-budget anime version. As excited as we are about Darwyn Cooke's The New Frontier DVD, it's still a very Western style of animation. Bring on the anime heroes.

Thanks to decades of tangled comics continuity, there are multiple backstories that this version of Hawkman could have. Is he based on the original version (reincarnated Egyptian royalty) or the later version (policeman from the planet Thanagar)? Let's just hope he's not the WTF 1990s version. (Thanks again RRich for the heads up!) [TV Guide]

Vanguard Entertainment, who produced Valiant and Happily Never After, is animating the film, and Brash Entertainment is making the game. They're also working on games based on Saw and 300, so you've got visceral gore and bloody battles on one end, and happy-go-lucky flying space monkeys on the other. We think the monkeys should just rebel against what the humans have put them through and they create a supercool simian space rocket and use it to fire missiles containing their own poo at the planet.

News-Space Chimps Movie Game Confirmed [Pariah's Guild]

Fans contacted Lucasfilm to ask them about this rumor. Lucasfilm executives managed to respond before the Hasbro investor call was even over. They didn't deny that a theatrical release for Clone Wars was a possibility, but said no decisions had been made yet. But given that no TV network has yet picked up the PG-13 rated animated Star Wars, a high-profile movie launch could make sense.