Back in the early 1990s an animated version of everyone's favorite Dark Knight, Batman, arrived on the small screen. It was so good, it is still considered one of the finest representations of the character. The film had distinctive animation, great voices, strong writing, good music, and was just flat out entertaining. Soon, his blue and red clad counterpart (Superman, of course) followed suit.
In 1996 the Superman animated series arrived on the small screen and was a success, perhaps not as big as the Batman show, but it still featured many of the same strengths, including in its music. Here we are 11 years removed from the dawn of the animated series and we have a new animated feature based on the big blue boyscout, complete with a fully realized music score. You know what? The tradition of good music for these animations is intact, if little else.
Superman: Doomsday is the first DC animated feature to bear a PG-13 rating. It tells a modified version of the storyline that culminated in the death of Superman. Back when the story was new, it was a worldwide sensation. Seriously, whoever thought that we would see Superman killed? Granted, it didn't last very long, but still.
The unfortunate part of this whole thing is the movie wasn't all that good. The animation was excellent, but the writing was sub-par and portions left a bad taste in my mouth. Even worse, the character designs where altered from the other animated look (I thought this was supposed to be in the same universe?). Also, the voices were different and just didn't sound right.
Okay, this isn't about the movie it's about the music. Fortunately, the music is one of the high points of the movie. Even though I would have liked to have heard a bit of the animated series opening theme worked in somewhere, I can understand it's exclusion. It seems that one of the things they wanted to move away from was the ever-present use of triplets in the Superman theme. They were also asked to stay away from the John William's theme and its variations, as this is completely separate from the big screen version.
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