NYCC: Green Lantern Animated Series

One of the few previews I saw when I went to New York Comic Con was a preview of the new DC Animated Green Lantern series. The series will be coming to Cartoon Network sometime next year.  The preview episode was about an hour and set up the basic premise of the series.

The series stars Hal Jordan, has been a Green Lantern for a couple years, while on Oa, he and the Guardians receive a message that someone has been killing the Lanterns of the outermost edge of the galaxy.  The Guardians are hesitant to investigate the deaths, however, Hal being the hero he is, he steals an experimental spaceship and along with Kilowog investigate the killings.  There they discover the Red Lanterns, a previously unknown set of Lanterns who blame the Green Lanterns for destroying their civilizations.  Not many details are given about the history of the Red Lanterns but they are definitely scary.  During the battle between Hal and Kilowog and the Red Lanterns, the experimental spaceship is damaged and unable to do the hyper warp jump to make it back to Oa.

Creator Bruce Timm  discussing episode

This leaves just the two lanterns in an unexplored area of space, with a mysterious enemy.  The animation is computer generated, with a style meant to evoke the Pixar movie The Incredibles.  I saw where they were going and I really enjoyed it.  The powers on screen were fun, and well animated.  The story seems different many other animated series.  Bruce Timm, the creator of this series, in addition to classic series such as Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited, mentioned that this series will be serialized with Hal and Kilowog discovering the history of the Red Lantern, in addition to having standalone episodes where the two lanterns will discover a new part of space.  I can't wait to see some more.

Fall Season Begins: The New Girl

The pilot for Zooey Deschanel's new sitcom was just made available early on iTunes.

What worked for me:

• Zooey does have an undeniable charm onscreen.
• I like that one of the main characters is sort of a "bro" douchebag, it lead to some of the episodes funnier moments.
• The male roommates are actually funny and have decent interaction with each other.

What didn't work for me:

• The events of the pilot happen too quickly, the characters became best friends so quickly it seems rushed.  However I suppose it was necessary to get the plots going.
• The hint at the main romance between the Zooey and one of the roommates too quickly.
• Zooey isn't actually that funny, just really cute.

I know that the show is called New Girl, so most storylines will concentrate on main character, however I hope that they can integrate the other three guys or even Deschanel's model friend otherwise this show will get real stale, real fast.

** Stars