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Justice League: The New Frontier
Justice League: The New Frontier is a 2008 animated superhero film adapted from the DC Comics limited series DC: The New Frontier and involves and unknown entity who has decided to eradicate mankind due to its capacity of violence. The film was written by Stan Berkowitz, with Darwyn Cooke providing additional material.
The film received a rating of PG-13 for violent content and images, and was released on February 26, 2008. It is the second film in the series of DC Universe Animated Original Movies released by Warner Bros. Animation.
The film had its broadcast premiere on October 18, 2008 on Cartoon Network.
Justice League: The New Frontier is available in single and two-disc editions. The cover of the single disc includes the panoramic image from the film, while the two-disc, HD DVD and Blu-ray editions have an image of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman above the title logo with other characters below it. Best Buy had an exclusive deal which included a Green Lantern action figure from DC Direct with the DVD package. Wal-Mart had an exclusive single DVD package with "The New Frontier Green Lantern" CD-ROM Comic Book inside. The single, two-disc and Blu-ray editions were released on February 26, 2008, with the HD DVD edition released on March 18, 2008.
The special features include a documentary on the forty-seven year history of the Justice League, commentaries, a documentary on the early mythological villain archetypes in the Justice League stories, a featurette on the themes, elements from the comic to film versions of New Frontier, three episodes of Justice League Unlimited and a 10-minute preview of the animated film; Batman: Gotham Knight. Variety said that pre-orders for The New Frontier were greater than expected at that time.
On March 5, 2008, a one-shot called "Justice League: The New Frontier Special" was published. Written by Darwyn Cooke & penciled by Cooke, Dave Bullock and J. Bone, this serves as an anthology consisting of various tales set within the events of the film. In the comic, Batman goes to war with Superman after the latter is ordered by King Faraday and Pres. Eisenhower to arrest him for his vigilante activities, Robin & Kid Flash team up to prevent Soviet saboteurs from harming the President, while Wonder Woman and Black Canary look to calm the sexist natures of various male patrons within a new Gotham club.
Justice League: The New Frontier received mostly positive reviews. Screener copies were sent to website reviewers a month before the DVD's official release. Most of the reviews were positive and geared up the film's release even more. Newsarama reviewed the film, saying that it was "one of the best things to ever come out of [Bruce] Timm's stable", and said that the acting was exceptional. The World's Finest, a fansite dealing with DC Animations, said that it was "the first animated feature in a long time that I've felt completely satisfied while walking away from." A reviewer from Ain't It Cool News said that it was "my favorite film of 2008", and that it was "everything I had hoped for." Mainstream websites made similar comments; IGN gave the film and DVD a total score of 7.0, ENI said it was enjoyable, and DVDTalk.com said it was "recommended". The New Frontier was nominated for an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour Or More) in 2008.
The film earned $6,133,996 from domestic DVD sales and $6,133,996 from domestic Blu-ray sales.
