Justice League X RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsman Part One (4k UHD) Review

Most people who know me know that I adore Scooby Doo.  Some of my favorite episodes of Scooby Doo are those where they have famous guest stars solving mysteries.  Addams Family, Harlem Globetrotters, Batman, etc.  Classic Scooby goodness with characters that I enjoy and always wondered how they would work in another universe.  Today, I have the benefit of seeing how Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and other Justice League members will look and react in the RWBY world of Remnant.  Let’s take a look.

Superman (voiced by Chandler Riggs) is breathing heavy and struggles to open his eyes.  When he does, he sees a strange world, and he’s suddenly become a teenager.  In front of him are two young teenage girls named Ruby (voiced by Lindsay Jones) and Yang (voiced by Barbara Dunkleman), who are taking on demons simply known as the Grimm.  However, these Grimm are strange to Ruby and Yang as well, since they can shoot lasers.  Superman gets up to help the two ladies when he realizes that his powers are completely different from what they were.

The two teens are able to finish off a pack of Grimm and head in the direction of Beacon High School.  As the trio continues to battle, Superman is finally able to use his heat vision to even the odds against the Grimm.  They finally finish up the battle as Ruby and Yang realize who they need when things get weird.  They must find their school headmaster, Ozpin.

Meanwhile, we join Blake (voiced by Arryn Zech) of the RWBY group who is with her mother back at her home in Menagerie.  They are soon signaled to an intruder who actually turns out to be Diana, Princess of the Amazon, also known as Wonder Woman (voiced by Natalie Alyn Lind).  Blake and Diana talk for a while as the Amazon princess tries to figure out how she ended up in this world.  Oddly enough, Blake also decides to go to the Beacon High School with Diana in search of Ozpin.

In another scene, Weiss (voiced by Kara Eberle) is at her dad’s party and suddenly comes across Bruce Wayne (voiced by Nat Wolff), also known as Batman.  Bruce talks about connecting memories which are creating a connection between the two warriors.  But it seems that Mr. Wayne has stolen her father’s lab key, which causes a fight between the two.  Bruce ends up encased in ice due to Weiss’  annoyance.  That’s when things get a little hairy.

Bruce all of the sudden sprouts actual bat-wings.  However, since they are completely new to him, he can’t control them, and he falls to the floor where he is captured by Weiss and the guards.  Batman sits in jail, and everyone else seems to be headed to Beacon High School in search of Ozpin.  There are bound to be more members of the Justice League and students of Beacon High lurking right around the corner.  But what game is afoot in this very strange setting that seems to be neither reality nor fairy tale?

We soon meet members of the team known as JNPR, as well as Justice League members, Flash, Vixen, Cyborg, and Green Lantern (Jessica Cruz).  For those unfamiliar with Jessica Cruz, she’s the one who has an extreme level of anxiety and constantly thinks she is not good enough to hold the green ring.  I think this is the second or third feature where I’ve seen her.  She is growing on me, but she still doesn’t hold a candle to John Stewart, Hal Jordan, or even Guy Gardner.  Anyway, I liked the cast of characters a lot, as both universes have a lot of interesting personalities, and they play together very well here.

One thing that is apparent very quickly is how this is a very RWBY centralized feature.  It’s apparently in Remnant, they are fighting creatures from that universe (who are a little different), and the Justice League have all become teenagers like the RWBY team.  In addition, there are tidbits of information that only RWBY fans are going to know.  In fact, I had only watched the first seven seasons of RWBY, and there was stuff spoiled from Seasons 8 and 9 that I wasn’t even aware of.  That was frustrating, since I hadn’t gotten around to purchasing Season 8, and Season 9 isn’t even available physically.  By the way, where is Season 9 on disc?

I’m getting off topic, sorry.  The point is they are using rather generic versions of the Justice League members for the most part except for GL/Jessica Cruz and a funky looking Flash, but they expect you to really know RWBY, and JNPR for that matter.  Which is great for me, because I am fairly knowledgeable with the series, but not for most people, who are looking for a PG feature with the Justice League.  That aside, there is a lot of depth with the film, and it’s not all about fighting Grimm, either, which makes me excited for a Part 2 (if we get one).

Video 

The video is in 1.78:1 widescreen in HEVC / H.265 but this is unfortunately an up-scaled presentation.  The disc is something of an odd duck when it comes to mpbs(BD-66 disc).  Action scenes can run somewhere in the 60’s, even occasionally hitting as high as 75-80.  But for the talkie type scenes with little to no motion it can be as low as high 30’s.  So we’ll settle on somewhere in the middle around ~50 mpbs.

Speaking of the picture, it’s fantastic and very reminiscent of recent RWBY season/volume sets.  The detail is great here and the animation looks completely superb.  The costumes from all of the team are immediately recognizable and the scenery for the battles is not skimped on.  This can provide a huge  and wonderful environment for these characters to play in.  I honestly don’t think this would have received much advantage from a 4k native presentation and this still makes for some wonderful reference type material.

Audio

The audio for this one is Dolby DTS HD 5.1 (English) and also a Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 track.  Subtitles are provided in English SDH, Spanish and French.  By the way, Warner Bros is such a tease with the Atmos opening when you load the disc.  First, the dialog has no issues and you can clearly understand all of the various team members.  The battles are worth turning up as they get a rumbling from all of the intensity and make good use of your sub.

However, I did feel that every once in a while we didn’t quite have the depth from the surrounds I would have wanted to.  Is it loud and bombastic?  Absolutely, but I think a little more separation would have went a long way.  It’s far from a bad or even an average track, it’s very good, it just could have been so much better with a little more mastering effort.

Special Features 

• Justice Comes to Remnant  7:35:  This is the basic behind the scenes efforts and mostly we get representatives from the RWBY camp to speak on what they did with this production and the process in bringing this to completion.  A little too short and narrow for my tastes.
• You Look…Different: The Design of Justice League X RWBY  9:01:  Again, same cast of characters talking this time about the decisions they made with say Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, etc.  I would have loved a shot of someone from DC speaking about Batman and actually trying to keep a straight face.  “Yeah, they made Batman into a bat, I think this was a very interesting idea and allowed us to do many interesting things with this classic character.”  I’ll speak about this in Final Thoughts, but I think if a Part 2 materializes, they will go with a more classic JL interpretation of everyone.  And I mean everyone.
• From DC Vault: Justice League Unlimited – “Kid Stuff” 23:09:  A classic episode where Mordred (Morgaine Le Fay’s son) banishes all adults from Earth,  Morgaine then makes  Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern into 8-year-olds so they can return to Earth and stop him.
• From DC Vault: Justice League Action – “Plastic Man Saves the World” 11:14: I’ve seen this episode a few times as well thanks to my son: Superman, Batman, Cyborg, and Vixen try to stop Brainiac,  but Plastic Man sneaks into Brainiac’s spaceship to destroy the shrink ray and save the world in order to prove that he is a worthy superhero.  This one is included for the sake of the supporting cast.  Though I am remotely curious what RWBY would do with a character like Plastic Man.
• NOTE: This also comes with a blu-ray disc which is basically a copy of the 4k disc.  Also non-review copies should have a slipcover and Movies Anywhere Digital Code (pay attention to the expiration date though, most Warner DC’s are expiring on the due date now)

Final Thoughts

I am not sure everyone is going to like this version of the Justice League.  RWBY fans might not even like Justice League in their universe.  Megafans are kinda picky in that regard, they just don’t want anyone messing up their world.  To be frankly honest, on the surface this sounds like a fan fiction production.  However, it completely works in my view and I am seriously looking forward to part 2.  I think the right way for Part 2 is to clear up the cliff hanger, bring various members of RWBY into the Justice League universe so we can finally see how Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang look like adults (cause lord knows they have been teenagers for 9 seasons now) and give them that classic animation rendering.

The 4k disc overall is a success.  We have fantastic video, excellent audio and at least a few extras to dive into.  I really would like to see a commentary for Part 2, and hope we get it regardless of the participants.  Let’s just hope we get a part two (or that’s it is already complete), because unfortunately DC/WB will cancel things and leave us on a cliff hanger.  I really don’t want this to turn into a Golden Compass and then we just have to wonder what if’s forever and a day.  Very recommended as long as the viewer has a working knowledge of RWBY.  Otherwise, there are parts in here that will leave the viewer completely in the dark.

One last note if you read this far, this is a PG movie and there is nothing that deters from that rating….but, please be aware of two things.  Killing a Grimm can still be somewhat violent and we do have to mention that there is a relationship between Blake and Yang.  It’s very wink wink and nudge nudge, but the smarter kids will get it immediately.  They don’t do anything but how they act towards each other and Wonder Woman makes it pretty obvious.  Trust me, Lightyear and some other recent Disney productions are far worse (and I actually think they were quite clever here), but it should be noted as to not surprise anyone.  Enjoy.