Here is the 2nd part of my 3 part CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM analysis of WB.
Again I'm trying to be constructive and not just complain, since I LOVE DC characters. I really want more movies based on their characters and I'd love them to be done well for once.
PART 2 - COMICS , ANIMATION and DVDs
DC COMICS
Recently, DC rebranded themselves, and I have to say this is pure speculation on my part, but to me this is a sign that WB passed on the blame of their movie failures to DC. Just to put it into perspective, the logo that came out in 1976 lasted through 2005, then they created a new one that only lasted 6 years. Well shit always rolls downhill. The blame game always goes down the ladder: Down from the execs at WB to the people at DC. So when Green Lantern failed, I’m sure there was some panic in the ranks, blame went everywhere. So it eventually falls on Marketing somewhere to fix it. And anytime you have a pathetic Marketing leader that isn’t worth their salary, they ALWAYS jump immediately to “let’s change the brand, logo and the email signature for outgoing emails (they always add that last one for some reason)” Because there is NO WAY it could be anything else right, it HAS to be the brand.(Yes, I’m being sarcastic)
This tactic is used by the useless portion of Marketing people. The cookie –cutter ones versus the visionary ones. They pretend to look like they are hard at work, by unnecessarily changing the brand since its a quick and easy change. After all It's also more evident to change a brand than a company’s way of thinking. These ass-kissers do this and nobody above them can say they aren’t doing anything to fix the problem.
But that doesn’t fix the problem at all since the necessary change is the ideology at the company, not the damn logo.
Bottom line: The problem isn’t DC or their characters. The problem is WB's approach to the movies themselves. Changing the brand isn’t going to help that. So, for the cookie-cutter Marketers, I’ll use the keywords you throw around all the time to make you sound more intelligent than you really are: If you want to “leverage cross-platform deliverables” you need to “shift the paradigm” within the minds of the executives themselves at the offices of Warner Bros.
DVD and ANIMATED SERIES
Direct to DVD Movies
I commend WB on the DC animated universe direct to dvd movies. They are FANTASTIC and they seem to keep getting better and better. (The Dark Knight Returns will be hard to top.) Perhaps a thing to consider then is having Bruce Timm at least consult, if not completely direct, a DC Cinematic universe. He understood a different formula was needed for each series or movie they attempted, but at the same time he made it feel cohesive. (not an easy task)
Animated Series
Like me, a lot of people are upset about the cancellation of Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series. I don’t know the exact reasons, but I believe this is just as much the fans fault as WB. Many people think that when a series’ season is split into 2 DVD box sets it’s nothing but a simple money grab by the company, so they hold off buying them. On some levels this is true, but with the advent of Tivo and DVR it made ratings a little more difficult to gauge. Also being that its animated, it makes it difficult for product placement advertising (the way Arrow uses Windows 8 in every single episode) After Family Guy and Firefly proved you can identify a shows worth through DVD sales over ratings at times, the idea of half seasons makes sense. By selling DVD seasons as 1.0 and 1.5 etc, the sales can give producers a trackable source to indicate how well a show is doing and let them know if they should renew.
Like DC, Cartoon Network is a subsidiary of the Time-Warner company, meaning one company looks at ratings and DVD sales. If people bought these half seasons, the shows would not be canceled despite ratings. So go buy the DVDs and quit downloading everything for free.
But here’s an idea for Warner Bros, since people hate to have two box sets, when it should be one complete box set. First off stop making dumb sets like “Best of..” or “teaser sets like the stupid new Superman collection, NO ONE IS INTERSTED IN THOSE. Who wants a teaser set that isn’t complete or doesnt even look like the rest when you do complete the series? NO ONE. Instead, make ONLY half seasons. Then, when 1.5 or 2.5 etc. comes out, have a mail-in special where if they mail in their receipts for 1.0 and 1.5, or enter a code on an website, you send them a single box that can contain both half-seasons that reads The Complete Season 1. If its a (preferable) code on a website, WB would have another opportunity to sell other products. The company gets its tracking and the fans aren’t as annoyed.