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GREG-SPONSES 2010-12 (Dec)

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Nobody here but us chickens.

Question received on Mon, November 29, 2010 06:53:44 AM

John Derrick writes...

I hate to say it, but I was extremely disappointed in the Young Justice premiere. Don't get me wrong--the animation was gorgeous, the dialogue entertaining, the story intriguing. But the gender imbalance was a huge turn-off for me.

Why was it that the women of the Justice League were only shown in the last five minutes of a two-part pilot? Why did the male sidekicks get to go on a rebellious adventure and force the League to accept them as a team of their own, while the first girl is only added to "Young Justice" at the very end, introduced by her uncle and guardian like some sort of token?

I expect that the women will have a lot more to do in the episodes to come, but I still find it profoundly problematic to introduce the characters in such an unequal manner. I believe there are too many men in the world as it is who see women as mere supporting players in their stories. Why reinforce this stereotype for a whole new generation of superhero cartoon fans?

Greg responds...

It's a legitimate gripe. And I doubt my answer will satisfy you, but it came down to a couple factors that we at least found important: (1) practicality and to a lesser extent - but intertwined with - (2) tradition.

Let's start with practicality.

You asked why there were no female Leaguers until the end. But where would they have fit? There are no female Leaguers with traditional first generation sidekicks. So Batman, Green Arrow, Aquaman and Flash could not be replaced by Wonder Woman, Black Canary or Hawkwoman. That leaves the four Leaguers introduced at the Hall of Justice. I needed Martian Manhunter to be there to set up Miss Martian. I needed Red Tornado there to set up his interest in the teens. I needed Superman there to set up Superboy. That leaves only Zatara. He was certainly replaceable. But then I would have had to hire another voice actress to read ONE LINE. I couldn't afford to do that. We have budgets. (And you'll notice that Red Tornado never speaks in the episode. Couldn't afford giving him a line either. None of which had anything to do with gender.)

There was NEVER any intent to introduce Artemis this early in the season for story reasons. Wouldn't make sense for her character. And I think the reasons why will become clear as the season progresses.

As for Miss Martian, yes, in theory, we could have introduced her sooner. Manhunter COULD have brought her along at the beginning. But then I'd have had FOUR characters running around the first half hour and FIVE in the second. That steals screen time and characterization from everyone. I think the entire production would have been weaker for adding another character -- ANY other character (gender notwithstanding).

Of course, that begs the obvious question - why not ditch one of the boys in favor of her to create a little balance.

But it seemed to us that would create balance at a cost.

There are FOUR TRADITIONAL sidekicks: Robin, Speedy, Aqualad and Kid Flash. To leave one out seemed wrong to us. Which brings in the Tradition argument, which I'll admit is somewhat feeble, but as an old comic book geek, I'll also admit it matters to me and to everyone else here.

The very first Teen Titans story ever in Brave and the Bold featured only THREE heroes: Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash. Wonder Girl did not join until their second adventure. So we felt there was a precedent for beginning with Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash and saving the real introduction of Miss Martian (beyond hellos) for OUR second adventure.

For what it's worth, if you give the series another chance, starting with episode three (i.e. the one immediately following the pilot "movie"), I think you'll see that female characters including Miss Martian, Black Canary, Artemis, Wonder Woman and MANY others will be playing ESSENTIAL roles in the show as we progress. I think the balance - and then some - is absolutely present in the first season when viewed in its entirety.

Yes, the pilot was very boy-centric, but that's not the rubric for the series. Personally, I love writing female characters, and if you're at all familiar with my past work, you'll know I have a history of doing them justice. (At least, I think so.) Gargoyles, for example, is FULL of strong female characters, including Elisa, Demona, Angela, Fox, etc. WITCH was nearly ALL female leads. Even Spider-Man had a strong female supporting cast, in my opinion at least.

If we did "reinforce a stereotype" (which I think is overstating it) then perhaps we've lured in kids that we will reeducate over the course of the season - organically without forcing it.

So I'd beg a little patience, a little indulgence... maybe even a little trust that we'll do right by this issue.

But judge for yourself.

Response recorded on December 21, 2010

Nobody here but us chickens.

Rambled on Wed, December 01, 2010

Young Justice Pilot Movie Credits

One of my peeviest of pet peeves is the way ALL networks (and I'm afraid Cartoon Network is no exception) shrink credits down to nothing. Bad enough they're only on screen for a split-second each, but when they're so tiny that you can't even read them when you freeze-frame on them, I think that's beyond obnoxious. So I'm going to post the credits here after each airing...

YOUNG JUSTICE
"Independence Day"
(Pilot "Movie")
_________________________________________________________________________
Directed By
Jay Oliva (Part 1)
Sam Liu (Part 2)
_________________________________________________________________________
Written By
Greg Weisman
_________________________________________________________________________
Producers
Brandon Vietti
Greg Weisman
_________________________________________________________________________
Line Producer
David Wilcox
_________________________________________________________________________
Music By
Kristopher Carter
Michael McCuistion
Lolita Ritmanis
_________________________________________________________________________
Casting & Voice Direction
Jamie Thomason
_________________________________________________________________________
Starring The Voices Of

Jesse McCartney as Robin
Danica McKellar as Miss Martian
Nolan North as Superboy, Superman, Zatara
Khary Peyton as Aqualad
Jason Spisak as Kid Flash

Rene Auberjonois as Mark Desmond
George Eads as Flash
Miguel Ferrer as L-1
Crispin Freeman as Speedy, Guardian
Bruce Greenwood as Batman
Phil LaMarr as Aquaman, Dubbilex
Stephanie Lemelin as Computer
Yuri Lowenthal as Icicle Jr.
Kevin Michael Richardson as Martian Manhunter
Mark Rolston as L-3
Keith Szarabajka as Mister Freeze
Alan Tudyk as Green Arrow
____________________________________________________________
Based On DC Comics Characters

Batman Created By
Bob Kane

Superman Created By
Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster

Wonder Woman Created By
William Moulton Marston

Martian Manhunter Created By
Joseph Samachson
_______________________________________________________________________
Production Manager
John Bueno Diaz

Assistant Production Managers
Casey Sandin
Mark McClain Wilson

Animation Coordinator
John Roback
________________________________________________________________________
Lead Character Design
Phil Bourassa

Character Design
Dusty Abell
Jerome Moore

Prop Design
Andy Chiang
Jay Hong
Alexander Kubalsky

BG Key Design
Enzo Baldi
Jay Hong
Hakjoon Kang
Art Lee
Gong Peng
Jonard Soriano
_________________________________________________________________
Storyboard
Jay Baker
Tim Divar
Charles E. Drost, III
Jeff Johnson
Jae Kim
Phil Langone

Storyboard Clean-up
Brendon Clogher
Chrissy Delk
Christina I. Manrique
Owen Sullivan
Olga Ulanova

Animation Timing Director
James Tim Walker

Animation Checking
Jan Browning
Annamarie Costa
Chuck Gefre
Chuck Martin
Justin Schultz

Timing
Richard Collado
Jeff Hall
Gordon Kent
R. Michel Lyman
______________________________________________________________________
Color Stylist
James Peters

Ink & Paint
Kim Bowen

Background Paint
Mike Inman
David McBride
Craig Robertson

Effects Animation
Matthew Girardi
______________________________________________________________________
Editor
Jhoanne Reyes
_________________________________________________________________________
Supervising Dialogue/ADR Editor
Mark A. Keatts

Sound Reading
Fred Salinas
Wilson Martinez

Dialogue/ADR Editors
Patrick Foley
Mike Garcia

Post Production Manager
Scott Shinick

Dialogue Recording Studio
Studiopolis, Inc.

Recording Machine Operator
Jeff O. Collins
Sarah Baluch

Post Production Sound Services
Audio Circus, Inc.

Online Editor
Christopher D. Lozinski
_______________________________________________________________________
Animation Services
MOI Animation, Inc.

Animation Directors
Hyung-Ky Kim
Yang-Ho Ji

Background Director
Jung-ho Park
Joo-Sun Cha

Production Manager
Young-Soo You (Chief)
OK-Ki Lee
Min-Sung Park
Pan-seob Kim

Production Coordinator
Gina Park
Hyun-Jung Kim
Hyosun Ryu
_________________________________________________________________________
Layout Artists
Jin-Seok Choi
Ihu-Soo Kim

Color Stylists
Min-Lee Kim

Composition
Byoung-Ryul Kim (Chief)
Hyo-Yoon Back
Kyoung-Hee Kang

Model Checkers
Yang-suk Kim
Ki-Deok Park

Final Checker
Nam-gyu Lee
Dong-Moon Chu

3D CGI
Gu-Han Yoo

Key Animation
Jeong-gil Lee
Jong-Jin Choi
Soo-Hyun Kang
Cheong-il Han
Hyung-Seok Jang
Young-il Park
Jae-Hyeong Kim
Hyun-ho Jeong
Geon-Sik Lee
Seong-Deuk Son
Yoon-Jae Ko
Jae-Bum Lee
Kyung-Ho Choi
Jeong-Hee Yang
________________________________________________________________________
Production Administrator
Nicole Martin

Production Accounting
Athena Wingate
Luisa Guzman

Production Support
Audrey Kim
Kira Tirimacco
Renee Toporzysek

Casting Administrator
Liz Carroll

Executive In Charge Of Music
Niki Sherrod

Business And Legal Affairs
Lori Blackstone
Bonnie Negrete
Joulene St. Catherine
________________________________________________________
Production Supervision
Bobbie Page

Production Management
Ed Adams
_________________________________________________________________________
Executive in Charge of Production
Jay Bastian
______________________________________________________
Executives In Charge Of Production For Cartoon Network
Tramm Wigzell
Brian E. S. Jones
_____________________________________________________________
Executive Producer
Sam Register
______________________________________________________________________
This motion picture is protected under the laws of the United States of America and other countries. Any unauthorized duplication, copying, distribution, exhibition or use may result in civil and/or criminal prosecution.

Country of first publication United States Of America

Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. is the author of this film/motion picture for the purposes of Article 15 (2) of the Berne Convention and all national laws giving effect thereto.
_________________________________________________________________________

There are of course a bunch of people who ALSO helped out but don't receive credits on screen for various (legal and precedent) reasons.

A handful (in no particular order) include...

Jennifer A. Anderson - Talent Coordinator
Eric Lewis, CAS - Dialogue Sound Mixer
James Lafferty - Assistant Engineer
Otis Van Osten - Sound Supervisor
Ron Salaises - Sound Effects editor
Carlos Sanches - Re-Recording Mixer
Stacy Michaels - Foley Mixer
Alex Ulrich - Foley Walker
Jackie Trinidad - Development Coordinator
Peter Girardi - Design Guru

I know I'm probably forgetting some folks, and I REALLY apologize! If you send me a reminder, I'll pimp you in another post!

Nobody here but us chickens.