Animated Conan O’Brien Joins The Justice League on ‘Young Justice’

Young Justice premiered last Friday on Cartoon Network after an hour-long preview in November. But something seems to have gone amiss with next week’s episode: the last son of Krypton has been replaced with… Coco?

A month ago, Conan O’Brien did a segment on DC Comics’ animation department at Warner Bros. Studios. In between poking fun at some less-than-intimidating classic DC characters like Space Ranger and Captain Boomerang, Conan and DC legend Bruce Timm designed a new superhero fashioned after O’Brien himself. After Timm’s initial sketch and some coloring, “The Flaming C” was ready for action. A non-traditional superhero, Coco’s alter-ego sports such accessories as a blackberry belt clip, loafers, an oven mitt and fishnet stockings.

To the delight of both O’Brien and late-night audiences, DC Animation decided to send a special present to the Conan show: an exclusive clip of Young Justice‘s second episode, featuring none other than The Flaming C. Those who watched the sneak peek will recognize the final scene: after defeating Cadmus’ minions, Superboy, Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash must face the music as the Justice League arrives on the scene for clean-up.

In the altered clip, we see The Flaming C take Superman’s part and Batman’s voice, chastising the sidekicks for their brash actions. The new vigilante takes center stage among slightly more established heroes like Batman, Aquaman, Green Lantern and The Flash.

Check out the clip from the Conan show here:

And witness the birth of a hero on Conan’s visit to Warner Bros. Animation:

The Flaming C’s powerset includes flight, the ability to make opponents slightly warm and blinding fashion sense.

In more serious news, the shameless (and hilarious) self-promotion on the part of DC’s animated division is promising. If the opening episodes are any indication, Young Justice looks to be a worthy successor to the excellent Justice League Unlimited. The last few years have seen DC cartoons aimed at a much younger crowd, like Teen Titans and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. The new series, along with the forthcoming animated Green Lantern series, shows a return to Bruce Timm’s more universally-appealing style. Their appeal to Conan‘s stoned older audience can only do good things for these animated shows.

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Young Justice airs Friday nights at 7:00 PM on Cartoon Network.
Conan airs weeknights at 11:00 PM on TBS.

Source: TBS [via: Midtown Comics Blog]

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‘Young Justice’ Premiering on Cartoon Network This Friday

Justice League Unlimited fans waiting for a spiritual successor to Bruce Timm’s work are about to be satisfied. Cartoon Network is airing a one-hour premiere of Young Justice, which follows the adventures of teenage counterparts to DC headliners Batman, Superman, Aquaman, the Flash and Green Arrow.

Based on the DC comic and similar fare like Teen Titans (not to be confused with the more goofy cartoon series of the same name), Young Justice follows the Dick Grayson version of Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Miss Martian, Superboy and Green Arrow proteges Speedy and Artemis.

Fans afraid of a return to the kid-friendly antics of the last series to feature these characters needn’t worry: the six-minute preview from MTV’s Splash Page features a more serious art style and plenty of input from DC headliners.

While DC Universe mastermind Bruce Timm isn’t directly involved with the project (he’s busy on the new animated Green Lantern, set to premier around the same time as the movie), Sam Register of Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Greg Weisman of Gargoyles are part of the production team.

The series isn’t part of the former Justice League Unlimited continuity or any of the recent DC Universe animated features. To avoid weighty continuity issues and better focus on the younger characters, Young Justice is set on Earth-16. This should allow the story room to breathe while keeping familiar heroes and villains available for future episodes and arcs.

You can take a look at the trailer below:

In the pilot, the young heroes are set up as a covert ops branch of the Justice League, able to carry out more subtle, nuanced missions than the heavy-hitters in the JLA main lineup. The hour-long special looks to feature the reveal of Superboy in his 90s-era Superman clone form, to avoid conflicting with CW’s long-running Smallville. Unlike the Teen Titans cartoon and the various comics, Aqualad will lead the squad instead of Robin.

Young Justice premieres November 26 @ 7:00 PM, on Cartoon Network.

Source: MTV, io9

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MTV launches MTVPlay.in For Insight Into The ‘Universe of Young’

MTV has launched a new website, MTVPlay.in, which it is touting as an online destination for people looking to find out more about the ‘youth’ and gain insights into their behaviour. If you’re a brand, product, category manager or just someone who refuses to act his/her age you might be interested in this site. Now, where is MTV getting these insights from? Crowdsourcing is the answer to everything these days and the Viacom18 channel is tapping into its own online community – MTV iSpeak – for answers. The community has 100+ members (109 according to its Facebook Page), from over 10 cities, that were handpicked to be a part of it. Talk about being exclusive!

When I read this I was a little concerned as to how they planned to rely on a group of 100 odd individuals to represent the largest demography of our oh-so-populated country? Turns out, the immediate output of this community is researched by Third Eye and MTV Consumer Insights Desk. Their research will be substantiated by MTV’s own Indian and International Research.

The flash based website, designed like a desk cluttered with gadgets, scribbled notes and money, reminds me of my study table during my hostel days.It is divided into sections like – Youth Talk, College Matters, Laws of Chilling, Career Conflicts etc. A lot of ‘fundas’ interspersed with corny one liners that you would normally see on email/text forwards and more recently, status updates.I did manage to kill 30 minutes on it, reading every leaf, every scribbled note. End result – some laughs and a lot of eye rolling.

Coming to the business side of things, I was curious to see what kind of insights they would offer that would genuinely be of help to any brand, product, marketer etc. Keep an eye out for the little orange floating pencil – MTV says. It presents you with a qualitative write-up about the section of the website you’re in. This is also where all that ‘insight’ we were promised lies.

The other thing that came to my mind was what advantages does it really offer over any  insight developed form Social Media Data Mining at large. Aren’t people(’youth’ included less likely to articulate their real thoughts if they know that they are being watched in a closed community? Won’t a wider pool give us a clearer overall picture?

Do you think this site can offer you valuable insight into the behaviour and attitude of today’s younger generation? Let us know!

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Categories: News, Web
Tags: closed community, data mining, exclusive, facebook, iSpeak, mtv, MTVPlay, MTVPlay.in, qualitiative market research, Third Eye, viacom18, youth