Newsarama.com has published an interview with animation artist/director Vinton Heuck who, together with artist Sean “Cheeks” Galloway, pitched an idea for a “Superman Family” animated series to Warner Bros. Animation… Sadly the pitch was rejected.
Vinton, you and Sean Galloway worked on a pitch for a Superman Family animated series. Sadly it didn’t get picked up, but it is great to enjoy and think about what could have been. Can you tell us your pitch of what the show would’ve been about?
Vinton Heuck: I came up with it while directing on season three of Young Justice. I drew some pitch art that was basically an animation friendly version of Superman: Rebirth, with Jon (a.k.a. Superboy) front and center.
My angle was to combine these new storylines with a lighter tone inspired by all those crazy Silver Age stories I read as a young lad. Seeing for instance how Jon and his mom Lois would deal with his dad being turned into a Super-Merman was something I dearly wanted to see. There are so many dark, adult-themed DC stories I felt the company needed something that got back to its roots and was made for kids.
The people at Warner Bros. Animation liked it and had me try out a bunch of talented artists to help design the look of it, and settled on Sean Galloway for me to pair off with and develop the final pitch for DC. Unfortunately, they passed, but I’m hopeful the success of Shazam! will help open the door for more fun, kid-friendly stories.
Read the complete interview at Newsarama.com to see what Vinton Heuck had in mind for characters like Kong Kenan, Jon Kent, Damian Wayne, Mr. Mxyzptlk and even Natasha Irons as Steel.
GRAAAAAHHHH!!!
First, they age up Baby Jon, THEN they have a gall to cancel his one & only staring role in a highly coveted Animated Series!
but they DO order more lucrative episodes of “Teen Titans GO!” and “DC Superhero Wenches”!
This brings my Spinal Fluid to a boil! X(
I hate to burst your aneurysm, but based on the art style I would say the tone of this cartoon would have been very much along the lines of Teen Titans Go! (which I thoroughly enjoy btw) and not Superman: The Animated Series or Justice League. And I love the superhero girls. I love giving little girls some relatable superhero time.
Not necessarily. They have some pretty serious cartoons and some downright mature cartoon done in this goofy style. It’s just the popular thing right now.
This is a shame. This is a series that I would have liked to have seen. Any possibility that they could change their mind?
Sean Galloway aka Cheeks74 has a great energy to his style. Check out his Instagram! Personally I like the stuff of his that leans a little more Bruce Timm and little less Disney even though I appreciate his style being bright and fun. Though I’m not big on the rosey noses. Makes everybody look like they’ve been fighting a bad cold with cheap Kleenex. As for DC animation I’m frustrated that it has to be a choice between 2 extremes. Either grimdark dtv’s or hyper-wacky toons. Though I will say that Brave and The Bold and Justice Action were fun… Read more »
This needs to be a thing
Now that I know about this, I SOOOOO want it to happen.
Dynamite……….IF your 7 or 8 years old.
Well, yeah. It could be a pretty awesome way to build a new generation of fans, though – and Superman could use them.
Well yea in that sense. But lets all hope that they don’t take this character down an adolescent path and make that a standard for all of us now.
I doubt that’ll happen. There’s too much money to be made in other places. But it’d be nice to see them take this road with him (as well as the usual) from time to time. I think there’s a hidden market for the character that they’re not looking at much, and this would be part of that.
Probably not something I’d personally watch, but it sounds like a good idea for the young’uns. Why didn’t it get picked up? It can’t be because it’s too child-friendly, Justice League Action did well enough and that show was absolutely aimed at very young ages.
This show looks absolutely phenomenal, and I think that it would be both a breath of fresh air and an absolute hit today. I hope that it will possibly be reconsidered. I would love to see something that would be joyful and that would share the positivity that a good Superman story can.
“absolutely phenomenal”???? I wouldn’t go that far.