DC is going back in time for its latest collection of DC Showcase shorts with Blue Beetle and The Losers, adapting the Charlton Comics incarnation of the former and the World War II team.
The former short sees Ted Kord fighting with The Question against Dr. Spectro while The Losers sees the eponymous military outcasts as they are marooned on an uncharted island overrun with dinosaurs.
In time for the release of the collection of shorts, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with director Milo Neuman to discuss the Blue Beetle and The Losers shorts, making his directorial debut, what he learned from the experience and more.
Screen Rant: I loved both shorts. I really had no idea what to expect other than the team and characters, and I was interested to see what they were going to be a part of. How did you figure out what angle you wanted to approach each comic from?
Milo Neuman: Fortunately for me, those decisions were made before I was brought on to the project. [Laughs] I [was] briefed stylistically before things started up. We wanted to do The Losers kind of like a classic pulp adventure story, which is appropriate, because that's what it is. With the Blue Beetle, right off the bat, the decision was we wanted to make it look like a classic superhero cartoon with all of the animation mistakes and little quirks and weird cutting and stuff that we don't do anymore.
I was excited when I heard about the project, because they just sounded interesting stylistically.
You've been with Warner Brothers and DC for quite a while now, but this is your first time directing any kind of project for them. What was that like for you getting the opportunity to be at the helm for the shorts?
Milo Neuman: I feel pretty lucky. I feel like it was the ideal first time directing experience, because my understanding is if you direct on a series or something ongoing, it just becomes this endless series of overlapping episodes you're working on and a lot of those people I know who directed on series get burned out pretty quickly and are pretty exhausted, because they have a lot of work.
But with these shorts, it was great. I felt like I had a lot of time on each of them. I could kind of just sit in my office and poke around at things and try to get things just right, so I felt very lucky to have that experience. And Rick was great, he kind of guided me through the process. It was awesome, no complaints.
What were some of the biggest things that you were learning as the development went on from the director's chair?
Milo Neuman: I think what I learned on the first short — The Losers was the first one I did — as a director in animation, you're kind of like the boss of the storyboard artists, that's the main first thing you do. You shepherd your storyboard artists through the process and talk about the script. You explain what the intent of the story is and the style and all that stuff, and you let them loose, but you're keeping an eye on them the entire time.
For this one, I decided I had a little time, so The Losers I actually boarded a chunk of the short myself and towards the end of the project. I kind of reboarded some stuff too, so I ended up doing a lot of storyboarding while I was directing this thing, in addition to working with the other artists, and what I found on The Losers - more so than on Blue Beetle - was I started to get very caught up in what I was doing on my sequences. I found I was focusing less on the other artists' sequences.
As a result of that - I still I feel like I did a pretty good job working across the whole thing - but I definitely at the end of the process looking back, I thought, "Man, I really got kind of caught up on trying to get my parts of the short just right," as opposed to focusing on the whole.
For Blue Beetle, I made the really conscious decision to not board any of it myself, so I stepped back and I did a little bit here and there where it needed it. I thought, "I don't know if board artists I have are the right fit for this little chunk, maybe I'll take this myself," or if I had a really specific idea for the thing. But those are all very small stuff, so it wasn't like half of the short or a third of the short was me boarding, like on the first one. [Chuckles]
I think that put me in a position I feel I was supposed to be in as a director, where I'm actually just looking at the whole project and trying to get the whole thing to work, and we're not getting so precious about little bits here and there. So that was, I think, the big thing I've learned.
Now that you've gotten that taste of directing, are you hoping to to get to sit in that chair for more in the future?
Milo Neuman: Yeah, I'd like to. I directed these shorts a couple of years ago now. That's the crazy thing about how long it takes for these things to come out, it was before the pandemic, it was in 2019, when we were all still in the office. I've just been doing boarding projects ever since, but I'd like to direct again, I'm hoping that will happen. But I'm also not pursuing it too hungrily, because I've got other little personal projects and things going on that keep me pretty busy.
You've worked on quite the array of animated stuff, mostly in DC but also with Mortal Kombat. What would you want to helm next, do you think would you rather be the director for another DC animated venture or for Mortal Kombat or something else?
Milo Neuman: You know, I actually haven't been working with Warner Brothers for a couple of years now, but I'd be happy to go back and direct something for them over there. It depends on the project. I think honestly, right now, I'm more interested in original IPs than getting back into working on superhero stuff, because I've done that for a good number of years. I think I've been ready for something else for a while.
But possibly, never say never. [Laughs]
One thing I love about both of these shorts as well is their casts. They have great actors behind both of them. What was it like looking for the right voices to bring all of these characters to life?
Milo Neuman: I wasn't really involved in the casting. I think that was all stuff that was done beforehand. But our casting directors, they do a great job. I think everyone really brought a lot to to the roles.
I think on Blue Beetle, specifically, it just seemed like everyone was having a lot of fun getting to do old timey superhero radio or cartoon voices. I think, unless you're working on something really cartoony, you don't get to do that. With DC, I feel like we were making projects that were a little bit more adult and a little bit more realistic, but I think our voice performances have had to reflect that. Giving these voice actors a chance to do something really old timey and fun was a treat for everybody. That was great.
Since you mentioned that you directed this before the pandemic, did you get the opportunity to watch any of the actors record their voice work?
Milo Neuman: Yeah, when we were recording voices, that was during my time at the [office], so I got to actually go before the pandemic to the recording studio and sit in and give notes and talk to the actors and stuff. It was great. #very time we did it, there was just such great energy in the room. We usually have the voice actors together as a group, as many of them as we could, so they could actually play off of each other, and I think that really helped with a lot of the performances too. [Chuckles]
That was some of the most fun I had working on those, honestly, getting to listen in on those.
It's a rarity when you can get all the voice actors in one room, especially nowadays with everything going on, so that's awesome.
Milo Neuman: I imagine that doesn't even happen at all nowadays, it's gotta be all over like Zoom or something.
I talked to a couple of the actresses for Catwoman: Hunted and they were like, "Oh, we've never met each other." It was like, "Oh, well, that's amazing, because you played it well."
Milo Neuman: I believe it. Catwoman: Hunted was actually the second-to-last thing I worked on at DC. I did some boards on that, too.
That was a fun little project as well to watch.
Milo Neuman: I enjoyed it. It was a fun one, but it was like a quick little thing between projects. I had just finished up directing, and then they had me on one more TV before I split from WB to go work on some other things.
Even though you're working on other things, both of these shorts end with somewhat cliffhangers, especially The Losers. Are there thoughts or even actual work going on to continue the storylines?
Milo Neuman: I don't know specifics. And the general stuff I do know, I probably can't talk about. [Laughs]
But I will say, I'm pretty sure there's some sort of connected plan for all of these shorts and the new TV they're working on. It's all connected. You can watch watch out for connections, I think that's all I can say.
I know Blue Beetle looked back towards those Hanna-Barbera style cartoons as the inspiration for the look, but when it came to The Losers, what would you say were some of your biggest inspirations, especially since you storyboarded a lot of that one yourself?
Milo Neuman: For me, I would say mostly I was thinking about Steven Spielberg and George Lucas movies. Maybe it's just because of the dinosaurs, but I was thinking Jurassic Park. [Laughs] But also because it's got that kind of pulp adventure thing that I think George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were both tapping into in the '70s and '80s, when they were making all their family action-adventure movies. I think I was kind of going for a little bit of that.
And thinking about World War II stuff, too, like Saving Private Ryan and all that. I think there's little bits of all those movies throughout that short stylistically. Because as the director, I'm mostly thinking about it from a filmmaking standpoint: the character designs, backgrounds, all that stuff. That was kind of a different department for me, but from a storytelling standpoint, definitely Spielberg and George Lucas movies.
The latest collection of DC Showcase shorts is now available to purchase on Blu-ray and digital platforms in Constantine — The House of Mystery.