Exploring Faith through DC Comics: Shazam! on UltimateTube

Pastor Jay discusses his love for DC Comics and the character Shazam.

He shares his thoughts on the Shazam movie and how it compares to the original Captain Marvel character.

Pastor Jay also talks about his preference for physical comic books over digital comics.

He mentions that bringing in lesser-known characters can be a challenge in the comic book movie universe.

It's time now for the Classic Cinema Rewind with Pastor Jay. I'll see you back at the hut. Oh boy. Hey, doggie. Now join Pastor Jay as we rewind the tape. And enjoy some classic cinema. Cinema fans, this is Pastor Jay on the Classic Cinema Rewind podcast. Of course, we want to thank you for joining us, whether you're listening to us on All Things Podcast and one of our channels that way, or whether you're watching the video cast on YouTube or UltimateTube, whichever the case may be, we want to thank you for joining us today. And today is going to be an interesting day because today we're talking all things DC character related. I'm a big DC guy, okay? I love the characters in the DC comics. I love all comic book characters as far as that goes. Some people are all DC or all Marvel. I'm not that way. I enjoy the characters in all of the universes. I love the DC characters. I love the Marvel characters. I enjoy, I will say, DC has a very strong villain universe. They got the strongest of villains in the DC Universe, where Marvel, their villains are not as strong in comparison. But I love all things comic book related. I really have. But today on this podcast, we're going to talk all things one specific character in the DC Universe. And that character was originally known as Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel, of course, way back in the day, was an interesting character. It was what we know him as now as Shazam. Billy Batson would say the word Shazam and would turn into Captain Marvel. And that was a really cool idea. It was really awesome, and somewhere along the way, there came legal issues and different things, and instead of DC, who had gained the rights to Captain Marvel, instead of trying to go into all kinds of legal issues with Marvel, who had kind of started the Captain Marvel of their own, they just said, we'll just make him Shazam. And so, that's what they've done. but back in the day Captain Marvel was a part of the DC Universe and it was really cool, we have actually in our collection, I didn't pull it but a DVD of an original movie serial The Adventures of Captain Marvel and it is Shazam it is really really awesome, we do have that in our collection but just didn't pull it, but it is very, very cool, and it's very cool to see the origins of Captain Marvel, or Shazam, if you will, way back from the early forms of movies. Very, very cool. Well, what has happened is that with all things comic book related, you know, comic book movies have become the big thing. Some people feel that comic book movies are becoming oversaturated, or the market, if you will, is becoming oversaturated with comic book movies, and I would probably have to agree with that to a degree. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy the comic book movies. I love them. I love to watch them, but the thing is, I think they do tend to become oversaturated sometimes. When you get so many, it does become oversaturated, and we kind of take it for granted, let's put it that way. And you do have to take into consideration that, too, with comic book movies, Sometimes you can get a comic book character that is loved by comic book fans, but is unknown to regular viewers. Because that is where a lot of the viewership is going. A lot of the people that are going to the movies, they have never read a comic book in their life. And that's true. Not everybody, of course not. But I'm saying a lot of the audience has really never known the joy of picking up a comic book and flipping through the pages and enjoying that adventure in comic book form. I'm still a purist. I still like that hard copy of the comic books. I still love them. To me, that is what makes a comic book a comic book. I'm not a big fan of the digital comics. I prefer to hold the book in my hand. That's me. And if somebody likes digitals that fine too I not trying to say that anybody has to do what I do I just saying me I a purist I like the actual physical copy in my hands but anyway, what I'm getting at is this, that for the comic book universe, for the movie universe, the cinematic universe, if you will bringing in characters that are somewhat not well known, it can be why sometimes they don't fly as well. Okay. Well, I was fearful with Shazam when DC and Warner Brothers announced that they were going to do this Shazam movie. I was like, ooh, I don't know how this is going to work because there's a lot of people well, they probably don't understand Shazam and don't really know the character Shazam, and that's going to be a problem. So what was my thoughts of Shazam? Well, the Shazam movie came out and kind of surprised me. When I saw the trailers, I have to be honest with you, when I saw the trailers, I was not really overly happy with it. I didn't like the idea of the Shazam character, the Captain Marvel character that I grew up with, Captain Marvel. But Shazam being this kind of childish, childlike guy, superhero, because the whole idea for what I grew up on was Billy Batson would say, Shazam! Shazam! And he would become this virtuous character, Captain Marvel. So for me, when I saw Billy Batson become Shazam, and Shazam was more of that kind of childlike character, I wasn't really too happy with that. I was like, I don't know if I'm going to like this. So, but anyway, we picked it up, we checked it out, we watched it, and actually I was okay with it, actually, after watching it. It's a different take on the character, and I understand that, and that's fine. So after I watched it, I was like, okay, it's not too bad. It's okay. I can deal with this. I can handle this. And I wasn't really sure I was going to be able to handle it. I really wasn't sure I was going to like it. But actually, after it was all said and done, after I watched it, and after the credits rolled and everything, and after it was all said and done, and I sat back and I thought about it, I thought, this isn't bad. It's an okay take on it. It's not the original take, but it's an okay take. I liked the characters in it. I liked the action was very good. The story was well put together. So for me, I enjoyed Shazam. looking forward to maybe a Shazam 2, I'm hoping. There is talks about that. I don't know if we've... Not that I've heard is it set in stone yet. I'm hoping, hoping that somehow we get a Shazam 2. It would be very, very cool. But we'll see. But I did enjoy Shazam. But that is the new take on the classic character of Captain Marvel, Billy Batson and Captain Marvel. So what is our take on the main event of this podcast? What is the main event of this podcast since we're talking Captain Marvel? Well, stay tuned. We'll let you know right after this. Free movies and TV produced by Pastor Jay at Classic Cinema Magazine. www.blogspot.com or at youtube.com slash TheRealPastorJay. Alright, thanks for staying with us here on the Classic Cinema Rewind Podcast. Of course, this is Pastor Jay here with you talking Captain Marvel Shazam. It's hard for me sometimes to say Shazam instead of Captain Marvel, because for me, Captain Marvel was that original DC character. I know there is a Captain Marvel in the Marvel Universe, and I understand that, and that's why we have to say Shazam now, but for me, he's still always going to be Captain Marvel. That's me. But anyway, now for the main event of the podcast, and we're sharing with you something that is so spectacular. I was not born when this series hit the air. So for me, I was always wanting to see this, but I never got a chance to do that because it was not available ever, anywhere. It was just not available. And that's this series here, Shazam! the TV series. okay now the interesting thing is with this is that i'm a big fan of of the old classic shows and when shazam was um on the air i was i i wasn't even born yet so i couldn't watch it uh by the time i got of age to where i could have watched it it was no longer available anywhere uh so for me when when it came to down to it i wanted to watch shazam but you couldn't find it anywhere uh voodoo uh a streaming service that we use uh came up with um this series on sale It was the whole entire series for like So I thought, well, it's better to have the whole series on digital than to not have the series at all. So I had some Voodoo credit, and so I ordered the thing and watched it on streaming service, and I fell in love with the series. I thought it was great. then Warner Archive came up and said we're releasing Shazam on Blu-ray the little kid, the little comic book kid inside of me left with joy I was so excited to see Shazam on Blu-ray wow I was speechless So I contacted the good people at Warner Archive and I said, is that available for review? Could I review this for my audience, for my readers? And they kindly said, yes, we'd love to have you review this for us. And so they sent me this copy to be able to check out. And so I got a chance to compare the digital with the Blu-ray release. And I have to say the Blu-ray release is really spectacular. I think with the streaming service, you do lose some of the quality. I don't know that it's the same transfer. I mean, I don't even know if it's the same transfer. I'll have to be honest with you. It looks good. The digital looks good. But this looks spectacular. The quality of the episodes in this looks amazing, in my opinion. There's no lost quality at all, really, when you get right down to it. There may be a little bit of specs, a little bit of archiving, if you will, in this, but it is very minute, very small at all. And I'm excited to actually have this on Blu-ray. I mean, look at these. for those of you that are watching, those of you that are listening can't see it, but those of you that are watching can see the discs here that we have on this collection. There is four discs, and they all have the same artwork on it, which is really interesting. You have Billy Batson, you have Mentor, we'll get into that in a second, and then you have Captain Marvel. So, Billy Batson, young kid who is given all the powers of the ancient gods when he simply says Shazam. Now, the interesting thing about this series was the guy Mentor. I found it interesting that Billy Batson and this older guy are traveling the country in an RV. and finding people that are in trouble and helping them. And that's cool. That's fine. I don't know if he's like his, he must be some sort of a teacher or something, or maybe later on down the line, DC tried to kind of explain this in a comic book by saying this was probably Billy Batson's uncle. I don't know. Maybe that's what he was. I don't know. Maybe that was what the intent was. I don't know. Mentor. The man didn't even have a name. He went by mentor. When Billy Batson would talk to him, he'd say mentor. He wouldn't even call him by a name. I found that kind of interesting. Kind of strange and interesting. I don't think it's bad I don't think it's horrible I just often wondered when watching this why he didn't have a name what was the deal man why didn't this fella have a name man he only went by mentor it was funny but anyway that's a minute little thing I just thought it was interesting. But anyway, I love this series. This series is sort of reminiscent of stuff like He-Man, and what I mean by that is they have the moral lessons at the end of each episode. Those of you that are He-Man fans remember those. At the end of the episode, a character from He-Man, whether it be He-Man or Orko or Man-at-Arms or whatever, one of the characters would give the moral lesson. Today in this episode, we see this. Well, in every episode of Shazam, we get the moral lesson from Shazam himself, Captain Marvel. And I just love it. The episodes are very simplistic, and they're perfect for little kids. and still, even for me at my age, I still enjoyed them as an adult. Even though I didn't, see, I don't have any sort of nostalgic feel for this series because I never got to see this when I was a kid. So for me, watching this for the first time was the first time viewing. and I still enjoyed every single episode. It was really good. And to me, Warner Archive did a tremendous job with this series and deserves kudos with all. I mean four stars and above If we got one to four stars this gets a four rating It is that tremendous Something that is cool with these is if you you know those of you that watched the series in the beginning, there was another series, Isis, that went along with this, and they kind of crossed over another character, a female superhero, Isis. They crossed these over. And so some of the episodes that were crossover episodes between ISIS and Shazam are on this. Now, with that, I'm hoping what we're going to see is ISIS get a Blu-ray release. That would be awesome. That would be stellar. That would be tremendous. Will that ever happen? I think it all depends on how well this sells. If this sells really spectacularly, then yeah, we could see a ISIS Blu-ray release. If not, well, then we probably won't ever get to see it. But anyway, what I'm saying is, if you're a fan of 70s TV and the DC Comics and Shazam, I highly recommend this Blu-ray release from Warner Archive. It is spectacular. It is probably one of the best things that I've seen from Warner Archive since I've been reviewing stuff. And that is very hard to say because they have been knocking things out the park with everything they do. But this one is spectacular. And that artwork, that artwork is just spectacular. Those of you that are listening on the podcast, you can't see the artwork, but definitely search it out at WarnerArchive.com. You can go to WBShop.com slash WarnerArchive or WarnerArchive.com and search that out and check out that artwork. Oh, spectacular stuff. It just looks like it just leaps off of a comic book page. It is so spectacular. So, yeah, I mean, I'm looking forward to more stuff from Warner Archive And looking for more Shazam goodies. Maybe, just maybe, DC and Warner Brothers will get together and bring us another Shazam movie. That would be awesome. But, yeah, I'm looking forward to more great stuff from the great character Shazam. Wow. Looking forward to it. All right. Well, we've got to take a commercial break, and we'll be right back with some final thought after this. Read reviews of the latest DVDs, Blu-rays, TV shows, and so much more at classiccinemamagazine.blogspot.com. I want to thank you for joining me today on this journey through the world of Shazam. We have had a blast being with you today, and I hope you've enjoyed a little look at the character Shazam. I enjoy this character very much, whether it's from the original Captain Marvel movie serial, whether it's the amazing Blu-ray release of Shazam, the TV series from the 70s, or whether it's the new Shazam movie, or newer Shazam movie, I should say. Whatever the case may be, if you enjoy Shazam, definitely. if you've never seen this the Shazam TV series I highly recommend this series I'm telling you, you gotta check this thing out it is spectacular go to Warner Archive and pick up this copy you can get it on Amazon if you prefer to buy from Amazon you can do that but pick it up it is spectacular I want to thank Warner Archive for sending that my way because it is so awesome. It's just, it's truly become one of my favorites that Warner Archive has done. So thank you, Warner Archive, so much for sending that our way. We're out of time for this time around. We want to remind you to like, share, and subscribe to these videos. Also, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at TheRealPastorJ. That's our social media accounts for all things classic cinema. and until we see you next time with another podcast here on the Classic Cinema Rewind maybe an unboxing or maybe something else we want to remind you to go to classiccinemamagazine.blogspot.com every single day we got something new up every day and until we see you next time this is Pastor Jay reminding you that if you want to see a great film check out a classic and we will see you next time here on the Classic Cinema Rewind bye everyone have a blessed day Sailing out. Is the picture over? Thanks for joining us here on Classic Cinema Rewind. Oh, no, you don't. Stay right where you are, folks. This picture isn't over yet. Stay right there. We want to thank our sponsors. Also, a very special thank you to our great musician, Kevin McClough, for the great royalty-free music. Check out more of his amazing work at www.incompetech.com. Come here. Hey. Oh, no, you don't. No, you don't. No, stay right there. Hey, George! 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