Superman: Brainiac Attacks

Superman: Brainiac Attacks is a 2006 direct-to-video animated film with production designs based on Superman: The Animated Series from Warner Bros. Animation. Released on June 20, 2006, the film features Superman battling the forces of Lex Luthor and Brainiac, and his relationship with Lois Lane. Though the film's visual style is the same as Superman: The Animated Series (as are the majority of its returning voice cast), it is not in continuity with the DC animated universe. Superman: TAS alumni Tim Daly and Dana Delany are reunited to play the characters of Superman and Lois Lane. Also returning from the animated series are David Kaufman as Jimmy Olsen, George Dzundza as Perry White, Mike Farrell as Jonathan Kent & Farrell's real life wife Shelley Fabares as Martha Kent. This is the first time that Daly has returned to the Superman role since the 2002 video game Superman: Shadow of Apokolips, as he was not part of the cast of the Justice League animated series where the part of Superman was played by George Newbern at the time. Clancy Brown, Lisa Edelstein and Corey Burton, who played Lex Luthor, Mercy Graves and Brainiac in the animated series, Superman, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited for the DCAU are absent in the cast of the movie. Powers Boothe (who also voiced Gorilla Grodd on Justice League), Tara Strong and Lance Henriksen instead played Lex Luthor, Mercy Graves and Brainiac, respectively. Notably, this depiction of Lex Luthor, rather than being the cold, calculating industrialist portrayed in Superman: The Animated Series, seems to incorporate elements of Gene Hackman's less serious portrayals of the character in live-action movies, making Luthor more light-hearted and darkly whimsical, going as far as to make jokes about the situations around him, and Brainiac is portrayed as more intentionally evil with a human-like personality instead of being a heartless machine fulfilling his programing. But the actions Luthor and Brainiac take are just as ruthless as all the other modern day and animated incarnations.