Wonder Woman Animated DVD
Last Friday I had the opportunity to watch the fairly new animated Wonder Woman DVD for the first time, even having a real time discussion about it on Twitter with autumnrae89 which was so fun that I thought I'd make a review post now that I've seen most of the special features on the two-disc version too.
Wonder Woman
First off as you can tell by the kickass artwork, the designs of the characters and the world were fantastic. Nothing that surprises me when it comes to the DC animation line of late or a Bruce Timm production. What I did find interesting was that Wonder Woman comic writer, Gail Simone, was involved in developing the story. Sometimes I find her WW issues to be too complex and not focused enough on Diana and the people in her life/family but I didn't get that at all in the movie. This was a perfectly laid out origin story that unfortunately for fans hoping for a live-action film may be the only story involving Wonder Woman that could be encased into the box of a one to two hour movie format.
I had heard before watching it that they were going to touch on the sensitive issue of ___ forcing himself upon Hippolyta (a pretty well known fact in the history of the Amazons) and was prepared for whatever way they chose to hint at it - blatantly or not. Especially when the movie opened up with the Amazons and Hippolyta fighting against Ares and his army, I started to expect the worst, and was surprised when it was barely mentioned in a short remark during Ares & Hippolyta's banter. Not worth the hubbub the comments I had read had caused.
One of the things I enjoyed in the movie was the character, Artemis. Now I'll be the first to tell you that I am not well versed with the Wonder Woman universe, so in my head for some reason I always had Artemis as an Amazon that was once Diana's rival that turned into a villain down the road. Now maybe that happened in another medium or I mixed up characters, but when I watched this Artemis I was absolutely blown away by how much I enjoyed the character. At points in the movie she was my favorite part of it. The other thing I liked would have to be the humor laced in-between the action and story. Artemis commenting on the big sword she was carrying was actually only her dagger, and the moment where Steve Trevor confessed his feelings to Diana on the jet plane because he had his foot on her magic lasso were two that stand out the most to me.
The negatives, weren't anything huge. Since I wasn't that attached to the Wonder Woman mythology in the first place I didn't mind too much the removal of Hercules from the conflict with Hippolyta and replacing him with Ares who is a WW villain mainstay. I didn't even notice that Diana didn't fly at all in the movie until I read about it in some reviews. I think that is true to the original version of the character that always used that invisible jet, and I think at times flying can be overrated and overused. I thought there was too much of Wonder Woman having cuts and bleeding during the fights, but I can rationalize it by considering the power level of her opponents with their godlike components/influence. Just something I'm not used to (and it got to the point in the movie that I was actually fearing that they would make it that Steve Trevor would have to save Wonder Woman at the end). Thankfully that didn't happen.
I could complain about the rushed coupling of Diana and Steve, but honestly with such a short time frame to work with (it was what 70 minutes long?) I can understand the reason to push the pacing in order to still have a romance aspect in the overall story and to stay true to concepts from her origin story. Honestly this was a fun movie to watch. It went by very fast and I thought the special features showing how Wonder Woman's creation came to be, the movement in society at the time for womens rights and how Wonder Woman was returned to her glory later in her life were very interesting to see and I can't say I didn't learn a thing or two.
I think the DVD definitely warrants a watch by any DC, Wonder Woman or superheroine fan in general. It certainly follows in the line of quality DC has maintained with these direct-to-DVD hits (Superman/Doomsday, New Frontier) and I can't wait to get my hands on the recently released Green Lantern: First Flight or the upcoming Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. If DC can't get their live-action films together, at least they have a steady pulse on the animation side. So go watch, or comment. :)
Wonder Woman
First off as you can tell by the kickass artwork, the designs of the characters and the world were fantastic. Nothing that surprises me when it comes to the DC animation line of late or a Bruce Timm production. What I did find interesting was that Wonder Woman comic writer, Gail Simone, was involved in developing the story. Sometimes I find her WW issues to be too complex and not focused enough on Diana and the people in her life/family but I didn't get that at all in the movie. This was a perfectly laid out origin story that unfortunately for fans hoping for a live-action film may be the only story involving Wonder Woman that could be encased into the box of a one to two hour movie format.
I had heard before watching it that they were going to touch on the sensitive issue of ___ forcing himself upon Hippolyta (a pretty well known fact in the history of the Amazons) and was prepared for whatever way they chose to hint at it - blatantly or not. Especially when the movie opened up with the Amazons and Hippolyta fighting against Ares and his army, I started to expect the worst, and was surprised when it was barely mentioned in a short remark during Ares & Hippolyta's banter. Not worth the hubbub the comments I had read had caused.
One of the things I enjoyed in the movie was the character, Artemis. Now I'll be the first to tell you that I am not well versed with the Wonder Woman universe, so in my head for some reason I always had Artemis as an Amazon that was once Diana's rival that turned into a villain down the road. Now maybe that happened in another medium or I mixed up characters, but when I watched this Artemis I was absolutely blown away by how much I enjoyed the character. At points in the movie she was my favorite part of it. The other thing I liked would have to be the humor laced in-between the action and story. Artemis commenting on the big sword she was carrying was actually only her dagger, and the moment where Steve Trevor confessed his feelings to Diana on the jet plane because he had his foot on her magic lasso were two that stand out the most to me.
The negatives, weren't anything huge. Since I wasn't that attached to the Wonder Woman mythology in the first place I didn't mind too much the removal of Hercules from the conflict with Hippolyta and replacing him with Ares who is a WW villain mainstay. I didn't even notice that Diana didn't fly at all in the movie until I read about it in some reviews. I think that is true to the original version of the character that always used that invisible jet, and I think at times flying can be overrated and overused. I thought there was too much of Wonder Woman having cuts and bleeding during the fights, but I can rationalize it by considering the power level of her opponents with their godlike components/influence. Just something I'm not used to (and it got to the point in the movie that I was actually fearing that they would make it that Steve Trevor would have to save Wonder Woman at the end). Thankfully that didn't happen.
I could complain about the rushed coupling of Diana and Steve, but honestly with such a short time frame to work with (it was what 70 minutes long?) I can understand the reason to push the pacing in order to still have a romance aspect in the overall story and to stay true to concepts from her origin story. Honestly this was a fun movie to watch. It went by very fast and I thought the special features showing how Wonder Woman's creation came to be, the movement in society at the time for womens rights and how Wonder Woman was returned to her glory later in her life were very interesting to see and I can't say I didn't learn a thing or two.
I think the DVD definitely warrants a watch by any DC, Wonder Woman or superheroine fan in general. It certainly follows in the line of quality DC has maintained with these direct-to-DVD hits (Superman/Doomsday, New Frontier) and I can't wait to get my hands on the recently released Green Lantern: First Flight or the upcoming Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. If DC can't get their live-action films together, at least they have a steady pulse on the animation side. So go watch, or comment. :)