Do not tick off the Amazons
Marvel has been making a habit of doing straight-to-DVD animated movies starring their second-tier characters, and DC has recently gotten in on the act as well, with Superman: Doomsday (forgettable) and Darwyn Cooke's Final Frontier (excellent). One thing that bugs me, though, is that these movies are invariably PG-13, meaning I can't watch them with Sparky. And they normally don't need to be, either...there's either some unnecessary Language, or someone gets killed instead of knocked out, just for the sake of the harder rating. I think it's a shame, because Justice League certainly proved that it's possible to do animated superhero stories with quality plots that kids can enjoy too. I watched the new Wonder Woman DVD over the weekend, which is also PG-13, and...yeah, it needs to be PG-13. It's the story of the Amazons vs. Ares, for Pete's sake, so it's violent. Beheadings, impalings, disembowlings...and that's before the opening titles.
It was actually a lot better than I expected it to be. It's short, only 75 minutes, but it manages to squeeze in Wonder Woman's entire origin, some character growth, and a bunch of big ol' battles, which, as I said, look something like 300: The Animated Movie. I think the best move was casting Nathan Fillion as Steve Trevor. Steve is a tricky character to write at the best of times, so the writers on this movie decided to go with "lovable jerk." I'm not sure how many actors could have pulled off the "lovable" part, but Fillion makes it work beautifully. In fact, almost all the casting was inspired -- whatever they're paying Andrea Romano, it's not enough. (Side note: There was a preview of a Green Lantern animated movie coming later this year, with Victor Garber as Sinestro, Michael Madsen as Kilowog, and Tricia Helfer as a female Lantern named Boodikka. Awesome.)
It was actually a lot better than I expected it to be. It's short, only 75 minutes, but it manages to squeeze in Wonder Woman's entire origin, some character growth, and a bunch of big ol' battles, which, as I said, look something like 300: The Animated Movie. I think the best move was casting Nathan Fillion as Steve Trevor. Steve is a tricky character to write at the best of times, so the writers on this movie decided to go with "lovable jerk." I'm not sure how many actors could have pulled off the "lovable" part, but Fillion makes it work beautifully. In fact, almost all the casting was inspired -- whatever they're paying Andrea Romano, it's not enough. (Side note: There was a preview of a Green Lantern animated movie coming later this year, with Victor Garber as Sinestro, Michael Madsen as Kilowog, and Tricia Helfer as a female Lantern named Boodikka. Awesome.)