Wonder Woman (The Animated Movie) Review

In celebration of Brad’s love for all things DC, I have been given permission to start reviewing the monthly title Wonder Woman.  Why is this, you may be asking.  Well, let me tell you: Kevin Cushing’s man-crush, and a previous writer on Amazing Spider-Man (see, one can always tie it to Spider-Man), J. Michael Straczynski, will soon be the writer on Wonder Woman (his first issue hits shelves in July beginning with #601/#46).  Before his tenure begins, let me give you a review to whet your pallets with!

REVIEW:

Wonder Woman…yes, Wonder Woman from a Batgirl fan.  Now, I’m not a diehard Wonder Woman fan by any means, but she does deserve all the praise she gets as a hero and the revolution she brought to comics.

But I’m not here to talk about her comic-incarnation.  Not yet, anyway.  On March 27, 2010, I watched Wonder Woman, the 2009 direct to video release from DC Comics, and I was completely high from the experience.  It was, truly, one of the best movies I have ever watched.  It was so smartly written, not only concerning the storyline, but concerning the dialog as well.  There was so much research done for this movie, and it shows; whether it’s from the Greek philosophers that Alexa quotes, to actual ancient Greek and Latin being used, to a dedication not only to the Wonder Woman mythos but the Greek mythos as well (the quote “Zeus seduced one of my mom’s friends by turning into a swan!  A SWAN…true story.” This, for those of you who are not in the know, is a reference to Leda).

There are so many great quotes that I could pull out of this movie that you could be reading this for an entire hour!  One of my favorites was “We are not familiar with this idiom.  What is crap?”

Story wise, it is PERFECT!  It starts out with an epic battle, setting the stage for the rest of the plot.  I thought it wise not immediately introducing Diana but making Hippolyta and Ares the center focus.  Diana’s struggle in the new world rounds-out the plot creating not just an action movie, but a drama as well.

The voice-casting was SUPERB!  I recognized Hippolyta right away as Virginia Madsen and she is not a stranger to animation—or the Justice League—if you recall her playing Roulette.  Keri Russell, Nathon Fillion, Alfred Molina, Rosario Dawson, Tara Strong…need I go on?!

Oh…my…word…and you know, I’m going to shock you all and say that I really liked that bathing scene.  And do you know why?  Because that is taken right out of the classics!  That is a “locus amoenus” (pleasant place), and whenever a mortal man stumbles in on a nymph or goddess bathing, something bad always happens to him.  Take, for example, Actaeon walking in on Diana (the goddess) bathing.  Diana turns Actaeon into a stag and he is killed by his own hunting dogs.  I’d say getting kicked in the tic-tacs and an uppercut to the jaw is punishment as well!

I also loved the scene where Diana was teaching the little girl to sword fight…classic!  Preparing tomorrow’s youth, one stick at a time!

The fact that Diana never flies is a solid point as well, in my opinion.  In that respect, I think that the story keeps at least a little grounded in reality and plays to Diana’s other strengths.

And the ending?!  I LOVED IT.  Diana puts her glasses in the grocery bag which is something I really paid attention to because I often wonder where Superman’s glasses go when he is changing.  When the camera was zooming in on the doors my first guess was Circe but then Cheetah busts out and I thought…this is AWESOME!!!

The only problem I had with the movie was the disgusting character design of Hades.  Greeks were not gluttonous, “never to excess” you understand, and so this did not really fit the ideal.  Plus, in general, all the ancient gods were thought to have had the ideal/perfect physical appearance.  This was NOT that!

It was a GREAT, GREAT, GREAT movie and now I think I need a Wonder Woman t-shirt, for sure!  I can’t wait to dive into the comic!

GRADE:

A++  5 out of 5 Lassos

Ex animo, Spider-Girl!