Wonder Woman [DVD] [2009]

Wonder woman, the most famous super heroine of them all, has been around for a little under seventy years now. She had a well remembered tv series in the seventies, but attempts to make a live action film about the character have all floundered.

But in the meantime, here's an animated version.

Basically it fulfils the same function as a tv pilot episode, as it's only seventy minutes long. It tells the origin of the character and gives her a super villain to battle, and sets things up for future stories.

Despite the relatively short length, it does manage to pack quite a lot into the running time. In case you don't know the story of the character - you'll have no problems getting into this if that's the case as it's completely accessible to those who don't read the comic - the amazons are a tribe of warrior women who fought a bitter war centuries ago, and were given an island of their own by the god zeus where they have survived hidden from the outside world to the present day. diana is daughter to the queen of the tribe, and she was magically created by the gods when her mother prayed for a child. when fighter pilot steve trevor crashes his plane on the island, diana wins the right to take him back to man's world. but at the same time ares, the god of war, has escaped from his long imprisonment on the island, and is plotting to bring about global catastrophe. it's up to diana to stop him.

This comes from the same team of animators who produced the 1990's batman cartoon and subsequent series featuring superman and the super hero team the justice league, and they are the best people for things like this because they do justice to the characters and provide quality animation with it. there's also a strong voice cast who provide a lot of character for the roles. standout has to be nathan fillion as cocky pilot steve trevor. his laidback and deadpan acting style suits the part perfectly.

Despite being animated this is not entirely suitable for young children thanks to some bloodu battle scenes which feature limbs being severed, but all those are done in silhouette. hence it's a 12 certificate.

the end sets things up for future stories. I wouldn't mind to see them.

this is a two disc edition. and has the following Audio options:

languages: english castilian spanish turkish

subtitles: english castilian spanish turkish

audio: 5.1 dolby digital english. 2.0 dolby surround castilian spanish. dolby stereo turkish.

disc one contains the movie and four ten minute long promotional documentaries about the making of several cartoon movies based on dc comics characters. this, batman: gotham knight, dc the new frontier, and green lantern: first flight. all are very watchable and quite interesting.

There's also a commentary from the creative team.

disc two contains two twenty five minute documentaties about the wonder woman character. the first looks at the creation of the character, and the second at how her origin and background is steeped in greek myth, and also at the 70's tv series. both are very good and very watchable and very interesting pieces of work.

and there are also two episodes from the cartoon justice league unlimited, which centred on a large team of dc comics superheroes. wonder woman played a big role in both these episodes, which is why they are preeented here.

It would be great to see a live action movie for the character finally happen, but in the meantime, this will more than suffice.

While the supplemental extras tend to be either ignored or viewed by only the most ardent of fans, the ones on this two-disc set serve to provide background on Wonder Woman's creator, the time in which the character emerged, and her revolutionary significance in both the emergence of the rights of women and pop culture.

The two documentaries, "Wonder Woman: A Subversive Dream" and "Wonder Woman: Daughter of Myth" are truly engrossing, painting a most positive portrait of the comic book icon, showing why she ranks up there with Superman and Batman as one of the greatest creations in the DC Universe.

The two bonus cartoons, episodes from the "Justice League" series, are good but a better pair would have been the two-part installment "Paradise Lost," which coincidentally features some of the same characters that appear in the "Wonder Woman" film.

"Paradise Lost" actually reveals one of the weaknesses of the film: primarily in the voice-acting arena. The television installment features Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman, Susan Sullivan as Hippolyta, the great English actor John Rhys-Davies as Hades, along with horror icon Robert Englund as Felix Faust. While Keri Russell and Virginia Madsen assay the respective roles of Wonder Woman and Hippolyta in the film, they just can't compare to Eisenberg and Susan. And as good as Alfred Molina is, he just doesn't have the "power" vocally to portray the god "Aries."

Also, the film has a couple of grisly deaths, obviously the reason for the PG-13 rating. Another sequence between Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor in a bar is very much for a more mature viewer, definitely not for pre-teens and under.

However, even with the three "minuses," so to speak, the film is still a good-but-not-great entry in the direct-to-DVD series.

I am not a 'comic book geek', although I like this sort of thing. This being the case, one of my criteria when it comes to this sort of film is 'does it expect me to know a whole load about the continuity'? The film 'New Frontier' in this series was therefore somewhat of a disappointment, as it seemed to expect meto know something about a comic book series I haven't read and willprobably never read. I was glad therefore to find that this film requires only a cursory familiarity with classical mythology. The sory is retold with pace and panace, as well as a good amount of humour.

The plot is a fairly simple one. The Amazons live on an enchanted island, without men, after the god of war, Ares, started a war which wiped out all the Amazon men. Granted long life by the gods, the Amazons live into the present day, when US pilot Steve Trevor lands on the island, after his 'plane is shot down. Trevor is attracted to Diana, the daughter of the Amazon queen, while Trevor's appearance causes Diana to long to see the world outside. Ares breaks free and goes out to bring chaos and destruction to the world. Diana, in the guise of Wonder Woman, and Steve Trevor have to stop Ares before he destroys the world, and along the way they learn a few things about each other.

The film was pitched about right, able to reach children, teenagers and adults. It is a family picture, of the sort that I would not have been embarrassed to share with others. In short, it is just the sort of film that DC ought to be bringing out in this series, neither brain-dead nor self-indulgent.

The characterisation is just about perfect. I can heartily recommend this to anyone looking for an enjoyable film