Wonder Woman

March 8th, 2009

Filed under: Comics, TV

Wonder Woman DVDMy wife and I sat down to watch the new Wonder Woman animated movie this weekend and both thoroughly enjoyed it. The plot is straightforward: it’s a re-telling of Wonder Woman’s origin and her first trip to the “Man’s world” after being raised entirely on Themyscira. Along with returning Steve Trevor to America, she also must battle the machinations of Ares, God of War.

The voice acting is good, though it took me about an act to get used to Alfred Molina as Ares — I kept hearing him as Tevye (if only he had broken into a rousing rendition of Tradition). The main flaw to me was that Steve Trevor was a rather lightweight character with frat-boy morals, and it was hard to see him being at all attractive to Diana. (And where did an isolated Bronze-Age society come up with an invisible jet?)

Now I’m not saying it’s genre-redefining film by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a solidly enjoyable super-hero movie with a hint of a female empowerment theme. My wife (Wonder Woman knowledge level 1/10) seemed to enjoy it as much as I (Wonder Woman knowledge level 7/10) did — she even specifically mentioned how much she liked it, which is an unusual thing for her to say about an animated film. Our nineteen-month-old son was even able to sit still and watch it for twenty minutes in a row — the first time he’s done this for a show that wasn’t the Backyardigans. There were some intense battle scenes in the beginning and end of the movie that I wouldn’t let him watch, so bear that in mind when watching it with kids.

Wonder Woman

For the record, here’s my Top Five Direct-to-Video Animated Films.

1. Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker [Uncut Version]
2. Justice League: The New Frontier
3. Wonder Woman
4. Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman
5. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

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11 Responses to “ Wonder Woman ”

  1. Christopher
    March 9th, 2009 at 5:38 am

    Yeah, this was a decent animated flick, and an improvement in qualify over previous ones. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked The New Frontier, but it was hacked and so much was cut out before the final version that it really could have been published under a different title and you’d have never known.

    Putting Return of the Joker at number one on your list? Good call, sir. That flick, along with Batman Beyond, are highly underrated.

  2. Dr Archeville
    March 9th, 2009 at 6:14 am

    I believe, in the comics at least, that the Invisible Plane was a gift to the Themyscrians by some aliens, modeled in part on a jet (which had crashed on the island some time back) they saw.

  3. Sea-of-Green
    March 9th, 2009 at 7:01 am

    >>Steve Trevor was a rather lightweight character with frat-boy morals<<

    But isn’t that how Steve Trevor is ALWAYS portrayed …? ;-)

    Good review! I haven’t yet bought this movie, but the reviews have seen have made me very hopeful that it’s truly worthwhile viewing.

  4. Harvey
    March 9th, 2009 at 9:03 am

    Batman: Gotham Knight?

  5. fluffy
    March 9th, 2009 at 9:22 am

    As a nitpick, “Mask of the Phantasm” was not direct-to-video. It actually saw a (brief) theatrical release.

  6. Scott
    March 9th, 2009 at 9:47 am
    Official Comment


    While Batman: Gotham Knights was a fun watch, I think it suffered because it lacked an overall narrative, and was more of a series of vignettes — some good, some ehh.

  7. Sarah
    March 9th, 2009 at 6:14 pm

    I wondered about the jet, too, but decided it was Steve’s jet, which the Amazons had made invisible with the same mojo that made Themascura invisible.

  8. Rob
    March 9th, 2009 at 10:23 pm

    I guess I will have to check this out now. I didn’t have much interest in it, but your recommendation, combined with the fact that we share a Top Five Direct-to-Video Animated Films list, has convinced me to give it a chance.

  9. Juisarian
    March 18th, 2009 at 6:51 pm

    I always preferred the stories where Themiscyra wasn’t portrayed as having Bronze Age level technology. Would have made AMAZON’S ATTACK slightly less cringe-inducing at least.

    I don’t know if they were supposed to have had the high-tech stuff all along or if it was something they got from Man’s World (my WW knowledge is about a 4/10) but it makes sense to me they would have developed their own parallel independent line of technology over the last 9000 odd years.

  10. mocksure
    April 19th, 2009 at 1:30 pm

    Sarah wins the prize for plausible explanations! The movie was impressive. The characters were upgraded: Steve got a sense of humour, and little miss goody two bracelets actually was infused with some personality – which she’s needed for about 60 years. Now if only the comic book would follow suit.

  11. Steve
    February 3rd, 2010 at 6:02 pm

    Wonder woman animation is perfect, I like watch.

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