Review of Wonder Woman (2009) by Karl K — 01 Mar 2010

Can and does Wonder Woman successfully carry an animated movie on her own in the new millennium?

Uh, sh-yeah!

Wonder Woman is a legendary DC comic book hero with such a rich history and fervent fan-base that care so much about her. A Wonder Woman only story plot almost writes itself. A badly written Wonder Woman feature whether it be TV or silver screen is more reflective of the writers than our most revered Princess Diana. (It'd have to be a writer's fault. She's just too freekin' awesome. ).

The artistic decision to make a departure from the style of the Justice League animated TV series (which has its artistic roots in Batman: The Animated Series) was a good call. There was nothing wrong with that edgy style. But just for the sake of keeping things visually fresh and new it is always nice to switch it up.

The specific Wonder Woman look seems to have elements of Disney's Pocahontas with the very long full hair and "non-Anglo looking" nose. The look of the overall art was what I expected: not as high quality as an animated big Hollywood budget film we've all come to know and love from Pixar and Disney yet slightly higher quality than the weekly episodic Justice League Unlimited.

(It makes sense. Because this is a direct-to-DVD animated feature and not TV yet not major motion picture as well it ranks smack dab in the middle with middle-sized budget dollars and middle-sized amount of time put into the project.).

But when compared head-to-head with other DVD animated comic book films that are direct and comparable competitors, the art is more sophisticated for consumption by older and/or more discriminating fan boys and fan girls as opposed to the almighty Tween market.

Angling for a more young adult and up fan base is certain being that there was a little bit of gore in a few parts of the movie that would have hit the cutting room floor if released on the Cartoon network. It wasn't gratuitous blood and guts violence but just enough to make it edgy.

This was a good and solid origins story to be sure. The strength of the dialogue could have been a little better but for direct-to-dvd it was pretty good. Good enough to warrant a direct-to-dvd sequel even. The writers and artists of this 2009 animated release of Wonder Woman earned it.