Batman and Superman have had multiple successful and abysmal cracks at live-action incarnations over the years. Wonder Woman, the “other” piece of DC Comics’ triumvirate of leading superheroes, has had a rough go of it making her way to the silver screen. The anticipated project continues to flounder at Warner so the Amazonian princess has followed the path of her superhero brethren by visiting the small screen in a hard-edged animated feature film.
Most identify Wonder Woman as a curvy black-haired heroine packing deep cleavage, golden armbands and a long lasso, but their knowledge ends abruptly right there. Her origin story is relatively unknown outside the DC Comics’ fan base which makes it the perfect subject matter to explore in her first feature-length film.
Princess Diana a.k.a. Wonder Woman’s origins are deeply rooted in women’s rights, sexism and feminism. She is the immortal daughter of Amazonian goddess Hippolyta, born of clay as a gift from the gods and raised on an all-female island sheltered from the rest of the world for centuries. Her mother and people were abused by Ares, the God of War, and as a result decree her women are to never again interact with the male species.
At the time Wonder Woman first appeared in comic form in 1942 this set-up was a direct reflection of the real world. Women were tossed into factories to manufacture weapons of war while men did the “real” work on the battlefield while scoping out local women in other countries. Otherwise, a woman’s place was at home making sure her man was well fed and well entertained in bed. The last place she was expected to appear was saving the world from forces man himself had no answer for.
Today the argument all “men are pigs” still bears truth thanks to Testosterone but without the strong oppressive undertones it once did. To modernize Wonder Woman, voiced adequately by Felicity’s Keri Russell, the writers used her infamous “Lasso of Truth” to bridge the gap between 1940s man and today’s modern man. In this case the man is pilot Steve Trevor (Nathon Fillion of Firefly fame, the perfect voice for a “pig”), a cocky and sex driven womanizer who crash lands on the hidden Amazonian island of Themyscira and finds himself immediately captured and interrogated by the Lasso. Unable to lie, Steve finds himself declaring how great Diana’s “rack” is right in front of her mother, amongst other frowned upon male-isms that only affirm Hippolyta’s stance on men.
Modern Wonder Woman is designed to hang with the big boys and match not only their adult wit and charm but over-the-top violence whenever the opportunity presents itself. Blood is kept just off-camera most of the time but heads are separated from shoulders and “backstabbing” is portrayed in a literal and figurative sense. This is not animation intended for kids and as such will please adult audiences who may have grown up watching Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman that much more.
The two-dimensional and minimalist animation style associated with a television show used to draw Wonder Woman hinders its visual impact on Blu-ray Disc. The 1.85:1 1080p transfer via VC-1 encoding is generally strong but doesn’t benefit from high definition to the degree CGI animation does. Complicating the video are numerous instances of heavy foreground and background blurring to create depth on the 2-D surface at the expense of decreasing clarity. On the flipside, use of few simple lines for character animations results in strong definition for the characters, even though the non-defined facial features make all the Amazonian women look alike aside from their hair color and style.
The audio defaults to Dolby Digital 5.1 but there is an alternate and slightly deeper 5.1 Dolby TrueHD lossless option. This track’s inclusion is crucial as bass and low-end depth is nearly non-existent compared on live-action theatrical action titles. Surrounds, on the other hand, are quite active. Sequences involving airborne missiles, jets and flying creatures attack the rear soundstage and help differentiate Wonder Woman from audio you’d expect coming from a television show.
Warner has included a nice variety of bonus features that are evenly split between Wonder Woman and other Warner animated projects. All are presented in standard definition video and I’ve arranged them with Wonder Woman extras first and the others following, unlike how Warner has them laid out.
Feature-Length Audio Commentary – Senior VP of Creative Affairs for DC Comics Gregory Noveck, producer Bruce Timm, director Lauren Montgomery and writer Michael Jelenic spend most of their time explaining creative decisions and adhering to Wonder Woman’s longstanding legacy with a sprinkling of plot rehashing and humor from time to time. Worth a listen if you liked the film and want to gain a little more insight into how it was put together.
Wonder Woman: A Subversive Dream (25:35) – A retrospective look back at when Wonder Woman was first introduced to the world via comic books and how her character’s strength on par with men was revolutionary for its time. A mix of talking heads and archival footage that plays like an informative History Channel special. Hugh Hefner even gets his two cents in.
Wonder Woman: Daughter of Myth (25:38) – Wonder Woman’s origin has remained relatively constant throughout her various incarnations including this film. This documentary explores the philosophical and allegorical meaning behind her birth and life away from man and how the comics and animated film closely mirror one another. It is more an extension to the first historical documentary rather than a completely separate piece.
Wonder Woman: The Amazon Princess (10:26) – The voice cast beams about how great it was to work on the film while the filmmakers discuss the film’s relevancy and uniqueness due to the character – all set to a heroic score. Aside from some neat stills from Wonder Woman comics there isn’t anything must-see in this piece.
Bruce Timm’s Top Picks (1:28:47) – The film’s producer selects his favorite four episodes from Warner’s animated archive featuring Wonder Woman: Paradise Lost Part 1; Paradise Lost Part 2; To Another Shore; and Hawk and Dove. Each is presented in their entirety with widescreen video and 2.0 audio.
From Graphic Novel to Original Animated Movie – Justice League: The New Frontier (10:45), Batman Gothic Knight: An Anime Evolution (10:11) and First Look at Green Lantern (10:12) – The title is a mouthful for the first but the actual content for all three are a straightforward making-of “advertisement” for their respective films presented by a lot of really excited filmmakers and DC executives. The Green Lantern one is most interesting as that is the next animated film coming to Blu-ray from Warner Premiere and also co-stars the voice of Battlestar Galactica alum Tricia Helfer.
Wonder Woman’s feature-length film debut wasn’t supposed to be animated. After witnessing how much care and attention went into ensuring this origin tale of Wonder Woman held onto the character’s old school roots while successfully speaking to a younger generation, I’m left to ponder: would a live action film be essentially the same thing? This Blu-ray animated adventure will hold you over while Warner’s theatrical unit gets their act together.
– Dan Bradley
