"Wonder Woman" Animated Feature Talkback (Spoilers)

[James Harvey]

Courageous Princess. Fierce Warrior. Legendary Superhero.

​

Wonder Woman
Release Date: March 3rd, 2009

Producer: Bruce Timm
Screenplay: Michael Jelenic
Story by: Gail Simone and Michael Jelenic
Directed by: Lauren Montgomery

Synopsis: On the mystical island of Themyscira, a proud and fierce warrior race of Amazons have raised a daughter of untold beauty, grace and strength Princess Diana. When an Army fighter pilot, Steve Trevor, crash-lands on the island, the rebellious and headstrong Diana defies Amazonian law by accompanying Trevor back to civilization. Meanwhile, Ares (the god of War) has escaped his imprisonment at the hands of the Amazonians and has decided to exact his revenge - intending to start a world war that will not only last for centuries but will wipe out every living being on the planet, starting with the Amazons! It is up to Princess Diana to save her people and the world by using her gifts and becoming the ultimate Wonder Woman!

Comments?

Related Threads:
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-Wonder Woman Feature Review (Spoilers)
-Wonder Woman Soundtrack Talkback (Spoilers)
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-Superman Doomsday Feature Talkback (Spoilers)

Note: Remember, this talkback thread is for discussion of the feature film. If you wish to talk about the home video release, please click on the appropriate link above. We appreciate and encourage discussion, but please keep your posts civil, thoughtful, relevant and insightful. Please do not post any improper or inflammatory material, as we will issue warnings if we believe it necessary. And remember to keep the discussion ON-TOPIC!

 

[Ed Liu]

(Copied from the old News thread) The roundtable interviews I was able to participate in with Bruce Timm, Michael Jelenic, and Lauren Montgomery. Click on the image to start with Timm, and then follow the links at the bottom for Jelenic and Montgomery:



Also, we have a new video clip and interview with Keri Russell on being Wonder Woman, hot off the presses.

 

[James Harvey]

Warner Home Video has released a new studio-conducted interview with Keri Russell, star of the newly-released Wonder Woman animated feature. To view the interview, click on the thumbnail below.

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A new clip from the Wonder Woman animated feature is also available at The World's Finest. Also, be sure to check out The World's Finest review of Wonder Woman, available at the Wonder Woman subsite. Now, let's start discussing this new animated feature!

 

[CaptainCanada]

Neither the Wal-Mart nor the Future Shop in my province got any copies (not encouraging), so I'll have to order it online.

 

[maczero]

I'm not seeing this for rent at my local Blockbuster or Hollywood Video. Any legal way to view this short of buying it? Itunes maybe?

 

[Bird Boy]

I'm not seeing this for rent at my local Blockbuster or Hollywood Video. Any legal way to view this short of buying it? Itunes maybe?

You can rent it from Amazon or On-Demand if your cable provider has it on their service.

-BB

 

[Blackscarz]

I was lucky enough to see this film at the NYCC09. I was really surprised how fun and entertaining it was. It's probably one of the very few films I actually want to buy. My only problem I had with this film is that it was too funny. Not that comedy in DC film is bad, I'm not really the dark and serious type but there were times I thought I was watching a romantic comedy. With the occasional beheadings. I look forward to the Green Lantern animated flick.

 

[Chibi Kageboshi]

This was awesome. This proves Wonder Woman can be brought to modern times, it gives me hope that one day we will get a live action movie, maybe just a little edgier/darker. Wonder Woman is a great super hero and Cheetah looked awesome!

 

[theRedDeath]

I don't know if re-posting identical posts is bad-form here or not, but since this is the official discussion topic I wanted to re-post what I said in the old one. If that's not cool just let me know. Anyway here's what I had to say:

I still like Superman/Doomsday the most of all the DC-DVDs, but i'm a Superman fanboy.

I thought "Wonder Woman" was really good, but there were a lot of things I would have done differently.

I thought the whole man/woman debate was a little overplayed, there should have been less juvenile bickering and more emphasis on their common goals. It's not like they were dealing directly with REAL male-mistreatment of women stories, like rape, slavery, or general abuse. No, Steve would just hit on Wonder Woman (or say another word for poop) and all of a sudden "MEN ARE EVIL!". they were just shoehorning it into the Ares plot and just "picking fights". It felt forced and completely beside the point.

And I didn't like how obvious it was that they were trying to make Steve an "equal" to Wonder Woman. He's not, he shouldn't be. It's OKAY for the TITLE female character to get more screen time and more action than the man. It's not necessary to play up the guy to make men feel better.

While Nathan Fillian is awesome, I just couldn't help getting irked when he stole screen time from Diana. Half the time he shouldn't have even been there.

---

 

[raporfest]

Is it fine if I post my previous review here?

I was luck to see DTV animated WW movie early. I'll give you the pros and the cons of the film. I just know I going to be crucified for this review.


The Pros:
(I'll try to be open minded.)

The Ending- Awesome!! I don't want to spoil anything.

Music- The music was very epic and spine chilling, it fit well with the whole Greek gods/monsters kind of story

The Animation- The animation in this film was almost "Disney" quality and was quite detailed for a Bruce Timm DCU animated movie. The animation model designs for the characters look so much better in animation then they do on paper. The lighting and detailed backgrounds in the animation gave the film that perfect visual look

Voice Acting- Other then Keri Russell as Wonder Woman and Marg Helgenberger as Hera, I really loved the voice acting for this film most especially Alfred Molina as Ares who sounded menacing yet at the same time so smooth. Perfect for the god of war!! Nathan Fillion as Steve Trevor was also really enjoyable to watch due his corky attitude and comedic timing. Oliver Platt as Hades was also enjoyable and humorous to watch. An underrated and brief performance was John DiMaggio as Deimos who I was surprised I enjoyed his voice acting because his voice for Deimos kinda had a Kratos feel to it.

Now (sigh)

The Cons:

Depiction of Wonder Woman and the Amazons- All of my worst fears were fulfilled. There is no way in hell that this film holds a candle to George Perez and Phil Jimenez's runs on Wonder Woman or any of the great WW graphic novels like Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia and JLA: A League of One. Once again, the amazons and Wonder Woman are depicted as trigger happy, blood thristy warriors or Xena clones. In the comics, the Amazons were mostly a peaceful people but at the same time frightly good warriors. If Ares feeds on war for power, then the Amazons are his biggest givers of it. Look we get that WW can kick ass and be a tough warrior, we seen it almost all through JLU and JL: New Frontier. Can we see for once Diana actually being an Ambassador of peace and by no means merciless, always offering her enemies a way out or a chance to redeem before she strikes. A woman who is compassionate, wise, and loving but at the same time strong and independent ( but not to the point of being b**chy). In this movie, she was basically the same as her JLU counterpart as being just as hostile and haughty. If I read Gods and Mortals and then watched this, I would say that Wonder Woman completly out of character.

The Writing- Some parts of the film felt like it was clearly written by Michael Jelenic like when the thugs said "freaken stupid". The story its self felt extremely rushed and it also seemed that there were parts that were cut out. Also Hippolyta reaction to Diana being the champion of the tournament, wasn't really realistic because she wouldn't she be horrified to find out that her beloved daughter was going to a harsh and violent world.

Another one of my problems was Steve was not questioning Diana about the fact she was created and is supposedly associated with pagan gods who are considered by modern man as myth and fairy tales. Which kinda felt unrealistic.


To me personally, this film just does not hold a candle to the Perez and Jimenez books and isn't my version of the character. I had such high hopes for the film and didn't live up to the Perez' run which it said it supposly took "inspiration" from which I didn't see any inspiration from it in the film at all. It was quite a disappointment in general to me personally.

3/10 at worst or 6/10 at best to me personally.

 

[jasonhill]

I just want to make sure before i open my copy i bought at target, are there any other specials besides Targets and Best Buy? I dont care for the toy that you get from best buy but you get a comic with the targets copy, which i suppose is in every copy anyways.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Wow this is totally the best DCA movie to come out thus far. It totally trumps the first three by far. The ending was a nice surprise aswell, I do hope they make a sequel to this or even spinning out an Animated Series would be great since they set it up to perfectly.

All of my worst fears were fulfilled. There is no way in hell that this film holds a candle to George Perez and Phil Jimenez's runs on Wonder Woman or any of the great WW graphic novels like Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia and JLA: A League of One. Once again, the amazons and Wonder Woman are depicted as trigger happy, blood thristy warriors or Xena clone

I didnt get that sense from the movies depicition (which you have to remember they only had a limited time to tell the story and people want action in their movies). The amazons were warriors when they needed to be, but other then that it is not as if they went around killing everything they saw, they trained with one another when need be and other than that went on with their way. We saw Amazons having fun in the water, relaxing, we still saw Amazons on the island while the rest were coming to Dianas aid. And anyone would feed Ares' hunger for war, its not as if they could beat him with peace just standing there calmly talking to him. Ares was planning on taking over the world and they did what they had to do. Plus they werent worried about mans world yet, their goal was to return Steve and bring back Ares.

Now the ending set up WW as someone who tries to keep peace and battles when needed. There is still a lot to grow from.

 

[JeffBreakdown]

I picked mine up at Best Buy for 22 plus tax...I got the 2 Disc Special Edition DVD with Figurine, and the packaging is great...but WHY must Best Buy, WalMart and Target ALL put those stickers on the cardboard sleeves of EVERY movie I get?!?!?!?!?!

Those price tags are the bane of my existence...

 

[matthewscott614]

Just got the DVD in the mail today!
Amazon hooked a brother up with some early shipping!
Pre-Ordered it a while ago, so maybe that helped.

 

[FireWarrior]

Just picked mine up at Target for 19.99 which is a a solid deal for the 2 disc SE. Had no idea that Target included Maid of Honor on the first disc so that's a real treat. Can't wait to see it!

 

[SaBaWoJuLe]

You. Go. Girl.

I finally got to see the film just now, and let me just say:
THIS IS THE WONDER WOMAN I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!

This beats the DCAU one by a billion miles. Not just Diana, but Hippolyta, and all of the Amazons. Why, oh why, was this NOT in the DCAU? This movie just rocked! The writing included a strong story, the feminist angles weren't over the top but had the right balance, it included humor between Diana and Steve; basically everything here was done just right, and had these characters done in the right way, enough for me to show why I love Wonder Woman.

Now, on the parts they took to make the movie, it is a combo of multiple things: the bondage joke from the Golden Age, how they talk about the lasso is the only thing that reminded me of the Lynda Carter series, while everything is a mixture of George Perez and post-Crisis. Now, from what another person said of not using the best parts of Perez on this: it doesn't matter. Yes, he was great on Wonder Woman, and Perez' Wonder Woman is my #1 favorite, period. But, this movie was handled well and was so good, that complaining on that doesn't make sense. In fact, while the ending to Perez' first arc with Diana showing Ares with the lasso what will happen if he succeed in his plan was smart, how this movie played out, you didn't need that ending.

But anywho, this movie was so good, it was worth the wait. Now...WHAT'S TAKING THE LIVE ACTION FILM SO LONG?!

And now, we prepare for Green Lantern: First Flight.

BTW, my favorite line:
"It's not polite to hit a lady."

 

[Primal Slayer]

And are we suppose to believe that Ares son is also Hippolytas? They kind of made it seem that way, that it was forced upon her.

 

[ABrown]

Ok, I wanted to watch this a second time to make sure that my opinion hadn't changed from watching it the first time while half asleep at around 2:00 AM after just getting home from Walmart. This is definitely the best of the four DC Universe films. Outstanding character designs and voices. I don't think I would say that I liked her design with Keri Russell providing the voice more than the Justice League/JLU design with Susan Eisenberg providing the voice. But both versions were outstanding. The only thing that I wasn't all that crazy about was one thing:

Spoiler

Diana and Steve Trevor end up together in the end. I guess I kind of feel like she's too good for any guy, except for the DCAU Batman of course.

I didn't want to spoil that for anyone who hasn't gotten around to seeing the movie yet. But that wasn't anywhere near enough to change my opinion on the film. I gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars. Great movie.

 

[matthewscott614]

Excellent FILM!

Great movie.
It was a lot of fun.
The Greek Mythology was played up real nice.

Wonder Woman was excellent.
Its a really good take.
Loved how Hippolyta did not react much after
Diana took the helmet off revealing herself as the winner.

The story was paced very nice
& had a good blend of action & drama.

Loved the thing in the park, Star Trek 4!
The drunk was funny too!
Its a rewind moment.

My only problem with the script was Steve Trevor.
Not all Air Force pilots are Frat Boy Howard Stern types.
Most of the real Air Fotce pilots I have meet are more like Clark Kent.
They could have pulled back a little.
He was playing the pig card for way too long.
It seemed he did not start acting normal until way later in the movie.
IMO he totally did not deserve the hot make out he got from Wonder Woman at the end.
Anyway the Steve Trevor in this flim sets Men in America back a few steps.
But not anymore then some greasy hip hop dude does.

Music was great. Epic timeless sounds.
Thank god there was no music that will date the thing.
(MOTP closing credits, MOTBW etc......)

The voice acting & production on this film is also epic.
As its been for the last 17 years with DC animation.
Starting with Batman TAS, the VA & production values have
always provided a great foundation for these productions as whole.
Duh?
No new information there.

Anyway Andrea Romano rocks & should get a lifetime
achievement award from all the cartoon geeks for
giving them a reason to live. Bruce Timm too!
He rocks as well!

The Animation in this movie like all
the DC DTV's is the best in the biz.
Period.

Personally I''m not a big fan of corporate media mergers,
however sometimes I wish WB would buy Marvel so
Bruce Timm & Andrea Romano could do a good Spider-Man cartoon.

You know that would just be too damn cool.

Over all EXCELLENT FILM!
Besides New Frontier, this is the best one yet!
Totally worth the 20 bucks!

 

[A.J]

So far my second favorite movie after JL New Frontier. Excellent movie, really.

Best to less favorites:
1. JL New Frontier
2. WW
3. Superman / Doosmday
4. Batman Gotham Knight (It is a DC Universe movie but for me its existence is still unbased )

Im sure GL will top at least SD...or even top JL New Frontier!