REVIEW: Wonder Woman Animated DVD Movie

I liked it, but there were quite a few things that annoyed me- Steve randomly mentioning opening doors in the his little rant, when it had nothing to do with anything. That stank of someone ramming their own agenda into the movie. Etta Candy being a freaking anorexic stereotype, which is like making Jim Gordon show up in a Batman movie and be a dumb donut dunking cop. Diana’s fluctuating strength levels- Steve can land a punch on her? WTF? And how SHE had to change for Steve, but there was no EXPLICIT thing of him changing for her. Actually, I’ll just link my blog rant- http://nevermore999.livejournal.com/55196.html#cutid1

(I don’t have a problem with Diana learning men aren’t all bad and negative stereotyped about men being done away with (though Steve Trevor really kind of enforced them more than did away with them), but this was pretty hamhanded).

On all other points, I agree on the review. The action was amazing, the movie was well done and I really enjoyed it and hope for a sequel.

Yo Nev, Pencilbot here.

Read your rant. Good stuff, made me laugh (with you not at you). I don’t read the comics so I personally don’t know who the hell Etta Candy is, so I could give two schnitzels about if she was rexy or not. I just thought they made her up on the spot due to the ridiculous name. Maybe you could elaborate; was she fat in the comic? Don’t a lot of women look anorexic in cartoons nowadays? Not condoning that sort of thing… I like women with meat on their bones.

Next, when did Steve punch Diana? I remember getting one weak kick in their fight, but she basically beat the shit out of him finishing him off with a Sagat-like uppercut.

After and before that, he basically makes typical male comments, tries to get her wasted and take advantage of her. There are also big hints that he used to be a womanizer. Now, if all he wanted was a good lay then he would have gone to Etta Candy at the end to keep that cycle going, however, he gets with Diana in the end? I thought that was pretty explicit, maybe just more for swingers like myself. What more in a time conducive way would you have included to make it more explicit? But yes, he rescues her once; she rescues him from alley thugs, a large monster with snakes on his chin, Hades henchmen etc. etc. More often than not they are being the perfect team, which is different from the usual battle of the sexes films I’ve seen in the late 20′s, early 30′s. Either one, female or male, is clearly right and clearly wrong.

Persephone’s character was the weakest, I agree. First of all because in mythos she’s Queen of Hades, and she basically falls in love with Ares? This makes no sense to me, but may make perfect sense in the DCU. I thought it was b.s. that Cerberus wouldn’t let her pass also. To me it was just a plot device which I let pass because its a cartoon.

The open door comment is about how sometimes she’s mistaking manners for males trying to weaken the state of females. Though I agree with you in a lot of your articles about feminine stereotypes in a lot of the depiction of characters, I didn’t find this movie as bad as you claim except for the aforementioned Persephone.

This movie kind of made me want to get into the comic. That’s just me. I’m pretty hard on reviewing things too if they suck. This did not, I was thoroughly entertained and wasn’t bored to tears.

I leave with the note that the story was by Gail Simone, one of my favorite comedic/Deadpool writers ever. She’s bomb.

P.S. What did Perez do with Ares and the lasso of truth, I’m just curious because I don’t read the comic.

The great British poet A.C. Swinburne would have loved this film and so do I! It’s an indication what D.C. can do(as orchestrated by South Korean animators, of course – ah, the joys of creative globalization!) when they have half a mind to it. Incidentally, I really do miss Justice League and Teen Titans, folks. As an overeducated adult, I should be ashamed of myself, but there you go. There’s some great animation here(except for a couple of shots that were just too dark) and the use of colour was really great. The script itself had some wit (and some innuendo to boot). To take my consideration to a more lubricious plane(and why not?), the animators did have a sharp and knowing eye to the carnal. When the pilot stumbles upon the Amazons bathing, he of course reacts with voyeuristic pleasure – and because we are viewing this as well and presumably share his voyeuristic pleasure, we are made co-conspirators in his voyeurism. The voyeurism of the scene is doubled, so to speak. There are some sly lines here and there I definitely enjoyed. On a possibly lower carnal plane, there are some nods in this film to all the long-term fanciers of ‘horse’ girls out there – we know who we are. Nice and well-done, if you know what I mean. To return to the action, the demonic assault on Washington D.C. surely has an odd resonance in the post 9/11 world. I don’t think this is wrong at all – it adds to the horror of the scene. The so-called war of the sexes thing was handled about as well as a cartoon was going to handle it. I got a kick out of the scene where the pilot behaves like a cad and tries to drink Wonder Woman into sexual submission. I thought it was funny – and her reaction to the whole idea that a mere man could drink an Amazon under the table was a real hoot. Don’t expect a feminist tract in this film – it’s just good fun. Just think. Wonder Woman was originally thought up by a popular psychologist(the gentleman who gave us the so-called lie detector test, which works on the principle that lying causes psychological/physiological stress – man, I’ve encountered people who lie just as easily as they breathe! go figure it….). As such, the cartoon is bound to be somewhat intellectually weightier than the average cartoon. I wouldn’t over-analyze it either, though. There are loose ends and undeveloped strands in great works of art, you know. If one might consider kiddies watching this thing(and if one might risk sounding like a pedantic jackass), I think it’s great the kiddies out there get some exposure to Greek myth and high culture(don’t you love that mention of Oedipus Rex?) – it might encourage the smarter among them to take an interest in high culture at a later stage. I know the comics of my youth had plenty of pretentious allusions to high culture and it encouraged me to pursue high culture at a later stage of development. And look where that got me, ha, ha. This DVD is not a masterpiece of the genre by any stretch, but it is a good piece of work well worth the time of animation fans. Greg Cameron, Surrey, B.C., Canada