Reaction & Review | Vixen: The Movie

Welcome, one and all, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an animated film from 2017. That movie is "Vixen: The Movie".

Now, this movie is a little bit of an oddity for this series. And it's not because of the fact that it's based off a character I've never heard of. No, it's more so about how this movie got made. You see, this thing was originally a web series that you could watch off something called the CW Seed. And some of you are probably wondering what the hell that even is? Basically, it's an app made in association with the CW Network, in which you could watch exclusive shows and movies that you wouldn't normally see on the CW Network. Yeah, I had no idea that was even a thing until I started doing research about this movie. But what I'm even more surprised by is the fact that the CW Network is even still a thing in 2023. I really thought that their popularity peaked back when I was still watching "WWE Smackdown!" well over a decade ago on their network. Nowadays, I don't really watch a whole lot of TV, so the fact that they're still around today almost baffles me.

Now aside from that, as I just stated, this movie was originally a series from the CW Seed. And what DC and Warner Bros. did was that they combined the first two seasons of the "Vixen" web series and turned it into a full-length movie. They also advertised about 15 minutes worth of extra footage, so it basically rounds up to about 75 minutes long. I don't know what this extra footage is gonna consist of, but what I can say is that, for the very first time, I'm gonna be covering a movie that was originally a web series from the CW for Reaction & Review. Wow...and me just saying that sounded really fucking weird. But regardless, it still might prove to be interesting.

Speaking of the CW, there is one more thing I want to make mention of before I start watching the movie. You see, this movie is supposed to be a part of the Arrowverse. Which is essentially a universe that is centered around TV shows based off characters from DC Comics that you'd normally see on the CW Network. And according to the back of the DVD case for this movie, it's from the executive producers of shows such as "The Flash", "Arrow", "DC's Legends of Tomorrow", and "Supergirl". It even goes so far as to mention that the actors from those shows actually reprise their roles for this movie. Now, I obviously don't know a whole lot of them. The only one that I'm familiar with is Stephen Amell, who is the star of "Arrow". And I remember his name mostly because he had an angle in WWE at one point in 2015, where he actually wrestled in a tag team match at Summerslam with Neville, as they took on Stardust (AKA Cody Rhodes) and Wade Barrett. And no, I am not kidding about any of that, that was actually a thing. I haven't seen the match, so I can't really comment on the quality of it, but regardless, that's how I knew about Stephen Amell.

So anyway, I should probably just quit stalling and see if this movie is any good. I'm hoping that it is, because DC usually puts out a lot of quality into their animated films. Well, most of the time anyway. I have no idea if this thing is gonna have that same kind of quality, but the only way I'm gonna find out is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Vixen: The Movie".

8 minutes later

So this professor theorizes that Mari's necklace gives her the ability to tap into the wildlife of any animal that she conjures up during a fight. So basically, she's Beast Boy without the shape-shifting abilities. All right...that's sorta interesting. Kinda hoping that the movie expands upon this later on as it continues.

3 minutes later

Wait, so Vixen gets her name because Barry Allen's friend thinks that she's hot? That's...kinda stupid, really. I mean, granted, she IS kinda sexy-looking, but it does seem a little bit childish to me that you'd name a meta-human like that mostly because of her looks. But hey, maybe that's just me.

12 minutes later

OK, that is one of the creepiest looking-lion's I've ever seen! I didn't know even that lions had that much black shading around their eyes, but damn does it make that lion look fucking creepy as hell.

18 minutes later

Well, guys, I think I can officially say that Cesar is my favorite character in this entire movie. He might just be a gorilla, but he's kind of a badass gorilla, too. There's just something really charming about that.

7 minutes later

You know, guys, a thought just occurred to me. So, it's been reported that one of these lost gems was stolen from the museum last night. We know it, because we actually got to see it being stolen by this one person. And the thief whole stole the gem wasn't wearing any gloves. Have the police not checked for any fingerprints on the glass from when that guy came down from the ceiling? I think that if they did that, then they could make run through of who it was pretty quickly and you'd be able to identify the thief really pretty easily, too. I don't know, MAYBE they might do that later on, but it's just something that I'm wondering about, you know?

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Vixen: The Movie". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. So...what to begin with here? Well, I guess I can say that, going into this thing, I was expecting this thing to be pretty good. I mean, after all, it is a DC animated project, and I usually like a majority of those. And I can say that, overall, it is pretty good. However, when compared to the other animated films that I've seen from DC, it's nowhere near as good as they are. Mind you, it's not a bad movie, it's just a little bit weak when compared to those films.

But I should probably get into this proper by talking about the film itself. Let's start with the writing. The writing here is halfway decent, for the most part. Being that this was taken from a web series, and adapting it into a feature length movie, it does a decent enough of stitching those first two seasons together into one part. Now this is not the first time DC and Warner Bros. have done this sort of thing. They did this "World's Finest", which was originally a 3 part episode from "Superman: The Animated Series", and turned that into a movie. They also did this with "Justice League: Starcrossed". Which was the last multi-part episode they did for the "Justice League" cartoon and turned that into a movie known as "Justice League: Starcrossed The Movie", which I also covered last year for this series. However, the difference between those movies and this one is that both those movies had time to flesh out their stories and characters. Mind you, both of those movies had shorter runtimes than this movie did, but they were still able to work in a lot with what they had to work with. And while I can see that this movie was trying to do the exact same thing, a part of me feels like that this thing tried to rush through it a bit. And to me, it doesn't quite work. Now when I say it's rushed, I don't mean the ENTIRE film feels rushed, but I will say that the first 30 minutes of it definitely feels rushed.

To start with, the first 30 minutes of the movie is basically an origin story for our main character, Mari, who ends up becoming our main title character. And she gets her powers through this necklace that she wears around her neck, which gives her the ability of any animal that she taps into. For instance, if she wants to run fast, she gets the ability of a cheetah. If she wanted the ability to crush any thugs, then she would get the ability of an elephant. If she wanted to fly, then she would get the ability of a hawk. Basically, like I said earlier, it's Beast Boy from the Teen Titans without the shape-shifting abilities. And that's perfectly fine. I have no problems with how those powers work. What I find funny about her origin story is that she tells her foster father that her necklace might be the key to the answers of her past and possibly find out who she really is. And the reason why I find that funny is that it reminded me of "Yu-Gi-Oh!". The first series, anyway. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, in the first series, Atem, which is the Pharaoh's spirit that travels with Yugi, was trying to find the answers to his past, and the Millennium Puzzle was one of the many elements that was going to help him unlock his past self. And that's what Mari's backstory kinda reminded me of when I first heard her say that. And to be fair, we do get a little bit more of an explanation about this necklace that she wears, which is mostly referred to as a totem than a necklace, but that's beside the point. And all of that is OK.

However, this does lead me back into talking about why this movie feels a bit rushed. You see, we start off with the first 15 minutes with two scenes that get repeated with Green Arrow and the Flash chasing Mari around the city. The first time is because it leads into a prologue which took place 3 days ago before all that happened. And then later, when she first starts discovering what her necklace can do, the Flash and Green Arrow meet up with Mari's foster father, Chuck, to see her. And it's not because they want to capture her or anything, it's more so that they want to talk to her in hopes that they can work together so that they can help control her powers. But she refuses, and tries to do it on her own. And most of that takes up about 15 minutes of the movie. And then we get to the second half of that, where Mari's dealing with her sister, who kidnaps her and takes her back home to Africa, and then they start their own little fight over Mari's totem. And all of this just feels so fucking rushed, to a point where the characters feel like they don't get enough time to develop. It's, like, here's the conflict between Mari and her sister, Mari gets her ass kicked, she gets help from her family and friends, she goes back to kick her sister's ass, and wins the day to keep her necklace. Now, I know that the version I gave out is a very abridged version of it, because they kinda explain more about the stuff involving her family and friends being there, but it still feels very rushed, and it feels like the movie just wanted to get through this as fast as they possibly could. Like I said earlier, one of the reasons why "World's Finest" and "Starcrossed" worked was because they were given more to work involving their stories and characters, even though the runtimes on both those movies were a little bit shorter. This thing was given 75 minutes to work with, and they just decided to rush through Mari's backstory as if it meant very little to them. Mind you, again, the story that we're given out isn't necessarily bad, it just felt like it wasn't properly developed is what I'm saying.

Now unfortunately, this isn't the only time that this movie feels rushed, which is gonna lead into the characters. Because even though this movie advertises such characters as the Flash and Green Arrow, they are BARELY in the movie at all. And sometimes, their inclusions in this movie don't really add up to anything. The biggest example of this is when Mari gets a call from them to help out against a villain known as the Weather Wizard. Which, for those who don't know, is a Flash villain. And Weather Wizard is on the verge of drowning Central City by causing a gigantic tidal wave. So Mari comes along to help stop him, and at one point during the fight, the Weather Wizard actually gets the upper hand over Mari by shooting lighting from his hands which causes her to fall into the sea. And then, for some reason, she ends up at the hospital, to which her foster dad greets her when she wakes up. Which makes no sense at all, because we never get to see the conclusion of the fight against Weather Wizard. I'm going to assume that things went well, since it NEVER gets brought up again, but it feels rather pointless to have it in here if we didn't get a proper conclusion to that fight. And since I mentioned earlier that the Flash and Green Arrow barely get any screen time, we also get introduced to the Atom and Black Canary, and their inclusions also feel pretty damn pointless. OK yes, it's cool to see them in action against the main villain, Benatu Eshu, for this movie, but they don't really do a whole lot here, and most of the fighting comes to down Eshu and Mari. So ultimately, their inclusions in this movie, much like Green Arrow and Flash, are mostly pointless.

The only character who really does get a ton of depth is Mari, or Vixen if you prefer. And even though I kinda railed against this movie for having a pretty rushed story, what is here is still pretty good. The characters are mostly rather likable, even if their inclusions in this movie don't add up to anything. The only ones who don't have a ton of depth are the villains. Most of them are pretty damn flat and feel kinda lifeless, too. So, there's really nothing note-worthy to say about the villains. They're just pretty bland and generic. So overall, I can definitely say that the writing here isn't great, but it's not awful either, because it still has enough quality to where I can overlook some of the rushed story. Speaking of quality, the acting here is pretty good, too, Like I mentioned earlier, the actors from most of the DC shows that you'd see on the CW Network reprise their roles for this movie. And they do a really good job here. Now admittedly, I don't know if this is the same kind of acting that would be present on shows such as "Arrow", "The Flash", or "DC's Legends of Tomorrow", but regardless, the acting here is still really good. And I can't really comment much on the acting beyond that.

The animation here is also really good, too. That being said, there is one minor thing that caught my eye, and you'd really have to notice it like I did in order to catch it. So right around when Mari gets first captured, she still has her necklace on. However, in a couple of close-up shots, you don't see the necklace wrapped around her neck. Now I don't know if they were trying to hide that fact intentionally, or if it was because the animators forgot to add in a small detail such as a black string being wrapped around Mari's neck. But again, you'd really have to notice that kinda detail like I did. And even then, nobody's gonna really notice it, or even care about it, because I'm kinda nitpicky like that sometimes. But anyway, the animation here is great. The animation here is very fluid, the character designs are great, and the color palettes are pretty good, too. On the subject of character designs, since this movie is supposedly a part of the Arrowverse, part of me wonders if the likenesses for both Stephen Amell and Grant Gustin were used for this movie, since they were both reprising their roles for these characters? I don't know if that's the case or not, or if they just decided to go with their own original designs for this movie. But regardless, the character designs are on point, and the animation, like I just said, is great also.

Sound-mix here is mostly mixed well. The score here is, honestly, nothing to write home about. There's nothing ultimately wrong with it, but there's nothing here that's going to keep you humming to this movie's score. It's just there, really. And at the very least, it does it's job well enough to be serviceable.

So overall, guys, can I recommend "Vixen: The Movie"? Um...I suppose if you're wanting to watch a different kind of movie from DC Comics that doesn't feature either Batman or Superman, then yes, I suppose I could recommend it there. If you're someone who likes DC's animated films, then this movie is certainly going to be up your alley. Mind you, this thing is nowhere near as good as some of the other animated films that DC and Warner Bros. have put out, however, it's still a decent movie. Sure, the story feels pretty rushed at times, and most of the characters feel pretty flat save for Mari, but I could still recommend it to watch, at least, once. And I suppose if you're one of the few people who use the CW Seed app, and you wanted to watch this movie in front of your TV and not from the app, then yeah, I could also recommend it there, too. As for myself, it's a pretty decent movie. I'm not totally sure if it's something I'm gonna be watching multiple times over, or even a second time, but it was definitely worth watching once. However, there is another positive to this movie. You see, this version of the movie on DVD has two bonus episodes from "Justice League Unlimited" that were picked out by Bruce Timm. And as some of you may know, I loved "Justice League Unlimited". So you know what? I'm gonna go watch those episodes right now, because even though this movie was just OK, anything with "Justice League Unlimited" attached to it is an instant win in my book.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.