Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering an animated movie from 2009. That movie is "Wonder Woman".
Now, in a matter of speaking, I've kinda already covered this movie. And what I mean by that is way back when, during my second "Tales of the Longbox" marathon, I reviewed the live action "Wonder Woman" movie from 2017 which had the exact same title as this one. And just to let you guys know, I really enjoyed that movie. So, while both this movie and the live action film have the same title, I have yet to cover this one yet, so I'm gonna be doing that tonight.
Now, I don't really know much about the movie itself, beyond the fact that it's another one of those direct-to-video animated movies that gets put out by DC Comics and Warner Bros. And for those of you reading this for the first time, I really do enjoy a lot of these particular movies. Even the ones that I wasn't a huge fan of are still very watchable. So, I'm hoping that this movie is going to continue that trend of being really good, or at least end up being watchable.
Now granted, this movie is centered around a character I'm not all that big a fan of, but like I said, these particular animated movies usually have really good quality to them, so there's a really good chance that the quality is going to continue strong here with this one. But the only way I'm gonna find out how much quality this movie really has 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 "Wonder Woman".
2 minutes later
OK, you know what? I've never seen a tiara decapitate anyone like that before. It's certainly new to me and, well, it was certainly cool to see.
6 minutes later
All right, I have a question here, and I know it's gonna be a stupid one, but it's something that just came to me. So, I am aware of how Diana was born through clay, well in this case it was sand, but what I want to know is how do the Amazon's procreate if man doesn't exist in Themyscira? Do they just do what Hippolyta did just now by creating babies through clay, or is it just, somehow, they mate through lesbianism? I'm hoping its *not* the latter option, but I really do want to know how exactly they procreate, since I know female children do exist on Themyscira. I'm really kinda curious here.
11 minutes later
Well, guys, I think I just learned a new amazon method in battle. If you are facing off against a male, simply kick them in the nuts and they're guaranteed to go down. Granted, that's not really a "new" method per se, but it is still very effective.
2 minutes later
OK, there is something legitimately funny how Steve Trevor just tells Diana's mother that her daughter has a nice rack, especially since he says this right in front of her mother and a bunch of other amazons. That is an incredibly ballsy thing for him to say there.
15 minutes later
You know, guys, I'm really loving Steve Trevor more and more as this movie goes on. There's just something really charming about his character here that I really do like. I'll try to explain more about it when I eventually review this thing, but I'm letting you guys know that I really do like how Steve is being portrayed here in this movie.
13 minutes later
Is that suppose to be Hades? OK...you know, out of all the appearances I was expecting, him being incredibly obese was definitely not one of them. It is certainly... different, I'll say that much.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Wonder Woman". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. So, where do I begin here? Well, I did say earlier that I wanted this movie to have the same kind of quality that most of the other direct-to-video animated films from DC usually have. And for the most part, it does have that quality here. Now, mind you, it's not as strong as a lot of the other DC animated movies that I've seen, but it's certainly nowhere near the worst either. And this is coming from someone who's not a huge fan of the character to begin with.
So with all that said, let's get into the review here and first discuss the writing. Now, one thing that could be considered a huge setback for this movie is it's runtime. This film is only 74 minutes long. And because of it's short runtime, it would normally not have enough time to boil itself for it to flesh out it's story and characters. But I am gonna say that, while this movie does run with such a short runtime, it does tell enough of a story here to where you could watch it and not worry about any pacing issues. Because the movie does have really good pacing, and it doesn't really let up on slowing itself down very much. But then again, I am speaking from someone who has seen a lot of these particular animated movies, and I've gotten use to the fact that a lot of them have such a short runtime. So really, I'm just speaking from personal experience here. That said, I still stand by my statement that the movie does have very good pacing, and that it's able to flesh out enough of it's characters and story.
Speaking of the former, I want to talk about the characters in this movie. Mainly, I just want to focus on Diana and Steve Trevor. I want to start with Steve first, because his character is definitely the best thing about this movie. And I say this, because when I think back to the live action "Wonder Woman" movie, Steve's character in that film was, admittedly, a little bit on the bland side. Now that's not to say that his character sucked or anything, far from it, but when I see his character in this film, it is just filled to the brim with charm and personality. Essentially, guys, Steve's character in this movie is just him being a womanizing smartass. And that, to me, is what makes his character all the more charming. And every remark he gives out is just so lovably stupid that I can't help but laugh at it. It's just incredibly hilarious to me, and if he didn't have that charm here, than I think it would've made his character less likable. Which, to some people, would see that as more of a positive. But for me, I find his personality here to be very charming and rather likable.
And that's not to say that Diana isn't likable here, either. In fact, she displays a little bit of personality, too. And to be honest, I prefer this Diana over the version that's seen in the "Justice League" cartoon. Because in that thing, she came off as rather boring for most of that series. Which I know may not be saying much considering that I'm not a huge fan of her and all, but at least here, she kinda shines with more of a slight flair to her character. Granted, the whole thing involving her getting used to mankind's culture outside of Themyscira and about the debate on whether or not man has changed at all does get kinda old after a while, but at they very least, she and Steve are able to find some common ground and are able to set aside their quarrels for the greater good in order to stop Ares.
So yeah, the writing here is very good, at least on the standards set for Wonder Woman. Again, I'm not too big on the character and all, so it's just something that you have to take for what it's worth. And as for the acting, well, it's also really good, too. And that's another thing I usually like about these particular animated movies is that, even though the writing can vary at times with it's quality and content, the acting is something that I've always given praise to, no matter the film. This movie is no different, the acting here is great from the entire cast. Nobody here phones it in, which is also great. So yeah, without sounding more like a dead horse, the acting here is excellent.
Animation is also really good, too. In fact, I would say that this art-style that's used for this movie almost resembles the art-style that is seen in the "Justice League" animated series, just on a slightly bigger budget. In fact, I'm kinda wondering if, had Wonder Woman gotten her own animated series that they would use this sort of art-style and animation? I don't know, and I'm kinda surprised Warner Bros nor DC ever considered that possibility either. Or they might've did, but it didn't come to pass. Either way though, it doesn't stop the movie from looking great. The color pallets are really good, and the character designs all look great, though I am still 50-50 on Hades design here. Again, it's just a design choice that I wasn't really expecting here from him. There's also a little bit of usage of CG in this movie, mostly in regards to Diana's invisible plane, which honestly looks a little bit dated for 2009 standards. However, I'm gonna give the dated CG a pass here because, like I said, there's not a whole lot of it here.
Sound-mix here is really good, and the score here is also pretty good, too, though honestly, it's not really memorable at the same time. But overall, it is still serviceable for this movie.
So, with all that being said, when it comes down to it, am I able to recommend "Wonder Woman"? For the most part, yes. If you're, somehow, a big fan of the character, then you'll most likely enjoy this movie just fine. Now, when compared to a lot of other animated movies put out by DC and Warner Bros, it's obviously not the best, but it's still very good on it's own standards. So, I'm not gonna make that too much of an issue here. I'm also not gonna bother comparing which movie I like better between this or the 2017 movie, because both have their strengths and weaknesses to a point where I can't really pick which one I like better anyways. But yes, guys, I can still recommend this movie overall. And as per usual with a lot of these animated movies, there's also a couple of bonus cartoons added onto the DVD version of this movie. I don't know which ones they're advertising, but I'm going to take a guess here and say that it's from the "Justice League" cartoon. And I have a pretty good idea as to which ones were chosen. So, I'm gonna go watch those episodes right now and see if my guess on those episodes was right.
And with that, guys, 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.
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