The Wonder Woman Animated Film… Wonderful?

DC has had this problem for a while. It’s not a problem entirely of their own making, but one that has dogged them for a while now. They possess three of the most instantly recognizable superheroic cultural icons of the twentieth century.

But most people know the origins for only two of them.

Big Blue and the Brooding Batboy have been retold so many times, in so many mediums, that you could probably walk up to an eight year-old Inuit living off whale blubber on an ice floe in the Aleutians and he knows about BOTH planet Krypton AND what happened in Crime Alley. But ask him, or even some comic shop regulars, about Wonder Woman’s origin, and the most anyone will be able to give them is a recap from an old Challenge of the SuperFriends episode (‘Secret Origins of the Superfriends’ circa 1978). IF they even know that much. In short: girl is made of clay, given life by the Greek gods of ancient myth, grows up on Y-chromosome free Paradise Island, and competes in a tournament to become the island’s representative in man’s world. Wackiness and cleavage displays ensue.

If you didn’t know her origin, don’t feel bad that I was able to give it so quickly; I actually own the SuperFriends DVDs.

But, as many of you reading this are doubtlessly aware, early next month Warner Bros. is releasing a brand spanking new Wonder Woman DVD movie. The animated feature has become their latest vehicle for animated projects with DC heroes not solely aimed at the under twelves (a fond adieu to the Justice League series and its progenitors parting was inevitable). But the quality of the output has been decidedly mixed for me. Superman/Doomsday was a total yawn. Batman: Gotham Knight, while interesting, suffered from Animatrix syndrome; some good ideas not given enough room to be substantial, and hampered by an incoherent jumble of styles. And New Frontier, while having a very solid voice cast, and being stylistically well-conceived, went in too many story directions, and had about the LAMEST cartoon villain I can ever recall. A giant meteor spitting out dinosaurs? REALLY? It’s even lamer than the floating head of evil that spawned zombies in an old SuperFriends episode (Swamp of the Living Dead also circa 1978).

So as a DC animated fan, I didn’t have extremely high expectations for the new Wonder Woman movie when I saw it last Friday night. And as a DC animated fan, I have rarely been more pleased than now as I tell you how mistaken I was. The movie is smart, well-constructed, funny, adult, and also considerably more violent than I expected. As to that last, if you don’t believe me, there are more decapitations here than in the entire series run of Justice League (granted – the series had only one, which occurred off-screen in the series’ finale ‘Destroyer’-but still…).

The origin is there, and it’s more fleshed out and fully realized than expected. The movie is, in fact, all origin. Apparently the producers learned something from Batman Begins. The story starts off with a war between the Amazons, led by Wonder Woman’s mother, Hippolyta, and an army of mythological beasts led by the god of war, Ares. We learn during their battle that Ares and Hippolyta have an adult son together, and apparently that son’s conception may not have been an entirely consensual one. And while we’re still absorbing that little tidbit, Hippolyta, in order to win the battle, kills the aforementioned son. Zeus forbids Hippolyta from killing Ares, opting to remove his powers instead and make him a prisoner. At which point, Zeus gives the Amazons Paradise Island as a sanctuary, makes them immortal, and conceals the island from ‘man’s world.’ All this before Wonder Woman/Diana herself even gets introduced.

Hippolyta of course, wants to be a mother, but lacking the means to go about it the old fashioned way, sculpts baby Diana out of clay, who is then given life by the Gods. Diana gets raised in the Amazon tradition; which means she’s majoring in how to kick ass, with minors in horseback riding, wearing togas and swimming in crystal streams. This idyllic Playboy mansion grotto existence (minus the liver-spotted guy in the smoking jacket) would have gone on ad infinitum, until a fighter jock named Steve Trevor crashes his plane on the island.

And thank God for that. Seriously. Because he’s voiced by Nathan Fillion. The quality of the voice talent isn’t solely limited to this one role; Alfred Molina, Oliver Platt, Virginia Madsen, and yes, that Felicity chick all perform well. But nobody owns their character or gets as many laughs out of their lines quite like Fillion does.

Still, that’s only one good thing about Steve Trevor in this movie. He also brings a lot of life, humor, and balance to the story. Whether he’s ogling Amazons while they cavort like something out of a 50s ‘nudie-cutie’ movie, being subjected to the embarrassment of the magic lasso’s influence, or covering Diana’s back in a fight, the character adds to or steals every scene he’s in. Which is a lot of them. He also moves the story forward; his arrival convinces Hippolyta that the island can’t simply ignore man’s world, leading her to hold a tournament that will appoint an ambassador to escort him back. You can guess who wins that, right? Unfortunately, Ares also picks that moment as his opportunity to escape the island, and Diana and Steve are tasked with stopping him before he regains his full set of godly powers.

What follows ventures a bit into buddy cop/romantic comedy territory. Steve Trevor is the self-assured/womanizing/savvy Chris Tucker type, with Wonder Woman in the physically formidable/socially stiff/fish-out-of-water Jackie Chan role. Only they’re actually funny and not remotely shrill or annoying. Plus the idea of them getting pelvic isn’t in any way disturbing. Wonder Woman’s interactions and frustrations with the inequities of man’s world are played deftly, often for humor, but stay true to the feminist ideals inherent to the character. Which is a neat trick, considering that she’s also used as eye candy and there’s no shortage of sexual innuendo floating around as well. The action builds nicely; Ares schemes, mayhem ensues, and the whole thing builds to a very violent climactic battle in the middle of Washington D.C., which adds both a little urgency and some Greek architecture to the proceedings. But even with all the action, it’s the Wonder Woman/Steve Trevor romance that’s the heart of the movie. Their relationship is analogous for Diana’s mission; the coming together of Amazon and man (no pun intended), and the reconcilement of feminist ideals with the reality of the outside world.

Okay, I admit. I did mean for the first part of that last sentence to be every bit as dirty as it sounded.

Is the movie flawed? Sure, but in some small, mostly forgivable ways. A few events do feel contrived. Chief example – we have NO IDEA how the Amazons, who were cut off from the rest of the world for two thousand years, suddenly have an invisible jet. But everything moves at a brisk enough pace, and there is so much else right, that for the 74 minute run time those small things can slide.

And I was very content to let them slide, because all of this has been a considerable leap forward for Warner Animation from previous efforts. Hopefully in a year or three we’ll get to see Diana go up against her other rogues like Cheetah, Dr. Psycho, Circe, or Giganta in a sequel. Or perhaps see similar movies of comparable quality for Green Lantern, the Flash, or any number of DC’s characters. In the meantime, if you’ve been hoping for a defining, well-told origin story for Wonder Woman, they’ve delivered. This is a story that clearly has an idea of not only where Wonder Woman came from, but who she is, and what makes her unique as a superhero. Well worth watching.