Blog Archives
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman 2009
I was originally going to start reviewing the Spider-Man movies today, but I decided that I wanted to give myself a couple extra days of leeway to watch the new flick, and since I’ve watched the animated movies for Green Lantern, Superman, and Batman, I thought it was only fair to add the only other DC solo hero to get their own animated movie: Wonder Woman. It was especially a no-brainer because I already own the DVD. As a quick side-note, I should make a list of all the superhero movies I actually own and haven’t reviewed yet at some point, but that’s another day. Wonder Woman is an Amazonian princess with ties to Greek mythology similar to Thor’s connection to Norse mythology, although Wonder Woman is more of an original creation that’s rooted in Greek mythology where Thor is a repurposing of Norse mythology. For my part, I enjoyed it enough to buy it on DVD at some point, though rewatching it now I don’t think it’s as strong as some of the other DC animation. It’s still quite good, but it could easily be better.
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights 2010
Back to yet another movie my wife picked out for me at the video store. Apparently she has horrible timing, as this would have fit much better right after the first two Green Lantern movies I watched, but that’s completely beside the point. In an effort to cross-market with the theatrical release of the live action Green Lantern movie, DC Animation released this animated movie, which is a compilation of other Green Lantern’s stories similar to Gotham Knight, but this movie wraps it around a central framework based on Hal Jordan telling stories to a rookie lantern. It’s well done animation on par with all of the other DC animated movies I’ve seen to this point and I really enjoyed it.
FTMN Poll and Lamb MOTM
I’ve been watching a lot of animation lately and wanted to know what you think about it? I’m a big fan of animation, both hand drawn and CG from Toy Story to Shrek to DC and Marvel animation to classics like Secret of NIMH to anime like Akira. The one thing that most people can’t get past is that it’s not a genre, it’s a medium. An animated movie can be anything from G to R to XXX, and even though popular opinion may slowly be changing, it’s still generally considered to be kids stuff.
Aside from the poll, I also wanted to plug another Lamb event – the Movie of the Month. Every month, up to 10 Lamb members choose a movie that gets put on a poll on the Lamb site (top right corner). The winner becomes the Movie of the Month and Lamb members are encouraged to watch and review it, and it’s also the topic of that week’s Lambcast. I tossed my hat in the ring this month with the movie that I enjoyed the most this past month, Gremlins 2: The New Batch. So if you want to hear me talk about the movie on a podcast, which will be my first podcast, go to the Lamb and vote for Gremlins 2!
Superhero Shorts: Superman Classic
Superhero Shorts: Superman Classic
Welcome to this week’s edition of Superhero Shorts where I take a look at a different superhero themed short film and get the creator of the film to answer a few interview questions. This week I’m talking with Robb Pratt, a professional storyboard artist, director, and animator who is currently working for Disney on their upcoming film Planes. He created an original independently animated Superman short film called Superman Classic which you can watch below. You can also visit Robb’s official site.
Green Lantern: First Flight
Green Lantern: First Flight 2009
After watching the mediocre live action origin story, it made me want to revisit an earlier Green Lantern origin movie, only this one was animated and straight to home video. It was also a whole lot better. As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, I really love all of the DC Animation that I’ve seen so far which ranges from pretty good to excellent. They’ve covered a lot of ground on some of the better comic book stories out there without worrying too much about being a blockbuster. They’re generally all under the supervision and occasional direction of legendary Bruce Timm. The only downside I really have with them which isn’t a major downside is that they all tend to be rather short, most of them clocking in at a little over an hour. I’m still waiting for when they have the guts to make one of these animated movies for the theaters. I imagine it’s because of the decline of 2D animation. But whatever, First Flight is still a great movie.
Why doesn’t DC make a theatrical animated movie?
Aside from a couple of their big movies like the original Superman, and some of the Batman movies, DC has yet to really capitalize on their cast of characters in the theaters. While Marvel has had a handful of bad movies, they haven’t had many unsuccessful movies. DC however has had many flops. From Steel to Catwoman to Supergirl to Superman 3 & 4 to recent disappointments like Green Lantern and the Spirit, DC hasn’t had the best of luck with their secondary characters. But one thing that DC has going for it that fewer people know about is their amazing animation department. For the past several years, DC Animation has been cranking out some fantastic direct-to-DVD animated movies led by the talented Bruce Timm who was famously behind Batman: The Animated Series. The quality of these movies is generally very high, with great animation, great stories, and great voice acting. But the question is, why don’t they make one into a theatrical feature film?
