If you are a comic book fan, now is a great time to be involved in that genre.  Industry experts say we’re passed the golden and silver age of this colorful medium.  If that’s true, then I guess the name to bestow the industry today would be prefixed by the word ‘platinum.’  The stories are stronger, the artwork more sophisticated and the marketing is far greater.  Nevertheless, I am always skeptical of the animated releases.  Marvel’s Doctor Strange was okay but nothing grand.  The Hulk Vs. compilation was far superior, yet I’m still apprehensive to be as ambitious with cartoon comic book movies as I am with the comic book itself.  Then came the recent release of the animated Wonder Woman movie. 

How good could this be?  Granted, Linda Carter’s portrayal of the heroine in the 1970′s TV show is what I had in my mind.  Despite her undeniable sex appeal, the show was hokey to the end.  So again I think, “How good could this be?”  Is she going to hop around New York City and fight crime with her glowing rope?  Oh my friends, hold the phone.  This was not what I expected.

Film 

The movie immediately begins in a time before Wonder Woman (a.k.a. Diana) was born.  We find her fellow Amazons engaged in a fierce battle.  They are an all-female race of scholars and warriors grounded in a world of Greek mythology.  Their enemy in this fight is Ares, the God of war, who has summoned a rampaging battalion of minions that include everything from minotaurs, cyclops and savage barbarians galore.  Not even one minute into the film and one of the Amazonian gals catches a swift battle axe to the neck in the heat of battle.  Now is probably a good time for me to mention that this is not a film for the kids.

Yes folks, just because it has pretty colors and is a cartoon doesn’t mean you should put your kids in front of it and leave them on auto-pilot.  This film retains a PG-13 rating and I see why.  There’s plenty of blood, beatings, innuendo, public drunkenness and even a few decapitations to go around.  What was that I said earlier…something about Wonder Woman hopping around with a glowing rope?  Yeah, well that’s not how this adventure goes down at all…and for the record, that glowing rope is the almighty Lasso of Truth.  This brings us back to its owner, Diana, daughter of the Queen of the Amazons and impressive warrior in training.

Diana, full of spunk and ambition, is soon given the daunting task of serving as ambassador to the other world (mankind).  Her travels lure the attention of Ares, now free from his bindings, as he starts amassing more power and fury than he ever had in the past.  An epic battle ensues, literally right on the White House lawn and throughout the U.S. capital.  Government property?  Tell that to the army of undead that just bashed the Capitol Building to pieces.

Wonder Woman is a great piece of work with a solid story and I give massive kudos to all involved, especially the writer(s).  Female super heroes have statistically been a tougher sell than their male counterparts, but now the tables have turned.  DC is going to be hard-pressed to outdo itself with this film, even with the animated Green Lantern and Justice League animated films on the horizon.

Video 

I’ve mentioned this before but I’ll say it again here about these animated movies on Blu-ray.  The video quality is flawless.  It is a cartoon movie based from a digital source.  It knows no grain.  This 1080p presentation in a VC-1 encode is perfect in its delivery.  There’s not much else to say here other than, “magnificent.”

Audio 

All the clangs and crashes of colliding swords and falling bodies are present throughout Wonder Woman in clear audible detail.  Dialogue is captured without needing to strain to hear what is said.  I would like to have experienced more back-speaker-specific sounds to occur as the film did seem a bit front-heavy.  With my mention of that, please do not think of that as a deal-breaker.  I’m digging deep to try and find a negative point with this film and if that’s the worst I could find, well hallelujah.

Special Features 

The special features of Wonder Woman are divided up into four subsections.  The fourth is really just a listing of the Warner Bros. Blu-ray website.  Unfortunately, and I’m beginning to use that word too much in my “Special Features” sections, but here is yet another film with its extras in standard definition…all of them.  However, there is a lot of substance to the content that no comic book fan should miss.  Shoot, even the casual viewer would enjoy the variety of material on here.  After all, who knew that the creator of Wonder Woman also had a hand in inventing the lie detector?

• Behind the Story
  • Wonder Woman: A Subversive Dream – The first extra on the list goes into significant detail about the birth of comics, Wonder Woman creator William Marston and the psychology of Wonder Woman (25:35)
  • Wonder Woman: Daughter of Myth – The influence of Greek mythology on Wonder Woman’s character (25:38).
  • Commentary by Senior VP Creative Affairs, DC Comics Gregory Noveck, Producer Bruce Timm, Director Lauren Montgomery and Writer Michael Jelenic.
• Extras
  • A First Look at the Animated Feature Film Green Lantern - A short but interesting glance at this summer’s upcoming Green Lantern animated movie (10:12).
  • From Graphic Novel to Original Animated Movie – Justice League: The New Frontier – Another upcoming animated film from DC (10:45).
  • Wonder Woman: The Amazon Princess – A featurette discussing the history of Wonder Woman (10:26).
  • Batman Gotham Knight: An Anime Evolution – This offers a short history of Batman as well as a sneak peek of the Batman anime film (10:11)
• Bonus Episodes – These are four episodes from the Warner Bros. archive featuring Wonder Woman.  These episodes were hand-picked by producer Bruce Timm.
  • Paradise Lost (Part 1) – Justice League (21:21)
  • Paradise Lost (Part 2) – Justice League (21:56)
  • To Another Shore – Justice League Unlimited (22:43)
  • Hawk & Dove – Justice League Unlimited (22:45)

Final Thoughts 

I know some people will argue that my enjoyment of comic books has tainted my review of this film.  Others may say that something like the film Glory would be worth a rating of 5 out of 5, so how could this be the same?  Well, I am not going to prevent a film from obtaining a high score just because it’s a cartoon.  I am also looking at this from a neutral perspective.  This is an action-oriented comic book movie.  Did it measure up?  Did it possess multiple entertainment elements other than just brute force?  You bet…and it pulled it off with triumphant flare.  Wonder Woman did not disappoint.  It kicked the door down when the story started and was one blazing, wild ride to the time the credits rolled.