- When asked about the challenge of coming up with a good story for a Wonder Woman live-action film, nerd auteur Joss Whedon responded, "Batman has it made. He's got the greatest rogues gallery ever, he's got Gotham City. The bat writes himself. With Wonder Woman, you're writing from whole cloth, but trying to make it feel like you didn't." He makes a great point. Can you remember Wonder Woman's origin story? Or name her arch-enemy? It seemed like Linda Carter was always fighting the Nazis, but surely there's more to her than that. Thus, I was glad to hear that Bruce Timm and the Warner Brothers animation machine were tackling the surprisingly obscure story of the world's most famous comic book heroine. So, does the new DC animated version of Wonder Woman make her seem worth knowing? Well, yes and no.
- The story begins with a brief history of the Amazons who, after an exciting and gruesome battle with the god Ares (Alfred Molina), are awarded the idyllic island home of Themyscira. The island is magically hidden from the outside world and, with the exception of the divinely manacled Ares, is completely unpolluted by y-chromosomes. While this eliminates things like war and public urination (presumably), it also deprives Queen Hippolyta (Virginia Madsen) of the traditional means to have a child, although one gathers that a bad experience with Ares had already disenfranchised her of that option. Hippolyta therefore takes the novel approach of forming a baby out of the sand and having the gods grant it life. Eventually, this baby grows up to be Diana (Keri Russell), whose warrior skills quickly outmatch those of her sisters, including the hawkish Artemis (Rosario Dawson) and the bookish Alexa (Tara Strong).
- Although Themyscira has apparently thrived peacefully and without incident for thousands of years, two events occur nearly simultaneously to rapidly propel the island's inhabitants into the modern world. First, the American fighter pilot Steve Trevor (Nathan Fillion) crash lands on the island, where he immediately deploys enough flyboy chauvinism to make Amazonian isolation seem like a good idea. Eager to rid the island of such a doofus, Hippolyta hosts an athletic competition that a disguised Diana easily wins, giving her the right to don the famous tiara and bustiere. But before they can leave, Ares manages to escape by -- of all things -- seducing his guard, Persephone (Vicki Lewis). Now it's up to Diana to get in her invisible jet (what, the ancient Greeks didn't have those?) and to go out and set the world right. But first an oddly-timed trip to the bar. Hey, even Wonder Woman's got to unwind.
- The rest of the film is basically a series of epic battles against Ares and his minions. Some of the battles are enjoyable, some a tad overlong, but all of them are impressively action-packed. In this respect, Wonder Woman is exemplary of the direction that the DC animation group has taken over the last few years. As in the Justice League TV series, interesting character development has been mostly replaced with well-constructed action sequences. Given that the writing isn't nearly as compelling as it once was for, say, Batman: The Animated Series (the unquestionable pinnacle of American animated drama), this may not be a bad decision. Still, it would be nice to appreciate why Wonder Woman kicks ass, in addition to seeing her actually do it.
- I almost forgot to mention that Oliver Platt makes a cameo as an enjoyably corrupt Hades.
- Didn't the Dr. Katz episode with Dave Chapelle have a similar joke about what truths the magic lasso might unveil?
