| Wonder Woman | |
|---|---|
Film poster |
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| Directed by | Lauren Montgomery[1] |
| Produced by | Bruce Timm Gregory Noveck Bobbie Page Sam Register Sander Schwartz |
| Written by | Gail Simone Michael Jelenic |
| Starring | Keri Russell Nathan Fillion |
| Music by | Christopher Drake |
| Studio | Warner Bros. Animation Warner Premiere DC Comics |
| Distributed by | Warner Home Video |
| Release date(s) | March 3, 2009[2] |
| Running time | 75 minutes |
| Language | English Spanish Dutch |
| Box office | $6,898,033[3] |
Wonder Woman is a 2009 direct-to-video animated film focusing on the superheroine Wonder Woman. The plot of the film is loosely based on George Pérez' reboot of the character, specifically the "Gods and Mortals" arc that started the character's second volume in 1987.[4] It is the fourth in the line of DC Universe Animated Original Movies released by Warner Premiere and Warner Bros. Animation.
The film is directed by Lauren Montgomery, who directed the second act of Superman: Doomsday and did storyboard work for Justice League: The New Frontier, and written by Gail Simone and Michael Jelenic. As with all previous releases in this line of films, it is produced by acclaimed DC Comics animation veteran Bruce Timm.[5]
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Centuries ago, the Amazons, a proud and fierce race of warrior women, led by Queen Hippolyta (voiced by Virginia Madsen), battled Ares (Alfred Molina), the God of War, and his army. During the battle, Hippolyta beheaded her son, Thrax (Jason Miller), whom Ares forcibly conceived with her, and then defeated the God of War himself. Zeus (David McCallum), however, prevented her from killing Ares. Instead, Hera (Marg Helgenberger) bound his powers with magic bracers so that he was deprived of his ability to draw power from the aura of violence and death he could instigate, and only another god could release him. In compensation, the Amazons were granted the island of Themyscira, where they could be eternally youthful and isolated from Man in the course of their duty of holding Ares prisoner for all eternity. Later, Hippolyta was granted a daughter, Princess Diana (Keri Russell), whom she shaped from the sand of the sea shore and gave life with her own blood.
Over a millennium later, an American fighter pilot, Steve Trevor (Nathan Fillion), is shot down and crash-lands on the island, where he soon runs afoul of the Amazon population, including the war-like and aggressive Artemis (Rosario Dawson). Steve and Diana meet and fight, and she defeats him, taking him to the Amazons. Hippolyta decides he should be returned home. Diana volunteers, but is assigned to guard Ares's cell instead since her mother argues that she has not enough experience in dealing with the dangers of the outside world. Diana defies her mother and, her face hidden by a helmet and her guard duty covered by her bookish but kind-hearted Amazon sister Alexa (Tara Strong), wins the right to take Trevor back to his home.
In the meantime, the Amazon Persephone (Vicki Lewis), who has fallen in love with Ares, releases him, both killing Alexa in the process. With the additional task of capturing Ares, Diana brings Trevor to New York City, where he volunteers to help. An investigation uncovers a pattern of violence created by Ares presence that will lead to him given time, and the pair go out to a bar while they wait. After some heavy drinking, Trevor makes a pass at Diana. They argue outside, but are attacked first by thugs and then the demigod Deimos. Deimos kills himself to prevent being interrogated, but Diana and Steve find a clue on his body that leads them to a secret Greek temple guarded by the worshipers of Ares.
Once there, Diana attempts to subdue Ares, but he summons harpies that threaten to kill her, prompting Trevor to save her instead of stopping Ares. Meanwhile, Ares performs a sacrifice to open a gate to the Underworld, where he persuades his uncle, Hades, to remove the gauntlets. Later, Diana regains consciousness and is furious that Trevor saved her rather than stop Ares. Trevor argues against her abuse with his own criticism of the Amazons' self-imposed isolation and their generalizations about men, and reveals how much he cares about her.
Ares and his army attack Washington, DC. Trevor and Diana arrive to battle Ares and are soon joined by the Amazons. While Ares manages even to summon the Amazons long dead from the Underworld to fight their own sisters, his scheme is stopped by Alexa, a member of the undead host, who reveals to Artemis a chant which nullifies Ares's control over them. The undead then turn on Ares but are destroyed by his powers; in memory of Alexa, Artemis later takes up the hobby of reading. Hippolyta faces Persephone in combat and kills her, but with her dying breath, Persephone makes the queen realize that in shutting the Amazons away from the world of men, she has denied them the chance to live as women.
Meanwhile, the President, influenced by Ares's power, orders a nuclear missile against Themyscira. This act of supreme aggression increases Ares's power, but Trevor takes the invisible jet and shoots down the missile just before it hits the island. Finally, after a brutal beating at Ares's hands, Diana finally outwits and kills him. Subsequently, Ares is condemned to the underworld to attend Hades as a slave, alongside his son.
Later on Themyscira, Hippolyta realizes that Diana misses both the outside world and Trevor, and to make her happy again, she charges her daughter to become a diplomat for the Amazons. Diana accepts and returns to the world of men, where she enjoys the company of Trevor and assumes the secret identity of Diana Prince. However, their relationship comes with the understanding of her larger duties, such as when Diana sees The Cheetah robbing a museum and she excuses herself to stop the supervillainess as Wonder Woman.
The film was originally advertised as having a storyline involving the Greek god Ares escaping Paradise Island in order to capture and control a mystic item called the Hand of Rage. He would then use the Hand of Rage to bring about World War III. This storyline was later dropped.
The film's casting director, Andrea Romano, explained that Keri Russell's casting as Wonder Woman was partly inspired by Romano seeing Russell's performance in the film Waitress.[12]
According to producer Bruce Timm, during post-production, many action scenes had to be edited after the first cut of the film received an R rating from the MPAA.[13]
| Wonder Woman (Soundtrack from the DC Universe Animated Original Movie)[14] | |
|---|---|
| Film score (Digital download) by Christopher Drake | |
| Released | February 23, 2010 |
| Label | New Line Records |
DC Comics gave out promotional light-up tiaras to those who attended the premiere of the film at WonderCon 2009.[15]
Upon the DVD release of the film, DC Comics arranged for several promotional packaging concepts to be released through different vendors. Working together with Mattel, they created a miniature action figure of the animated Wonder Woman that was packaged together with the 2-disc DVD sets sold through Best Buy's stores. Images of the animated Wonder Woman were made into sheets of temporary tattoos and packaged with the single disc DVD of the film that were sold exclusively through Kmart's stores. FYE and Suncoast retail stores sold pre-orders of the DVD with a promotional film poster containing a printed autograph of the film's director Lauren Montgomery. The two-disc special edition DVDs sold at Target stores included bonus Wonder Woman centric episodes from the Justice League animated series and its spin-off Justice League Unlimited, two shows produced by Bruce Timm. Borders Book Stores offered an exclusive "Making of Wonder Woman" booklet featuring storyboards and character designs. Finally, a lenticular cover was created for the DVD cover depicting Wonder Woman shifting her position, sold exclusively through Wal-Mart stores.
From its previews at WonderCon and New York Comic Con to its DVD release Wonder Woman received mostly positive reviews and has an 86% freshness rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 7 reviews.[16] Harry Knowles gave a positive review of Wonder Woman on his website Ain't It Cool News. Knowles enthusiastically lauded director Montgomery and the surprising brutality of the action scenes.[17] Jim Vejvoda of IGN praised the film's humor, action, and vocal performances, singling out the "perfectly cast" Fillion.[18] Jordan Hoffman of UGO.com gave a positive review, commenting on the film's great dialogue and the mature use of post-feminist themes in relation to perceived chauvinism.[19] Reviewing the film for Comic Book Resources, Josh Wigler gave a positive review, but criticized the unexplained inclusion of Diana's invisible plane.[20] An explanation was left out as Timm and Montgomery felt it was too convoluted and merely a pseudo-scientific explanation. The World's Finest cited a few inconsistencies but said overall it was "easily the best DC Universe Animated Original Movie title to date."[21]
The level of violence in the film - both Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor are shown killing human adversaries in several sequences, and several beheadings in battle also occur - garnered some criticism. Chris Mautner, reviewing the film for Comic Book Resources, remarked, "It is just me or does it seem more than a bit...unnecessary?"[22]
According to The-Numbers.com, Wonder Woman ranked #5 in DVD sales from its release of March 3 to March 8, 2009. From the total units of 106,342, it made $2,040,703 in sales.[23]
An adaptation of the film, entitled simply Wonder Woman, was published in January 2009 by Pocket Star Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster (ISBN 978-1-4165-9873-2). Written by S.D. Perry and Britta Dennison, the book follows the film's plot faithfully, but it omits some of the incidental violence (Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor killing guards, for example) featured in the film.
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