I see all this creip around this movie in that "It's too kid- friendly", "Only kids would want to watch this."
Well, Bruce Timm's Batman: The Animated Series was made for kids and nobody faults that for not alienating younger viewers. Teen Titans was pretty silly at times and everyone loves that. Green Lantern The Animated Series, Justice League, Superman TAS, Batman Beyond, these ALL were kid-friendly shows. How often we adults forget that these things are not made with us in mind.
Besides, if you've read comics, you'd know that comics are, for the most part, pretty weird, and it's nice when comic book movies embrace that mindset.
Anyway, the movie. I liked it. Giancarlo Volpe of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "Green Lantern: The Animated Series" returns to DC to direct what my favorite Furious Fanboy calls "Super Friends done right". Yeah, the tone is pretty light-hearted even during some crucial scenes, such as when they go back in time and fight for control of Baby Superman's space pod (did I mention comics are weird?), but it never gets to the level of passionless cheese that Super Friends reached. This show is more like the Galactic Guardians cartoon: Super Friends if it focused on development of two relatively unknown (but cool) characters with the well-developed characters for support, telling serious stories with somewhat goofy execution.
I wouldn't call Trapped in Time's story the greatest, but it's serviceable. It's your standard time travel story with a villain looking to alter the past. However, the heroes use that to their advantage, foiling said villain in a very creative way. It's a comic book story for a comic book movie. And comics are weird.
The characters are comic book characters. Dawnstar and Karate Kid (the character was created in 1966, 18 years before the Karate Kid movies, so technically the movie stole its name from the comic, not the other way around) both have definable personalities while not being TOO over-the-top or too bland. Dawnstar is a cosmic pacifist from a world colonized by Native Americans with wings (did I mention comics are weird?), while Karate Kid is a hot-headed martial artist hero-to-be whose sick of being overlooked by everyone. So, of course, he's played by Dante Basco.
The JLA themselves don't get much development, but the movie isn't about them. This is Dawnstar and Karate Kid's story. The focus is on them instead of these over-exposed heroes who everyone already knows and who wouldn't receive much development from a story like this anyway. All of them are voice acted well enough, with Diedrich Bader reprising his role as Batman after playing him in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. In fact, this whole movie functions like an hour-long Justice League episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
The villains are likewise not developed, but like the JLA most of them wouldn't get developed from a story like this. And also like the JLA, they're already pretty well-known so as not to need entire scenes devoted to them in a 52 minute movie, though Grundy and Bizarro get to have a funny back-and-forth with each other.
The animation is fantastic and the characters look like a nice blend of Modern and Silver Age comics. On occasion the animation shows a need for some polishing during the slower moments, but the action scenes are all fantastic, the highlight being a short but intense hand-to- hand fight between Robin and Karate Kid.
My only problems with this film are a few lines of dialog that were supposed to be cool but just came off as "What?", plus a forced pop cultural reference. Though, to be fair, it's far less sinful than those in JL: WAR. My other problem with the film is The Legion of Doom's initial plan. "We're going to freeze the polar ice caps a bit more and lower the sea level, expanding our coastline real estate! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!" Guys, I know that wasn't your main story, but you could've put SOME care into it. There's a few minor plot holes, like when Bizarro doesn't vanish when he should have or the security around the time travel device being dirt poor, but those had little if any impact on the story. It's a time travel story, and thankfully this one kept its plot holes AWAY from anything important.
Despite all that, I feel like this is a "back to basics" kind of movie: its plot isn't overly complex, its characters likable, its leads getting their fair share of development, its animation fluid, and it doesn't shut itself away from kids by being, ahem, "adult". I look forward to the inevitable sequel and hope that they manage to make i more mature.
Or, even better, MAKE THIS A TV SHOW, PLEASE!
Well, Bruce Timm's Batman: The Animated Series was made for kids and nobody faults that for not alienating younger viewers. Teen Titans was pretty silly at times and everyone loves that. Green Lantern The Animated Series, Justice League, Superman TAS, Batman Beyond, these ALL were kid-friendly shows. How often we adults forget that these things are not made with us in mind.
Besides, if you've read comics, you'd know that comics are, for the most part, pretty weird, and it's nice when comic book movies embrace that mindset.
Anyway, the movie. I liked it. Giancarlo Volpe of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "Green Lantern: The Animated Series" returns to DC to direct what my favorite Furious Fanboy calls "Super Friends done right". Yeah, the tone is pretty light-hearted even during some crucial scenes, such as when they go back in time and fight for control of Baby Superman's space pod (did I mention comics are weird?), but it never gets to the level of passionless cheese that Super Friends reached. This show is more like the Galactic Guardians cartoon: Super Friends if it focused on development of two relatively unknown (but cool) characters with the well-developed characters for support, telling serious stories with somewhat goofy execution.
I wouldn't call Trapped in Time's story the greatest, but it's serviceable. It's your standard time travel story with a villain looking to alter the past. However, the heroes use that to their advantage, foiling said villain in a very creative way. It's a comic book story for a comic book movie. And comics are weird.
The characters are comic book characters. Dawnstar and Karate Kid (the character was created in 1966, 18 years before the Karate Kid movies, so technically the movie stole its name from the comic, not the other way around) both have definable personalities while not being TOO over-the-top or too bland. Dawnstar is a cosmic pacifist from a world colonized by Native Americans with wings (did I mention comics are weird?), while Karate Kid is a hot-headed martial artist hero-to-be whose sick of being overlooked by everyone. So, of course, he's played by Dante Basco.
The JLA themselves don't get much development, but the movie isn't about them. This is Dawnstar and Karate Kid's story. The focus is on them instead of these over-exposed heroes who everyone already knows and who wouldn't receive much development from a story like this anyway. All of them are voice acted well enough, with Diedrich Bader reprising his role as Batman after playing him in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. In fact, this whole movie functions like an hour-long Justice League episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
The villains are likewise not developed, but like the JLA most of them wouldn't get developed from a story like this. And also like the JLA, they're already pretty well-known so as not to need entire scenes devoted to them in a 52 minute movie, though Grundy and Bizarro get to have a funny back-and-forth with each other.
The animation is fantastic and the characters look like a nice blend of Modern and Silver Age comics. On occasion the animation shows a need for some polishing during the slower moments, but the action scenes are all fantastic, the highlight being a short but intense hand-to- hand fight between Robin and Karate Kid.
My only problems with this film are a few lines of dialog that were supposed to be cool but just came off as "What?", plus a forced pop cultural reference. Though, to be fair, it's far less sinful than those in JL: WAR. My other problem with the film is The Legion of Doom's initial plan. "We're going to freeze the polar ice caps a bit more and lower the sea level, expanding our coastline real estate! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!" Guys, I know that wasn't your main story, but you could've put SOME care into it. There's a few minor plot holes, like when Bizarro doesn't vanish when he should have or the security around the time travel device being dirt poor, but those had little if any impact on the story. It's a time travel story, and thankfully this one kept its plot holes AWAY from anything important.
Despite all that, I feel like this is a "back to basics" kind of movie: its plot isn't overly complex, its characters likable, its leads getting their fair share of development, its animation fluid, and it doesn't shut itself away from kids by being, ahem, "adult". I look forward to the inevitable sequel and hope that they manage to make i more mature.
Or, even better, MAKE THIS A TV SHOW, PLEASE!