Michael Scott
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Vixen: The Movie
Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:
Movie:

Video:

Audio:

Extras:

Final Score:

“Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Forum Post. The opinions I share are my own.”
It’s kind of strange to see Vixen getting her own comeuppance in the DC universe these days. It seems like DC is priming a couple of their minor heroes and giving them full on front line status. First it was Cisco Ramon as Vibe (Vibe was an exploitation 70s character with minimal powers in the comics), and now after her popular cameo on Arrow, Vixen has been given her own series. Well, KIND of a series. Vixen: The Movie is actually all 2 seasons of the seed series Vixen that ran from 2015-2016 as a test run. It’s a series 6 episodes per season that runs about 6 minutes each, something which isn’t made clear in the movie itself. The movie takes those 12 episodes and smashes them together to make a singular movie, and that’s where the problems lie. It’s a decently fun idea and the characters are pretty solid in a “Saturday morning cartoon” type of vibe (sorry Cisco, no pun intended)
The plot for the movie/seasons is pretty simple, but also a big congested. It starts out with young Mari McCabe (Megalyn Echikunwoke) getting out of jail for general mischievous. Meeting up with her adopted father Chuck (Neil Flynn), she crashes in his place in Detroit, but soon finds out that she’s got a little juice running through her. While she’s not a meta human, she carries an ancient amulet around her neck. An amulet that allows her sudden bursts of great strength and agility. This amulet soon puts her in the crosshairs of an evil African mercenary by the name of Kuasa (Anika Noni Rose), who is the catalyst for Mari unlocking the necklace’s full power.
It seems that Mari is actually a descendent of an African tribesman who was given a magical amulet by the god that allows her to summon the spirit of any animal she chooses, imbuing the powers of that animal on her for a short time. Deciding to copy the ways of The Flash (Grant Gustin), and Arrow (Stephen Amell), Mari tries to become the hero of her city, only to find out that superheroing is a bit tougher of a job than she expected. That means learning to control her powers as well as fine tune them so that she can be a true hero. If that’s not enough, an evil warlord comes over to visit from Africa after discovering that this is only ONE of FIVE necklaces that each control a different power. This maniac wants to control all 5 of them, and that means Mari (now known as Vixen) is in his way from obtaining them all.
While the show has some definite weaknesses, the main one being time, it also has some fun points too. The characters are all voiced by the same people as when they appeared on Flash and Arrow, meaning we get Grant Gustin as Flash, Stephen Amell as Arrow, Emily as Felicity, Carlos Valdes as Cisco etc etc etc. This adds to the distinctive universe sharing that the DC tv verse has enjoyed up until now, but there is a downside. The voice actors (besides Cisco and Felicity) feeling like they were just phoning it in between episodes of their own shows, so they feel a bit flat. Megalyn is the saving grace in the voice acting department, as she gets to flesh out her couple episode appearance on Arrow a bit more and has fun with it. The show is very much a “Saturday morning cartoon” type of show, and doesn’t get really meaty or dark like some of the other DC animated shows Warner has done recently. It’s a nice change of pace and is pretty solidly entertaining to boot.
Rating:
Rated TV-PG by the MPAA
Video:

Audio:

.
Extras:

• Bruce Timm's Top Picks:
- Episode from Justice League Unlimited, "Hunter's Moon"
- Episode from Justice League Unlimited, "Grudge Match"
Final Score:

Vixen is a fun little side venture for the DC animated universe, and for once doesn’t tie into the New 52 shared universes that has been going on for the last several years. It’s fluffy, a bit congested and hops from story to story in WAY too short of a time, but it has a lot of energy and passion to it that is enticing. The Blu-ray isn’t given your normal slipcover, but given a full thicker slipBOX that makes it feel a bit more premium in my opinion. Sadly no collector’s edition with action figures like some of the other films that came out, but the video and audio are solid given WB’s track record with these entries. Extras are a tad slim, so I would say this one acts more of a rental than anything.
Technical Specifications:
Starring: Megalyn Echikunwoke, Anika Noni Rose, Emily Beck Rickards
Directed by: James Tucker, Curt Geda
Written by: Lauren Certo, Nolan Dunbar, Brian Ford Sullivan, Wendy Mericle, Keto Shimizu, Sara Tarkoff
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: TV-PG
Runtime: 75 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: Own on Blu-ray and DVD 5/23/17
Recommendation: Rental
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