Hello, my friends. Our various journeys upon this crazy chronological ride called life is filled with dizzying highs, painful lows and interesting things in between them all. Whenever we accomplish something grand or find ourselves within something dreadful, there always comes a time where we wonder about the chain of events that ultimately led us to those various situations. Lots of them can be set into motion by even the simplest of actions, which is something that our main heroes will ultimately discover within our featured review subject. As 2024 comes to a close, it feels like the right time to celebrate the 10th anniversary of an animated venture that isn’t the regular length of a typical movie nor is it within the short runtime of a usual DC Showcase film. On that note, allow me to share my thoughts upon a certain time-spanning narrative called…
Originally released for DVD on January 21, 2014 exclusively at Target before getting its general release on May 20, this animated entry had Giancarlo Volpe pulling double duty as both producer and director while Michael Ryan ended up writing the screenplay. As for the kind of crisis that will occur across this vast stream, let’s properly set our watches in order to finally find the time to properly check it out.
Following our title card, we open within the movie’s present time as our featured supervillain team called the Legion of Doom has gathered within the Artic Circle. The group’s leader named Lex Luthor (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) has set up a group of satellites over the surrounding ice cap before firing its cryogenic beams onto the frozen land. As this process begins to unfold, Barbara Ann Minerva a.k.a. Cheetah (voiced by Erica Luttrell) expresses her initial confusion since she thought that they were going to melt the ice caps. Lex then tells her that they’re going to be doing the exact opposite and that by expanding them, it’ll cause the globe’s sea levels to drastically drop, thus expanding the world’s coastlines onto every single continent and allow them to ultimately take over the globe.
Suddenly, they’re met upon by Kal-El a.k.a. Clark Kent a.k.a. Superman (voiced by Peter Jessop) before the rest of the Justice League arrives as Diana Prince a.k.a. Wonder Woman (voiced by Grey DeLisle-Griffin) soars in via her Invisible Jet, Barry Allen a.k.a. Flash (voiced by Jason Spisak) dashes his way onto the scene and Arthur Curry a.k.a. Aquaman (voiced by Liam O’Brien) makes his presence known. Shortly after he tells his teammates to relieve Lex of his control over the satellites, he then contacts a few more incoming heroes, particularly Victor Stone a.k.a. Cyborg (voiced by Avery Waddell) and the Dynamic Duo of Bruce Wayne a.k.a. Batman (voiced by Diedrich Bader) & Dick Grayson a.k.a. Robin (voiced by Jack DeSena) that they’re with him as they proceed to soar up into space.
Back on the ground, Flash spots Luthor standing with the controls by himself as he easily evades David Hyde a.k.a. Black Manta and Cyrus Gold a.k.a. Solomon Grundy (both voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson). However, Lex notices and activates a force field as Barry slams into it. From there, he’s confronted by Gorilla Grodd (voiced by Travis Willingham) who proceeds to attack him.
Up within the atmosphere, our aerial heroes manage to destroy two of the opposing satellites. Back on ground level, Luthor notices this and orders for any available teammate to protect their key technological pieces from harm. Just then, Kal-El and Victor get confronted by Bizarro (voiced by Michael Donovan) while the Dynamic Duo suddenly finds themselves in the missile-based crosshairs of Jack Nimball a.k.a. Toyman (voiced by Shikamaru Nara himself, Tom Gibis).
Back in the arctic, Aquaman manages to defeat Black Manta before we immediately shift back into space as Superman is fending off Bizarro while telling Stone to take the remaining satellites out. Cyborg manages to reach the main satellite before he begins to hack into it in order to shut it down. However, it turns out that it was being manually operated by Leonard Snart a.k.a. Captain Cold (voiced by Corey Burton) as he uses his Cold Gun to encase Victor within some ice.
Back over in the Batwing, the Dynamic Duo continues to evade Toyman’s assault before Batman spots a fully frozen Victor. As such, he puts the plane into autopilot mode in order to help his comrade out. Robin then argues that he could fly the Batwing in his absence, but Bruce tells him to not touch anything before he ejects.
Back within the artic landscape, Wonder Woman is able to take Cheetah down before she’s then confronted by Solomon who grabs onto her cape and smashes her into the ground. Back on the main satellite, Captain Cold is about to vanquish Stone before Wayne flies in and punches him away.
While Superman struggles against Bizarro, we then shift back into the Batwing where Dick is still annoyed that he’s not being trusted with flying the plane by himself. In his anger, he slams his foot onto the console before the computer reminds him to not kick the controls. He then sees Bizarro deliver a fierce punch onto Batman and decides to hop into the main seat before using his own Batarang (which I assume is a Wing-Ding) to disable the autopilot.
With Bizarro closing in on Bruce, Grayson manages to ram the Batwing into him and ejects before it collides into one the satellites, which also had enough momentum to strike into another satellite and cause both of them to get wiped out. As for the pursuing Toyman, he isn’t able to slow up in time as he and his spacecraft get consumed by the blast.
Wayne then uses his Bat-Grapple to bring Robin to him while chastising his decision since despite receiving help, his partner did put his own life in danger. Shortly after Cyborg frees himself, he spots Leonard retreating into the lone remaining satellite as he sets its cryogenic cannon to maximum output.
He then tells a returning Kal-El that their foe is overloading his system before they then try to stop him. However, Snart sees them approaching via a radar as he maxes out the cryogenic cannon’s outputs before retreating into a pod.
Back on the ground, Captain Cold’s action has accidentally led to Lex being unintentionally caught within the beam’s path as he gets consumed by it. Back on the satellite, the system overloads and causes the structure to explode, thus bringing this scheme to a thankful end. Despite the blasts, Toyman survived it all before he’s then saved by Bizarro. Back in the Artic Circle, Barbara Ann tells Grodd that they must retreat as they proceed to do so alongside Grundy before they reach the Hall of Doom and fly away.
Wonder Woman then contacts Superman and tells him that Luthor is “gone” before the Justice League regroups at Lex’s last known location. Kal-El tells his teammates that they have to find their foe, yet Diana says that the resulting blast was too powerful for even someone like Luthor to survive from.
Through an automated narrator, we then transition through time where civilization and prosperity would proceed to flourish courtesy of Superman and the Justice League. We then reach the 31st Century where the Legion of Super-Heroes is now the predominant superhero team and it’s all thanks to Kal-El’s inspirational accomplishments. Within a specific museum, we then focus on two up-and-coming heroes named Val Armorr a.k.a. Karate Kid (voiced by Rufio, Jake Long & Prince Zuko himself, Dante Basco) and Dawnstar (voiced by Laura Bailey) as the former is incredibly eager to join the Legion and even feels like he’s worthy, yet she tells him that there’s more to becoming a hero than just fighting especially since she respects the current decision from the team’s leader where they believe that they’re not completely ready to join their ranks.
Karate Kid and Dawnstar then make their way to another part of the museum where a giant slab of ice is on display, which also contains Luthor’s preserved body within it. They then learn that he was discovered in 2856 during an event called “the big thaw of the second warming” before Val hops over to the ice and expresses how much he doesn’t respect this infamous figure. He then uses his ability to sense weak spots in others and detects a fragile point within the ice before he then says that he would like to bust Lex out in order to properly beat him down. Despite Dawnstar constantly warning him to refrain from any action, Armorr proceeds to throw a punch. Fortunately, he stops his strike within “a fraction of an inch” before saying that he’s mastered this trick over several years of training as she escorts her comrade out of the room.
However, the shockwave from the non-hit was actually powerful enough to completely shatter the ice from said weak point before Luthor regains consciousness and takes in his new surroundings as he discovers some of the items from his devious teammates on display. He then sees the informative plaque about himself and realizes that he’s been frozen for about a whole millennium.
From there, he spots Captain Cold’s Cold Gun as he takes it before coming across Superman’s statue. As he enters the room, the informative hologram kicks in and proceeds to tell him about Kal-El’s famed origin culminating with him crash-landing in a familiar “Kansas cornfield” before being discovered & raised by the Kents. As such, Lex finally realizes that Clark Kent and Superman are the same person.
Over within another part of the museum, Karate Kid and Dawnstar come across a particular item called the Eternity Glass which is potentially capable of bending both space and time. Unbeknownst to them, Luthor had caught up to them and had overheard all of this. Afterwards, he uses the Cold Gun to trap both of them in ice before reusing it on the display in order to acquire the Eternity Glass.
After flipping it over, it manages to free an otherworldly being called Time Trapper (also voiced by Corey Burton) who tells him to “speak thy name and desire” before Lex says that he wants to head back a thousand years. Time Trapper proceeds to create a time portal as he and Luthor make their way towards it. Unbeknownst to them, Dawnstar uses her Energy Projection to free her hands from the ice before creating some light-based arrow tips and aims them at Luthor. Despite having an opportunity to take him down, she instead uses said projectiles to free Val before becoming free herself. From there, they manage to follow the fiend through the time portal before it closes.
As the Hall of Doom sinks into the swamp in order to hide, Cyrus and Bizarro mope over their missing leader. Just then, Lex arrives alongside Time Trapper before asking them where their fellow teammates are as Gold & Bizarro then inform him that they’ve gone into hiding. Unbeknownst to all of them, Armorr & Dawnstar have also arrived and are forced to take cover. Luthor then tells Solomon to summon their members before Time Trapper says that he’s fulfilled his task. However, Lex has no intention of setting him free as he then tells Grundy and Bizarro that they’ll now be able to “erase the Justice League”. Karate Kid wants to fight them, yet Dawnstar holds him back by saying that they’re unaware of their foes’ full capabilities and that they must seek help from “others best suited” in this timeframe. From there, she manages to fly herself and Val out of the facility before using her ability of long-range tracking to help guide them towards the Justice League’s current base.
They ultimately reach Washington, D.C. before she touches down within several miles of their destination and explains how they’re in “a time of great ruthlessness”, which presents the viewers with a brief Super Friends cameo of Wendy, Marvin & Wonder Dog. They then approach a taxi in the hopes of locating a “teleportation pod” as the driver says that he can take them to the Hall of Justice and that he was able to guess where they wanted to go based on her physical appearance. As such, they take him up on his offer as they climb into the cab before they all head out.
Later, they get stuck in gridlock traffic before they eventually arrive at their destination. As Armorr and Dawnstar climb out, the driver then tells them to pay their cab fare. Despite not having any money from this time period, their naivete is able to help them out as Dawnstar blesses the cabbie’s vehicle with her light-based power which causes the car to hover above the street and carry it away.
Within the Hall of Justice, Robin is on security duty and has become incredibly bored due to not finding any potential threats on the premises. Suddenly, a wall explodes before Karate Kid and Dawnstar show up due to the former forcing his away inside and because the front door was locked. Dick immediately suspects them to be intruders as a fight proceeds to break out where he and Val go on to trade hits with each other while Dawnstar tries to calm both sides down, only for her to either get tied up via Grayson’s bolo cables or accidentally hit by his Bo Staff.
Ultimately, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman arrive to interrupt this scuffle in order to learn what’s going on. With neither side agreeing on each other’s side of the tale, Diana decides to tie Armorr and Dawnstar within her Lasso of Truth in order for them to rightfully explain themselves. After a proper introduction, they mention that they’re from the 31st Century before Dawnstar elaborates about a still-living Luthor being discovered in 2856.
We then shift over to the Hall of Doom where the explanation continues from Lex’s side as he tells his assembled cohorts that his body was taken to a museum before he was eventually freed. From there, he acquired the Eternity Glass and used it to arrive back in his proper time period. It’s then revealed that only Toyman and Cheetah were able to rejoin the team, as opposed to Black Manta, Gorilla Grodd and Captain Cold who were all apparently “too scared to show up”. Luthor then introduces his comrades to Time Trapper before saying that he’ll use their newest member’s powers to finally smite the Justice League “before they even began”.
Back at the Hall of Justice, Dawnstar & Karate Kid have finished sharing their story as our heroes are amazed at the fact that one of their greatest enemies managed to survive a nigh-impossible situation and now has access to time travel. With this new threat on their hands, Superman sends out a call to Aquaman, Cyborg and Flash.
Over in the swamp, the Hall of Doom rises to the surface as Lex orders Time Trapper to create a portal for “some years ago” in Smallville. As the being creates a chronological gateway, Barry arrives on the scene and overhears Luthor telling his teammates to prevent baby Kal-El from winding up with the Kents. Allen then opens up his comm link and allows his teammates to hear Lex telling his cohorts to acquire the young baby, put him back in his space pod and launch him back into space. As a result, Superman will never exist and it also won’t lead to the creation of the Justice League, thus allowing the Legion of Doom to have their greatest victory.
Just then, Flash speeds in and punches Luthor before Victor & Arthur also show up. Lex then tells his teammates to head into the time portal, to which they proceed to do so before he orders Time Trapper to close it.
Fortunately, Superman arrives and interrupts their notion with his Heat Vision before his three comrades manage to pursue Luthor’s cronies into the chronological gateway before it gets sealed. Afterwards, Wonder Woman, Batman, Robin, Karate Kid and Dawnstar make their presence known. However, Time Trapper is able to project a deflective wave that manages to subdue our heroes.
Meanwhile, our villains manage to arrive in the past just as they spot baby Kal-El’s space pod fall towards a nearby cornfield. As they make their way towards the crash site, they first stop off at the local general store in order to slay an elderly woman & a plump clerk.
Shortly after Aquaman, Cyborg & Flash arrive in the same time period, we then shift over to baby Kal-El being discovered by Jonathan & Martha Kent (also voiced by Tom Gibis & Erica Luttrell, respectively) as she finds the babe adorable while he wonders whom the kid truly belongs to. Just then, they’re met upon by a disguised Solomon and Cheetah as they claim to be the baby’s true owners. Martha then asks them how the child wound up in a spaceship to begin with, to which Barbara Ann says that it’s actually a baby carriage built by the boy’s father over at the steel mill. Despite the weak explanation and the fact that the fiends did nothing to either hide their distinct appearances or even change their voices, the Kents still decide to hand the young babe over to them before Grundy shoves them into their truck in order to send them on their way.
Afterwards, Bizarro & Toyman emerge from the corn stalks before the villains are soon met upon by Arthur, Barry and Victor. With the exception of Jack who gets handed baby Kal-El, the rest of the foes proceed to engage the heroes.
Nimball then places the child into the carriage before strapping a rocket underneath it and riding off. Stone manages to fly in and punch Toyman away before using his cybernetic strength to stop the runaway carriage, only for Bizarro to arrive and swiftly hit him.
He then admires baby Kal-El for his cuteness, only for the child’s Kryptonian strength to surprisingly overwhelm him as he gets punched him away.
Minerva then arrives and runs off with the child, only for Allen to zip in and swipe the carriage from her. However, Solomon gets the fierce drop on him only for Curry to lift the undead fiend up and toss him aside in order to acquire baby Kal-El. From there, he runs off with the kid while being pursued by Toyman, Bizarro and Cheetah.
Back in the present, our heroes continue to get assaulted by Time Trapper as Superman uses his Heat Vision in an attempt to break through the bombarding attack.
Back in the past, Aquaman’s attempt to flee with the Kryptonian child gets literally tripped up by Jack. Victor and Barbara Ann each make a mad dash for the kid before Stone fights his way to a diving catch.
However, Bizarro flies in and takes the babe. Flash then uses his super speed to leap towards his foe and swipe the baby away.
From there, he catches up to the Kents in order to return the child to them before heading out. To their shock however, it’s revealed that he accidentally gave them a Toyman-built decoy before it’s then revealed that Bizarro managed to return the actual baby Kal-El to his spaceship. Afterwards, he flies up and throws it towards the deepest depths of outer space.
Back in the present, the past event begins to take hold as Superman begins to glitch out. Time Trapper then senses the change that’s just been done to the timeline and has now branded the Man of Steel as a paradox. As such, he proceeds to banish Superman from existence.
Not only that, but Kal-El’s newfound non-existence means that the Justice League was never created, thus allowing Time Trapper to also erase Diana, Bruce, Dick, Barry, Victor and Arthur as well. As for our remaining heroes, they’re stunned by this turn of events before Karate Kid wants to reengage their foes. Fortunately, she prevents him from doing so since they would risk getting wiped from existence themselves. As such, they’re forced to retreat.
Later, the reunited Legion of Doom proceeds to unleash their tyranny all over the world without any super-powered opposition left to stop them.
Meanwhile, Val and Dawnstar have been forced into hiding underneath the streets. Armorr proceeds to apologize for being full of himself and thus, creating the situation that they now find themselves in. She then apologizes as well for not being brave enough to take Lex out when she initially had the chance before they feel so worthless about their hero statuses that they both wish that they could just disappear as well. Just then, this helps Dawnstar come up with an idea. Specifically, they’ll make the present Luthor become a paradox and have Time Trapper wipe him from existence, which would lead to a better chain of events to occur. In order to do so, they’ll need to find Lex’s frozen body long before it ever reaches the far future. Due to nobody being initially able to locate the fiend’s frozen body for so long, Dawnstar’s own enhanced tracking ability would allow them to find him while Karate Kid’s enhanced strength would break the fiend out of his icy prison.
From there, they set their plan into motion as they eventually soar into the Artic Circle. Dawnstar’s enhanced tracking ability ultimately leads them to a specific ice mass before they make their way inside a frozen cavern. However, they’re soon met upon by Grodd, Captain Cold and Black Manta who were also trying to find the frozen Luthor. Val then tells them that they’ll never find him, especially since his body won’t be recovered until several hundred years later by a completely separate party. Armorr then tells them that his comrade is an expert tracker and that they’ll only locate Lex if they help them, but they immediately decline their offer before a fight breaks out.
Karate Kid then proceeds to fight all three foes by himself while Dawnstar continues to search for Luthor’s frozen figure. Thanks to his swiftness, Val is able to keep them at bay for a while.
Eventually, Dawnstar discovers that Lex’s body is right below them as Armorr breaks free from Grodd’s grasp and leaps into the air. He then senses a major weak point within the ice formation and proceeds to punch it with enough force to completely decimate the structure, causing all three foes to fall away while Dawnstar flies in to save her teammate.
Afterwards, Luthor is freed from his icy imprisonment as she proceeds to use her light-based energy to warm his body up, ultimately causing him to wake up.
Over at the Hall of Doom, Time Trapper senses this change to the timeline and now sees the nearby Lex as a paradox. As such, he begins to banish this fiend into “the ether of non-existence”. With him still holding on to the Eternity Glass, Luthor warns Time Trapper that he’ll take him into this purgatory. However, he says that he exists outside of the paradox before he finally casts this Lex away for good. After reclaiming his Eternity Glass, Time Trapper finally gets his freedom and decides to impose his own will by remaking the world “in darkness”.
Meanwhile, Karate Kid and Dawnstar arrive back only to discover a massive time portal in the sky. They soon spot Time Trapper as they realize that their actions have led to an even dire situation before Dawnstar decides that they should confront this being, despite Val warning her that their foe will most likely see them as paradoxes and try to erase them from existence. With no other options for them to use, they decide to confront him. Despite seeing them as chronological anomalies, Time Trapper doesn’t decide to banish them due to his own scheme being too far along for him to be remotely concerned that they would be able to stop him.
Suddenly, Superman shows up to confront him as our young heroes are amazed at the sight of him and the Justice League making their triumphant return. However, Time Trapper’s power begins to cause some global catastrophes as a Japanese carrier ship begins to lift up from the ocean, a suspension bridge gets pulled up from its center while causing several of the occupied cars already on it to get pinned onto each other and a tropical island’s volcano becomes active before erupting.
Back in the swamp, Time Trapper’s gravitational fluctuations begin to get felt there as well while Victor gets some distress calls about the aforementioned incidents. As such, he, Arthur & Barry get ordered to head out and save as many lives as they’re able to. From there, Wonder Woman charges right towards Time Trapper in order to plunge her sword into him. However, he easily stops her attack before casting her up towards the time portal. Kal-El manages to fly up and catch her, but the intense gravitational pull makes it incredibly hard for him to escape its hold.
Back on the ground, the Dynamic Duo decide to engage their foe as Batman swings in and throws some Batarangs at him. However, Time Trapper stops the projectiles and catches the Dark Knight before sending him up towards the portal. Fortunately, Dick manages to snare him with a Batarang tied to a rope while propping himself underneath a tree’s branches.
Unfortunately, the gravitational strain starts to become intense as even Val and Dawnstar are forced to hang onto another tree branch for dear life. Meanwhile, Curry manages to save a worker that had fallen off of the carrier ship before summoning a giant octopus to grab onto the vessel. As for Stone, he begins to force the separated suspension bridge back together with his own cybernetic tech and might. Meanwhile, Allen reaches the island and starts to run around the volcano in order to cool and contain the flowing lava.
Back in the swamp, Armorr expresses his concern about how they’ll be able to stop their adversary since they can’t even remotely get close to him. Fortunately, Dawnstar reminds her teammate of his ability to see weak points as he proceeds to use this trait. To his surprise, he doesn’t see any noticeable faults while also mentioning that Time Trapper is entirely made up of Dark Matter. As such, Karate Kid tells his comrade that she’s the only one who can take him down. Despite her initial hesitancy, Val essentially tells her that this is no longer the time to hold back since her light energy is the only thing that can harm their foe. Thanks to this inspirational talk, Dawnstar proceeds to consume herself within her light-based power before flying right towards Time Trapper and charges straight into him, causing a bright burst.
This hits the fiend with enough force for him to lose his grasp upon the Eternity Glass and causes all of the floating natural debris to hover in the air. With Batman now saved, Robin manages to retrieve the infamous hourglass and flee from the pursuing Time Trapper in order for Bruce to intercept their foe and deliver a beatdown onto him. Wonder Woman then returns and gets to unleash her assault on the devious being before Superman flies in and connects with a devastating punch.
Afterwards, Dick turns the Eternity Glass over and manages to imprison Time Trapper within it once again. From there, the massive time portal collapses and allows the regular gravity to return to the planet, especially with Aquaman, Cyborg and Flash being able to deal with their predicaments.
Later at the Hall of Justice, Superman offers some Justice League memberships to Armorr and Dawnstar. However, they respectfully decline since they need to return to their own time period, especially since the whole experience has given them the courage to face their futures. From there, they use the Eternity Glass to have Time Trapper create a chronological portal back to the 31st Century as our young heroes take their leave. Afterwards, Kal-El gets a feeling that he’s forgotten something.
Soon enough, he reaches the Artic Circle in order to pick up Luthor and take him to his cell over at Blackgate Penitentiary. As they head off, Black Manta, Captain Cold and Grodd saw this from afar before the super-intelligent gorilla mentions how this whole experience has taught them a lot about the future. As such, they’ll reassemble the Legion of Doom in order for them to eventually have their vengeance. And so, the film ends back in the 31st Century as Karate Kid and Dawnstar return to their time period. However, they notice that Superman’s museum-based statue has been replaced with one in Lex’s image. With both of them realizing that there’s something within the past they somehow overlooked, they decide to use the Eternity Glass in order to head back to the 21st Century and right this newly formed wrong alongside the Justice League.
Now that this somewhat short venture has come to a close, let’s briefly get into my character analysis and focus on our two main characters. Dawnstar and Karate Kid are up-and-coming heroes within their own time period, yet they both have their own faults that prevents them from becoming full-fledged Legionnaires. Val’s flaws feel a little more extreme by comparison, since he starts off with a cocky arrogance and feels like he’s already honed himself into team-based material. It feels like he believes himself to be a highly skilled fighter who can take on practically anyone, not realizing that there are certain battles that even he can’t win by himself. It’s never mentioned how old he or his comrade are, but they must be young enough since it could possibly play into his foolish notion of youthful invincibility. Unlike Armorr who’s more-than-eager to engage his foes in a fight, Dawnstar has a more passive nature and hesitates with making a key move in a brawl when the opportunity presents itself, thus making her unaware of her truly powerful potential. Their initial downsides are what ultimately gets Lex freed from his frozen prison & sets things in motion for him to pair himself up with a powerful figure that aids the Legion of Doom in wiping out the Man of Tomorrow away and even take the resulting team that he helped form with him. Even though our heroes would manage to learn from their mistakes and correct things in order to prevent Luthor from his 29th Century discovery as well as his 31st Century breakout, they would also find out from Time Trapper’s turn as the narrative’s primary villain along with their initial return to their time period that any and all actions (no matter how good or bad they turn out to be) will always have some kind of consequences tied to them. By the end, the whole experience has allowed them to make some key progressions within their own personal developments while leaving some room for them to grow even more due to them discovering that another chronological anomaly had come along in need of being dealt with before they eventually hope to achieve that elusive induction into the superhero team that they’ve longed to join. Laura Bailey and Dante Basco handle their respective roles in their own ways that worked for this piece, with Bailey having a kind-hearted delivery that works for a superheroine that’s initially a bit passive in nature while Basco maintained a boyish charm that’s still determined, confident and provides a nice range for him to work with. In the end, our two principal players were able to carry the movie throughout and help their characters work well within their own individual & unified arcs.
The story itself feels like an extended Super Friends episode that’s also allowed to be taken a little bit more seriously than what would be expected out of a typical entry from said program. It has enough silliness that can come from the comics as well as the aforementioned TV show, yet the presented stakes were nicely thought out and makes for a gripping story that families can enjoy. While the narrative shouldn’t be taken too sincerely, there were a few moments that strained credibility either with being too ludicrous to believe or there being a lack of internal logic given how not enough information is provided about its world due to the lack of time & space needed to fill that in. In terms of the former, I did mention that Solomon Grundy and Cheetah used the clothes of the innocent individuals that they murdered in order to disguise themselves as regular people. However, an overly muscled man with an unnatural skin tone & speech pattern along with a woman with an animalistic face and their highly unlikely explanation towards why baby Kal-El belongs to them should’ve rang some warning bells within the Kents. Just because they’re Midwestern farmers doesn’t mean that they should be too naïve towards unfamiliar figures, especially ones that use Jessie & James’ own Team Rocket levels of logic when it comes to disguises. As for the other thing that bothered me, it’s that the Legion of Doom were completely unopposed once Superman and the Justice League were wiped from the timeline because of their actions. Just because the Man of Steel inspired the World’s Greatest Heroes to initially unite doesn’t mean that other heroes and teams shouldn’t hear about how the planet is being terrorized and at least rise up to try & stop them. It’s possible that this is a universe where the Justice League and its current roster are the only superheroes in existence and maybe that’s the case especially since this was several years before multiverse-based stories started becoming the norm in media outside of comics, but there’s no solidified explanation that makes it the case. Not to mention, some heroes and teams would’ve found some other inspiration towards coming to be aside from Superman’s example, thus the fact that absolutely no other notable figures can even be bothered to make a cameo in order to at least struggle against the Legion of Doom during their eventual rampage is perplexing. Other than that, the movie does tell an entertaining tale with the moderate time frame that it has to work with. It presents a playful struggle of good against evil while our two main characters learn how to better themselves as they help our present heroes deal with a conflict that they unintentionally created. There may not be a whole lot of deep character study beneath the surface as the Justice League, the Legion of Doom and Time Trapper are shown as enjoyable, two-dimensional beings meant to prop up our true protagonists and their personal progressions, but it still makes for a brisk adventure filled with animation that’s fluent, colorful and wholesome throughout. In addition, the principal voice cast help their characters stand out whenever the narrative needs them to do so, while the action scenes are nicely engaging enough to help the story move forward. Even though this has the feel of a slightly-more serious two-part episode of Super Friends without any commercial interruptions, it can serve as a nice break from the usually complex or overly serious comic book narratives and can act as a reminder that there’s always room for a simple superhero story within a world that’s filled with both high & low points within our vast time scale.
Overall, this was a somewhat short-and-simple, yet wonderfully engaging adventure. With good vocal performances, nice animation, neat action that allows the narrative to progress and understandable lessons from our two main characters, this somewhat breezy tale manages to be an entertaining romp filled with plenty of wholesome twists and turns for any audience member to take in. If you’re able to find a way to check this out, then make sure you find the time and trap it down within a short session for a chronological venture that anyone can enjoy.
Justice League (created by Gardner Fox), Legion of Super-Heroes (created by Otto Binder & Al Plastino) and all related characters are owned by DC Comics.
