DVD Of The Week: Wonder Woman (2009)

Like Superman: Doomsday before it, DC's latest animated feature, Wonder Woman, is not aimed at little kids.

Transforming the battle of the sexes into a full-on, mythological conflict while tackling reasonably mature themes, the PG-13 film features "violence throughout and some suggestive material" (according to the ratings warning on the DVD cover).

Kicking off in the time of legend, with the creation of Themyscira (the Amazon's hidden island home), the defeat and imprisonment of Ares, God Of War (Alfred Molina), by Queen Hippolyta (Virginia Madsen) and the supernatural 'birth' of Diana, the future Wonder Woman (Keri Russell), all before the titles, the film is a jam-packed 70-minutes of comic book cartoon magic.

Things change on peaceful Themyscira with the arrival of downed fighter pilot Steve Trevor (Nathan Fillion, who brings a certain air of roguishness to the role), who Diana is charged with returning to "man's world".

This all co-incides with Ares' escape from prison and eventual assault on Washington DC - as his first step towards total annihilation of mankind (so he can feed on the resulting psychic energy and grow strong enough to challenge the other gods on Olympus).

Dark and brutal, with a large serving of dry humour (mainly from Fillion's Steve Trevor), this is a long way from the days of Lynda Carter's TV Wonder Woman, but captures the mature and intelligent storytelling of modern comic books.

This isn't really surprising as the story was co-developed by top writer Gail Simone, the current scribe on DC's on-going Wonder Woman series.

The two-disc DVD set is heaving with fantastic extras as well, including documentaries, two Wonder Woman-centric episodes of Justice League Unlimited (as chosen by producer Bruce Timm), an extended preview of this summer's Green Lantern animated movie and much more.

Of course, as brilliant as Wonder Woman is, just think how much better it would be live-action...

I guess we can dream!