Animated superhero movies

More news on the animated superhero front (this is starting to become a theme), DC Animation has suddenly announced the cancellation of many planned projects. The reason they site is poor sales on the Green Lantern and Wonder Woman movies.

Now, I thought Green Lantern was great. I'd love to see a sequel, but I'm not sure what they could do with it. The last one had the origin story and Sinestro as the villain. However, the Wonder Woman movie sucked. I'm just so tired of seeing Wonder Woman as a whiny feminist.

YOU CAN'T BE A FEMINIST IF YOU BARELY HAVE A CONCEPT OF GENDER!

Not really. Feminism is a reaction to a masculine environment and Diana isn't from a masculine environment. Now, it would make perfect sense for her to adopt a somewhat feminist attitude, but you still have to think of it through an alien point of view and not make it conform to Steinem conceptions of feminism.

Anyway, because of this, they are canceling not only the proposed sequels but also Aquaman, Batgirl: Year One (an awesome comic), and Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (a classic and somewhat inappropriate for kids comic).

This is a really dumb move and it sounds to me like the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing. Clearly, these animated movies are not being developed for fans as much as for movie producers. They are kind of like high-budget storyboards for people who don't have enough imagination to look at a comic and see a movie.

Even if Wonder Woman failed, the point is to excite interest and create a prototype for a Wonder Woman movie. What DC should be doing is making animated movies of everything they want to market to Hollywood. Naturally, as much as I'd love to see Batgirl: Year One and watch it with my niece, it doesn't accomplish the larger goal of selling film properties.

In other animated superhero movie news, Marvel has announced that Shout! Factory is going to be their new distributor of animated movies. This is awesome because Shout! puts together a lot of excellent DVD packages and is kinda indie. They distribute Home Movies, Johnny Carson, Greg the Bunny, Inside the Actor's Studio, MST3K, and even stuff no one likes like The Goldbergs! So I don't know if Shout is selling out or Marvel is reaching for alternative venues. You decide.

Supposedly, this isn't just Marvel Animation, but Marvel Knights Animation. I'm wondering about the distinction. Marvel Knights was a line aimed at a more mature audience with a sophisticated take on (usually) failing properties. I wonder if there is any relation.

It looks like they'll be producing Astonishing X-Men: Gifted (based on Joss Whedon's script, but this is actually my least favorite of the four stories in his run), Iron Man: Extremis, Spider-Woman, and Black Panther.

... Hmmm... this sounds suspiciously like a "motion comic" to me.