Movie Review: JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time

Rating: 5 stars

(I finally got around to watching this, since I bought this about two weeks ago. I'll have my post for Justice League: War up soon!)


Watching this was like watching a fun cross between the old Super Friends animated series and the Justice League/Justice League Unlimited animated series. This direct-to-video movie (which is only available at Target stores) had a really good story and as well as good action. It was also funny.

This all ages movie had the Justice League (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Aquaman, The Flash and Robin) fighting the Legion of Doom (Lex Luthor, Solomon Grundy, Cheetah, Bizarro, Gorilla Grodd, Captain Cold, Black Manta and the Toyman) who were trying to take over the world again. However while everyone was battling, Lex Luthor got caught in a freak explosion.

But Luthor wasn't gone for good, no in fact, he turned up in the 31st century. However he was frozen in ice. But with a little inadvertent help from Karate Kid (voiced by Dante Basco who was the voice of the popular Avatar: The Last Airbender character Prince Zuko) who was a bit disgruntled about not being a member of the Justice League decides to showoff some of his skills to Dawnstar by stopping short his punch near Luthor's ice coffin.

Even though Karate Kid didn't hit the ice, the force from his punch caused the ice to crack and Luthor was able to be free. Before Luthor grabbed a magical time device and returned to the present he found out some important information that could be detrimental to the present and the Justice League.

Back in the present Luthor used that new found knowledge to try to get rid of the Justice League forever. However, he had no idea that Dawnstar and Karate Kid hitched a ride to the present, knowing that they were no match for Luthor and the Legion of Doom the two sought help from the Justice League.

After a huge misunderstanding with Robin (who was voiced by Jack De Sena who also voice the character Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender), the two futuristic superheroes were able to finally tell the JL what was going on. This leads to the League going after the Legion.

Despite JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time not getting a lot of publicity and attention (I had no prior knowledge about this film, until I found out about it from the Target sales paper that it was going to be released on Tuesday, January 21st), this was a really solid and action packed story. The characters were lively and interesting. I really enjoyed watching this.

The only problem I might have with this is that Wonder Woman (voiced by Grey DeLisle who also voiced another popular Avatar: The Last Airbender character, Princess Azula) wasn't shown as much and seemed depowered.

For fans of the Super Friends cartoon series there is a cameo of Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog as well as Luthor in his SF costume. Even Dawnstar and Karate Kid's costumes are a nod to the SF because their costumes are similar to Black Vulcan (Dawnstar) and the Samurai (Karate Kid). Oh, for fans of the Batman: The Brave and The Bold animated series, Deitrick Bader is the voice of Batman.

Speaking of voices, I thought all the voice actors did a great job. They all seem to fit the characters and I like that there were a lot of familiar voices besides the ones I already mentioned. Many of them have voiced characters in other animated shows. I posted the rest of the cast voices below.

I also like the new costume designs for the characters especially Wonder Woman's (see below). The costumes had elements of the old DCU and the New 52.

Overall, I would recommend this movie for fans of all ages because I think this was a really fun and enjoyable adventure and you get a straight forward exciting movie where you see heroes being heroes. This movie gives the characters permission to shine and do what they do (including the villains). This ended on a slight cliffhanger or as a possible set up for more JLA Adventures movies which I would love there to be more of.


Voice Cast:

Heroes:

Batman: Deitrick Bader

Superman: Peter Jessop

Wonder Woman: Grey DeLisle

Flash: Jason Spisak

Cyborg: Avery Waddell

Aquaman: Liam O'Brien

Dawnstar: Laura Bailey

Karate Kid: Dante Basco

Robin: Jack De Sena


Villains:

Lex Luthor: Fred Tatasciore

Captain Cold/Time Trapper: Corey Burton

Black Manta/Solomon Grundy: Kevin Michael Richardson

Bizarro: Michael Donovan

Toyman: Tom Gibis

Cheetah: Erica Luttrell


Others:

Ma Kent: Erica Luttrell

Pa Kent: Tom Gibis

Taxi driver: Jason Spisake