New Wonder Woman Film: MB similarities

One of the MB list members had this great piece of info to share about the new animated Wonder Woman film:

A couple of days ago Warner Bros. released the first full-length animated Wonder Woman movie to DVD (they decided not to wait for the likely-never-to-see-the-light-of-day live-action film).

I highly recommend it because it's made by Bruce Timm, who made the acclaimed Batman Adventures series, the Superman series, and the Justice League series. These aren't kid's cartoons, but are rather mature fare, more aimed at teens and older audiences. Wonder Woman in fact was originally rated R (!!!) but was edited to a PG-13. This ain't your dad's Filmation-era cheapies!

The reason why I mention the film is that the art department were clearly influenced by Modesty Blaise. Not so much with WW herself, but with her right-hand man, Steve Trevor. In this reimagining he's a US pilot who finds himself working with Diana to save the world. Visually, he very closely resembles Willie, as drawn by Holdaway. And at one point he even throws a knife to take out a bad guy exactly like Willie. Willie and Wonder Woman also share a few MB-Willie-like moments in the battlefield, although, to use POD's vernacular, they play for keeps, not sleeps (another sign this Wonder Woman is far distanced from Lynda Carter).

Nathan Fillion of Firefly does the voice.

I dug up a couple web pages with images. However, since these are screen captures it's not necessarily evident immediately the similarity in appearance. (Steve's personality on the other hand is completely different from that of Willie's - after all this is Nathan Fillion we're talking about. Everything comes back to Captain Mal eventually).

Splashpage on MTV.com

Review on Underwire


I had to see the film to check this out, so I watched it at the weekend. Here are the similarities and differences I noted between the Modesty/Willie relationship, and Steve/Diana:

Similarities
Both Modesty and Willie, and Diana and Steve, skilled in hand-to-hand combat, and fight well as a team
Willie and Steve both use throwing knives
Modesty and Diana can take down someone twice their body mass
Modesty and Diana both fly planes
All are good at taking out guards quietly and effectively
Willie calls Modesty ‘Princess’; Steve calls Diana ‘Angel’. (ironically, Diana is a princess)

Differences
Willie and Modesty don’t bicker; Steve and Diana do
The romance between Steve and Diana

...If you see the film, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!

Thanks to Alex F-H for the info.

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