Wonder Woman (animation)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Wonder Woman is an animated film from 2009 and part of the DC Universe Original Animated Movies line, involving a kind of Super-Hero Origin for the title character. It stars Keri Russell as Diana / Wonder Woman, and Nathan Filion as Steve Trevor. The film involves Diana's first venture into the outside world in order to stop Ares, the Greek god of war, from gaining all the powers of Olympus and using them to destroy the world.

Along the way, she is helped by Steve Trevor, and the two become involved in a somewhat complicated partnership whilst trying to track down Ares.

Tropes used in Wonder Woman (animation) include:

Hippolyta: And you could not find a bigger sword Artemis?
Artemis: Sword? This is but my dagger.

  • Black Chick Dies First: In the dogfight above the island.
  • Blondes Are Evil: Played straight with Ares and Thrax, averted with Steve and zigzagged with Persephone.
  • Bloodless Carnage: Used and averted regularly, most notably in both decapitations.
  • Blood Knight: Artemis.
  • Book Ends: In the battle at the beginning of the movie, Hippolyta is seen slicing off the head of the son that she was forced to conceive with Ares. In the last battle of the movie, Diana beheads Ares in a similar manner.
  • But Liquor Is Quicker: Implied with Steve Trevor's attempt to get Diana drunk, though he might have just been trying to get her to loosen up a bit. Too bad for him that Amazons don't get drunk.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Inverted with Steve whenever the Lasso of Truth is used on him. He really hopes the Amazons can't mass produce that thing.
  • Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: Averted. Notable because the comic version of Diana once provided the page image.
  • Chivalrous Pervert: The film's version of Steve Trevor comes across as one.
  • Cool Plane: Her iconic invisible jet. Its missiles are invisible too.
  • Creepy Monotone: Hades speaks like this quite a few times.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Artemis learns to slow down and enjoy a philosophic book. Queen Hippolyta is a more literal example, since initially she founded her island and "gave birth" to Diana in ways that reject mankind, but at the end of the film, she comes to realize her misgivings and allows Diana to become an emissary between their island and "man's world". Interestingly enough, it was Persephone who gave her a Reason You Suck Speech to call her out on her Straw Feminist way of life she gave the amazons.
  • Double Standard: A major plot point. The reason Persephone defects is her frustration and resentment at being forced to live a military life while Hippolyta was allowed to have a baby and raise a family.
  • Dual-Wielding: Some Amazons, with zombie!Alexa being the most notable one.
  • Even Evil Has Standards Persephone, while she was scarred by Ares' followers in the beginning, and initially she lived amongst the Amazons, she secretly fell in love with Ares, and ultimately betrayed her fellow Amazons to release him. Why? Because she was fed up with their isolation from men, because it meant she (and all the rest of them) were denied a life of families and children.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones Ares loved his son, Thrax. He also loved Persephone.
  • Everybody Hates Hades: Played with. Hades looks like he's agreeing to free Ares so the restored god of war can kill, well, everyone on Earth and provide Hades with their souls, but it turns out there's only one soul Hades is really interested in, revealed when his Batman Gambit comes to fruition.
  • Exact Words: Hades informs Ares that Zeus "begged me not to help you" when Ares asks him to remove his Restraining Bolt. At the very end of the movie, when Ares has been killed and is another helpless slave to Hades, Hades reveals that the reason Zeus asked for that was that Zeus would not be able to save Ares again.
  • Eye Scream: Persephone loses her right eye in the opening battle.
  • Face Heel Turn: Persephone falls in love with Ares during her time guarding his cell and helps him escape.
  • Fat Bastard: Hades again, at least towards the dead who serve him if his treatment of Ares' dead son is any indication.
  • Foot Focus: Diana spends her entire fight with Deimos barefoot since fighting in heels would be impractical.
  • Groin Attack:
    • Diana does this to Steve when they first meet (right after they have a brief sparring match in which Steve says that he thinks he "likes her"). Artemis also threatens to castrate him herself if he doesn't leave Diana alone.
    • Also in the opening by a couple of Amazons; seems Jewel Kick is a standard Amazon skill.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Ares gains the powers of the Olympian pantheon, with the intention of using them to overthrow Olympus and destroy the world. In his fight against Diana, he attempts to use Zeus' lightning to finish her, but she uses her lasso to pull him into it and jumps out of the way. The blast of lightning depowers Ares long enough for Diana to decapitate him. Seconds before this, Ares calls out to Zeus to save his life (like he did in the prologue), but it seems dear old daddy wasn't too pleased with the "overthrow Olympus and destroy the world" plan.
  • Honor Before Reason: Steve saves Diana instead of stopping Ares. Diana promptly calls him out on his decision.
  • Hot Chick with a Sword: Dozens of them in the big battle scenes, as it happens.
  • Hot Amazon: Given who the film is about, as well as who her Love Interest is, it'd be impossible to avoid this one.
  • Hot Mom: Hippolyta of course.
  • Immortality: The Amazons and Ares are all immortal. Ares even has followers who have been waiting patiently for him to return since ancient times.
  • Ironic Echo: In the opening battle, Artemis rebukes Alexa for relying on wisdom from "some dead philosopher" rather than fighting with her sword. Later, during the battle in DC, Alexa saves the Amazons from their own dead sisters by revealing to Artemis a chant which releases the undead Amazons from Ares' control... a chant that Alexa learned in a magic book by "some dead philosopher".
  • Lightning Can Do Anything
  • Monumental Damage: Including the Lincoln and Washington Memorials, the Reflecting Pool (at least from getting blood in it), the White House and the Capitol Building. That first one pisses Steve off.

Steve: No one messes with Lincoln!

Hippolyta: What other depraved thoughts might you be thinking?
Steve: God, your daughter's got a nice rack.

  • Mugging the Monster: A bunch of thugs try and mug Diana and Steve outside a bar. Bad idea.
  • Mythology Gag: Possibly. In the closing scene, Diana is seen wearing glasses as part of a new secret identity and begins changing for combat by pulling opening her shirt to reveal her costume underneath.
  • Non Action Girl: Alexa, much to the bane of her sister Artemis. Until she comes back from the dead, that is, although even then it was more by her brains rather than brawn that she did more to help out.
  • Offing the Offspring: Heroic example: Hippolyta beheads the son Ares "forced on her", who was murdering her fellow Amazons for his father.
  • Off with His Head: The fate of Ares' son and Ares himself.
  • Oh Crap: Used repeatedly throughout the film. Particularly effective when Diana herself uses it.
  • One-Winged Angel: As soon as the President of the United States orders a nuke against Themiscyra, the psychic energy of the destructive force and hate that went into deciding to use it transforms Ares, making him twice as tall and bulky as he was before and giving him some very demonic looking armor.
  • Our Presidents Are Different: A trigger-happy one who jumps to conclusions rather quickly. However, it is mentioned that Ares' mere presence inspires violent thoughts in man, and he was standing on the White House roof for a while.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: Controlled by the god of war, who has gained the powers of Hades. All of them are Amazons. Any more who are killed instantly come under Ares' control. They are freed from his control by an ancient chant, however, and seem to have most of their former minds intact when that happens.
  • Outdoor Bath Peeping: Steve Trevor when he first arrives on Themiscyra.
  • Panty Shot: Diana gets one during the fight with Deimos. Arguable, since the "panties" are the bottom half of her normal costume.
  • Physical God: Ares.
  • Power Makes Your Hair Grow: Part of Ares' One-Winged Angel form is his hair going from short and close-cropped to ankle-length.
  • Reason Why You Suck Speech Persephone gives one to Hippolyta to call her out on how the life of the Amazons was wrong to cut them off from men, because it denied them a chance at families and children, because deep down they were more than warriors. They were women, too. Steve also gives one to Diana after she is recovering from her wounds in a hospital. He tells her that he didn't help her because he thought she was some weak damsel, he did it because he cared about her, and he wasn't going to abandon a friend in need, man or woman.
  • Reasoning with God Some of the characters talk directly with Greek gods and goddesses.
  • Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Subverted. It looks like Ares plans to sacrifice Persephone--who betrayed her fellow Amazons to free him--to open the gates of Hades, but he simply uses one of his cultists as a sacrifice instead.
  • Running Gag The magic lasso ends up leading to a bunch of funny moments with Steve being forced to be brutally honest with Diana and the Amazons. It actually creates another running gag: use of the word "crap", which is a term the Amazons had never heard before.
  • R-Rated Opening: The movie opens with a brutal battle sequence that includes the above-mentioned beheading, and the first line is about sex (Hippolyta taunting Ares about not being good in bed).
    • Word Of God says that there had to be several edits to many of the film's fight scenes, because the original first cut had earned an R-rating by the MPAA.
  • Sex Is Evil and I Am Horny The Amazons' philosophy of isolating themselves from the rest of the world was partially in response to Queen Hippolyta's former relationship with Ares which had led to the birth of their son, Thrax who became a violent killing machine like his father. So the Amazons all seemed to see all of mankind as corrupt and evil. Persephone, winds up rejecting this notion, because she eventually fell in love with Ares. Why? Because their isolation denied them of having families or children with men. Meaning, this.
  • Shout Out Steve seeing and nicknaming Diana, "Angel" is a shout out to how Steve gave her that same nickname back in Bruce Timm's Justice League series during the "Savage Time" episodes (another work of Bruce Timm).
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Artemis and her sister Alexa.
  • Straw Feminist: Wonder Woman and some of the other Amazons have tendencies in this direction, but mostly seem to get over them by the film's end.
  • Stripperiffic: Wonder Woman's outfit; lampshaded a few times by Steve Trevor.

Steve: Let's get you changed into something that won't get me arrested for solicitation first.

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