The Quarter Bin

Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman comic is widely regarded as one of best Superman stories ever told. Translating the narratively-dense 12-issue maxi-series into a seventy-minute movie meant cutting out huge chunks of story and character, and the feature could have ended up a disaster. Fortunately, the latest direct-to-video animated film from DC and Warner Home Entertainment manages to capture the essence of what makes All-Star Superman such a wonderful vision of the most celebrated hero ever created.

Doomed planet. Desperate scientists. Last hope. Kindly couple. It took but eight words and four panels for Morrison and Quitely to retell Superman’s origin for the uninitiated. Getting right to the point and the heart of the character was part of what made the comic version of All-Star Superman so fantastic, and wisely the film begins the exact same way. Unfortunately though, the film never evolves beyond that shorthanding, and the moments move incredibly quickly, leaving you with almost no time to breathe before moving on. While the same issue keeps many of the DCU animated features from becoming more than just very good, here the microsurgery writer Dwayne McDuffie performs on Morrison’s original story leaves the film feeling like a collection of scenes with connected themes. That said, McDuffie’s focus on the relationships between Superman, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor are just as intriguing as they were in the comic. The few modifications McDuffie applies to the film script actually do present a stronger connection between Lex and Clark, and the feature is stronger for it.

Though the animated style of the film doesn’t quite capture Frank Quitely’s art perfectly, the animators did manage to recreate many of the subtleties and nuances that permeated the pages of the comic. Simple things like posture differences between the way Clark and Superman present themselves, and the many wonderful expressions Quitely is able to use in static images are made even stronger when put in motion. I actually like the cleanliness of the lines used in the film versus Quitely’s comic art. On the page, the sketchiness of his finishes works extremely well, but I’ve never liked animation that tries to emulate that same effect. There are a ton of wonderfully animated sequences in the film, with the prison riot standing out as the cream of the crop. The entire segment combines so many various elements together so perfectly, it’s hard not to be impressed by how wonderfully it all works out.

Despite the flaws inherent to adapting such a large work like All-Star Superman into an hour-and-ten-minute film, the animated feature is highly enjoyable. Even if you’re unfamiliar with the original work, the essence of what makes Grant Morrison’s and Frank Quitely’s opus brilliant shines through the movie’s breakneck pacing. Combining Dwayne McDuffie’s adaptation with the excellent casting and voice direction Andrea Romano brought to the table enables director Sam Liu to give us yet another very good DC animated movie. All-Star Superman isn’t the amazing film I hoped it would be, but I’m more than pleased with the final result.

85/100 – Good.

All-Star Superman will be available on DVD and Blu-ray combo pack February 22, 2011, and stars James Denton, Christina Hendricks, and Anthony LaPaglia.