Wonder Woman: Bloodlines Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Wonder Woman: Bloodlines Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Randy Miller III October 24, 2019

Released more than a full decade after Wonder Woman (2009) -- which was only the fourth entry in DC's ongoing line of animated original movies -- and two years after the mega-popular live-action movie, Sam Liu and Justin Copeland's Wonder Woman: Bloodlines finds Amazonian princess Diana back in action. This brisk 83-minute adventure begins with her rescue of Air Force captain Steven Trevor after his plane crashes near her hidden island of Themyscira, where she treats his life-threatening injuries with a healing ray. Imprisoned at the command of Diana's mother Queen Hippolyta, Steve is desperate to warn the American government of a potential invasion. Diana sympathizes with his plight and, against her mother's wishes, breaks him out of prison and leaves the island. Their destination? "Man's World."

Bloodlines continues Wonder Woman's origin as Diana and Steve arrive in Washington D.C. with the help of aide Etta Candy, where Diana is hosted by Dr. Julia Kapatelis and forms a bond with Julia's teen daughter Vanessa. Like Diana, the young girl is under her mother's thumb...but their friendship quickly sours as Julia continues to favor Diana. As five years pass, the Amazonian princess assumes her role as a crime-fighting superhero and, during a reunion with Etta, Steve, and Julia at the Hall of Justice, learns about Vanessa's involvement in the theft of a valuable artifact. Among the others involved are villainous Dr. Poison, her henchwoman Giganta, and the mysterious Cyber, which also leads to a procedure that turns Vanessa into the physically imposing Silver Swan. While Diana and Steve spearhead the rescue mission to bring Vanessa home and stop Dr. Poison's team, Bloodlines also seeks to resolve the conflict between Diana and her mother, collectively fusing both past and present "family issues" into a more cohesive whole.

It's a formula that works surprisingly well, despite a few pacing issues during the first 30 minutes -- Diana's arrival in D.C., not to mention her early years as Woman Woman, feel extremely rushed. Luckily, that extra time is at least used wisely: the Themysciran prologue is given plenty of breathing room, while later fights with Giganta, The Cheetah, and a third villainess feel suitably epic. These battles are very well-choreographed and supported by excellent sound design, although Bloodlines is anything but wall-to-wall action. Despite those pacing issues, the overall narrative is stronger than Wonder Woman's lackluster Rogue's Gallery suggests, while terrific voice acting performances (led by Rosario Dawson, reprising her role) add plenty of emotional weight to several key scenes. The visuals are also attractive...with the caveat that character designs and compositions outshine the actual animation, which can't help but look more than a little stiff at times. But as a whole, Bloodlines serves as a strong follow-up to Wonder Woman's previous live-action and animated adventures, sitting tall as one of DC's better original movies in recent memory.

Available in separate Blu-ray and 4K options, Bloodlines plays very well on the small screen thanks to an excellent A/V presentation. While the extras leave a bit to be desired -- more due to their subject matter than actual quality -- it's a solid package that die-hard fans and newcomers alike will enjoy.

Wonder Woman: Bloodlines Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original direct-to-video 1.78:1 aspect ratio, Wonder Woman: Bloodlines carries the torch proudly for DC's most recent animated productions. The excellent character designs and dynamic compositions look outstanding with smooth linework, solid image detail, and well-defined black levels that make sure nothing of importance gets lost in the darkness. Colors are uniformly excellent; the strong primaries and more muted tones look equally impressive with no obvious signs of bleeding. Of course, a few familiar problems are almost to be expected here: banding and compression artifacts, most notable in subtle and harsh gradients, are no stranger to Blu-ray's respectable but limited impact on larger displays. Thankfully, these problems are kept to a minimum...and in hindsight, I'm wondering if the creative team streamlined a few visual elements in advance to lessen their frequency. Aside from that, a handful of backgrounds show slight signs of aliasing (see screenshot #3 below; specifically, the circular roof), but these appear to be baked into the original source material and not a flaw in the 1080p transfer. Overall, the good far outweighs the bad here, and even those without 4K setups should be more than pleased with how this Blu-ray looks.

Wonder Woman: Bloodlines Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Perhaps more impressive is this Blu-ray's DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix, which brings the world of Wonder Woman: Bloodlines to life in more immediately noticeable ways. The sound design was clearly created with great care and holds a lot of weight during action sequences, where each heavy clang of metal and thunderous boom is often felt as much as heard. Channel separation and panning effects are also quite strong, with LFE getting a regular workout during said action scenes and Invisible Jet fly-bys. Dialogue scenes are obviously more dialed back but still clear as a bell, with lots of support from all three front channels. Frederik Wiedmann's original score -- his 12th within the DCAU -- also sounds full and dynamic without overpowering the dialogue and background effects. Even so, the end result here is more than the sum of its parts, resulting in one of the best-sounding DC animated productions to date.

Optional subtitles are included during the film and bonus features in a variety of languages, including English (SDH). These are formatted nicely and likewise display no obvious sync issues.

Wonder Woman: Bloodlines Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Wonder Woman: Bloodlines in a two-hub keepcase with beautiful cover art, matching slipcover, and a Digital Copy slip. Although none of the on-disc extras fully commit to the main feature, most everything here is worth a once-over.

• DC Showcase: Death (19:08) - This all-new animated short, based the Sandman supporting character created by Neil Gaiman and Mike Dringenberg, follows a struggling artist named Vincent Omata after he loses another job. Confronted by Death while literally battling personal demons, Vincent eventually comes to terms with his fate...but not before searching through old memories on the way through Hell. More of this, please.

• The Cheetah: Ferocious Archenemy (10:50) - This featurette serves up a brief history of the long-time Wonder Woman villain featured in Bloodlines with plenty of comments from key cast, crew, and DC notables. Stills from comic books, Super Friends, and other media keep things visually interesting along the way.

• Sneak Peek - Superman: Red Son (11:21) - An extended look at the upcoming 2020 animated movie based on Mark Millar's three-issue Elseworlds series originally published in 2003. Likewise, it features input from key cast and crew members, as well as short clips and storyboards from the as-yet-unfinished film.

• Preview - Justice League vs. Teen Titans (11:31) - A look at the 2016 DCAU movie reviewed here.

• Preview - Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (7:48) - This one takes it even further back for a quick look at the 2009 DCAU movie reviewed here.

• Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2 episodes, 22:46 each) - These include "Triumvirate of Terror!" (season 3, episode 8) and "Scorn of the Star Sapphire!" (season 3, episode 4); not coincidentally, they're also the only two episodes in the series' entire run with special appearances by Wonder Woman herself. Kind of a stretch, but still worth checking out if you don't own any of The Brave and the Bold's three seasons on Blu-ray yet.

• Trailers for Joker, The Kitchen, gen:LOCK, the Justice League vs. The Fatal Five, and Wonder Woman (2009).

Wonder Woman: Bloodlines Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Despite my lack of familiarity with its titular heroine, Wonder Woman: Bloodlines is a perfectly accessible and wholly entertaining adventure that stands as one of DC's best animated productions this year. There's plenty of great action and drama to tie the story together, while the film's excellent visual design and artful compositions -- not to mention its terrific sound mix -- will keep your eyes and ears happy along the way. Despite a few needless supporting characters and other small speed bumps, it's an overall solid production that fans will really enjoy. Warner Bros.' Blu-ray package is a decent effort, pairing a quality A/V presentation with a few mostly good bonus features -- too bad almost none of them have to do with the actual movie. Still, this one's well worth picking up for vets and newcomers alike.