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| Credit: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment |
The DC Comics TV Universe on The CW network has been knocking it out of the park. In addition to the TV series they have been making animated adventures for some of the side characters on the CW Seed including Vixen that was previous brought together into a full length animated film. Another character that got his own animated series was The Ray which starred Russell Tovey as The Ray/Ray Terrill reprising his voice to the role he played on both Legends of Tomorrow and The Flash as well as Supergirl star Melissa Benoist as Overgirl, star of the Vixen animated feature and Arrow Megalyn Echikunwoke as Vixen. As if that wasn’t enough both Arrowe and The Flash alumni return to voice their respective characters as well including Echo Kellum aka Curtis Holt/Mr. Terrific, Danielle Panabaker aka Dr. Caitlin Snow and Carlos Valdez aka Cisco Ramon/Vibe. Now the series is being brought together for an all-new film Freedom Fighters: The Ray.
In the film, all his life, Ray Terrill has fought injustice, dreaming of making a real difference like his older brother, a Marine who was killed in Afghanistan. One day, he stumbles upon a dying Super Hero from another Earth and is stunned to find that this Super Hero looks just like him—because it is! The dying Ray Terrill of Earth-X transfers photokinetic energy to this Earth’s Ray, making him a Super Hero – The Ray. However, Ray quickly learns being a Super Hero isn’t all hanging muggers from streetlamps and fighting giant robots. As the evil Nazi New Reichsman of Earth-X, led by Overgirl, close in, The Ray must learn to harness his powers by coming to terms with his true self, even if that means also finally coming out of the closet to his parents. The fate of Earth-X depends on it!
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| Credit: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment |
While this film isn’t quite as good as some of the other DC animated features it still offers up a great bridge between the live action shows while still being its own thing. The animation is well done and there is some great super hero action throughout, but it’s the variety of familiar characters from the TV shows that makes it really stand out. The story itself is decent, but would have enjoyed it more had it focused more on the Earth X completely. Obviously that wouldn’t make as much sense connecting to the shows, but those sequences are awesome focusing on the evil counterparts of our beloved heroes.
In the end this is a worthy animated film that brings the CW Seed episodes together and a great companion piece for those that love the Arrow-verse shows. Join the fight on Earth X when Freedom Fighters: The Ray hits Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD on August 28th from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
Review by Bobby Blakey - Bobby reviews way more movies on his own website than the genre-specific ones I post here. Check out Bobby's awesome website and his live show he co-hosts with his wife, Drusilla, at Hollywood Matrimony.
