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| By David Arroyo |
The Paley Center for Media was the setting earlier this week for the New York premiere of the latest Warner Bros. Animated Original Film, All-Star Superman.
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| (From L to R:) Andrea Romano, Dwayne McDuffie, Christina Hendricks and moderator, Warner Home Video’s Gary Miereanu |
Based on the acclaimed comic series by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, All-Star Superman tells the tale of The Man of Steel’s last and greatest adventure and is one of my personal favorite Superman stories.
But how can a twelve issue comic be condensed into just seventy five minutes?
“It was a challenge” says Dwayne McDuffie writer of this animated epic, “But when I heard they were considering adapting the series as the next project, I jumped at the chance”
McDuffie is a comic book veteran, having written for both Marvel and DC Comics for over twenty years. He is no stranger to animation either, having produced and written for several animated series including Justice League, Ben 10, and Static Shock, based on a character he created during his reign at Milestone Media.
“All-Star Superman is probably one of my favorite Superman stories, so when I heard they had decided to adapt it I fought very hard for it” he said with a smile. “When adapting someone else’s material, you hope to do it justice. You want the creators to be pleased and not look at it and feel betrayed.”
Still hard choices had to be made he explained when I asked him what had to be cut from the final film. “It would be great to see a Jimmy Olsen story or see the funny Bizarro visuals from the book but remember we only had seventy five minutes so we had to stick to the story of the overall arc of Superman’s emotional journey of his last adventure.”
Hard choices had to be made, and unfortunately there was one special emotional beat that McDuffie regretted the most having to cut. “In the book there’s this beautiful moment when Superman having his own personal problems talks a teenager out of killing herself and to me that is the essence of Superman not flying or hitting things but to inspire us to be better.”
As for the future of more DC adaptations McDuffie remarks “I wish I could tell you about my next project with Warner Animation but they would kill me. I will say though that I am working on another DC project that will be announced before the summer.”
As a fan I just had to ask if there was any possibility of seeing any Milestone characters making the leap to animated features. “God I hope so, who knows maybe I will get lucky. The problem is as much as I love my characters, the issue with these features is that they have to sell at Walmart. Which means everyone has to know who they are and my characters are just not at that level. Still, I keep pushing for Static since he had his own animated series for a while, so lets see if they take the chance.”
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| Unlike Superman, McDuffie writes on a computer |
Andrea Romano had her own challenges on the project.
“I prefer to do an ensemble recording where I have all the actors in one room to record and play off each other but unfortunately that did not happen here,” she states with her ever perky smile. “The big issue you have to deal with when it comes to dealing with stage actors is availability. You have to work around TV schedules, appearances, Et cetera. So most times you wind up having to record them separately.”
I asked Andrea about what challengers there are working with an actor who has never worked in voice-over work prior.
“It’s funny, the actors who have a more difficult time adjusting to voice-over work tend to be film actors because they rely on subtlety and body language for most of their performances. TV and Stage actors transition better because they are used to putting more power in their performances and voices. Christina (Hendricks) was wonderful. I was so surprised at how good she was considering she had never done any voice-over work”
“It’s amazing that you really can’t tell that she was not in the same room as the other actors. It was a pleasure working with her. One thing she did that really impressed me was three days after she got married here in New York City, she hopped on a plane and came to Los Angeles to do a recording session , and that really showed commitment.”
As for dream actors that she is still trying to get for a role in future projects she told me, “Jon Hamm, definitely. I think he is wonderful. He is such a good actor that can not only do serious dramatic roles but also has a great talent for comedy.”
My final interview had me the most nervous, which was with (the stunning) Christina Hendricks.
“You know, Superman II was the first movie I saw, that and Clash of The Titans. I saw it in a drive-in theater. I remember just watching it and being amazed. That’s why when I was offered the role, I jumped at the chance.”
But was she apprehensive doing voice work for the first time?
“I was a little nervous, but Andrea was amazing. She had me do lines in so many different ways because she saw the entire project as a whole in her mind, so she would help me adjust a line in certain ways, recording various choices to match the performances of my co-stars, which would give Andrea options to match the tone of the piece exactly.”
And the best part of playing one of pop culture’s most significant female icons?
“Well, it was really great playing Lois, my husband would text me “I love you Lois Lane”; it was so sweet. It’s was a lot of fun seeing the finished film tonight. My favorite part of the film was Lois getting superpowers.”
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The plot of the film closely mirrors the original comic series. Realizing his own mortality, Lex Luthor puts Superman in a situation which results in his cellular structure to overload having, absorbing too much solar radiation and slowly destroying his body chemistry. Although he is more powerful than ever, The Man of Steel is forced to put his affairs in order and do as much as he can for his adopted world before he dies.
Producer Bruce Timm ensured that the distinctive style of artist Frank Quitely was preserved and adapted successfully for animation. McDuffie’s omissions from Grant Morrison’s original script definitely streamlined the entire tale and overall it might be the best DC Animated film to date.
Another highlight was the impeccable voice-cast which included James Denton as Superman and Anthony LaPaglia as Lex Luthor. Both actors bring strength, conviction and verisimilitude to their work. Hendricks was fantastic as Lois and the cast also featured performance by Ed Asner as Perry White, Matthew Gubler as Jimmy Olsen and my personal favorite Linda Cardellini as Nasthalthia Luthor.
Is All-Star Superman a good film?
In a word, yes.
All-Star Superman should be part of any animation or comic fan’s collection and will be available in both DVD and a Blu-Ray/DVD combo set with a digital copy and all the special features you could want on February 22nd.
