Superman: Doomsday (2007)

DIRECTED BY - Bruce Timm, Lauren Montgomery, Brandon Vietti

STARRING - Adam Baldwin (Superman/Clark Kent), Anne Heche (Lois Lane), James Marsters (Lex Luthor), Ray Wise (Perry White), Swoosie Kurtz (Martha Kent), Adam Wylie (Jimmy Olsen)

Year - 2007

Score - 2.5 Howls Outta 4

Adapted from "The Death of Superman" storyline that rocked the comic world back in the early 1990s, the first cartoon to go straight to DVD by DC comics pretty much tells the tale of Superman fighting off the newly awakened Doomsday machine, eventually dying in battle after defeating the monster. Eventually, Superman returns - but he has an edge and is willing to kill people to protect Metropolis. Did death change Superman? Or is this Superman not who he claims to be?

I thought this PG-13 cartoon was pretty good. For 75 minutes, it told the adaptation of the comics well and I was entertained. The animation was refreshing after all the CGI stuff Pixar and Dreamworks puts out every 3 months. The 2 main fight scenes are very well handled and are actually exciting to watch. Plus you get to see blood and implied sex! Whoo hoo!

Most of the voice acting was good to great [especially FIREFLY's and CHUCK's Adam Baldwin and BUFFY's and ANGEL's James Marsters], except for Anne Heche, whose voice annoys me for some reason and I didn't really believe Lois Lane could ever sound like that. Also, I wanted to see the actual story from the comics with the 4 men [Eradicator, Cyborg, Superboy, and Steel] claiming to be Superman. All we get here is a ill-judged clone. Maybe the studio was afraid to hire Shaq again for Steel. If so, then I totally understand.

FINAL HOWL: A buy for any Superman fan. A rental for everyone else.