TITLE: Vixen ATE = Absent This Episode
FORMAT: Webseries (via CW Seed)
CAST: Megalyn Echikunwoke, Stephen Amell, Grant Gustin, Emily Bett Rickards (ATE), Carlos Valdes (ATE)
RUNNING TIME: 4 minutes, 18 seconds (4:18)
SPOILERS: YES
Summary:
Vixen is The CW's first foray into animated entries in their DC TV Shared Universe. It is very obvious that their method going into this was "short and sweet", but is that the best choice for the show? While the quality of the animation and the voice acting didn't do anything to disappoint, four minutes and eighteen seconds was far too short for the introductory episode.
A pilot episode is always EXTREMELY important for a series - it needs to:
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Set up the Characters
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Set up the Location
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Set up the Story
Unfortunately,
Vixen's first episode only just ticks all of these boxes. We know that Mari McCabe is clearly a strong-willed female character (she is essentially jailed for standing up for herself, albeit in a somewhat violent manner), that she is adopted and was attempting to find her family, her foster mother has passed away, and that she is a student. While this may seem like an adequate amount, none of it is really elaborated on. When her foster father bails her out of jail, McCabe initially seems very cold towards him, as if she harbours some kind of long-standing distaste of him. He suggests they get some food, the episode cuts to them in a diner, and all signs of Mari disliking her foster father to any degree are gone. We get a brief mention of her foster mother, and learn that she seemed to have been the stricter parent, and that she has passed away. There's not too much substance to these aspects of the character, and that is due, simply, to the rather ridiculous time restraints placed upon the show. Just five more minutes would have been enough to drastically improve the show.
At the beginning of the episode we get a brief display of Oliver Queen and Barry Allen, suited up as The Arrow and The Flash respectively, chasing McCabe down. The scene ends on a "cliffhanger" (McCabe is falling off a building, and screaming as she plummets. This seems rather ridiculous, seeing as though McCabe could just use her totem to emulate the powers of a bird and fly to safety), and then cuts back to three days earlier. There is absolutely zero payoff to this scene this episode, and the episode ends with McCabe being held up by muggers. Anyone that has seen the trailer knows how this scene goes down, but nonetheless, the episode cuts here at a "suspenseful" moment (yet another "cliffhanger"), and thus, you must wait another seven days before getting another five minutes of the show.
It really is frustrating that the show suffers from such time limits though. All in all, there will be six five-minute episodes (although, this one actually came in UNDER that time), meaning that the entirety of the season is only thirty minutes long. That is a VERY short time for the show to establish the world, set up the conflict AND resolve the conflict in. The real bummer is that the limit really wastes the series' potential. The animation is at the level of quality you would normally expect from any other DC Animated Series (the lead designer is Phil Bourassa, who was the lead designer for projects like
Young Justice, and
Justice League: Doom), and Megalyn Echikunwoke's performance was without fault - we just didn't get to experience much of either of those two aspects.
Pros:
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Smooth animation
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Flawless voice acting
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Great design
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Introduces the second powered character in the Arrowverse who DIDN'T receive their powers as a result of the S.T.A.R. Labs Particle Accelarator Explosion (the first being Deathbolt)
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Introduces a character and story that has the potential to develop into something interesting and great
Cons:
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Ridiculously restrictive time frame
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Doesn't elaborate on any of the things we learned in the episode
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Limited display of Vixen's powers
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A cliffhanger that makes no sense
Final Verdict:
When it comes to quality,
Vixen is
NOT a bad show. The visuals were great, as was Echikunwoke's performance (Stephen Amell and Grant Gustin weren't overly vocal in the episode, but anyone who has played
Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham knows what Stephen Amell's voice acting is like, and, well, you already know how Grant Gustin sounds too), but the time limit was just too restrictive. The series has the potential to be great, but the first episode just doesn't have the time to really set up what it needs to. It is definitely worth tuning into the second episode when it releases next week, and hopefully things can pick up now that basic introductions are out of the way.
Score: 3/5 (Great quality, but far too short)