Thursday, March 24, 2016

DC Superhero Girls Special


Last Saturday, an hour long DC Superhero Girls special aired on the Boomerang channel. Prior to this special, we had met most of the main characters in shorts aired on the Superhero Girl website. This was also the introduction of the Supergirl of this universe.

Overall I thought this was a very good story with a nice message of believing in yourself and trusting in your friends.


Supergirl and Batgirl are showcased the most in this episode. Kara has arrived to Earth just weeks earlier and is still trying to figure out how to use her powers safely and efficiently. She is almost clumsy at first, falling, tripping, and smashing her way through the scenes. Luckily, she has been taken in by the Kents (voiced by Helen Slater and Dean Cain, a nice nod to the CBS show.) She is intimidated by the more polished heroes (especially Kara's idol Wonder Woman) and thinks she should quit the team until she is taken under the wing of IT expert (but not student) Barbara Gordon.


Barbara feels she is destined for something more than being a simple clerical worker but she is held down by the nastier students for being a 'nonny', a non-powered person, on campus. (I suppose 'nonny' is the equivalent of 'mudblood' in this world.) She also is being pressured by her father to quit the school and settle into something 'safe'.


And this is crucial to the story. A plot percolating in the background is that someone is trying to break into the school's boom tube room. One boom tube goes to Korugar. Another Apokolips. Long time fans can figure out the villain pretty quickly when it is revealed that the school librarian is Granny Goodness.


Meanwhile, pushing each other, Supergirl and Barbara improve dramatically in their skills and their confidence. We get a nice montage of the two training and helping each other. Babs and Kara! Together again for the first time!!





While acting sweet, we all know Granny is evil. She tricks Supergirl into opening the boom tube, allowing the Female Furies to come to Earth. Granny also uses an evil mother box to tap into the school's 'power crystal' to brainwash all the student body.

How crazy is it that we live in a world where I get to see Stompa and Mad Harriet in a cartoon!



Donning a Batgirl costume, Kara and Supergirl team up to save the day. They break the mother box's control letting the other heroes team up to capture the Furies and save the day. Brimming with confidence, Babs and Kara rejoin the school as the newest heroes.


This is a sweet story about perseverance and having faith in yourself. I like that it rekindles the Supergirl/Batgirl friendship. And it truly is nice to see all of the characters - Wonder Woman, Bumblebee, Poison Ivy, Harley, Shiva, Katana, and even the Flash and Beast Boy - working together but skewed young. Even a Trinity of sorts is made!


But the show producers must now that putting in Easter Eggs and homages will help older viewers get roped in. Giganta is robbing Eclipso's Jewelry store. Supergirl is contemplating going to Korugar for training. Gorilla Grodd is the Vice Principal. Parasite is the janitor. Wildcat is the gym teacher. Supergirl has pictures of Krypto and Comet hanging in her dorm room. It is crazy how much fun this is.

And I love that Big Barda is clearly conflicted with her Apokoliptian training when she sees how people are treated at Superhero High. Here she grabs a pamphlet about the school which she brings with her to  Belle Reve prison.


I think absolutely the best bit is, when first putting on her costume Babs saying 'I'm Batgirl' in a deep, grumbly voice. Then she says she has a frog in her throat, clears it, and says 'I'm Batgirl' normally. I laughed out loud.

Hopefully, we get more of these specials. This was too much fun.

9 comments:

Timothy S. Brannan said...

That is so wonderful! I hope little girls everywhere get to see this!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the review as always Anj. Looks like a great episode, but being north of the 49th this wasn't broadcast to us.
Will have to content myself with this review till then. And LOVE how they brought back the classic Kara / Barbara friendship
...and looks like there's enough easter eggs for those of us older enough to get / appreciate them. SWEET!

Regards

Gene said...

I bought the six inch Supergirl figure from this line recently at Target. I have to say it is one of the best made Supergirl figures in recent times.

Gene

Uncle Screensaver said...

Thanks for the review! It's so cool to see the new animated Supergirl, and the "female trinity" together. :D

It just boggles my mind that it was marketed worldwide and then the special is broadcast in the U.S. only, and the figures and dolls are in limited places in the U.S. as well. They aren't even in some of the Targets down there, or are sold out - from what I've searched on the Target website and from what I read on Facebook.

There's been questions by parents and fans asking on Facebook and Instagram when DC Super Hero Girls/ Super Hero High TV Special and merchandise will be available outside the U.S. and at the time I looked, "DC Super Hero Girls" were not replying - when I know they've responded to questions previously.

Oh, I can't find any torrents for the special either. :( But, Monster High's first special was only released officially on DVD/ Blu-Ray/ digital years after it aired and became popular, so hopefully this will happen to Super Hero High. Ever After High is now airing through Netflix, so perhaps with enough demand WB/ DC/ Mattel will air it worldwide. Also, if it's popular enough, maybe the merch will move outside Target.

Anonymous said...

Apokolips' Female Furies were also in the "Little Girl Lost" episode of The Animated Adventures of Superman which introduced Supergirl.

Anonymous said...

Still hate the sneakers (Kara is classically a little vain about her footgear even as an HS Noob)...but I wanna see it very much it sounds good all around.
I'm all for "Babs and Kara Together Again for the First Time"....
:)

JF

Babsbatgirlfan said...

Long before New Ghoul at school was released on DVD in stores for sale it was included in the Dawn of the Dance wave two dolls as a free preview, which once Dc superhero girls is no longer a target exclusive on July 1st I am hoping they release the special as a DVD with the dolls, as I missed it to and the dc super hero girls twitter and YouTube are ignoring questions on the special, considering monster high released their specials on YouTube no idea why dc isn't I believe it's the same production company as if you look at band in the end of the newest ep the same scene with batgirl she looks like a human ghulia yelps.

Babsbatgirlfan said...

Sorry band should be Babs.

Anonymous said...

"How crazy is it that we live in a world where I get to see Stompa and Mad Harriet in a cartoon!"

Uh... Considering it's happened twice before now at least and both times more faithful to the source material than presented here (the DCAU and Superman/Batman: Apocalypse respectively)... Not really very crazy.