Vixen - Cheap Thoughts

Vixen is the online animated series that follows the story of Mari McCabe, a rebellious young woman who wants to know more about her past, she soon learns that the necklace her mother left her as a child gives her the abilities of every animal in the world. So this was a strangely produced series, there were six episodes and each one was roughly 5 minutes long, 4 minutes if you take out all the credits. Because of this i didn't review the show episode by episode but rather waited for them all to be released so i can watch them back to back, and frankly it's a lot better that way, i don't know why the CW didn't just release them all together as one big 30 minute film, it certainly feels like it was produced with that in mind given the jarring endings of the episodes where suddenly: credits!

But regardless of that, is it good? Well, yeah i'd say so. Considering the fact that it's an origin story and it's only half an hour long, there isn't a whole lot of room for doing anything new or interesting with the characters, most of the time is given to hitting the usual beats for an origin story, we see her freaking out over her powers, deny the responsibility, a couple of flashbacks and how she gets her costume. There's nothing bad about that, but it makes me wonder what the point of all of it was. It's rumoured that this is supposed to be a set-up and Vixen herself will most likely appear in either Arrow or Flash. Oh yeah, this takes place in the same DC Universe as Arrow & Flash, but i'll talk more about them in a bit. As for Vixen herself as a character i know very little of, what i can say from what i've learnt from this is that she has a pretty unique origin story and the way how they visually express her powers is pretty cool, but when it comes to DC Heroes with animal powers i'm always gonna think of Beast Boy. Her personality is a little flat and basic, she's rebellious but has a good heart, she has issues with her family but wants to make things better, she denies her responsibilities with her powers but comes around in the end, yeah we've seen all this before. So overall the story is just...okay. It doesn't do anything wrong but it doesn't do that much new either.

Now let's talk about the acting, for the most part I felt Megalyn Echikunwoke (Thank the gods i don't have to say that out loud) did a great job in the role and if she reprises it for a live action version i'd be all for it. For an actress that does mostly live action work her voice acting skills are impressive and she plays a realistic character. I say this because of how Stephen Amell, Grant Gustin & Carlos Valdes play their roles...when people say voice acting is easy i'm probably just going to show them clips of these guys. They're great actors and do really well in live action, but here, you can tell they're trying to make it seem natural and to give a good performance but they all sound as stiff as a board. It's a lot easier to get into character when you're in costume and on a set but when you're in a recording booth saying the same lines dozens of times, it's hard to make it sound as good, and frankly, these guys need more practise.

Finally I want to talk about the animation. It is so good to see DC Shows animated like this again, it reminds me of the Justice League cartoon or the straight to dvd animated movies. The designs of the characters, the fluidity of the action scenes, the dynamic angles, this is everything i expect from DC Animation, nothing but the best. No cheap, flash based animation made over the weekend with the detail and artistic creativity of the 3 year old *cough*Teen Titans Go*cough*, sorry, had to get a cheap shot in there somewhere.

Overall Vixen was...fine, the story was okay, the voice actors were hit & miss but the animation is superb and that's what makes this show worth watching. 7/10.

-Danny