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Superman: Doomsday is the first of the direct-to-DVD animated features from Warner Brothers animation. Produced by Bruce Timm, the main creative force behind the beloved DCAU from the early-90s to mid-00s, and armed with a PG-13 rating, it had tremendous potential to really be something. As it turned out, it’s good, but never really great. A rushed and frantically paced adaptation of the death and return of Superman storylines, Doomsday combines the mainstream news headline making storylines into an excuse to hang two large scale action sequences and opening and closing monologues from Lex Luthor. Problems with the script aside, fantastic animation and great vocal work could have allowed one to overlook the deficiencies in the script. And while the animation is frequently great it is also marked by numerous problems. Superman’s design being chief among them, and his body which looks grossly disproportioned towards the end. The action sequences as wonderful to behold though, and put much of Superman Returns and other live action attempts to shame. And on the vocal side of things, James Marsters and Adam Baldwin deliver the goods as Luther and Superman, but the less said about the woefully miscast Swoosie Kurtz, Cree Summer and Anne Heche as Ma Kent, Mercy Graves and Lois Lane, the better. Altogether, it’s not awful, and it would be bettered by the rest of the direct-to-DVD films, but it’s obvious that they had to start somewhere.
