The Cat and the Canary
Episode #14 - The Cat and the Canary
Original Airdate - February 5th 2005 - Season Premiere
Black Canary convinces Green Arrow to help save her mentor, the Wildcat,
from his involvement in an underground, super-powered fight club.
Review by Maxie Zeus
Media by Bird Boy, Jim Harvey |
Credits:
Story by Stan Berkowitz
Teleplay by Robert Goodman
Directed by Joaquim dos Santos
Music by Micael McCuistion
Animation Services by D.R. Movie Co., LTD.
Voices:
Morena Baccarin as Black Canary
Kin Shriner as Green Arrow
Dennis Farina as Wildcat
Virginia Madsen as Roulette
Lex Lang as Thug Leader
Jamie Alcroft as Larry
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Review
I've long since given up trying to figure out how and why Cartoon Network
decides to schedule its "seasons"; one week after the premiere of the
two-part "season finale" to Justice League Unlimited, the network is
kicking off season two with "The Cat and the Canary." There's nothing very
special about the premiere to the second season—except for the fact that
it's super-happy-terrific.
It's got a tight little story. Wildcat has picked up a bad hobby,
moonlighting as the champion in the Meta-Brawl tournaments, which are
illicit no-holds-barred matches between superpowered fighters. Unhappy about
this, Black Canary and Green Arrow stage an intervention. When Wildcat
declines to take their advice ("declines" being a polite understatement to
describe his reaction), they crash the next scheduled fight and give the
salivating ring-side audience some real value for the entertainment dollar.
JLU has gotten some criticism for a lack of focus in its stories—the new
team members sometimes seem like dangly bits hanging off the capes of the
Big Four—but "The Cat and the Canary" focuses tightly on its three main
characters and develops a strongly charged drama around them. Wildcat, Black
Canary and Green Arrow are headstrong personalities, and they easily get up
each others' noses. Green Arrow's fascination with Black Canary is
surprisingly intense. When he flirts or sneaks a glance in her direction
there's nothing smirky or flirty about it; she raises his animal spirits,
and he responds in ways that would leave lesser women with bruises and black
eyes. A real element of danger, then, gets introduced when he jealously
concludes that she is more interested in Wildcat. Black Canary doesn't come
off very nice either, showing herself not above manipulation and game
playing in pursuit of other ends. Best of all is Wildcat, revealed here as
an old, gray but hale warrior suffocating under the perceived condescension
of his meta-powered colleagues. (There's the strong implication that in
beating the crap out of meta-powered scum he's acting out fantasies he
entertains toward fellow JLers.) Wildcat may be the angriest
character we've seen yet in JLU, but there's no showboating in his scenes.
He retains a dignified gravity even when putting a fist through a solid
concrete wall.
The human vs. superhuman angle isn't played up, but it's an example of some
very subtle technique. This episode is not explicitly part of the
"conspiracy" arc, but it appears to add a flourish to it. "Wake the Dead"
stuck in a big exclamation point when it had crowd members jeer Shayera as a
traitor; "The Cat and the Canary" makes a similar observation so allusively
you might miss it. The crowd that bays for meta-human blood and adopts the
avowedly "normal" Wildcat as its hero is not a scummy lot. (Most of them
look positively swank.) But their fervent interest in the fights, along with
Wildcat's simmering rage, suggests the presence of a deep fissure running
between the JLU and the rest of society, and maybe even running through the
JLU itself. A more psychologically perceptive JLer—J'onn or Batman,
say—might have looked into that crowd and felt a trickle of cold sweat run
down the back of his head.
I've talked about the drama, but the fight scenes are sensational. The name
"Joaquim dos Santos" has become a watermark for great action, and that's
certainly true here. The episode opens with a bunkerbuster fight between
Canary and some warehouse thugs. The climactic fight is also a stunner;
though it's quicker and cleaner, it's also more powerful because of the way
it lets all the twisted emotions explode outward physically. But even in its
small moments the direction shines: a quick insert shot of Green Arrow
taking his hand off Black Canary's hip tells us more clearly than could any
bit of dialogue what is going through Arrow's mind at the moment.
This is a very noir story. "The Cat and the Canary" may share its
title with a Bob Hope spook-comedy, but it's actually very much like an old
RKO B-feature of the forties, such as Out of the Past or Farewell,
My Lovely: a brutal little story about angry people who can never step
completely out of the shadows because they carry the shadows wrapped about
their very souls. Coming only a week after the second volume DVD release of
Batman: The Animated Series, it shows that the DC animated team can
still tell dark, moody stories even as they have made vast strides in
staging and action techniques. |
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