Chaos at the Earth's Core
Episode #29 - Chaos at the Earth's Core
Original Airdate - September 24th 2005
Supergirl, Stargirl and Green Lantern go to Skartaris, the
fantastic, hidden world at the Earth's core, to help free it from the
rule of a brutal dictator.
Originally titled "Heart of Stone."
Review by Bird Boy
Media by Bird Boy
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Credits:
Written by Matt Wayne
Directed by Joaquim dos Santos
Music by Lolita Ritmanis
Animation by Dong Woo Animation Co., LTD.
Voices:
Nicholle Tom as Supergirl, Shakira*
Phil LaMarr as Green Lantern, Makist*
Giselle Loren as Stargirl
Paul Guilfoyle as Travis Morgan
Malcolm McDowell as Metallo
Douglas Cunning as Demos
Kim Mai Guest as Silver Banshee
Nicholas Guest as Dino Trooper
* - Not credited as voicing. |
Review
When I first watched this episode, I really enjoyed it. It was kind of
goofy in places, but overall it was kind of fun. But when I watched it a
second time, my opinion changed; it was a really dull, boring and pretty
useless episode.
Sure, it showed us a new Supergirl costume, gave us some much needed
exposure to Stargirl and STRIPES and we did get to see Metallo again.
The rest felt like a retread of other shows though; I’m not one to enjoy
“B.C.” type stories, with warrior men and crazy dinosaur riding lizard
guys and I had my fill of it in a similar story from Teen Titans
(“Cyborg the Barbarian”).
But let’s start with the positives. As I said before, we got to see a
new Supergirl outfit which was much needed, especially if we ever want
characters to actually age in the show. While the suits nice, I really
don’t like her hair now. An odd complaint, I know—it just bothers me for
some reason.
And Metallo! We actually got to see Metallo again with Malcolm McDowell
voicing. It was a real treat to hear him again, especially since the
only speaking appearance he had before was in Justice League's
“Hereafter”, where Corey Burton voiced him. Metallo himself gave
Supergirl a good walloping which was entertaining to see.
Stargirl and STRIPES were fun; I liked the character interaction between
them. Stargirl seemed like the Supergirl we’d seen in STAS; the
dislike that Stargirl had for Supergirl in the beginning was worth a
chuckle or two, especially after we see there’s a Supergirl convention
in Japan with lots of little girls running around in Supergirl outfits
(her old one to boot!). I bet her new outfit was a hot conversation
topic at the convention. The panels they must’ve had on it!
As for the actual story, apparently there’s a whole civilization at the
center of the Earth. It hurts your head to think about it, so try not to
scrutinize the existence of Skartaris. It’s there, League members were
pulled down to help the heroes of Skartaris defend themselves against
Demos and the Legion members Metallo and Silver Banshee, the League won
and end of story.
The one beneficial aspect of this episode set up what I will assume to
be the story-long arc. The Legion is attempting to take over and steal
certain things; in Skartaris’s case, a giant Kryptonite stone that
“heals” the people that go near it. Like I said…civilization in the
center of the earth. Did I mention the sun? They have a sun too. Yeah.
The animation was extremely nice in this episode; everything was fluid
with a few nice camera angles. Speaking of camera angles and animation,
I feel the need to mention Kara’s hair again (no not to mention my
dislike for it). There’s a part in her battle with Metallo where she
comes down hard on a set of stairs and her hair just falls and lays over
the step; I honestly don’t know why that stuck with me, but it was a
really neat and fluid piece of animation.
The music was typical of the show; there were some neat cues here and
there, but nothing that really popped out at me. It fit the story, so I
guess that’s one of the higher compliments you can ever give musical
scores.
Aside from the excellent opening (giant mutant Turtle—what’s not to
love?), the rest of the episode pretty much bit. Silver Banshee sucking
the life force from soldiers was entertaining, as was the Metallo/Supergirl
fight, but aside from that, there really wasn’t much else here. In fact,
you can almost completely skip it: the one element in this episode that
mattered (Metallo shutting down when he was about to talk about the
Legion) was referenced in “To Another Shore”, which was a much more
enjoyable episode. Watch that one instead.
Addendum: After being emailed about the episode, I'd like to
clarify that Travis Morgan (Warlord) is DC character that's as real as
Green Lantern or Supergirl. The character goes back to the 70's for DC
Comics and he had a series that ended around 1988 and had 133 issues.
The society in the earths core is part of the DC Universe. In Feb 2006,
DC is starting a new comic series for him.
Of course, this doesn't change my opinion of the character or episode
at all, but I wanted to clarify that. |
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