FILM REVIEW: Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part One

‘Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen’ is the DC’s latest animated instalment in a hugely successful and enjoyable animated universe. This time they have teamed up to combine the universes of the Justice League and RWBY, an anime series.

‘Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen’ is produced and directed by Kerry Shawcross, written by Meghan Fitzmartin, with Ethan Spaulding, Jim Krieg and Kimberly S. Moreau as producers. The film sees the Justice League finding themselves in RWBY’s universe. As they start to investigate how and why they are here, the RWBY team start to realise that something isn’t quite right with their universe. The two teams combine forces to work together, relying on their flashbacks and clues to piece puzzle together.

The film is great fun and has several moments of humour and heart. What I love about it is that it really explores the theme of belonging and it’s so great to see heroes like Green Lantern, Ruby and Wonder Woman face the same mental battles that we do and this film perfectly lays that out.

‘Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen’ has possibly one of the most badass openings of a DC Animated film to date! The animation style is extremely different to what we’ve seen before in the DC Animated Universe and I admit it does take some getting used to, but after a few action sequences it’s fantastic! The action sequences are brilliant, the creative team here have done a fantastic job adapting the Justice League, their designs and their power set to the usual anime style of RWBY.

The voice cast are excellent! They perfectly tap into the younger selves of the Justice League, whilst maintaining their personalities and traits. Chandler Riggs (The Walking Dead) voices Superman/Clark Kent and he is a great young Superman, he’s full of energy but still has that authoritative tone in his voice. Each and every actor involved brought these characters to life in a great way and added emotion and in some places vulnerability to their roles. The voice cast for RWBY are returning from the original series and as usual they too do an amazing job.

For those that aren’t necessarily familiar with either the Justice League or RWBY (like me), ‘Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen’ acts as a great introduction to them, their origins and their universe. In the film we see the Justice League find themselves ‘buddying’ with members of RWBY, which gives us a great interaction between the two, but also a great insight into who they are and what they are all about.

‘Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen’ is a very enjoyable watch that takes the Justice League places that they have never been before. Seeing them interact with other teams was great to watch and I particularly loved the action sequences that showcased their powers in the style of anime. As someone who wasn’t really aware of RWBY prior to this film, I will be exploring the original series that these characters came from.

‘Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen’ is available on digital, Blu-Ray and DVD now.