It's The Most Wonderful Time.....

...of the year? Despite the fact that I'm now done with Christmas shopping, I now face the daunting task of figuring out student loans. It is as fun as it sounds. However, when I'm not having a mental breakdown, I'm still trying to do some fun stuff. Like watching Netflix movies.

DC Showcase: Superman/Shazaam: The Return Of Black Adam
Starring:  George Newburn, Jerry O'Connell, Arnold Vosloo
Directed By: Joaquim Dos Santos

The latest DC animated movie from Warner Bros. is actually a collection of their previous short films The Spectre, Green Arrow, Jonah Hex, and the new feature Superman/Shazaam: The Return Of Black Adam. While all of the shorts are entertaining in their own ways, they still don't add up to a worthy purchase.

The main story serves as an introduction to younger audiences to Captain Marvel, the superhero whose alter ego is the young Billy Batson. After Batson is attacked by Black Adam, he is saved by Superman. Billy's escape is sidetracked when he is visited by The Wizard, who informs him (and us) that Black Adam was his first choice to wield the power of Shazaam 5,000 years ago. Eventually the power went to Adam's head, and he went mad with power. The Wizard banished him to the "dark realm", but has conveniently escaped now, when the Wizard has found Batson, someone whom he believes is pure enough to have the power. Now, whenever Billy yells out "SHAZAAM!", he becomes Captain Marvel, and his first mission is to help Superman take out the eventual ruler of Kahndaq.

If that synopsis seemed brief, that's cause the entire Superman/Shazaam feature is about 25 minutes. Once it gets going, it's over. And while Arnold Vosloo makes an awesome Black Adam, the other voice actors don't seem to be all that into the movie. However, the other three features are fantastic, with Jonah Hex not only being 1,000 times better than the live-action abortion that arrived this past summer, but also making me forget about how bad the movie was. If you haven't seen these features then this is worth the rent, but odds are, if you have the two-disc versions of DC Animated's previous releases, you've already watched them.
3 'SHAZAAM"'S out of 5