I will say as a fan of the DC Universe animated films, this is one of the good ones that I find to be worth watching. And the addition of the Elseworld style episodes from the popular “Justice League” TV animated series is also included, along with a Phantom Stranger short and more! “Superman: Red Son” is highly recommended!
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TITLE: Superman: Red Son
DURATION: 84 Minutes
BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0, Subtitles: English SDH
COMPANY: Warner Brothers
RATED: PG-13
Release Date: March 17, 2020
Graphic Novel by Mark Millar, Dave Johnson, Kilian Plunkett
Directed by Sam Liu
Screenplay by J.M. DeMatteis
Executive Producer: Sam Register, Bruce Timm
Produced by Sam Liu, Amy McKenna
Co-Producer: James Krieg
Music by Frederik Wiedmann
Edited by Christopher D. Lozinski
Casting by Wes Gleason
Featuring the following voice talent:
Jason Isaacs as Superman
Amy Acker as Lois Lane
Diedrich Bader as Lex Luthor
Vanessa Marshall as Wonder Woman
Phil Morris as James Olsen
Paul Williams as Brainiac
Greg Chun as Ambassador Lee
Phil LaMarr as John Stewart/Ron Troupe/Gulag Guard
Jim Meskimen as John F. Kennedy/Dwight D. Eisenhower
Sasha Roiz as Hal Jordan
William Salyers as Joseph Stalin/Jack Ryder
Travis Willingham as Superior Man/Guy Gardner/Petrovich
Roger Craig Smith as Batman
When Krypton’s last son crash-lands in Cold War-era Russia instead of rural Kansas, an alternate reality unfolds in this DC Elseworlds adventure. Here, we find Superman spearheading a Communist campaign to advance the ideologies of the Soviet state. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, brilliant American scientist Lex Luthor devises a plan to rein in, and ultimately destroy, the alien Soviet threat. What follows is a gripping game of cat and mouse that will leave all of humanity hanging in the balance.
Back in 2003, DC Comics released their three-issue “Superman: Red Son” as part of their Elseworld imprint.
Originally written by author Mark Millar, the concept of the storyline is what if Superman was raised in the Soviet Union instead of the United States?
The series would be set from 1953-2001 and the story would receive critical acclaim and was nominated for a 2004 Eisner Award for best limited series.
Fastforward to 2020, and the 37th installment of the DC Universe Animated Original Movie series is a not-so-complete adaptation of the popular comic book limited series but nevertheless, is a fascinating adaptation worth watching. And it’s available on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray +DVD and Digital.
The animated film is directed by Sam Liu, who has worked on numerous Marvel Entertainment and DC animated films, including the last Elseworld animated adaptatiojn, “Batman: Gotham by Gaslight”.
“Superman: Red Son” begins in 1946 and shows us a young boy being chased by bullies, he is protected by a girl named Svetlana. When she asks the boy why he didn’t fight back and let them bully him, he tells her that he did not want to hurt them and then shows her his power by lifting a tractor.
He then picks her up and starts flying and Svetlana tells him that he should use his powers to help the Soviet Union.
Fastforward a decade later and its 1955 and the Soviet Union releases a propaganda film of an alien superhuman under the command of Joseph Stalin. Dubbed in America as “The Soviet Superman”, US President Eisenhower recruits Lex Luthor to create a countermeasure against the Soviet Superman.
Meanwhile, when a satellite starts crashing from the atmosphere to hit the Metropolis, the Soviet Superman rushes to America and protects everyone and the Soviet Superman delivers a message to everyone about how bad the American government is. Meanwhile, journalist Lois Lane is there and requests an interview with him.
The two end up meeting that evening and when she shows him top secret files of a secret gulag, Superman has a hard time believing the Soviet Union is enslaving their fellow people. But he rushes to a secret area and discovers the gulag and seeing his people imprisoned, but even worse, he sees his childhood friend Svetlana. She is near dying and was imprisoned because she knew of his true identity.
Svetlana reminds him of their promise to protect everyone in their country and she dies. This leads the Soviet Superman to confront Joseph Stalin, who tells him that the people must be enslaved to show the people of who is in power. This enrages the Soviet Superman who uses his heat ray on Stalin and incinerates him.
The Soviet Superman becomes the new leader of the Soviet Union, pledgjng to use his powers for good for the people of the country.
But because of the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, while Lex Luthor develops his own Superman, they discover an alien and his power ring (Green Lantern), which the U.S. uses to develop their own super soldiers utilizing the power of the power ring.
Willing to help him is a Princess from Themyscira, Diana who wants to believe that there are good men in this world. But is the Soviet Superman a good man?
How will the Soviet Superman take this? Meanwhile, a cold-blooded Soviet terrorist known as Batman and his followers look to undermine their country’s alien leader.
Special Features:
- Cold Real War
- 2 Episodes from Superman: Red Son – The Motion Comics
- A Sneak Peak at DC Universe’s Next Animated Movie: Justice League Dark: Apokolips War
- From the DC Vault: 2 Bonus Cartoons (from “Justice League”)
- DC Showcase Short featuring Phantom Stranger
As a comic book reader, I was very excited to know that “Superman: Red Son” would receive an animation adaptation.
As an avid follower of the DC Universe animated films, I also know that there are going to be differences between the animation versus the comic book. This is not restricted to the animated film, but also the live action films.
For the most part,as much as the main concept is incorporated into the anime series, that’s what really matters and that is “What if Superman was from the Soviet Union instead of the United States?”.
I enjoyed how the animated series shows that, and being an Elseworld storyline, how Dianna (Wonder Woman) wants to prove her mother, Queen Hippolyta that men are good and that Themyscira should assist the Soviet Superman.
This marks the difference between Soviet Superman and the American Superman that many of us grew up reading. For one, Clark Kent had a loving family and through his experience of having loving parents and treated like a normal person, having friends, having relationships, having a career, it’s one made him a Superman that didn’t want to take on his government, he was there to protect the people.
The Soviet Superman was immediately Stalin’s puppet, fed only news that they wanted to hear and believed his country to be good and with no social experiences and going by what he thinks is right, it’s a different contrast between the Superman we know vs. the Soviet Superman.
This goes the same with Batman. Batman has always been a friend of Superman, but also knows that if Superman was ever to use his powers incorrectly, he would be the one to stop him. In this storyline, Batman is there to stop Soviet Superman, but in the Soviet Union, he is a terrorist that kills and has no qualms of using terrorism in order to get back the country that he believes is in need of chaos and without a leader who has the country under his tight grasp that people fear him.
And in America, Lex Luthor is always the adversary of Superman, but in this case, he is the hero of America. Developing technology and strategies to defeat the Soviet Superman and he happens to be the lover of Lois Lane.
It’s an interesting storyline to see how these characters are much different from the characters that we know and it makes for one heck of an entertaining story.
With that being said, it is a bit different from the comic books and I don’t want to get into discussion of the differences, because it would spoil the animated film, but I will say, there is a twist that was left out of this animated film and also certain elements.
Again, I’m not surprised as adaptations to a live action or animated film from a comic book are seldom 100% faithful to the original story.
But I will say as a fan of the DC Universe animated films, this is one of the good ones that I find to be worth watching. And the addition of the Elseworld style episodes from the popular “Justice League” TV animated series is also included, along with a Phantom Stranger short and more!
“Superman: Red Son” is highly recommended!