Who can forget the classic superhero theme songs from the 60s and 70s? Way back before the genre infatuated itself with the desire to be taken seriously, and just wanted to be good fun for everyone. From Adam West’s Batman, to the animated Spider-Man, and of course the ‘Wonder Woman’ TV show of the 70s starring Lynda Carter.
Well one fan certainly didn’t forget that brilliant theme song by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, and has presented their own edit of it, mashing the music with footage from the trailers of WB’s upcoming ‘Wonder Woman’ film. It stars Gal Gadot as the titular character, is directed by Patty Jenkins, and is due for release June 2, 2017.
The video by YouTuber Sebastian Hughes certainly works in a very strange way. The visuals and music going hand in hand extremely well, the last time I remember a mash-up working like this was a fan-edit of the ‘Spectacular Spider-Man’ theme song with footage from the Raimi films!
Check it out here:
While the official marketing thus far for ‘Wonder Woman’ has been very solid so far, this video is so unashamedly honest and fun that you can’t help but wonder whether this is the sort of energy that has been sorely lacking from the DCEU thus far.
Of course, it’s impossible to make a judgement on whether the upcoming film will be quite as self serious as previous DCEU efforts. Indeed the humor, setting, action and vastly improved colour-palette does suggest it’s leaning in that general direction.
And if the film was shot in the same dull, murky, grey aesthetic as ‘Batman v. Superman’, then I doubt this video would have worked as well as it did. In fact, if I did have to critique, (and this is only a nitpick mind you), the occasional shot from ‘Batman v. Superman’ does feel ridiculously out of place compared to the shots from ‘Wonder Woman’.
Joining the old and new together is something important, because while taking all our favourite comic book characters to new and exciting places is all well and good. Forgetting the origin of these characters and what made them resonate so much with audiences to begin with is a danger. Because then you end up with a Superman who seems to refuse to inspire hope, and doesn’t seem like he actually wants to save people.
‘Wonder Woman’ doesn’t look like it’ll do that from the marketing so far, it feels like it’s got the balance between being new and fresh, while still being recognizably that iconic character. Perhaps that’s what this fan video really does; it reminds us that so far, ‘Wonder Woman’ does feel like it’s actually about Wonder Woman.