WHAT'S IT ABOUT?
Sam and Dean Winchester are hunters, trained by their father after the mysterious death of their mother when Sam was just a baby. After losing contact with their dad, Sam and Dean continue to hunt monsters as they search for their missing father, inadvertently picking up the trail of the demon who killed their mother as well as Sam's girlfriend.
IS IT A GOOD MOVIE?
The CW's horror TV series SUPERNATURAL may not be perfect, but it's certainly become one of television's coolest guilty pleasures for me. I remember a summer not so long ago when I began to have enough time on my hands to get a look at some of the TV shows I'd been missing. My fiancée picked up SUPERNATURAL season one for me as a gift and I was addicted after the first episode, we both were actually. We rolled through that season fast, impatiently awaiting the season two premiere. I don't think Eric Kripke and crew had six or more seasons of this show envisioned in their playbook, but small complaints aside the show's done rather well for itself, sporting some of the coolest cliff hanger finales to boot! Thankfully, story wise, this animated series sticks to the best story arc of them all, that of the yellow eyed demon Azazel and his transition to animation didn't hurt the character a bit, if anything it made him a bit more sinister.
The twenty-two episode stretch covers the ground between season one and two of the TV series (more or less), capturing the moments that count (the origin story of Sam and Dean's mother's death, Sam's girlfriend Jessica, their missing dad, season one's epic finale along with season two's heartfelt premiere and two part finale: ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE) along with some of the more memorable monster hunts. There are however, many original episodes as well, some are better than others but I guess it's better than a complete rehash of the TV series in a connect the dot fashion.
The animation is tight, but anyone who enjoys anime can clearly see this was made in Japan first and then translated. Now on that note, the translation is pretty good but there are moments when a character says something you know is a bit lost or void of proper emotion. My biggest beef here is that although Jared Padalecki does Sam's voice throughout the series (flawlessly I might add), Jensen Ackles only does Dean's voice for the two part finale. That's right, he does Dean's voice for two of the twenty-two episodes. I just don't get this, the boys have intro's to each episode where they say a little blurb about it and seem all pumped and honoured to have their characters taken to the animation level, yet one half of the dynamic duo can't be bothered to voice the other twenty episodes!? This really hurt the integrity of the animated series for me. Obviously the guy's cool with voice acting gigs, he was Jason Todd in BATMAN UNDER THE RED HOOD, so why wipe your ass with the animated series of the TV show that put you on the map? I'm a big fan of the show, but clearly this bothers me more than a little.
SUPERNATURAL: THE ANIME SERIES has all the swagger of the TV series (minus Jensen Ackles voice as Dean) and keeps some of the small tidbits alive like the intro and one of the theme songs by Kansas, Carry On My Wayward Son, which plays as each episode ends. There are a couple small issues that puzzle me however, like Bobby's character, mainly his overhaul in the looks department, the guy looks like a bible salesman rather than a hunter. And the fact that each episode is a slim twenty two minutes or so really cuts down on the mystery solving aspect of the TV show. We're used to fifty minutes of problem solving whereas here, you blink and the boys have already taken care of business. I'm not sure what's in store for future seasons on the animated front but I'd be inclined to take a look if another one surfaces.