Origin of the Black Panther
Like previous Shout! Factory/Marvel Knights releases, this film is a mix between traditional animation and comic books — it’s a motion comic, although I didn’t find this film to be as ‘rigid’ as Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men: The Gift. That said, the film is split into six episodes, each about twenty minutes in length. This is an origin tale of Black Panther, and it begins with some US brass talking about the African nation of Wakanda. This specific area of Africa is unique in that it has never been conquered. It’s a highly advanced society that keeps to itself but can be very violent when provoked.
Over the years, many nations and people have tried to claim Wakanda as it’s the only place on Earth that has a super rare and very potent mineral known as Vibranium, which in the Marvel Universe, according to Wikipedia, is used in Captain America’s shield. The Captain, along with several X-Men including Storm (who was not originally penned in the graphic novel but was added as a love interest for the film) play a significant role in the film. Anyway, the first couple of episodes get viewers introduced to Wakanda and its Warrior King lineage. Annually, Wakandians can fight for the right to be the Black Panther. A young king T’Challa wins and becomes the new Panther.
But the villain Klaw, who has previous connections with T’Challa intends to wipe out the Black Panther and overtake Wakanda. He enlists the help of some villains including Juggernaut. The battle takes place on the fields of Africa and even partly within a virtual world in the final episode.
Overall, The Black Panther is an enjoyable movie. I don’t know that I would really ever watch it again (same with other Marvel Knights Animations releases) but that’s more so because of my mild interest in the characters than anything related to the quality of the film or animation.
The DVD
The Black Panther is a straight-forward release. The image quality is on par for what you would expect and the audio is as well. The main theme song is catchy but you almost hear it too often — from the top menu, within the menus, at the start and end of every episode, you get the idea. As for extra features:
-Music Video – The main theme is played while scenes from the film are shown.
-Trailer – A trailer for the movie.
-Looking Back At Black Panther with Reginald Hudlin – Comicbook fan and writer for the film and the graphic novel it’s based on speaks about series and how it came about. It’s a very candid and interesting interview that runs about fifteen minutes.
With that, let’s get to the summary…