Synopsis
The Justice League must stop Lex Luthor from going back in time to eliminate Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman by changing their origin stories. With the help of teen superheroes Karate Kid and Dawnstar, the Justice League must face its biggest challenge ever… the threat of having never existed!
The movie starts out absolutely right. You get a major battle between the Justice League and the Legion of Doom. From a battle in the arctic to a battle reaching up to space, you get just a hardcore, fast-paced movie opening that really sets the tone for the rest of the film.
Zach Snyder should probably take some notes from this opening. No, seriously.
The Legion of Doom is trying to create more ice in the arctic, thus starving the water supply on earth. All of this made possible by giant ice beam satellites in space. A miscalculation leads to the ice beams turning on Lex Luthor as the movie shifts its gears down, appropriately, and begins the narrative of Lex Luthor perishing in his own icy creation (or so it seems), which pretty much ends the Legion of Doom.
Fast forward time about a thousand years and we’re introduced to a winged hero named Dawnstar and her companion, and wannabe Justice League member, Karate Kid. Both are touring a museum in the 31st century and run across a frozen Lex Luthor on display. After playing around, Karate Kid accidentally frees Luthor. The freed and disoriented Luthor stumbles upon a Superman display, which reveals Superman’s true identity and his place of birth. Luthor then immediately finds a perfect weapon to eliminate all of the Justice League members — an hour glass that contains a being called the Time Trapper, who can send Luthor (and the Legion of Doom) back in time to eliminate Superman as a baby.
While certainly out there in terms of story, the idea of Superman getting eliminated is an intriguing plot twist and creates all sorts of complication for the entire DC universe. It’s certainly a cool story arc that plays well the rest of the way. Luthor returns to the time where he was frozen and is also followed by Dawnstar and Karate Kid, who will ultimately be the catalyst in stopping Luthor and the Time Trapper.
I won’t give away anymore of the story, but just know that the writing in JLA Adventures: Time Trapped is a combination of humorous and intelligent, which gives it a good balance of emotion and enjoyment. It seems more than just a fancy cartoon you would find one night on Cartoon Network. It’s a very thought out piece of work that is worth you time and attention. I especially enjoy the seriousness of the situation and think this type of story certainly bodes well for anyone thinking about jumping on the DC bandwagon. It’s not hokey and it’s believable within this universe.
If DC and Warner Brothers can produce stories like this on the big screen then they will go nose-to-nose with Marvel in the coming years. So, again, Zach Snyder, take note of how the animated series is successfully producing entertaining stories like this with a gaggle of DC heroes/villains. They are a great reference for how to do it right and how to keep all these heroes/villain relevant within a single story.
Anyway, you’ll find a lot of substance with Trapped in Time. It does a great job in the entertainment department without really stumbling along the way.
As for the special features, you get two additional old school Super Friends cartoons from the early 80s. One involved Wonder Woman and Atom becoming trapped in a time traveling elevator from a random mad scientist. The other was an additional Super Friends episode that was very 80s. Anyway, they were both short and sweet, but definitely aged after watching JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time.
Other than those episodes, there were no additional features.
