Review: Doctor Strange Animated Movie

The animated “Doctor Strange” movie will be released on Tuesday August 14, 2007. Doctor Strange is probably one of the more esoteric of Marvel’s comic properties so one has to wonder how that will translate to a movie. Well after viewing the upcoming DVD let’s just say convoluted will cover it. Bryce Johnson supplies the voice of Stephen Strange our tragic hero who is driven by the loss of his sister to become a world class surgeon but traumatized into refusing to treat children. I don’t recall a sister in the comic books but I could be mistaken. Some elements remain from Doctor Strange’s comic book origins like his car accident and his journey to study with the Ancient One but the film tries to focus on two many plots at the same time. Running at 1 hour and 23 minutes the film written by Greg Johnson and Craig Kyle is a bit too ambitious with two villains, Doctor Strange’s spiritual journey, and of course the climatic “save the world” scene. While the villainous Baron Mordo is included he is reduced to a jealous traitor eventually in the service of Dormammu, who for plot purposes is preying on the nightmares of children. The movie includes many battle scenes with the Chenoo which are giant beast that ascend from the depths of Dormammu’s realm and cause havoc on Earth. The film also features Wong and for what I guess are marketing reasons 8 other “mystical” warriors as “victims” for Mordo and the Chenoo. The film would have faired better focusing on Baron Mordo and his treachery while placing the ground work for a sequel with Dormammu. The animation is acceptable and the pacing is good but by trying to cover two major villains and an origin story causes the character of Baron Mordo to become less Voldemort to Strange’s Harry and more Draco, pissy and arrogant but ineffectual. The movie ends with Wong mentioning Clea so if there is a sequel, expect to see the Doctor’s wife making an appearance. As I mentioned, Doctor Strange has always been one of Marvel’s harder to define characters because of his vast powers and extra-dimensional adversaries, often making him more of a plot device than a well rounded hero, but in the early stages of his heroic career he should be more accessible. That is were the film lost a golden opportunity by attempting to force the origin story along with the threat of the villains. The movie should have chosen to focus on either an origin story with Mordo as the villain or with Doctor Strange as an established hero fighting Dormammu.