Freedom Fighters: The Ray
Studio: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation
Release Date: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital - August 28, 2018
Synopsis:The creative team behind hit live-action series Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow brings the acclaimed CW Seed animated series to a feature-length presentation in Freedom Fighters: The Ray.
All his life, Ray Terrill has fought injustice, dreaming of making a real difference like his older brother, a Marine who was killed in Afghanistan. One day, he stumbles upon a dying Super Hero from another Earth and is stunned to find that this Super Hero looks just like him—because it is! The dying Ray Terrill of Earth-X transfers photokinetic energy to this Earth’s Ray, making him a Super Hero – The Ray. However, Ray quickly learns being a Super Hero isn’t all hanging muggers from streetlamps and fighting giant robots. As the evil Nazi New Reichsman of Earth-X, led by Overgirl, close in, The Ray must learn to harness his powers by coming to terms with his true self, even if that means also finally coming out of the closet to his parents. The fate of Earth-X depends on it!
Freedom Fighters: The Ray features a stellar voice cast led by Russell Tovey (Quantico) as The Ray/Ray Terrill. He is joined by Jason Mitchell (Straight Outta Compton) as Black Condor/John Trujillo, Dilshad Vadsaria (Greek) as Phantom Lady/Jenny Knight, Melissa Benoist (Supergirl) as Overgirl, and Megalyn Echikunwoke (The 4400, 90210) as Vixen. The voice cast also spotlights Arrow actor Echo Kellum (Curtis Holt/Mr. Terrific) and The Flash actors Danielle Panabaker (Dr. Caitlin Snow) and Carlos Valdez (Cisco Ramon/Vibe), reprising their live-action series roles in animated form.
The cast also includes Iddo Goldberg (Peaky Blinders) as Red Tornado, Sunil Malhotra (The Legend of Korra) as Jacob, Matthew Mercer (Critical Role) as Dollman/Green Arrow/Black Arrow, Colleen O’Shaughnessy (Sonic Boom) as Mrs. Terrill, Laura Post (Justice League Action) as Resistance Gunner, Christopher Corey Smith (Digimon Fusion) as Donald, Bruce Thomas (Legally Blonde, Army of Darkness) as Mr. Terrill, and Scott Whyte (City Guys) as The Flash/Blitzkrieg.
Ethan Spaulding (Justice League: Throne of Atlantis) directed Freedom Fighters: The Ray from a script written by Emilio Ortega Aldrich (Arrow), Lauren Certo (The Flash), Marc Guggenheim (Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow), Sarah Hernandez (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow), Elizabeth Kim (Arrow) and Sarah Tarkoff (Arrow, Vixen). Curt Geda (Batman Unlimited: Mechs vs. Mutants) is the producer, and the executive producers are Greg Berlanti (Arrow, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, Black Lightning) and Marc Guggenheim.
BLU-RAY, DVD, DIGITAL SPECIAL FEATURES
· An Interview With Actor Russell Tovey, the Voice of The Ray
Freedom Fighters: The Ray Review
By James Harvey
CW Seed continues to expand the Arrowverse beyond its (mostly) acclaimed live-action series with its latest animated project, Freedom Fighters: The Ray. Following in the footsteps of Vixen and Constantine: City of Demons, this stitched together "movie" lays the groundwork for the 2017 "Crisis on Earth-X" Arrowverse crossover, and does a good job at filling out some of the characters from the event. However, pacing glitches, continuity gaffes and a clumsy script undercut mosts of the feature's positive attributes and make this arguably the weakest of the animated Arrowverse adventures
All his life, Ray Terrill has fought injustice, dreaming of making a real difference like his older brother, a Marine who was killed in Afghanistan. One day, he stumbles upon a dying superhero from another Earth and is stunned to find that this hero looks just like him - because it is! The dying Ray Terrill of Earth-X transfers photokinetic energy to this Earth's Ray. As the evil Nazi New Reichsman of Earth-X, led by Overgirl, close in, The Ray must learn to harness his powers by coming to terms with his true self!
Russell Tovey reprises his role as The Ray, from the live-action "Crisis on Earth-X" Arrowverse event, for this animated prequel, and this animated feature admittedly does a solid job in filling in the character's backstory. Unfortunately, when it comes to both the story-telling and overall production, so much of both feel clunky and haphazardly strung together. The culprit is undoubtedly the format for Freedom Fighters: The Ray here, an episodic online web-series edited into a "movie," which becomes a hindrance to nearly every aspect of this animated project.
Originally a twelve-episode web-series of animated shorts, running six-eight minutes each, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's attempt to format those into a single feature doesn't quite go as smoothly as its other recent similar efforts, Vixen and Constantine: City of Demons. The disjointed pacing and stuffed, repetitive dialogue causes Freedom Fighters: The Ray to lurch ahead in fits rather than smoothly moving from beat to beat. The feature tends to awkwardly jump between the dark events of Earth-X, the superheroics on Earth-1, and all the character drama in-between, without a satisfying narrative thread or framing device to make it all click together. Even the extras scenes added for the home video release (these titles always feature additional scenes not included in the animated web-series format) don't do anything to improve the story.
Freedom Fighters: The Ray's overall clumsiness is just that much more exacerbated by the film's very heavy-handed messaging, as well-meaning as it may be. The film's story draws parallels between being gay and hiding a superhero identity, a solid metaphor, but the messaging is so flat and extremely on-the-nose that it feels like something ripped from a PSA or "a very special episode." While the feature does handle The Ray's eventual coming out pretty well, and there's some very welcoming wish fulfillment with him taking down some Nazis, the unsubtle messaging robs the film of any real emotinal weight.
There's also a couple distracting continuity snafus that cause a teeny bit of confusion. Freedom Fighters: The Ray features Arrow, The Flash and Mr. Terrific wearing the wrong costumes for that point in the Arrowverse timeline. Another inconsistency is Arrow and Team Flash knowing The Ray as both a hero and a civilian in Freedom Fighters: The Ray, but in "Crisis on Earth-X" it's clear that they have no idea who Ray is. These aren't major issues, but it might puzzle the more continuity-focused fans.
Despite the best efforts of director Ethan Spaulding, Freedom Fighters: The Ray just can't pull itself neatly together. The script and pacing issues, already present in the original animated shorts but just not as apparent in that format, become almost insurmountable when edited together into this single narrative. It's a bit of a shame given this is DC Comics' first ever animated property led by a gay character, and the representation here is actually mostly well-handled, save for the odd bit of cringey "modern" dialogue, and the end result just sadly underwhelms.
Freedom Fighters: The Ray isn't a total loss, though. The foes are formidable, most of the set pieces here are well-handled, including a solid fight scene between Overgirl and Red Tornado, and there's some truly strong character beats littered throughout. There's truly a great movie in here, but Freedom Fighters: The Ray just unfortunately doesn't have the time it needs to dig a little deeper and really nail the story it's trying to tell. The idea that heroism begins with self-acceptance is a fantastic message, and it's a shame this movie can't live up to it.
Again, there's clear effort by the cast and crew to make Freedom Fighters: The Ray work, even when it comes to the animation quality. The animation is surprisingly strong for an animated web-series, roughly around the same quality as a DC Universe Animated Original Movie title, which helps to smooth over this bumpy production a shade. The voice acting is also worthy of a nod, especially Tovey's commendable spin as The Ray and Melissa Benoist (Supergirl) clearly having a ball as Overgirl.
Despite its issues, there's no doubt some fans will be eager to scoop this up. For those looking to check out Freedom Fighters: The Ray, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has released the "movie" to Blu-ray, DVD, and digital media. Out of these options, unsurprisingly, the Blu-ray edition reigns supreme, even if the release ultimately falls short when it comes to bonus content.
When it comes to the audio and video transfers, thankfully, both here are strong and do the trick. Even with the occasional banding issue (which, really, is standard with the studio's DC Comics-based animated movie releases), the Blu-ray's 1080p transfer looks sharp thanks to colors that pop and decent black levels and shadow detail. The disc's DTS-HD MA 5.1 track servicably delivers with clear and centered dialogue and action beats which make good use of the surround channels. Good work, from top to bottom, for both.
However, the bonus features here are incredibly scant. The main extra is the "An Interview With Actor Russell Tovey, the Voice of The Ray" mini-featurette, which runs just shy of two minutes. Tovey says a couple things about his character and his motivations, plus there's a quick glimpse of him doing some voice recording and, yeah, that's it. There's also trailers for The Death of Superman, Batman Ninja, and Suicide Squad: Hell To Pay, with DVD and digital copies of Freedom Fighters: The Ray to wrap things up. Not even ten minutes of on-disc extras, the majority of which are trailers.
Freedom Fighters: The Ray ultimately disappoints in the end, with cool action and poignant character beats unable to overcome the clunky pacing and underwhelming script. Still, completists and Arrowverse fans will probably find a bit to like here, despite the continuity snafus and lacking script, and the sparse Blu-ray release is unfortunately the best option for ownership. It's a shame Freedom Fighters: The Ray can't quite stick the landing, since there's definitely merit to the message it's trying to get across, but maybe The Ray will get another chance to shine in the future. Watch At Your Own Risk!
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Related Reviews:
Vixen: The Movie - Constantine: City of Demons
