History WesternAnimation / WonderWoman

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Wonder_Woman_DCUAOM_7912.jpg]]

''Wonder Woman'' is an animated film from 2009 and part of the WesternAnimation/DCUniverseAnimatedOriginalMovies line, involving a kind of SuperheroOrigin for the [[WonderWoman title character]]. It stars ''{{Felicity}}''[='=]s Keri Russell as Diana/Wonder Woman, and ''Series/{{Firefly}}'''s NathanFillion as Steve Trevor. The film involves Diana's first venture into the outside world in order to stop Ares, the Greek god of war, from gaining all the powers of Olympus and using them to destroy the world.

Along the way, she is helped by Steve Trevor, and the two become involved in a somewhat complicated partnership whilst trying to track down Ares.

----
!!Tropes:

* ActionDressRip: Diana rips off the dress that Steve gave her to take down some thugs.
* ActionGirl: The Amazons
* ActionPrologue
* AdaptationDistillation
* AdiposeRex: Hades, who's so large that his throne is a lounge sofa!
* [[AliensSpeakingEnglish Amazons Speaking English]]
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Hippolyta's tryst with Ares. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Steve.
--> '''Steve''': Your mother and Ares? Really? The whole God of War thing didn't raise any red flags? I guess it's not surprising. Women always go for the bad boy.
* AlmostKiss: Steve tries this on Diana twice. The first time, he's very drunk and she rejects him (by moving out of the way as he leaned in, letting his head fall onto a bar stool). The second time, it looks like it’s about to happen after Steve both points out the hypocrisy of the StrawFeminism that some of the Amazons possess and expresses his true feelings for Diana... then she slaps him in the face (supposedly for attempting to make another move on her).
* AmazonChaser: Steve's first reaction to Diana trying to beat him up was to hit on her.
* AncientGrome: Minor example, but the Amazons' battle armor is based on Roman armor.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: The movie ends with [[spoiler: Diana changing into her costume to fight The Cheetah]].
* BadassArmy: The Amazons.
* BadassNormal: Steve Trevor.
* BatmanGambit:
** [[spoiler: Hades helps Ares by breaking his restraints, secretly anticipating his defeat and subsequent enslavement in the Underworld.]]
** [[spoiler: Diana tricks Ares into using Zeus' lightning to finish her rather than doing it the old-fashioned way. This lets her pull ''him'' into the blast using her lasso, weakening him long enough for her to behead him.]]
* BigBad: Ares.
* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: The Amazons coming to help Diana and handle Ares' army in Washington DC.]]
* TheBigDamnKiss: Diana and Steve after [[spoiler: Ares is killed and his army retreats]].
* {{BFS}}: Artemis wields one. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Hippolyta.
-->'''Hippolyta''': And you could not find a bigger sword Artemis? \\
'''Artemis''': Sword? This is but my dagger.
* [[BlackDudeDiesFirst Black Girl Dies First]]: In the dogfight above the island.
* BlondesAreEvil: Played straight with Ares and Thrax, averted with Steve [[spoiler: and [[ZigZaggingTrope zigzagged]] with Persephone]].
* BloodlessCarnage: Used and averted regularly, most notably in both decapitations.
* BloodKnight: Artemis.
* BookEnds: In the battle at the beginning of the movie, Hippolyta is seen slicing off the head of the son that she was forced to conceive with Ares. In the last battle of the movie, [[spoiler:Diana beheads Ares in a similar manner]].
* ButLiquorIsQuicker: Implied with Steve Trevor's attempt to get Diana drunk, though he might have just been trying to [[InVinoVeritas get her to loosen up a bit]]. Too bad for him that [[NeverGetsDrunk Amazons don't get drunk]].
* TheCameo: [[spoiler: Cheetah makes a brief appearance at the end.]]
* CannotSpitItOut: Inverted with Steve whenever the Lasso of Truth is used on him. He really hopes the Amazons can't mass produce that thing.
* CanonImmigrant: Persephone shows up later during GailSimone's run on the comic, as well as ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueTheFlashpointParadox''.
* ChangingClothesIsAFreeAction: Averted. Notable because the comic version of Diana once provided the page image.
* ChivalrousPervert: The film's version of Steve Trevor comes across as one.
* CombatPragmatist: A sparring match seems to be over when Artemis poises a sharp, broken staff at Diana's neck...until Diana throws Artemis to the ground by yanking on her ponytail from behind.
* CompositeCharacter: Artemis is equal parts Artemis and Philippus.
* ConflictBall: Ares' mere presence forces one upon the entire world. It also leads to [[spoiler:the President approving a missile strike on Themyscira without a second thought]].
* CoolPlane: Her iconic invisible jet. [[spoiler:[[AbnormalAmmo Its missiles are invisible too]].]]
* CreepyMonotone: Hades speaks like this quite a few times.
* CulturedBadass: Wonder Woman discusses [[{{Tragedy}} Greek theatre]] with Steve at the bar.
* DeadpanSnarker:
** Hippolyta.
--> '''Artemis''': I could have shot her in the leg. Not near an artery, of course.
--> '''Hippolyta''': [[SarcasmMode You are the soul of thoughtfulness, Artemis]].
** Steve as well. It's all he does in his non-action scenes.
* DecapitatedArmy: [[spoiler:Literally. Once Diana beheads Ares, his soldiers just look on for a moment, then turn around and walk off]].
* DefrostingIceQueen: [[spoiler:Artemis learns to slow down and enjoy a philosophic book.]]
* DoubleStandard: A major plot point. [[spoiler: The reason Persephone defects is her frustration and resentment at being forced to live a military life while Hippolyta was allowed to have a baby and raise a family.]]
* DressedInLayers: Diana goes out with Steve in a dress. She had her costume on the entire time underneath it, as the fight with Deimos demonstrates.
* DualWielding: Some Amazons, [[spoiler: with zombie!Alexa being the most notable one.]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He deeply cares for his vicious son, Thrax, and practically begged Hippolyta not to kill him. When Ares sees his son lifeless in Hades, he's visibly upset.
* EvenEvilHasStandards
* EverybodyHatesHades: Played with. [[spoiler:Hades looks like he's agreeing to free Ares so the restored god of war can kill, well, everyone on Earth and provide Hades with their souls, but it turns out there's only one soul Hades is really interested in, revealed when his BatmanGambit comes to fruition.]] Given he looks more like Bacchus than Hades, perhaps this isn't surprising.
* ExactWords: Hades informs Ares that Zeus "begged me not to help you" when Ares asks him to remove his RestrainingBolt. [[spoiler:At the very end of the movie, when Ares has been killed and is another helpless slave to Hades, Hades reveals that the reason Zeus asked for that was that Zeus would not be able to save Ares again]].
* EyeScream: Persephone loses her right eye in the opening battle.
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler: Persephone falls in love with Ares during her time guarding his cell and helps him escape.]]
* {{Fanservice}}: Plenty.
** When the Amazon army is described as "a group of armored supermodels", then yeah.
* FatBastard: Hades again, at least towards the dead who serve him if his treatment of Ares' dead son is any indication.
* FeedItABomb: How Steve defeats a demon earlier in the film.
* FinishingStomp: Diana delivers a barefoot one to Deimos' face. Subverted in that it does not defeat Deimos, who blocks Diana's attempt to give him a second one. It takes a jumping spin kick to finally take him down.
* FootFocus: Diana is barefoot during her fight with Deimos, and uses a lot more kicks than usual in comparison to her previous fights. It ends with the aforementioned FinishingStomp followed by a jumping spin kick for good measure. Lots of close-ups focused on Diana's feet right at the impact of each kick.
** [[spoiler: A brief one focuses on Cheetah. After jumping on top of an officer's shoulders, a close-up shows Cheetah's feet standing on his shoulders before she uses them to kill him with a NeckSnap.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Alexa says to Persephone that "the heart wants what the heart wants, even that which is worst for it", referring to Diana's wish to see the world of man. However, it foreshadows [[spoiler:Persephone's affair with Ares and impending betrayal]].
* AGodAmI: Ares. Yeah, he was already a god to begin with; but then [[spoiler:he becomes "[[AllYourPowersCombined as fast as Hermes, as strong as Hercules and [able to] control the dead like Hades]]" at the beginning of the final battle]].
* GrapesOfLuxury: Hades is depicted as an overweight slob who enjoys eating grapes served to him by the damned whom he has enslaved.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: Persephone's arguments about the wrongness of Hippolyta's hiding the Amazons away from Man's World:
-->'''Hippolyta:''' "You were given a life of peace and beauty!"
-->'''Persephone:''' "And denied one of families and children. Yes Hippolyta, the Amazons ''are'' warriors, but we are ''women'' too."
** In his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, Steve also points out that while a lot of Diana and the Amazons' criticisms of the patriarchal mores of Man's World might be justified, their way of life and methods haven't helped the situation much either; their attitudes are just as elitist as the attitudes they condemn, but rather than do anything that might change Man's World for the better, they hid themselves away.
* GroinAttack: Diana does this to Steve when they first meet (right after they have a brief sparring match in which Steve says that he thinks he "likes her"). Artemis also threatens to castrate him herself if he doesn't leave Diana alone.
** Also in the opening by a couple of Amazons; seems Jewel Kick is a standard Amazon skill.
* HatePlague: Ares' mere presence brings out violence and hate in mortals around him. Diana and Steve track Ares by following the sudden rise in violent crimes.
* HiddenElfVillage: Themyscira.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: Ares gains the powers of the Olympian pantheon, with the intention of using them to overthrow Olympus and destroy the world. In his fight against Diana, he attempts to use Zeus' lightning to finish her, but she uses her lasso to pull him into it and jumps out of the way. The blast of lightning depowers Ares long enough for Diana to decapitate him. Seconds before this, Ares calls out to Zeus to save his life (like he did in the prologue), but it seems dear old daddy wasn't too pleased with the "overthrow Olympus and destroy the world" plan.]]
* HonorBeforeReason: Steve saves Diana instead of stopping Ares. [[WhatTheHellHero Diana promptly calls him out on his decision.]]
* HotterAndSexier: Etta Candy.
* {{Hypocrite}}: In his angry rejoinder to Diana's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech after he saved her life (and her frequent and vocal dismissiveness towards himself and Man's World in general), Steve accuses the Amazons of this. While they pride themselves on being brave and fearless warriors, in fleeing from and hiding themselves away from the rest of the world they made themselves look cowardly. They sneer at the patriarchal systems of Man's World and the power imbalance between men and women it results in, but their own matriarchal system has created a similar power imbalance, just with women at the top. And while they hold Man's World in contempt, rather than do anything to change the way it worked they just threw up more barriers between men and women.
* IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHer: The 'female warning male' variant. When Steve Trevor asks Artemis what Wonder Woman's "deal" is, he's met with this reply.
--->'''Artemis''': Her ''deal'' is that I will personally castrate you if you come within five yards of her.
* {{Immortality}}: The Amazons and Ares are all immortal. Ares even has followers who have been waiting patiently for him to return since ancient times.
* IronicEcho: In the opening battle, Artemis rebukes Alexa for relying on wisdom from "some dead philosopher" rather than fighting with her sword. Later, during the battle in DC, [[spoiler: Alexa saves the Amazons from their own dead sisters by revealing to Artemis a chant which releases the undead Amazons from Ares' control... a chant that Alexa learned in a magic book by "some dead philosopher".]]
* KickChick: Downplayed during her fight with Deimos as Diana uses more kicks than usual but still uses her arms to fight as well. Played straight after she does an EyeScream on Deimos, on which case ALL of Diana's attacks are brutal kicks to her agonizing opponent, complete with FootFocus close-ups.
* LightningCanDoAnything
* MarionetteMotion: [[spoiler:The Amazon zombies]].
* MonumentalDamage: Including the Lincoln and Washington Memorials, the Reflecting Pool (at least from getting blood in it, [[BloodlessCarnage maybe]]), the White House and the Capitol Building. That first one [[BerserkButton pisses Steve off]].
--> '''Steve:''' ''No one'' messes with Lincoln!
* MostCommonSuperpower: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Steve Trevor to the point of almost making a GagBoobs joke.
-->'''Hippolyta''': What other depraved thoughts might you be thinking? \\
'''Steve''': God, your daughter's got a nice rack.
* MuggingTheMonster: A bunch of thugs try and mug Diana and Steve outside a bar. Bad idea.
* MythologyGag: Possibly. In the closing scene, Diana is seen [[{{Franchise/Superman}} wearing glasses as part of a new secret identity and begins changing for combat by pulling opening her shirt to reveal her costume underneath]].
* NeckSnap:
** Steve neck snaps an Ares cultist during his and Diana's infiltration.
** [[spoiler:Cheetah manages to do one with her ''feet'' during the ending]].
* [[NonActionGuy Non Action Girl]]: Alexa, much to the bane of her sister Artemis. [[spoiler:Until she comes back from the dead, that is.]]
* NoSocialSkills: Wonder Woman. She's less naive than her portrayal in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''--while she questions things just as often, it's not because she doesn't understand what's going on, it's because she finds social mores that are borne of patriarchy annoying and pointless.
* NotSoAboveItAll: For all the crap the Amazons give men, as Steve points out they're not so perfect themselves.
* OffingTheOffspring: Heroic example: Hippolyta beheads the son Ares "forced on her", who was murdering her fellow Amazons for his father.
* OffModel: Upon Deimos's appearance, Diana immediately dons her tiara. In the next shot, it's gone, only to return in the shot following that.
* OffWithHisHead: The fate of Ares' son [[spoiler:and Ares himself]].
* OhCrap:
** Used repeatedly throughout the film. Particularly effective when Diana herself uses it [[spoiler: After Are's influence pushes the President of the United States to launch a nuke at Themyscira, causing the war god to reach new levels of strength.]]
** A hilarious one is when [[spoiler:Steve tries to prevent the missile strike on Themyscira. He panics when it seems that the jet won't shoot anything...before realizing that the invisible jet's missiles are ''also'' invisible]].
* OneWingedAngel: [[spoiler:As soon as the President of the United States orders a nuke against Themiscyra, the psychic energy of the destructive force and hate that went into deciding to use it transforms Ares, making him twice as tall and bulky as he was before and giving him some very demonic looking armor.]]
* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: A trigger-happy one who jumps to conclusions rather quickly. However, it's mentioned that Ares' mere presence inspires violent thoughts in man, and he was standing on the White House roof for a while.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: [[spoiler:Controlled by the god of war, who has gained the powers of Hades.]] All of them are [[spoiler:Amazons]]. Any more who are killed instantly [[spoiler:come under Ares' control. They are freed from his control by an ancient chant, however, and seem to have most of their former minds intact when that happens.]]
* OutdoorBathPeeping: Steve Trevor when he first arrives on Themiscyra.
* PantyShot: Diana gets one during the fight with Deimos. Downplayed since the "panties" are the bottom half of her normal costume.
* PeekABangs: Persephone. They cover up her injured eye.
* PhysicalGod: Ares.
* PositiveDiscrimination: Every man in this movie is evil or a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
* PowerMakesYourHairGrow: Part of [[spoiler:Ares' OneWingedAngel form]] is his hair going from short and close-cropped to ankle-length.
* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: Subverted. Body language right before the fact strongly implies that Ares will to sacrifice Persephone--who betrayed her fellow Amazons to free him--to open the gates of Hades, but he simply uses one of his [[{{Mooks}} cultists]] as a sacrifice instead.
* RRatedOpening: The movie opens with a brutal battle sequence that includes the above-mentioned beheading, and the first line is about sex (Hippolyta taunting Ares about not being good in bed).
* RuleOfThree: [[spoiler:Steve finally gets that kiss on his third try]].
* RunningGag: The vulgarity of "crap." At first, the Amazons are disgusted by it (including Diana) but she ends up using it later [[spoiler: after seeing a powered up Ares.]]
* ScrewYouElves: Steve gives a rant to Diana about how the Amazons are not as perfect as she makes them out to be, saying, among other things, that they were cowardly to seclude themselves from the rest of the world.
* SecondPersonAttack: The ending has Diana lassoing Cheetah and pulling her in, the camera then switches to Cheetah's [=POV=] to see Diana winding up.
* SiblingYinYang: [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Artemis]] and her [[NonActionGuy sister]] [[{{Bookworm}} Alexa]].
* SoftWater: Steve falls a long way into a river while he's being chased by the Amazons, but vines and tree branches slowing him down as he falls pay lip service to the inaccuracy of the trope.
* SpaceWhaleAesop: [[spoiler:Don't ever launch a nuclear missile, or Ares will turn into a giant samurai with the powers of all the gods at his command]].
* StrawFeminist: Wonder Woman and some of the other Amazons have tendencies in this direction, but mostly seem to get over them by the film's end.
* StabTheScorpion: Diana and Steve manage to do this to each other simultaneously as they infiltrate the Cult of Ares--Diana with her tiara, Steve with a jackknife.
* {{Stripperiffic}}: Wonder Woman's outfit; [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] a few times by Steve Trevor.
--> '''Steve''': Let's get you changed into something that won't get me arrested for solicitation first.
* TemptingFate: "What other depraved thoughts must you be thinking?"
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Given by Trevor to Diana after [[spoiler: Steve saves her instead of stopping Ares from opening the gates of Tartarus]].
** Trevor gets his own on her and the Amazons soon after.
* ThouShaltNotKill: Critics of the 2011 TV pilot called the writers out on having Wonder Woman killing bad guys in cold blood, but she'd already gone there with this movie which at one point shows her slicing the throats of two security guards ''with her tiara''. (Steve also does a NeckSnap on a guy from behind.)
** There were a few critics of that here too, according to ThatOtherWiki, to the extent that the {{Novelization}} leaves out them murdering the guards. The producers of the 2011 pilot were either warned too late about this reaction or just didn't listen.
* ThrowAwayGuns: Steve uses one in the fight with the cultists. Oddly, he is seen with the exact same gun later.
* TitleDrop: By the little girl at the end. Up until then, the titular character had been called "Diana".
* TheUnfairSex: Played with but deconstructed over time as Diana and later Hippolyta realize that gender doesn't matter when it comes to certain decisions.
* TookALevelInBadass: [[spoiler: Alexa, after coming BackFromTheDead. Not only she beats Artemis, but also manages to cast a spell to break dead Amazons from Ares's control!]]
* UnfazedEveryman: While Steve is a BadassNormal, he otherwise fits this trope quite well. He takes Greek gods, immortal Amazons, magic lassos, and invisible aircraft with the exact same response: be surprised for a moment, move on.
* VillainousBSOD: Ares has one after his son Thrax is beheaded by Hippolyta.
* VillainHasAPoint: Persephone's arguments about the wrongness of Hippolyta's hiding the Amazons away from Man's World, especially since she likely didn't ''ask'' any of the Amazons their opinion on the matter before making her decision:
-->'''Hippolyta:''' You were given a life of peace and beauty!
-->'''Persephone:''' And denied one of families and children. Yes Hippolyta, the Amazons '''are''' warriors, but we are '''women''' too.
* VorpalPillow: Alexa. Justified in that she had just been stabbed and the hand over her face doing the smothering was Ares'.
* WaterfallShower: Alexa takes one alongside some other girls.
* WearingAFlagOnYourHead: Wonder Woman's outfit, of course. Hippolyta explains it as donning the colors of a foreign country as a sign of goodwill.
* WhatTheHellHero: See HonorBeforeReason above.
* WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent: Artemis is not happy with her sister Alexa's non-warrior ways. Instead of grieving for her death, she's angry at her failure. [[spoiler:When Alexa comes back as a zombie, Artemis curses her for all her mistakes. However, they reconcile after Artemis realizes she's trying to speak a spell to free them from Ares' command.]]
----