DC Showcase: Superman & Shazam!: O Retorno do Adão Negro

When I sat down here in 2023 to watch the 2010 DC animated movie "Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam" with my son, I wasn't really harboring much of any grand expectations. I am not overly fond of or keen on superheroes in general.

However, I have to say that "Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam", from writer Michael Jelenic and director Joaquim Dos Santos, turned out to be one of the better DC animated movies I have seen in a long, long time. I was genuinely entertained through the 25 minutes that the feature ran for.

The art style and animation in "Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam" was good. It was fast paced with a lot of fighting, and the things on the screen looked nice. Which definitely helped to bring the story to life in an enjoyable manner on the screen.

With "Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam" being an animated movie, then having a proper voice ensemble is important, and the definitely had that here. With the likes of James Garner, George Newbern, Jerry O'Connell, Kevin Michael Richardson, Gary Cole, Alyssa Milano, Malcolm McDowell, Jon Polito, Neal McDonough, John DiMaggio and Grey Griffin, then you are in capable hands. And then there was Arnold Vosloo, which was the icing on the cake. He was so well cast to voice Black Adam.

If you enjoy the DC universe, then I will say that "Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam" is definitely well-worth sitting down to spent 25 minutes on watching.

My rating of "Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam" lands on a seven out of ten stars.

This DC Showcase short is a tad longer than the rest, it stands at around 25 minutes and is about Billy Batsons rise to become the superhero known as Captain Marvel.

We see Superman jump in and save young Billy from Black Adam, but my biggest complaint is that this is a big story and 25 minutes simply doesn't suffice.

Alike the other showcases this is very well animated, has a great voice cast and is well written. Sadly it all feels rushed and I struggled to get into it.

Well worth a watch for fans of the DC Showcase shorts, but I feel it was a bit underwhelming.

The Good:

Well animated

The Bad:

Story is simply too big for 25 minutes

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

This has actually made me want a live action Shazam movie, but I fear I'll regret saying that

The young marvel, Shazam teams up with Superman and learns what it's like to be a hero when they battle Shazam's enemy Black Adam. A well done show that highlights the strengths and weaknesses of being Shazam.

Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam (2010) is a DC animated short film that was fun to watch.

Positives for Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam (2010): This short film gets to the point of the narrative without any filler and it works. I like the voice cast with George Newbern as Superman, Jerry O'Connell as Captain Marvel, Zach Callison as Billy Batson and Arnold Vosloo as Black Adam. I like the short interactions between Superman and Billy Watson before the action gets started. The animation looks amazing and it is very dynamic. The battle between Superman, Captain Marvel and Black Adam is very brutal and awesome. And finally, I liked how Kevin Michael Richardson's character helps our two main character with stopping Black Adam.

Negatives for Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam (2010): This short is one of those "blink and you'll miss it" type of experiences that requires your attention from start to finish and you'll easily get lost with the story if you lose interest in the movie.

Overall, Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam (2010) is a fun DC animated short film that you can kick back and enjoy.

First off, I'm a huge fan of all things DC and have loved all the animated series and movies they've done. Some of the newer ones have had a noticeably different look or feel to them, which is kind of nice sometimes.

I'm going to mention the negatives of this movie first, since that might be of particular interest to some fans. The main feature is actually only about a half hour long, with three additional "DC SPotlight" shorts, about 20 minutes each, featuring Green Arrow, Jonah Hex, and The Spectre.

The Spectre short was my least favorite, simply because he is more of a supernatural entity rather than a superhero, and you don't have the same kind of conflict in this one that you do with the others. He's not really fighting anyone, but rather acting as sort of a physical manifestation of "karma" and making sure three criminals get their just rewards.

I was particularly pleased with both the Green Arrow and Jonah Hex shorts. I thought the western setting for an animated movie seemed particularly cool and natural, and I hope someone follows up with some animated work in this setting, since it's quite rare. Both shorts have some particularly visceral action, and the Green Arrow one has one of the best fights I've seen in any animated movie before.

This movie was animated very well and the character models were very good. The overall appearance, especially the backgrounds, had a slightly hazy, washed-out look to them at times, giving it an almost anime-style look. They do some really cool animation during the fights between Superman/Cap. Marvel and Black Adam, such as some slow motion effects during a couple of the really hard hits, that really punctuate the impact. The voice acting and choices of the actors were quite good (especially Arnold Vosloo as Black Adam), but my only complaint is they didn't use Tim Daly for Superman, again. George Newbern isn't bad, actually, but Daly is the original Superman voice and I just prefer him. I've always thought Black Adam was a really cool bad guy, and his personality and voice were pretty much as I've always envisioned them to be, and I thought the ending was particularly interesting and surprising.

If you haven't seen the other shorts before, as I hadn't, then this is a definite must-see. The main feature was pretty short, but it was still very good and I hope they give us more Captain Marvel in the future.