News & Interviews for DC Super Hero Girls: Season 1

Critic Reviews for DC Super Hero Girls: Season 1

Audience Reviews for DC Super Hero Girls: Season 1

• Feb 22, 2020

  UNWATCHABLE EVEN FOR COMPLETISTS: Not a show for DC super hero fans, girls or otherwise. Taking its story cues from My Little Pony rather than George Perez, Geoff Johns, Len Wein or even Marv Wolfman, DC Super Hero Girls (DCSHG) butchers both characters and history to cram heroes and villains alike into a modern day version of Hero High. Less a "re-imagining" and more a complete square-peg into round-hole retooling, DCSHG abandons character origins, history, established personalities and good storytelling for warm and fuzzy "wokeness." If you want diversity, inclusion, authentic characters and good storytelling, watch PBS Kids -- they do it better.
  Charles M
• Jan 20, 2020

  Strong female characters are very prevalent in the world of animation right now. From Disney's characters such as Anne from Amphibia or Luz from the newest show The Owl House to Netflix's She-Ra, Kipo, or Carmen Sandiego. So, the question becomes in a world with so many options for instilling a sense of girl power, is this show worth a watch? I remember the basic concept of this show being on YouTube awhile back under the title, Super Best Friends Forever. The art style has changed since then, but I feel like Lauren Faust's character designs pop more now. As well as, it also has a more vibrant color scheme that makes the environment more visually exciting to younger audiences. The episodes are relatively short, so they do well for capturing the focus smaller attention spans. The voice acting is solid, and it's always a delight to hear Tara Strong talk to herself as she goes back and forth from Batgirl to Harley Quinn. The plot of the show itself is pretty standard, the DC Universe… but high school. The episodes typically center around teenage Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Bumblebee, Green Lantern (Jessica Cruz), and Zatanna, and all the basic shenanigans superheroes and teenage girls get up to in their spare time. Whether it be, crushes on boys, saving the world, hanging out in their favorite bakery, stopping criminals, or dealing with the embarrassment that naturally befalls prepubescent youth. Season One mostly deals with setting up the characters and the universe, rather than much in the way of developing an overarching plot, and episodes tend to be pretty self-contained to morals and lessons on friendship. It's obvious this show was made to play off of the high-school-age superheroes to be more popular with younger children. It's for those who still believe that high school is a magical place for cool big kids, instead of the reality that it is a magical pain in the butt for everyone. It also plays off of the hope that one day the child can grow into a superhero without the age-gap being so egregious as to crush their dreams prematurely. It's a cliche formula, but it is one that works. As a girl child in the early 2000s, there was nothing more that I wanted to be when I grew up than either Kim Possible or XJ-9/ Jenny from My Life as A Teenage Robot. So, if you are looking to inspire your small daughter or an anonymous girl child to have confidence in herself this is a show for you. It's got a lot of good humor, heart, and is filled with morals that all young superheroes should know. It is worth a watch if you have a child between the ages of six and twelve, but I wouldn't judge you if you took a peek at it as a child at heart.
  Meredythe E

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