Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen Part One

• Directed by Kerry Shawcross
• June 27, 2022

Voice Cast

• Vixen-Ozioma Akagha
• Pyrrha-Jen Brown
• Glynda-Tiana Camacho
• Oscar-Aaron Dismuke
• Jacques-Jason Douglas
• Yang-Barbara Dunkelman
• Weiss-Kara Eberle
• The Flash/Barry Allen/Rolf-David Errigo Jr.
• Nora-Samantha Ireland
• Ruby-Lindsay Jones
• Wonder Woman/Diana Prince-Natalie Alyn Lind
• Jaune-Miles Luna
• Professor Ozpin-Shannon McCormick
• Lie Ren-Neath Oum
• Kali-Tara Platt
• Superman/Clark Kent-Chandler Riggs         
• Green Lantern-Jeannie Tirado
• Cyborg-Tru Valentino
• Batman/Bruce Wayne-Nat Wolff
• Blake-Arryn Zech

The Justice League is transported to the world of Remnant where they must join forces with Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang to figure out what is going on before a superpowered Grimm destroys everything.

I know absolutely nothing about RWBY though after writing this I learned the title is the first letters of the hero characters’ names. Based on what is presented the concept appears juvenile and maybe more than a bit two dimensional. As a general rule, even if they don’t quite make it there the Warner Bros. animated films aim for complexity. There is generally no talking down to the audience unlike here.

Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen Part One is not aimed at the general Justice League fan but much more at someone knowledgeable of RWBY. Unfortunately they do a very poor job of explaining how this world functions and much of what happens in Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen Part One connects (in appearance) to the very most recent events in the RWBY Universe. There are allusions (I guess anyway) to elements of storylines found in RWBY that are clearly significant to those characters but are completely meaningless to anyone else. At least in a sense of how they impact characters.

I’m not against crossovers of any type-especially the weird ones. Weird ones can be rather entertaining but they need to be accessible to anyone. That way fans of both universes can understand things they might be ignorant of when it comes to the story. Some explaining needs to occur or the film needs to be crafted in such a way that is a complete standalone effort. This fails on that completely.

In the story all the characters are suffering from limited amnesia. While I can’t comment on the RWBY characters, this seems to be more of an excuse for the writer to have a free hand in portraying the Justice League characters. They are more characters with the same names as DC characters. And they are rather interchangeable. Why not just wipe out their memories completely and be done with them as a threat?

Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen Part One is part one of a multi part story. The narrative focuses on the Justice League villain Kilg%re who has joined forces with a never revealed nemesis to trap the Justice League as well as the RWBY characters in a computer world forever. If these people have the ability to alter the functionality of the Justice League’s powers and memories when sending them into another realm why not completely remove their powers and just kill them?

Basically the villain’s idea to trap them in this computer world as kids with altered powers comes down to addling them with hormones and insecurities. That way they can be defeated. Huh? That seems like something a children’s writer would come up with and not something found in the usual quality of WB animated films.

This isn’t unwatchable. Though because of heavy RWBY elements and the lack of knowledge concerning them as well as a tone that talks down to the viewer this is so much less than it could be.

Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen Part One is steeped too much in the RWBY mythos and not enough in the Justice League mythos and does little to explain the RWBY elements used. If you catch yourself watching it you won’t be disappointed, but it is not of a quality that makes you want to watch it again.