I’m a big fan of Dr. Strange. Not a longtime fan, mind you – my conversion is fairly recent. I’ve always had a back-of-the-mind, I-should-look-into-that interest in the character, but I’ve only been reading his adventures for a few months (although in that few months I’ve amassed 80 or so back issues from various volumes of the series, as well as some one-offs, the Marvel Essentials Volume 1 collection, and, of course, this movie). The most I ever knew about him was from Twisted Toyfare Theater, and from the character of Dr. Orpheus from “The Venture Brothers”. As fantastically silly as these parodies are, the actual character seemed like something that would be up my alley. So, when the local comic shop started liquidating its back issues to make room for new stock (at $.50 a piece, how can you go wrong?), I took the opportunity to dive into the world of the Earth dimension’s Sorcerer Supreme, and was immediately hooked. It was just one of those overnight obsessions. I went from, “Eh, this could be interesting, I’ll check it out,” to, “Holy crap, this rules and I must have every issue!” in a couple of days. Yes, it’s just that damn good.
The origin story of Dr. Strange is typical comic book fare. A narcissistic neurosurgeon named Stephen Strange crashes his car one fateful night, the accident resulting in the loss of use of his hands for delicate brain surgery. After falling into destitution and despair, he seeks aid from a legendary Tibetan monk known only as The Ancient One. After months and months of training, Strange becomes the Ancient One’s star pupil, much to the disdain of one Baron Mordo, who seeks to kill the Ancient One and take the power of Sorcerer Supreme himself. Strange stops Mordo’s plan from succeeding, and Mordo is banished to become Strange’s arch enemy. Well, him and Dormammu and Nightmare and D’spayre…you get the idea.
This new animated version of Dr. Strange re-arranges the facts a bit, taking more inspiration from a recent re-imagining of the origin story titled “Strange”, than from the original version of the character. We begin with Wong (originally Strange’s bald butler and all ‘round man Friday, now with hair and playing more of a Mr. Miyagi role) leading a team (!) of sorcerers against a monster, introducing Mordo (as a warrior fighting in the Ancient One’s small, select army of sorcerers preparing for Dormammu’s next attack on the Earth dimension), as well as all the extraneous sorcerer characters who don’t matter and are only here to be killed by monsters later in the movie.
Elsewhere, Dr. Stephen Strange visits an unusual case in the coma ward of the hospital where he works. When he examines the young girl, he sees a vision of a flaming, demonic face and refuses to help her. We’re also given some flashback back story regarding why he became a surgeon – his sister died of a brain disorder on his operating table. That night, while driving home, he sees another vision of Dormammu (who, instead of being a dude in a goofy suit with a flaming head, is given the full-on Balrog treatment here), and his car crashes. You know what happens next. As Strange was hiking up the snow-swept mountain, Bob remarked that he should have met Bruce Wayne coming down the other way.
Fast forward to Strange finally taking the mantle of sorcerer and joining the fight against Dormammu, after being trained by Wong and Mordo. He is taken to the Sanctum Sanctorum, his new apartment in Greenwich Village, which contains a Nexus between all dimensions, which he must guard against attacks by Dormammu.
After returning to the hospital, he discovers through a medical network that every hospital’s coma ward is full to capacity with children having nightmares of demons, and that Dormammu will soon return through the children. Mordo defects, pissed that the Ancient One gave the Eye of Aggamotto amulet to Strange, conferring to him the title of Sorcerer Supreme before being killed in battle with Dormammu. Strange whomps Mordo’s ass, just as an army of walking comatose children, in one of the movie’s best sequences, unhinge their jaws in a most unsettling manner and spew forth gouts of flame that coalesce into the mighty Dormammu…who gets eaten by the Eye after only a minute or two of gloating. It would have been SO much cooler if they had to fight each other using only…THE PINCERS OF POWER! Damn I’m a dweeb.
A clever little stinger has Strange and Wong returning to the Sanctum, Wong telling him that several new subjects have been chosen to become new disciples, one of them a woman named Clea. Sure, it’s an obvious reference, but any little nudge and wink warms a geek’s heart, y’know?
Where’s my cloak of levitation? Why is Mordo a buff young guy instead of a short, stocky Asian dude (although the new Mordo has a line when Dormammu’s plan is first discovered that makes damn sure you know he’s a badass)? Why the hell are there a team of sorcerers running around (aside from to raise the body count, I mean)? Why is everything…different? Ah well, I can understand why much was changed. Watching Strange and Mordo babble at each other wouldn’t be very cinematic (although I don’t know of any nerd who wouldn’t want to watch his favorite hero and arch villain spouting silly dialogue at each other).
My biggest gripe is that the magic seems to be shortchanged. There’s a really long stretch of Strange at the Ancient One’s retreat, training and getting his narcissistic mindset out of the way to make room for spiritual awakening. Then, by the time we get to the final battle, it’s time for the movie to end so the battle’s really short. It’s animation, man. It’s not like you’re gonna outstrip your budget drawing demons instead of people dragging rocks around. It’s all the more frustrating, because what there is of it FUCKING RULES. It looks exactly like you’d imagine the images from the page to look like in motion.
That, and the Ancient One hands over the title of Sorcerer Supreme a bit quickly. That has to be earned, man. It took him ages to claim that right in the books. He started out as a lowly Master of Mystic Arts. While that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as Sorcerer Supreme, it would have been nice to see him earn the title and get it at the very end after beating Dormammu instead of the Ancient One just handing over the Eye of Aggamotto because, well, he’s good enough I guess.
Many of the complaints I’ve read are that Strange falls into the magic so easily, without being amazed by it. I’d say he’s plenty amazed the first time the Ancient One produces a sword out of thin air and slices a huge block of granite in half. But how much time can you spend with a guy exclaiming, “That’s amazing! How do you do that! That’s impossible!” Seriously, being introduced to a world of magic and demons and Rings of Raggador and Crimson Bands of Cyttorak and Vapors of Valtor and such is one of those situations where you either accept it or go batshit insane trying. If Strange couldn’t accept what he was seeing fairly quickly without needing to be institutionalized, he clearly wouldn’t have the ability to become Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme.
I just would have liked to see the Cloak of Levitation, is all I’m sayin’. That, and when you’re dealing with a kaiju-sized fire demon from another dimension, his voice should not sound like your CPA. Vocal effects, people, vocal effects.
Well, it’s not perfect. Still, it’s far and away the best of these Marvel animated movies yet. That may be damning with faint praise, as the two others I saw were incredibly disappointing, but this one kicks a fair bit of ass. It’s still not a patch on the Hellboy animation, but nothing will probably ever rock as much as Hellboy.
Get thee to a DVD monger and purchase the shiny-covered Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme with all haste, and may the Omnipotent Oshtur softly whisper your name!
The Moral of the Story: A Seraphimic shield will not protect you against a house-sized demonic dinosaur if you are a secondary character. Just run, dude. You might live to see a sequel.
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