‘Static Shock’ Artist Reveals Unproduced Animated Movie
By George Robbins
In the early 2000’s, the world received a very well done animated series in the form of ‘Static Shock.’ This show was one that was aired in the morning before most children went to school and showed us a hero we never got to see on television before. At the time, there were never really any African American heroes on television and this show gave us a character many kids could look up to. Static Shock was a hero that a lot of young children could relate to and, all around, the show gave insight into issues faced by a teen at the time. He easily became a recognizable hero to anyone who watched the show and it was a show that even adults could enjoy if they watched it.
‘Static Shock’ was a show that gave people an idea as to what minorities and people living in low income areas sometimes had to deal with at the time. It presented this world to us in a way that show what a world of heroes and villains would be like in everyday situations. Not everything is as black and white as people would expect it to be and this came through with the show. No matter what type of household you came from, ‘Static Shock’ was a show that anyone could have watched and learned from. While the target demographic for the comic was mainly African American, the show did very well as one of WB Kids’ best animated shows.
The original comic of the same name was created by a subsidiary of DC called Milestone Comics which was established mainly by a group of African American artists. ‘Static Shock’ quickly became one of their best selling comics and it was decided by Warner Bros. that they would begin airing an animated series based off it. It was the first animated series to feature a young African American man in the leading role and it went on to receive a number of different rewards, including an Emmy. Unfortunately, the series only lasted for four seasons, but it was recently unveiled by a former artist who worked on it that there was an animated movie based off the character that was meant to be made.
While it is unlikely that the movie will be made any time in the near future due to the way the world currently is, there is still the possibility it could be made. After all, we have have an incredible number of comic book movies be made in the past decade and this would be a perfect character to make a film about. The movie storyboards have pretty much already been made, it would just be a matter of whether the production company would allow the film to be made. I know I’m definitely not the only person who would want to see a feature length movie be made for the character and I do hope one gets made.