SUMMARY: RUNNING TIME: 9:37 Min.
Through his production company, Imagination Upgraded!, Brandon Champ Robinson co-wrote the script (with Samantha Briggs) and directed this live-action fan film/webisode. It was evidently released in 2020. Inspired by DC Comics’ Poison Ivy, this fan film depicts Ivy/’Ms. P’ (Biosah) as an enigmatic African American woman who possesses telepathic powers with all plants. The city where she lives isn’t identified.
At her suburban home, Ivy’s use of a cannabis-like smoking device is interrupted by two teens, Chris & TK (Brown & Curtis), who playfully pose as burglars. She senses their presence through her home’s array of plants. After a round of shooting foam bullets back and forth with the kids, she agrees to help TK with a project. Ivy then returns to her private relaxation.
Leaving Ivy’s home, the teens are approached by a neighborhood drug dealer, Vic (Walker). While much preferring Ivy’s mysterious substance, Vic prods a reluctant TK into pushing a new designer drug. Vic claims these pills have five times the potency of Ivy’s personal concoction.
At home with TK, Chris naively stumbles upon Vic’s pills in TK’s backpack. Leading into a cliffhanger, plants in proximity to Chris send a dire alert to Ivy – that her friend is imminent danger just as the naive teenager is about to sample one of Vic’s illicit pills.
Pamela/Poison Ivy aka ‘Ms. P:’ Justina Biosah
TK: Charles Curtis
Chris: Kaitlyn Brown
Vic: Nathan Walker.
Notes: George Ross Bridgman and Jon Finfera’s names appear in the cast’s opening credits, but their roles aren’t identified. There’s two possibilities: either A. they are the voice actors for Ivy’s telepathic plants, or B. perhaps their footage was edited out of the finalized episode.
For clarification, DC Comics isn’t acknowledged in the credits. Also, despite the series title, there isn’t a Harley Quinn referenced in this film. One may infer that “Ivy: Seedling (Episode 201)” is meant to be a ‘spin-off’ of a Harley Quinn fan film.
REVIEW:
Despite the drug-related plot, this low-budget film’s visual vibe demonstrates some welcome potential. Case in point: combined with nature sounds, the opening credits sequence’s cinematography is stylish. As to the acting, Justina Biosah makes Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy an intriguing heroine, in what little is seen of her sultry character. By comparison, her castmates’ performances come off as somewhat amateurish, but this TV-caliber mini-film is nonetheless watchable.
Fans of DC’s Poison Ivy might want to check this neat little production out, at least for curiosity’s sake. If Brandon Champ Robinson devised this project as a work sample for DC Entertainment to contemplate hiring him, then he makes a reasonably convincing case. The same applies to Biosah for potential TV/film roles in the DC Universe.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 6 Stars
IMAGE NOT AVAILABLE
