|
|
 |
The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes - Season One Volume One
R1 - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (13th May 2011). |
|
The Film
 2009 was an interesting year for Marvel, and especially Marvel film fans. A live-action take on “Thor”, which streets this weekend, was in the early stages of pre-production, a “Captain America” film, also hitting theaters soon, was about to get underway; an “Avengers” movie was certainly on the horizon (Joss Whedon just recently announced that filming has finally has begun). But something else – something much bigger – also happened in the latter part of that year. Something that caused thoughts, hopes, and worries to run wild among the Marvel-loyal: the Walt Disney Company, reportedly paying $4 billion in the process, acquired Marvel Entertainment, the catch-all for Marvel print and film media. For a while no one really knew what Disney’s grab for the comic giant’s catalog would mean – or how it would effect Marvel, which had recently produced, thanks to a briefly autonomous Marvel Studios, a couple of good films. Although the new Disney-helmed filmic material has yet to prove its worth – Kenneth Branagh’s “Thor” has been getting good reviews from critics and opens wide soon enough, so I’ll have to check it out – the animated side of the spectrum has already produced something pretty positive, with the surprisingly decent debut of “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”. I’ve been mostly indifferent to a lot of the animated TV series and direct-to-video films that Marvel has put out since the mid-2000's, but there’s little point in denying that their most youth-oriented stuff has been mediocre to terrible. Not so under Disney. The new animated series “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” is the first production to come from the Disney ownership, and it’s actually fairly good. Debuting on The House of Mouse’s XD cable network – a narrow-cast specifically aimed at boys aged eight to fourteen – “The Avengers: EMH” was a surprising, late-entry release into the 2010 TV season. I say surprising because I expected the series to be a blatant cash-in on the upcoming live-action films – and not very good cash-in at that – but found the show to be a nice mix of action-adventure and actual characterization and plot (although, yeah, it’s also tightly connected with the film universes: so, it's a cash-in, but not a blatantly awful one.) The new series is not without flaws, and doesn’t hold a candle to some of the animated greats that I grew up with – like the amazing “X-Men” (1992-1997) series and, although DC and not Marvel and as such probably blasphemous to mention in a review of a Marvel product, Bruce Timm’s “Batman: The Animated Series” (1992–1995) but overall, I’m happy with the early episodes of this series, especially the latter half of the first thirteen. Supervising producer Joshua Fine and story editor/writer Christopher Yost populate their Avengers team with a traditional lineup: Iron Man (voiced by Eric Loomis), Thor (Rick D. Wasserman), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Brian Bloom), Hulk (Fred Tatasciore) – while non-Hulked-out Bruce Banner is voiced by Gabriel Mann – with Hank Pym/Ant-Man (Wally Wingert) and Wasp (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) also stepping in. They mix a modern aesthetic –designs, characterization, and plotting obviously pull from the movies – with some notable, comic-based stories. The first episode of the series proper, the two-part “Breakout”, which sees the Avengers form for their first adventure together by capturing a number of super villains who recently escaped from the Marvel universe’s four main villain-housing prisons, evokes the plot of “New Avengers #1”. Of course, the series is far from perfect – actually, in its first few episodes, the show is a bit of a big sloppy mess. Part of the problem with the first five episodes (in fact, the main problem with them) is that they are just compilations based off an original micro-series that appeared on the Internet. To explain: in an attempt to drum up interest for “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” proper, Disney and Marvel commissioned 20 “minisodes” for the web that would introduce the Avengers and their new Animated world to fans, early and online. This is all perfectly fine and logical on paper. The micro-series gets a lot of expository details out of the way and lets the series-proper get down to businesses. But, due to the humble Internet origins of these short entries – each running only three of five minutes on average – a compilation episode that relies on them is basically just a bunch of quick, self-contained adventures that barely have any continuity with each other, poorly edited together until the required twenty-two minute runtime has exhausted itself. The lack of continuity and haphazard nature of narrative creates problems for most of the compilation episodes, which might start off – as the very first episode of this DVD does – with Iron Man saving the United Nations from an attack by HYDRA and end with Nick Fury (Alex Désert) battling the Grim Reaper (Lance Henriksen) in hand-to-hand combat aboard an airborne escape vehicle climbing skyward. The second episode, "Thor the Mighty" is even worse; it starts with Thor battling goons on Earth (Midgard), and ends with his brother Loki (Graham McTavish) being banished into Asgardian timeout to recede into his own thoughts. Totally schizophrenic. With Awkward act breaks, disjointed plotting, and a total lack of focus, the first couple of episodes really don’t offer much hope, although, in their own roundabout way, do provide a bit of necessary exposition and character introduction. Luckily the series gets considerably better from the two-part episode of called ‘Breakout” on, but to say that the first five adventures are anything but problematic would be a lie, and the fact that the Avengers don’t appear on screen together as a unit until the final episode of this DVD release is a bit disappointing. The seven episodes contained in “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes – Season One, Volume 1: Heroes Assemble!” are: - "Iron Man is Born" - A compilation of micro-series episodes in which Tony Stark races to the United Nations to save top world leaders from an attack by HYDRA. Stark dons his Iron Man suit to battle an army of Dreadnoughts, and then when S.H.I.E.L.D arrives, must battle a series of Mandroid soldiers based upon his Iron Man technology. Finally, Agent Nick Fury rushes with his team to The Vault to head off a HYDRA attack on the prison facility, but arrives just in time to see one of the prisoners attempt an escape. - "Thor the Mighty" - Another compilation of micro-episodes: on Earth, Thor battles the Wrecking Crew as they attempt to steal Stark technology; he also meets Jane Foster (Kari Wahlgren), a heroic EMT. Thor is suddenly summoned to Asgard where he finds it under attack from Frost Giants. Thor fights his brother Loki. Loki is banished by Odin (Clancy Brown) to the Isle of Silence forcing him to contemplate his past. - "Hulk vs. the World" - In another mashing of micro-episodes Bruce Banner confronts the Absorbing Man (Rick Wasserman); Banner becomes the Incredible Hulk. S.H.I.E.L.D attempts to take Hulk down. Hawkeye and Black Widow (Vanessa Marshall) take on the Hulk, but then the former becomes suspicious of the latter. - "Meet Captain America" - This episode in one of the few micro-episode-bred entries that actually works.In the past (and his present) Captain America leads an assault on a Hydra facility, and he and Bucky come face-to-face with Red Skull (Steve Blum). HYDRA’s scheme to win World War II blows up in their face – so to speak. And time-traveling villain Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Adams) discovers that Captain America is messing with his timeline. Also, there's a reference to Wolverine in this episode so it's awesome. - "The Man in the Ant Hill" - Ant-Man is introduced in the last series of micro-episodes: he tries to stop Klaw (Mark Hamill) from stealing a rare sample of Vibranium – the precious metal that Captain America’s shield is made out of. The Wasp also makes an appearance when she and Ant-Man battle Whirlwind (Troy Baker) who has caused a riot in the world’s smallest prison of super villains. - "Breakout, Part I" - The series really starts here. A mass breakout at the four super villain prisons in the Marvel Universe serves as the catalyst for the forming of the Avengers, a group of heroes that includes the likes of Ant-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and the Wasp. - "Breakout, Part II" - After escaping from The Raft, Graviton targets S.H.I.E.L.D. leader Nick Fury. The newly formed Avengers must stop the super villain before it’s too late.
Video
2D animation in one of the few things that can, and often does, still look marvelous on standard definition DVD. It’s no surprise then that “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” – which is presented in the original 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio and was mastered in high definition by Film Roman (known for producing the animation for “The Simpsons” 1989-Present) and “King of the Hill” (1997-2010)) – translates almost perfectly to the SD format. The style of the animation offers a sleeker, less textured appearance, favoring instead solid but bold colors so the image isn’t exactly brimming with rich detail, but primaries are bright, line art is well defined and edge definition is strong even in medium and wide shots. Banding, especially in skies, is an infrequent but bothersome nuisance, and seems to be the one major flaw of this release – thankfully it’s fleeting.
Audio
Disney’s new animated take on “The Avengers” offers plenty of action sequences that are frequently accompanied by an action-heavy soundtrack – booming explosions, crashing and crumbling structures – so it’s sort of disappointing that the English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mix (encoded at 348 kbps) is as front heavy as it is. Stereo panning is well done, but surprisingly little of the sonic material is funneled to the rears. Chalk it up to the TV origins, but, while “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” certainly sounds decent with fine clarity, I was more than a little disappointed in how dull the rear activity is on this track. Optional subtitles are available in English and Spanish.
Extras
Supplements are highly promotional. Fans hoping to find commentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes, or concept art and storyboard galleries are out of luck. Instead Marvel/Disney have included just one extra of note, a featurette which is basically an extended trailer for the second season plus a collection of bonus trailers. “Season 2 Sneaks: New Looks, New Heroes” (16x9-enchanced widescreen, 7 minutes 33 seconds) is a featurette with supervising producer Joshua Fine and Story Editor Christopher Yost. They discuss the evolving characters, new storylines, and other additions to expect from season two. As I said, this isn’t too deep and pretty promo-y. I’m giving this section a third of a grade point because Marvel really could have just forgone bonus materials altogether. At the very least this feature gives fans a peak at the good stuff to come from a series that they like or love. A barrage of bonus trailers is also included. A quick trailer for “Thor” (32 seconds) – which will either be awful or awesome – plays before the menu, as do promos for “Cars 2” (1 minute 29 seconds) and the Disney XD original animated movie “Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension” (22 seconds). Video game spots for both “Thor: God of Thunder” (1 minute 10 seconds) and “Captain America: The First Avenger” (1 minute) can be found under the additional “Sneak Peak” menu. Finally, a blu-ray trailer for the eagerly awaited Fall 2011 release of “The Lion King: Diamond Edition” (1 minute 23 seconds) closes off the disc.
Packaging
“The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” arrives on DVD from Marvel Home Entertainment and, new owner of the Marvel content catalog, Walt Disney Studios in a single disc eco-case with a embossed cardboard slipcover. Dubbed “Season One, Volume 1: Heroes Assemble!” this release includes the first 7 episodes from a 13 episode first season run, broadcast on television in Fall 2010. “Season One, Volume 2: Captain America Reborn!” has also been released on DVD by Marvel and Disney on the same date – it includes the next 6 episodes in the series.
Overall
“The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” has the potential to be a pretty great show for both younger fans and older fan-boys (and, because I’m not gender biased, fan-girls too). It has plenty of action, strong art direction – although I do hate the design of the Iron Man suit here – and storylines that honor the original source material. The problem is that the first five episodes are terribly schizophrenic, lack focus, and are kind of awkwardly pasted together. “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” picks up steam in the final two-part episode of “Volume 1”, and “Volume 2” as a whole is considerably better so just push through and you’ll get to the good stuff eventually. As to the quality of this DVD… well, video is excellent aside from some minor banding, but the audio is disappointingly front heavy and extras are weak. Worth a look, but I really wish Disney had just released to first 13 episodes together in a 2-disc set rather than split them into these volumes.
|
|||||
|