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The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes - Season One Volume Four - Thor’s Last Stand
R1 - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (7th January 2012). |
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The Film
 Previously on “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”: 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)—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 to fill out the floor space of the mansion. Fine and Yost mix a modern aesthetic—designs, characterization, and certain plotting all obviously pull from the movies—with some classic, comic-based stories from Kirby and Lee. … "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" is something that both youngsters—lets arbitrarily say ages seven and above—and a (somewhat forgiving) more-adult viewer can easily stomach. The series offers a solid update to classic characters and stories. It's generally pretty entertaining and overall well made. And you can’t really ask for more than that in a weekly 22-minute serial. … With most of the character and relationship groundwork and exposition laid out in the first thirteen episodes of season one—released as volumes 1 and volume 2 earlier this year on DVD—“Volume 3: Iron Man Unleashed”, the next six episodes of the series’ first season, show-running team Fine and Yost are able to develop their production into a satisfying, action-packed Saturday morning serial (never mind that it doesn't actually air on the weekend). The overall arc of the six episodes contained within has the Avengers facing off against Baron Zemo (Robin Akin Downes) and his Masters of Evil, while they must also defend Earth from a full-scale alien invasion led by Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Adams). And now, the epic conclusion of season one. The fourth and final volume of the series’ first season has the Avengers—Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor and the others—pitted against Ultron (Tom Kane) and his army of robots, as they try and stop him from unleashing certain doom on all of humanity in one arc, while in the other Thor squares off against his brother Loki (Graham McTavish), who plans to bring the armies of Asgard down upon the vulnerable populace of Earth. With the final episodes of this first season, one thing’s for certain: “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” is a good series. Perhaps not great, but for a kids cartoon TV show, this is basically perfect. Any doubts I once had about this adaptation have complete fled my mind. “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes – Volume 4: Thor’s Last Stand!” includes the last seven episodes in the Disney XD and Marvel series broadcast run, finishing off the 26-episode order split between “Volume 1: Heroes Assemble!” (episodes 1-6) and "Volume 2: Captain America Reborn" (episodes 8-13) and “Volume 3: Iron Man Unleashed” (episodes 14-19). As of this review, a complete first season combining all four SKU's into one package has yet to be announced. The seven episodes contained in “Volume 4” are: - "The Casket of Ancient Winters"--The Avengers must stop Malekith the Accursed (Quinton Flynn) after he obtains the Casket of Ancient Winters, an ancient relic capable of unleashing an everlasting winter on Earth. - "Hail, Hydra!"—The Black Widow requests the Avengers' help in retrieving the Cosmic Cube before AIM and HYDRA tear the world apart fighting over it. - "Ultron-5"—Ant-Man, tired of the unending violence, quits the team while Ultron attempts to bring about peace. - "The Ultron Imperative"—The team is devastated by the loss of Thor. Iron Man and Ant-Man go about destroying all remnants of Ultron unaware that Ultron has transcended his body, and has taken over the world's technology systems. - "This Hostage Earth"—The Masters of Evil, now joined by Chemistro (Nolan North), Grey Gargoyle (Troy Baker), and Living Laser (Nolan North), prepare for an invasion of Earth and unless the Avengers can stop them, the armies of Asgard are coming to Earth. - "The Fall of Asgard"—Lost and separated, the Avengers struggle to survive in the nine realms. - "A Day Unlike Any Other"—The Avengers battle Loki as eight of the nine realms of Asgard fall.
Video
“Volume 4” looks great and the transfer quality is nearly identical to the previous three volumes already released. 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 still a bothersome nuisance when it appears (which is, as it was with the first two volumes, only fleeting and barely noticeable at all).
Audio
The sound mixes are also comparable to the earlier volumes, mild disappointments and all. Disney’s 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 its sort of odd 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 I guess, 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 these tracks. Dubs are available in Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo and Portuguese Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo with optional English, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles also included.
Extras
Where both "Volume 3" and "Volume 4" dramatically improve over their earlier counterparts is with the special features, which include an elaborate trivia track and bonus trailers. Each release includes an in-episode trivia track—essentially, a text commentary offering anecdotes about the production of a particular episode and a handy guide to the series' characters and creation. Presented in a rudimentary picture-in-picture fashion, displaying the facts and trivia as panels from a comic book—with the episode shrunk down into a smaller window—the implementation is somewhat clunky. And the information isn't entirely insightful for those in the know. But for younger fans, which are after all the target audience, this will easily suffice as a worthwhile bonus. "Volume 3" includes this feature, dubbed "Avengers Unmasked" on episode 21, "Hail, Hydra!". And what Disney release would be complete without bonus trailers? (The answer to that rhetorical question is none), they include: - “Brave” (2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen, 1 minute 6 second). - “Cars 2” a Blu-ray and DVD spot (2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen, 36 seconds). - “Captain America: The First Avenger” (2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen, 2 minutes 27 seconds). - “Tron: Uprising” (1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, 1 minute 7 seconds). - "Marvelkids.com promo (1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, 1 minute 7 seconds).
Packaging
“The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” arrives on DVD from Marvel Home Entertainment and Walt Disney Studios in a single disc eco-case with an embossed cardboard slip-cover in first pressings. Dubbed “Season One, Volume 4: Thor’s Last Stand” this release includes the final seven episodes (20-26), originally broadcast on television in early 2011. “Season One, Volume 3: Iron Man Unleashed” has also been released on DVD by Marvel and Disney on the same date—it includes the previous 6 episodes from the series' first season.
Overall
After watching the full 26 episode first season split over four volumes, I can say this with absolute certainty: this is a good show. As a whole, “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” has plenty of action, strong art direction, excellent voice work and enough storylines that honor the original source material to please fans, both young and old. As with the first three volumes on DVD, video is excellent aside from some minor banding, while the audio is disappointingly front heavy but otherwise strong and extras are an improvement over what was offered the first go-round. The series is definitely recommended, but I really wish Disney had just released the first season in a 4-disc set rather than once again in these costly volumes.
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