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The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes - Season One Volume Three - Ironman Unleashed
R1 - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (7th January 2012). |
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The Film
 Before I dive into volume three of Marvel and Disney's animated series "The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes", it might be best to give a little background. Here's some of what I wrote—with a few tweaks and additions—in my earlier reviews of the series' two DVD releases: “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” was the first production to come from Disney's ownership of the Marvel name, and, overall, it’s fairly good. Debuting on The House of Mouse’s XD cable network—a narrowcast specifically aimed at boys aged eight to thirteen—“Earth's Mightiest Heroes” was a surprising, late-entry release into the 2010 TV season. I expected a blatant cash-in on the immensely popular live-action films, but found the show to be a nice mix of action-adventure and actual characterization and plot (although, yeah, it’s also connected with the film universes, but that's turns out to not really be a bad thing). 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. It's a rather nice mix: the overall style and designs from the live-action films keeps things feeling current, and with the classic print material as a solid narrative foundation minor (and major) plot arcs are able to entertain a wide audience. The updates are tasteful and even tie the series to the films for the better—and pardon the mention of a DC product in a Marvel review, mouth-foaming fanboys—in the same way that “Batman: The Animated Series” (1992–1995) tied itself to the Burton (and, to a lesser extent, Schumacher) Batman film universe. Jarvis (voiced by Phil LaMarr), Tony Stark’s—and the Avenger Mansion—butler is updated to the supercomputer that appeared in the Favreau directed-features; Nick Fury takes on his Ultimate Marvel persona, but voice actor Alex Désert channels a bit of the awesomeness that is Samuel L. Jackson. Hulk is obviously influenced by Ed Norton's zen master creation from his one film (hey, remember that movie? I liked it. It's a shame a lot of other people didn't). "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 volumes 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). Although dubbed "Iron Man Unleashed", Stark and his Iron Man suit are really no more the focus than any of the other characters in these six episodes—in fact, Hawkeye and Hank Pym/Ant Man may get more screen time. “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes – Season One, Volume 3: Iron Man Unleashed!” includes the next six episodes in the Disney XD and Marvel series broadcast run, picking up from where the earlier “Volume 1: Heroes Assemble!” (episodes 1-6) and "Volume 2: Captain America Reborn" (episodes 8-13) left off. Note that together, the first three DVD releases bring the total to 19 episodes, and that the concurrently released "Volume 4: Thor's Last Stand" completes the original 26-order first season. As of this review, a complete first season combining all four SKU's into one package has yet to be announced. The six episodes contained in “Volume 3” are: - "Masters of Evil"—with Enchantress (Kari Wahlgren), Executioner, Wonder Man (Phil LaMarr), Crimson Dynamo (Chris Cox), and Abomination on his side, Baron Heinrich Zemo leads the Masters of Evil in a systematic takedown of the Avengers. Hawkeye and Black Panther (Hakeem Kae-Kazim) help Hank Pym sneak into his lab to even the odds. And The team learns that Zemo was working for someone else. - "459"—Wasp and the Avengers meet Captain Marvel (Roger Craig Smith) and team up with him to stop a Kree Sentry from destroying the planet. Meanwhile Carol Danvers (Jennifer Hale), future Ms. Marvel, discovers she has gained super powers. - "The Man Who Stole Tomorrow"—Kang the Conqueror comes from the 41st century to destroy Captain America, who Kang believes may soon cause his own timeline to cease to exist. This three-parter--concluded in "Kang Dynasty"--also introduces the Fantastic Four to the series. - "Come the Conqueror"—The Avengers fend off Kang's invasion of Earth while Iron Man tries to locate Kang's ship. The formerly non-violent Ultron robots are used as a weapon to aid in deflecting Kang's assault. - "Kang Dynasty"—The Avengers attack Kang's ship with the help of the last of the Ultrons. Ultimately, they defeat Kang, who tells them the worst is yet to come. - "Widow's Sting"—Hawkeye, Captain America, Black Panther and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Mockingbird (Elizabeth Daily) take on HYDRA in order to find double-agent Black Widow (Vanessa Marshall), much to the dismay of Nick Fury.
Video
Predictably "Volume 3" looks great and transfer quality is nearly identical to the previous two 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 “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 14, "Masters of Evil". 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 slipcover in first pressings. Dubbed “Season One, Volume 3: Iron Man Unleashed” this release includes 6 episodes (14-19), originally broadcast on television in early 2011. “Season One, Volume 4: Thor's Last Stand” has also been released on DVD by Marvel and Disney on the same date—it includes the final 7 episodes from the series' first season.
Overall
Again I turn to something I wrote earlier to best sum this release up. 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 two 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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