THOR: TALES OF ASGARD (2011, animated) (a review)

THOR: TALES OF ASGARD (2011, animated) (a review)

This is a direct to dvd animated film released to time with the feature film THOR. It focuses on THOR and LOKI as teens (or the Norse god equivalent of teens) and their adventure into the territory of the frost giants).

The story: a young Thor, wanting to prove himself, goes on a quest with Loki and a few others into the territory of the frost giants to retrieve a legendary sword. They find it, but in doing so kill a couple frost giants, thus almost creating a war.

Was it good?

Yeah. It was good, but not great.

First the good: in the feature film, I didn't like the parts that take place on Earth. In this movie, it is all fastastic environments -- Asgard, the land of the frost giants and a few others. There's lots of action and fantasy.

The bad: the story feels way too similar to the movie. Basically it has a lot of the same elements -- Thor brashly going into the frost giants' territory, almost starting a war, lots of adventures, and then he has to learn the value of peace/self-sacrifice. All it is missing is Loki's scheming, really.

Also bad is the animation. It's not horrible bad, but it's not great. The biggest complaint to me is that it doesn't feel like Marvel at all. It's the same animation style as the animated Hellboy movies. Marvel animation should feel like Marvel. Also, with this animation style, you lose a lot of the cool feel of the otherworld locations -- it just makes everything feel equally cartoony and bland.

Of course, kids won't mind. But with the push of the feature film and all, I wish Marvel would spend a little more to make the animated movies feel special. Marvel spends money to make the art in their comics pop. It's a shame they don't try to take that level of pride in their animated movies.

Still, for fans of Marvel comics or for kids or for adult who are kids at heart, it's worth seeing.

**** RENTAL ****

MEGAMIND (a review)

MEGAMIND (a review)

This is the second of two recent animated super-villain movies. The first was DESPICABLE ME (reviewed HERE) which featured Steve Carrell as the main villain. This one features the voice work of Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, and Brad Pitt.

The story: Megamind, the arch-villain of Metro Man, is in jail but he breaks out and is able to finally defeat Metro Man and take over the city. Except then he becomes bored. He realizes he needs a hero to fight, so he decides to create a superhero, Tighten, except that superhero becomes an even worse supervillain than Megamind. Also, Megamind in disguise begins to date Roxanne, a woman who hates the villainous Megamind. Then to svae the girl he loves Megamind has to become the cities hero and defeat Tighten.

Was it good?

Not really. it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't especially good either. The problem is the core of the story just isn't that compelling. It basically is a guy who gets what he wants and then becomes bored. That's not much of a story. And him falling in love and deciding to become a hero, while okay, isn't real compelling either. Compare that to the much better DESPICABLE ME where a super villain has lost his funding and must try to steal the moon to regain his line of credit, but is thwarted by a more successful supervillain and now must use three orphans to try to defeat this other supervillain. That's a heck of a lot more interesting than just someone trying not to be bored.

As a result just about everything works better in Desp-Me than in Megamind -- the jokes are funnier, the action scenes are more interesting, the characters are more interesting. It all comes from concept and story. The stronger the motivation, the more interesting the heart of the story, the easier it is to get everything else to work around it.

The two things MEGAMIND does have is some first rate animation and great voice work. The animation is fantastic and I'm a big fan of Will Farrell and Tina Fey, even if this isn't their most interesting work.

For adults, there isn't enough here to recommend. For kids, there is probably enough to keep them entertained even if it won't rank as a classic.

*** KIDS -- RECOMMEND, ADULTS -- RENTAL ****

Still the animation is first rate and I'm a fan of