Next Avengers Cartoon

[BlackLantern]

How hard is it for Marvel to just do a classic stand alone Avengers flick as opposed to wasting time with Half Pint Avengers....?

 

[Dread]

How hard is it for Marvel to just do a classic stand alone Avengers flick as opposed to wasting time with Half Pint Avengers....?

Apparently, hard enough.

The sales speak for themselves. Yes, the DVD market hasn't been selling as well as a whole as it did years ago, but still, NEXT AVENGERS is their lowest selling disc and while they believe it will have the longest shelf life, their other four discs have also proven to have a long shelf life, especially the first three. All will air a few times on Cartoon Network so whatever ad money that gets is about equal. I could imagine NEXT AVENGERS being aired more often because of the kids, but that's about it, and that isn't exactly a lock.

Last year, Marvel painted DOCTOR STRANGE as selling lower than they expected, so it seems a bit hypocritical to poo-poo NA's even lower sales.

Like I said, the next discs up are WOLVERINE VS., a Thor flick and PLANET HULK, all of which should sell well. ULTIMATE AVENGERS 3 seems like a no brainer, but that isn't a lock, either. I would like some sort of attempt at classic, non Ultimate Avengers. A quality TV show given the same focus and attention as WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN would be ideal, but that may be asking too much; the X-Men, after all, are a proven TV & movie success.

 

[Joker]

I have to say, while not great by any means, Next Avengers was not nearly the train wreck I thought it was going to be, and I enjoyed it. The Wolverine vs Hulk and Thor vs Hulk movies both look pretty good too. And is Planet hulk confirmed? They're doing a whole Hulk trilogy?

 

[Spade]

I finally got around to seeing this. Can't say I was impressed. Maybe with a better plot this could've worked, but as it stands I kept on feeling like they animated mediocre fan fiction. If I had to score it, it'd be a 6 out of 10.

 

[BlackLantern]

well fan fiction is mediocre period...but I get what you're saying....I do like that they used Ultron and made him this serious threat....Ultron has always been a favorite villain of mine

 

[Spade]

He went out like a [can'tsaythatword], though. All that dramatic build-up, and [blackout]Hulk just rips him in half[/blackout]? Disappointing.

 

[Dread]

http://marvel.toonzone.net/news.php?action=fullnews&id=93

As another update, reportedly, NEXT AVENGERS has remained "strong" in the 2nd week of it's release, selling 34,000 more copies and staying in the Top 25 DVD releases. Lion's Gate for this reason still believes it will have the longest shelf life. In total, it's sold 98,000 copies (or still less than DOCTOR STRANGE did in it's first week).

I would need to know how well the prior Marvel DTV titles sold in 2nd and next weeks before I would be as optimistic about NEXT AVENGERS sales as Lion's Gate is. ULTIMATE AVENGERS 1 & 2 are STILL on more DVD store shelves, as is INVINCIBLE IRON MAN. While NEXT AVENGERS may eventually outsell DOCTOR STRANGE, I'd hardly call it their crowning achievement.

I finally got around to watching the extras (besides the VS. trailers, of course). I usually avoid them for the Marvel LG releases because, unlike for a lot of other animated DTV's like the WB stuff or even HELLBOY ANIMATED or TUROK: SON OF STONE, they have no commentary track and just consist of some 15 minute butt-kissing session. No matter how good or flawed a DTV is, you always get the writers & producers talking about it as if it was the next BEN HUR. At least with the WB stuff, you get some commentaries which usually are more fun because the movie's writers/creators will often poke out something that doesn't work and explain why it is there anyway ("we didn't have time"), and that can humanize things. Marvel LG isn't into that. So if you want to hear the creators gush about homaging THE ULTIMATES in ULTIMATE AVENGERS or dare try to defend being so proud of INVINCIBLE IRON MAN's Mandarin when he barely gets one line or 5 minutes of airtime, you're out of luck.

Two things got to me in the "making of" feature. Firstly, the writers & directors, especially Mr. Hartle, gush about how much they love a "young heroes step up" story. I almost thought they meant another film, because THESE heroes basically throw their adversary at The Hulk and let him, an adult, handle it. Granted, I suppose a battle plan of, "just get the Hulk really mad and throw him at Ultron" is the sort of idea a kid could and would come up with. But it still amounts to passing the buck. When the writers of mass media can't tell the difference between "stepping up" and "passing the buck", it frankly explains why morals are screwy in America these days.

The second thing that got to me was seeing how proud they were of the characters; I can understand that to some degree, but they weren't nearly as original as they could have been. It was SERIOUSLY a creative brainstorm to have Cap's kid be the leader, Azari's kid have cat-like features, Pym's kid being a tech geek? Really? They spend the most time talking about Torun, who on a rewatch I sort of agree was almost the unabashed star, but why didn't they go all out? Make Torun the star & leader, and have had Thor come in and the end, rather than the overused Hulk. Why not add more from James' mother's legacy besides red hair, like her "Sting" blaster or even wall-crawling? Why not make Pym the "rugged tough guy"? Instead, they wrote children who simply played to the type of their parents and considered it a Stan Lee worthy accomplishment. I respectfully disagree. I thought they played things too safe & predictable for the mainstream tweener audience they wanted, and those sorts of works always seem less satisfying. They also spoke of a conflict that Tony Stark had in raising the kids, in which little made it to the actual film. If time length is an issue, then maybe it is about time Marvel LG started making DTV's instead of Cartoon Network TV specials.

There is also an extra about Young Marvel characters that basically talks mostly about the Young X-Men that Kyle & Yost wrote. Unfortunately, Kyle & Yost are unaware that in their attempt to "beef up" the teen soap title they inheritated, they turned into into a grim death-march; basically, overcompensating. NXM needed a kick in the rear, not to become DAY OF THE DEAD. It also spends a lot of time on the FRANKLIN RICHARDS comics, if you're into them. Only passing mentions are made about Young Avengers or arguably Marvel's best known young title, RUNAWAYS.

HULK VS. still looks friggin' awesome.

 

[ssj wolverine]

Finally saw this movie yesterday. All I have to say is ZZZZzzzzzzzz. Thank god for Youtube so I didn't have to waste my money on this piece of garbage. Hulk vs. Wolvie and Hulk vs. Thor can't come soon enough.