Blog Archives
Iron Man and Captain America: Heroes United
Iron Man and Captain America: Heroes United
It seems like it happens quite often when a straight to home video release catches me unaware until it is actually released as is the case with this movie which is a pseudo-sequel to Iron Man and Hulk: Heroes United from last year. It has the same kinda cell shaded CGI animation style and the same voice actors for Iron Man and Hulk, though it doesn’t quite feel as young skewed as the previous attempt, it’s not too deep either. And similar to Iron Man and Hulk, I didn’t really connect with this movie aside from a couple fights and a couple laughs, it was too simple, too silly, and didn’t really feel connected with anything. Even my daughter Jena didn’t give this one a whole lot of interest. It’s interesting that while Marvel is dominating the box office, and has quite a few TV shows out there, but its home video animated movies are severely lacking.
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Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm 1993
This is one of the very few superhero movies left that I had not yet seen before that I really felt like I was missing out on an important and/or great movie. There’s still plenty out there for me to watch, but most of the rest of them are more obscure and/or pretty bad. When I ask the question “What’s your favorite superhero movie?” this movie has come up on more than one occasion so it’s got to be a pretty good movie, and it’s more or less a spin-off of the amazing 90’s Batman: The Animated Series which I watched and loved back when it was coming out with new episodes, and I’ve also seen and enjoyed every one of DC Animation’s home video Batman movies so I was looking forward to finally watching this one and I’m pleased to say that for the most part it didn’t disappoint. My only qualms come from the fact that I did watch this one out of chronological order and so many story elements that were used in this movie were done as well if not better in later movies that I was already familiar with. But aside from that, it was great to finally see this movie and the nostalgia from the animation and music style from the animated series.
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The Powerpuff Girls Movie
The Powerpuff Girls Movie 2002
As Father’s Day was winding down, I decided that I wanted to watch a movie with my daughter that we could both enjoy. I’m sure most people who grew up in the 90’s remember Cartoon Network’s lineup including Genndy Tartakovsky’s Dexter’s Laboratory and Craig McCracken’s Powerpuff Girls. What you may not know is that in 2002 they went back and created an origin story which they showed in theaters. It’s not too surprising as it came out the same day as Men in Black II and was largely forgotten, though it has often been shown on the channel since then. It’s sugar, spice, and everything nice, with a little dash of Mojo Jojo mixed in for good measure. It’s a lot of fun, and irreverent even though there’s not a whole lot of depth to it.
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100 Essential Superhero Movies – Animation
I decided that I wanted to make a list of 100 superhero movies that I thought were the essentials, the ones that everyone needs to see at one point in time if they want to be a fully fledged superhero movie afficionado, and while I am having guest bloggers this month help me fill out the list, there are many much more obvious choices that were easy to make and I’m here to share some of those with you. Aside from being a fan of superhero movies, I’m also a big fan of animation and there are plenty of essential animated movies besides the handful that came out theatrically there’s also plenty of great entries in the straight-to-DVD category. Of course there are some that I’ve already covered in other categories so I’ll only be looking at those I’ve yet to mention.
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100 Essential Superhero Movies – You Decide! The Fleischer Superman Shorts
Part of finishing off this list of 100 essential superhero movies is bringing in my audience, and so when I got down to the last 20 movies, I decided that I would let you decide. And what better than to reach out to other movie critics and reviewers and even just movie fans to let them argue the case for a superhero movie that they are a fan of and at the bottom of the post, there is a poll where you can vote whether or not you agree if it should be included in the 100 Essential Superhero Movies list. Today my guest is Todd Liebenow from Forgotten Films and he is talking about a series of short films from one of the greatest superheroes of all time, Superman from famed animators Max and Dave Fleischer.
Jay and Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie
Jay and Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie 2013
It feels like it’s been a long time since I’ve heard about this movie coming out before I finally got the chance to watch it. It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Kevin Smith, not just his movies but also his many different podcasts. While I don’t listen to as many of them as I used to, I still keep up with Hollywood Babble-On, Tell-em Steve Dave, and occasionally the original SModcast. This is also one of those rare cases where this movie is based on a run of comic books that I have read before seeing this movie and actually own. There are quite a few changes to the story, the format, and definitely the art style, along with many inside jokes that seem like they’re intended for fans of the podcasts, but at the same time I felt like they are just jokes that I had heard many times over because they were inspired by something that he’s said in one of his podcasts whether it was intentional or not. And while I generally enjoy Kevin Smith’s humor, I felt like this movie focused too much of the juvenile dick and fart jokes into such a small space of just over an hour that I quickly grew tired of it. There are several moments of fun, but overall I just wasn’t that interested in the exploits of Bluntman and Chronic as I thought I would have been.
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Son of Batman
Son of Batman 2014
It’s time for yet another entry from DC Animation which almost always produce some of my favorite animated superheroes. This time around it’s a story that I wasn’t familiar with at all, which as the title suggests is about the son of Batman. If you’ve seen Dark Knight Rises, or are familiar with what’s happened in the comic books it’s not a big surprise that Batman hooks up with Talia Al Ghul who isn’t always as cutthroat as her father from what I understand. There’s also apparently some deal with how the kid is born in the first place in the comics but it’s mostly glossed over in this movie. Anyway, the League of Shadows is in trouble so Talia takes her son Damian to meet his heretofore unknown father who just so happens to be Batman for a little father and son bonding time. Of course, being raised within the League of Shadows isn’t without its downfalls and there’s also the matter at hand where Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke has killed Ra’s Al Ghul and Damian is looking for revenge and is not above killing, which obviously doesn’t sit well with Batman. Anyway it’s a fun movie and continues a similar look from Justice League: War and also a similar mix of blood and occasional humor which I enjoyed as usual.
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Superhero Shorts: Batman vs. The Terminator
It feels like it’s been a long while since I’ve had the chance to do one of these but I’m back with another Superhero Shorts and it’s a good one. This time around I’m talking with amateur animator Mitchell Hammond who spent 4 years working on this short completely by himself using digital frame-by-frame animation. He created a world set in the Terminator universe where Batman exists and is working with, or at least parallel to John Connor where he is trying to take down Skynet. As always, you can watch the short right below, or you can check it out on Mitchell’s blog along with other behind the scenes info.
Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher
Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher 2014
Last year when I watched the Marvel Iron Man anime movie Rise of Technovore, the best part of that movie were the bits featuring the Punisher, so while that movie was ok but fairly middling, I had quite a bit more hope for this one. But what I ended up getting was more of the same. I do think that the way this movie handles the Punisher as a character is much better than the way he is handled in any of the other live action movies, but I wasn’t as fond of how it handles Black Widow. There are plenty of well done fight scenes, but they had a little too much anime flair to them and some of the voice acting fell a bit flat except for one role who played it overly animated. The plot kept things interesting and while I didn’t like everything in this movie, there was plenty enough to keep me in through the end of the movie. A step up from last year’s Technovore, but only a small step.
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Stan Lee’s Mighty 7
Stan Lee’s Mighty 7 2014
I just happened to stumble across this a few days ago and since it was pretty short at just about an hour long I decided to check it out as a bit of a sorbet between horror bites. It’s basically an extended TV show pilot though I haven’t read if it is going to become a show or not. The movie centers on Stan Lee as a caricature of himself, or at least the personality he portrays as his somewhat public persona. He stumbles upon a crashed ship of aliens, including two essentially space cops and five until recently captive fugitives which he eventually gets to sign a contract so he can use their likenesses in a new comic book sold as a reality superhero show. It originally aired on the Hub network and it is pretty obvious that it is aimed at kids, but there is a bit of fun to be had here and there aside from the cliché storylines and silly humor. I seriously doubt that it would be anything that I would find myself watching on a regular basis if it did become a full fledged cartoon series, but if there was another short movie like this I would check it out.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 