Marvel Animated Features has done it again. They've taken one of their greatest creations and successfully adapted one of his most well-known tales for the TV screen. Planet Hulk features the green legend in his finest form – huge, angry, and violent as you always expect him to be. There's no David or Bruce Banner to be found here. He's just a raging green behemoth let loose on a warring planet he mistakenly gets in the middle of.
This, once again, is an animated feature done right. It gets straight to the action, while not completely sacrificing story and plot. Why Hulk is being sent in a spacecraft from Earth by the other Avengers is explained quite thoroughly in a span of about 30 seconds and you never question that motivation again through the rest of the 80-some minutes of non-stop forward motion. Come on, what comic book fan isn't going to like this? It has Hulk battling robots and alien monsters in a coliseum atmosphere with swords and brute strength. What's not to like? They even fit in a special appearance of buzz-hero of the hour Thor for good measure.
The animation is good old-fashioned 70's and 80's style, while still being improved upon and current. There's no CGI here – at least not noticeable. It definitely is more in the style vein of Spectacular Spider-Man and Super Hero Squad than the dreadful looking Iron Man: Armored Adventures.
The voice cast has some great talent involved, but no one that is widely known or any big-name actors. The Hulk is voiced by relatively unknown Rick D. Wasserman. It also features voice talent from Kevin Michael Richardson (Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, The Spectacular Spider-Man, The Batman), Liam O'Brien (Wolverine and the X-Men, Afro Samurai: Resurrection), Mark Hildreth (V, Wolverine and the X-Men, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, X-Men: Evolution), and Lisa Ann Beley (Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Transformers: Galaxy Force, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Dragon Ball Z).
Overall, this is a great straight-to-DVD entry to add to your collection of Marvel's animated movies. It seems like it's being positively received by comic book fans from what I've read around the net, but there's always going to be the one or two die-hard fans that will complain about it not being completely true to the year's worth of written / drawn story. It might be a bit violent for some youngsters, so don't be tricked by the "Not Rated" marking on the packaging. This is definitely in the PG-13 or at least PG realm.
This, once again, is an animated feature done right. It gets straight to the action, while not completely sacrificing story and plot. Why Hulk is being sent in a spacecraft from Earth by the other Avengers is explained quite thoroughly in a span of about 30 seconds and you never question that motivation again through the rest of the 80-some minutes of non-stop forward motion. Come on, what comic book fan isn't going to like this? It has Hulk battling robots and alien monsters in a coliseum atmosphere with swords and brute strength. What's not to like? They even fit in a special appearance of buzz-hero of the hour Thor for good measure.
The animation is good old-fashioned 70's and 80's style, while still being improved upon and current. There's no CGI here – at least not noticeable. It definitely is more in the style vein of Spectacular Spider-Man and Super Hero Squad than the dreadful looking Iron Man: Armored Adventures.
The voice cast has some great talent involved, but no one that is widely known or any big-name actors. The Hulk is voiced by relatively unknown Rick D. Wasserman. It also features voice talent from Kevin Michael Richardson (Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, The Spectacular Spider-Man, The Batman), Liam O'Brien (Wolverine and the X-Men, Afro Samurai: Resurrection), Mark Hildreth (V, Wolverine and the X-Men, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, X-Men: Evolution), and Lisa Ann Beley (Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Transformers: Galaxy Force, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Dragon Ball Z).
Overall, this is a great straight-to-DVD entry to add to your collection of Marvel's animated movies. It seems like it's being positively received by comic book fans from what I've read around the net, but there's always going to be the one or two die-hard fans that will complain about it not being completely true to the year's worth of written / drawn story. It might be a bit violent for some youngsters, so don't be tricked by the "Not Rated" marking on the packaging. This is definitely in the PG-13 or at least PG realm.