A children’s animated series that is based on the long running, popular Marvel Comics superhero team, “The Avengers”. “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Super Heroes” captures the heart and soul of the original comic book series and were written by fans of the comics who wanted to bring the characters to a modern setting. Enjoyable, action-packed and fun! Definitely recommended!
©2011 Marvel Entertainment, LLC. All rights reserved.
DVD TITLE: The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Vol. 1 and 2
DURATION:Â Vol 1: 161 Minutes / Vol 2: 137 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Color, Widescreen (1:78:1), Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
COMPANY: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
RATED: Not Rated
RELEASE DATE: April 26, 2011
Directed by Vinton Heuck, Ciro Nieli, Sebastian Montes
Written by Joshua Fine, Brandon Auman, Kevin Burke, Chris Wyatt, Christopher Yost, Paul Giacoppo
Supervising Producer: Joshua Fine
Music by Guy Michelmore
Edited by Steve Ingram
Casting by Jamie Simone
Storyboard Artist: Ben Jones
Visual Effects by Thomas D. Moser
Character Design Supervisor: Thomas Perkins
Character Designs by Brianne Drouhard, Walter Gatus
Featuring the Voices of:
Eric Loomis as Iron Man
Colleen O’Shaughnessey as Janet Van Dyne
Rick D. Wasserman as Thor
Wally Wingert as Ant-Man
Fred Tatasciore as The Hulk
Brian Bloom as Captain America
Chris Cox as Clint Barton
James C. Mathis III as Black PAnther
Phil LaMarr as Jarvis
Alex Desert as Nick Fury
Kari Wahlgren as Amora
Troy Baker as Clay Quartermain
Robin Atkin Downes as Baron Zemo
Jim ward as Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker
Vanessa Marshall as Black Widow
Gabriel Mann as Bruce Banner
Scott Menville as Bucky
The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! Volume 1 includes episodes 1-7 plus an exclusive look at the evolving characters and storyline of Season 2, and The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! Volume 2 includes episodes 8-13 plus another exclusive sneak peek at Season 2 that reveals what makes the Marvel Super Heroes and Villains so unique.
Featuring your favorite animated Super Heroes – Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and The Hulk – The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! sees planet Earth threatened by Super Villains, time traveling conquerors, alien invaders, mythical beasts and rampaging robots — all bent on the total destruction of humanity. Unfortunately against these impossible odds, no individual hero has the power to save the world and just when all appears to be hopeless, the most skilled champions in the Marvel universe join forces to form the mightiest Super Hero team in history. The Avengers come to the rescue when the fate of the world rests on their shoulders.
For any Marvel comic book fan, “The Avengers” was a comic book series that featured popular characters from the Marvel Universe, most who had their own solo titles, all together as a group to take on the powerful super villains which required these heroes to work together as a team.
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby back in Sept. 1963, “The Avengers” along with the “X-Men” and the “Fantastic-Four” are Marvel Comics flagship superhero groups that still continue on today. But the main difference is that the Avengers would have a rotating roster and to keep stories fresh, there were always characters that would be called in to battle and it was the direct competitor to DC Comics superhero group (also with a rotating roster), the Justice League of America.
Similar to both the “X-Men” and the “Fantastic Four”, the Avengers received an animated series consisting of 13-episodes and appeared to be more “West Coast Avengers”-like with the main characters being Ant-Man as the leader, the Wasp, Wonder Man, Tigra, Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch, the Falcon and the Vision.
But with the upcoming “Avengers” live-action film (2012) being planned, what better than to create some buzz by releasing an animated series that feature the original core members of the group (Iron Man, Wasp, Ant-Man, Thor, Black Panther, Captain America, Hawkeye and The Hulk) and thus we have “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”, created by Marvel Animation and Film Roman (known for their animation for “The Simpsons”, “King of the Hill” and “Garfield”).
The animated series debuted on Disney’s XD as a 20-episode micro series episodes in September and full-length episodes in October 2010 and a total of 52-episodes have been planned thus far to air on television. Meanwhile, the first 13 episodes of the first season have been released on DVD in two separate volumes (vol 1 features episodes 1-7 and vol. 2 features episodes 8-13).
“The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” consists of the following episodes. Here is a spoiler-less summary of each episode:
VOL. 1
- EPISODE 1: Iron Man is Born! – Iron Man takes on Hydra to find out that Stark technology has been stolen by HYDRA and possibly modified from the technology he sold to S.H.I.E.L.D.
- EPISODE 2: Thor the Mighty – Thor vs. the Wrecking Crew
- EPISODE 3: Hulk Versus the World – The military wants to put a stop to the Hulk and Hawkeye and Black Widow are sent to stop him.
- EPISODE 4: Meet Captain America – A classic story about Captain America and Bucky vs. the Red Skull and Baron von Strucker.
- EPISODE 5: The Man in the Ant Hill – A story about the superhero couple, Ant-Man and the Wasp.
- EPISODE 6: Breakout, Part 1 – Villains have escaped from the four supervillain prisons and the only way they can be stopped is if Earth’s mightiest super heroes work together but will they?
- EPISODE 7: Breakout, Part 2 – Part two as the super heroes of Earth must band together to stop the evil super villains, especially the evil Graviton.
VOL. 2
- EPISODE 8: Some Assembly Required – With the success of the super heroes working together, will they take Iron Man’s suggestion that they form a group?
- EPISODE 9: Living Legend – The living legend from the past, Captain America, has been discovered.
- EPISODE 10: Everything Is Wonderful – Simon Williams (Wonder Man) is not so appreciative that Tony Stark has bought his company and now he wants revenge.
- EPISODE 11: Panther’s Quest – The Black Panther goes to the Avengers for help to defeat the Man-Ape.
- EPISODE 12: Gamma World, Part 1 – Leader tries to create a new Gamma monster, meanwhile Hawkeye confronts Black Widow.
- EPISODE 13: Gamma World, Part 2 – The Leader turns the Avengers into Gamma Monsters.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” is presented in widescreen 1:78:1 – enhanced for 16×9 televisions and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Picture quality is very good and I will say that the style of animation is consistent with a lot of animated series in the U.S. as of late.
For the most part, I do enjoy the character designs of the superheroes and like how the series does employ a lot some shading for its characters and backgrounds. While not uber-detailed, for a TV animated series, I felt that the character designs and backgrounds looked very good (I’m still a big fan of the old ’80s “Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends backgrounds) and looked quite modern. There are a good amount of colors for the series and for the most part, I feel the look and feel of the series was a major improvement compared to the look and feel of the various Marvel animated series from the ’90s.
If there is one thing that I did notice, it was the use of surround channels for the audio. Because the series employs quite a bit of action, I felt the use of the active audio track was well-done. Also, the voice acting was also very good for this series, as well as the background symphony theme music.
Subtitle are presented in English SDH and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” features the following special features on each disc:
VOLUME 1
- New Looks, New Heroes – (7:33) Featuring the Chris Yost (Story Editor) and Josh Fine (Supervising Editor) discussing the previous and new characters and new look for the series.
VOLUME 2
- Season 2 Sneaks: New Stories, New Threats – (5:59) Featuring the Chris Yost (Story Editor) and Josh Fine (Supervising Editor) discussing what is in store for season 2 of “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”.
Recently, I made a big decision to part from my collection of “Avengers”.
I have been such a big fan of the comic book series and for me, “The Avengers” (and yes, even its West Coast spin-off) and it was one series I collected as a child all the way through my college years. And if I have to think about why I enjoyed the series, I find it different compared to the “X-Men”, which I have saw as the mutant minorities being discriminated by humans and are always fighting for the betterment of mutankind, while “The Fantastic Four” were essentially a family unit. “The Avengers” was different from these two other superhuman groups, different from other Marvel groups such as The Defenders, The Guardians of the Galaxy, Alpha Flight, X-related groups or other superhero groups that have existed in the Marvel Universe.
Because with the Avengers, you had superheroes who had their own longstanding comic books such as Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk all in one book. And as awesome as they were, the group was quite dysfunctional, always hanging by a thread by Captain America and financially by Tony Stark. Ego’s often got in the way, characters who were in relationships beginning to have interest in other members, substance abuse and even heroes who started to stray off the path of good. “The Avengers” were not perfect.
And while “The Avengers” has had its ups and downs (especially for the quality of its writing), possibly one of the biggest mistakes made by Marvel was how it handled The Avengers first animated series, “Avengers: United They Stand”. The series tried to use a line-up of characters that seemed great for “West Coast Avengers” but for an animated series, why ignore the core membership? Even with its rival “The Justice League of America” animated series, you weren’t going to see them stray from their initial core of primary characters like Superman, Batman, The Flash, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter. But in the late ’90s, Marvel did just that.
And now here we are with “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” and fortunately, we have Chris Yost (Story Editor) and Josh Fine (Supervising Editor), two individuals who read the original comic books, who understood the popularity of those characters, their group dynamic and dysfunction and they took that original storyline that the series was known for many decades and applied it to a modern setting.
For me, “The Avengers” is all about Captain America, Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor, the Wasp, Ant-Man/Giant Man and throw in Hawkeye, Black Panther, Ms. Marvel, Mockingbird, The Vision and the Scarlett Witch (many of these characters are confirmed for season 2) and I’m thrilled! This is how it should have been before and the fact that you have people who were passionate about the original work and utilizing them for a new generation of Marvel fans is fantastic!
I loved how vol. 1 focused on each character as a solo superhero and then gradually brought them together as a group and then to see how these individuals now having to function as a team versus than being alone was pretty fun to watch. Once again, capturing the essence of the original comic book series in animated format. Sure, the storyline may be a bit different but the soul of “The Avengers” is captured in “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”.
As mentioned, the animation is pretty good for the series, not uber-detailed but yet, are pretty modern and cool looking. The voice acting was great for this series and loved how the series also utilized the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, especially during those action sequences.
And while I felt that the release of volume 1 and 2 were entertaining, if there was one negative that some fans may have a problem with, is that some people may wonder why “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” were released as two volumes as opposed to one season one volume featuring two DVD’s. But considering both volumes are under $15 each, you can’t complain as you do get seven episodes in vol. 1 and six episodes in vol. 2.
As for special features, each disc does come with one feature and it would have great to have more but considering that previous Marvel releases never came with special features, I suppose we are fortunate that we get one per disc.
The series is aired on Disney XD and some parents may wonder if the series is safe for children. For those who are 7-years-old or older, I felt the series is appropriate. But it depends if you want your children watching super heroes battling with super villains. If not, then you may want to pass on this series. Otherwise, there is no questionable language or anything majorly violent.
“The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” is an animated series featuring Marvel’s popular superhero team and it is one that captures the essence of the comic book series and focusing on what made the comic book series so entertaining and enjoyable for nearly 50-years. While not exactly faithful to the original comic book storyline, the series still manages to capture the heart and soul of the Avengers comic book series by focusing on the primary core members but showcasing the value of teamwork but also the challenges the group faces. Because despite the fact they are superheroes, each were busy as a solo hero and needless to say, ego and pride do get in the way.
But so far, I am enjoying the series, also to see how many superheroes and villains they are bringing from the Marvel universe to this animated series for the first 13 episodes alone and both Chris Yost (Story Editor) and Josh Fine (Supervising Editor) plan on introducing more members to the roster and also bringing in more characters and super villains as well.
Overall, “The Avengers” fans of the comic book series will definitely enjoy this animated series but also those of you who grew up with the series and are parents of children, this is a perfect series to watch with them and enjoy together.
“The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” vol. 1 and 2 are definitely recommended!
