There are quite alot of animated shows that are based of off comic book heroes some series are fairly well known like Batman: The Animated Series or even perhaps X-Men: The Animated Series or even Spider-Man: the Animated Series. There are however some that aren't quite as well known like the show that i'm going to be taking a look at today as while the character that this series is based of off is now very popular thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe he wasn't always as popular as he was today and so then join me as I review that has Iron Man fighting against a giant robot with the episode in question being called simply just "Rejoice! I Am Ultimo, Thy Deliverer" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when The Mandarin unleashes and looses control of the giant robot Ultimo it's up to Iron Man and his team to stop the robot before it's far two late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad but that's also the issue tho as this episodes plot wasn't all that good either as it just gave the stereotypical superhero kids animated series plot and nothing more then that with the plot of this episode feeling rather like that it really belonged in the plot of an eighties animated show and not one that was made in the nineties as the plot of this episode wasn't all that strong either with the plot of the episode not really being really rather entertaining and nor is it really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Robert Hays as Tony Stark / Iron Man and The Charter Boat Captain and James Avery as Jim Rhodes / War Machine. Also starring in this episode is Ed Gilbert as The Mandarin and Ultimo , Jim Cummings as Modok and Luciano Pavarotti , Tony Steedman as Justin Hammer , James Warwick as Century and Sam Jaggers , John Reilly as Clint / Hawkeye and Vacationing Man , Casey DeFranco as Julia Carpenter / Spider-Woman , Shepherd Girl and Vacationing Woman and Katherine Moffat as Wanda Frank / Scarlet Witch.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As the cast that you expect a good performance from like Jim Cummings and James Avery really do deliver a really rather solid performance in this episode as there respective episodes how it's the rest of the cast that just don't turn in that good of a performance with alot of them being really wooden at best and just downright bad bad at there worst which is something that really god bring down the overall quality of the acting in this episode with the acting in this episode not really being helped by the fact that the script for this episode is just so bad as it doesn't really give any of the actors anything to work with interms of what it is that there respective characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place.
Doing the animation for this episode is Encore Communications and the legends and the greats that are currently over at Rainbow Animation. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad as there was quite clearly alot of love and effort put into the animation for this episode but with that being said it's also quite clearly not that good either as there are some animation errors in this episode which could have been fixed very easily and yet for some reason wasn't and while the animation in this episode was better then the animation in say Fantastic Four for example it's still not as good as the animation was in Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
This is the episode that introduces the friendly rivalry between Wanda and Julia Carpenter as they each try to become Tony's love interest. This was a pretty bad down point in this episode as it's something that really doesn't play a part in the episode this is despite it being a fun aspect of both characters as it gives them something to do for the rest of this first season of the show despite being backup for Tony Stark but with that said they could have handled this part of both of there characters that little bit better as it's something that really does come out of nowhere and heck if they wanted to connect it to the plot of this episode then they really could have done by having each woman trying to outdo the other leading to Julia Carpenter confronting Ultimo by herself thus setting up the third act of the episode and yet the episode doesn't do that with this aspect of the characters feeling like something that wasn't all that well thought out with there storyline really alot more like an after thought and not like something that's an important aspect of both characters.
Out of both this episode and the debut episode for the Fantastic Four animated series this one does come across as being the worst one of the two. As at the very least the one for the Fantastic Four animated series was at the very least entertainingly bad where as this one isn't even that it's just straight up bad with the episode being very cutty cutter in that everything that you think is going to happen does happen in the episode with the episode doing nothing new or all that interesting compare this with Spider-Man: The Animated Series which aired not long after this show they at the very least took risks with more long form story arcs having six or seven part episodes or even X-Men: The Animated Series which would tell one story over the course of one single season despite having multiple single episodes stories as well this show however just plays things to safe which would have worked back in the eighties but it doesn't work in the nineties.
Ultimo in this episode really isn't that good of a villain which in this case is understandable as he is just a mindless robot. However at the same time we don't really get to find out why he's disobeying The Mandarin and MODOK as he just does it when we first meet him in the episode and yet they never explain it away when they really should have done as it's a key plot point as it gets the whole plot of the episode moving and is the whole reason why Iron Man is needed in the first place and yet the episode never goes into detail about it with Ultimo himself being nothing more then a mindless machine which again does make sense but we also don't really get to find out why he's doing what he's doing as he's just walking around the desert for no reason and yet for some reason he's treated as a big threat when he really isn't all that big of a threat especially when compared to either to MODOK or even The Mandarin for that matter.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly twenty one minuets and fifty six seconds. Which is a really rather solid running time for this episode to have and is pretty much the bogstanderd running time for this show to have but at the same time tho this episode could have done with being just a little big longer as that would then allow the makers of this episode to fully develop some of it's characters including the series main characters and to fully develop the episodes plot as well but this would also have had the issue of stretching the episodes plot even thinner then what it already is and when push does indeed come to shove the story has to always come first no matter how much time you add onto the episode if it effects the plot then it should remain as it is no matter what improvements could have been made if the episode was even a little bit longer but I will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is was an action show that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. With the episode doing a decent job of showing why each member of the team belongs on the team but for some reason Wanda despite being the strongest member of any team that she's on really does nothing to help the team out action wise and even the show is named Iron Man and Iron Man is the main character of the show it's not Iron Man that takes Ultimo down it's Hawkeye which is in a way really refreshing as it does make sense as Hawkeye is there best archer but at the same time with the show being called Iron Man you'd expects Iron Man to be the one that really delivers the show that takes down Ultimo in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall while this show is better then the Fantastic Four animated series in some regards this episode is far more worse then the debut episode of the Fantastic Four animated series in alot more regards with the worst thing about this episode being the fact that it's both boring and forgettable in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then iv;e talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6 out of 10 from me,
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen the images that I personally used in this very review from the official marvel Animated Universe fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I personally used in this very review being the really great and really legendary the official Marvel Animated Universe fandom wiki page simply really just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this episode and are really of course on the official Marvel Animated Universe fandom wiki page are all really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.