Iron Man 1994 Animated Series "And The Sea Shall Give Up Its Dead" Review

 

Marvel fans right now the character of Tony Stark / Iron Man is a household name and alot of that is due to the MCU and how well the character was portrayed and written in those films. However the character wasn't always that well known and so it's baffling that he got his own animated series in the early to mid nineties and what's even more odd is that for alot of kids myself included this was there introduction to Iron Man and those characters and so here is my review of the 1994 Iron Man animated series debut episode which is called "And The Sea Shall Give Up Its Dead" enjoy.

The plot to this episode is The Mandarin captures and somehow turn a bunch of sailors into zombies all to try and take down Iron Man once and for all. Yeah the plot really is that ridiculous even for an animated show based on a comic book the story is absurd and honestly it was at the point where the zombies were introduced that the episode lost me because of how silly it all was which is a shame because the story had some sort of potential to be good but for some reason the writer didn't care about making a good story he just cared about making something that even little kids would struggle to take seriously.

Starring in the episode is Robert Hays as Tony Stark / Iron Man and the late and great James Avery otherwise known as Uncle Phil as Jim Rhodes / War Machine. Also starring in the episode is Ed Gilbert as The Mandarin and Admiral Younger , Voice acting legend Jim Cummings as Modok and E.L.F. , Tony Steedman as Justin Hammer , James Warwick as Century , John Reilly as Hawkeye and Gletkin , Casey De Franco as Julia Carpenter / Spider-Woman , Katherine Moffat as Wanda Frank / Scarlet Witch and Radar Technician , Jeanine Elias as Veronica Benning and Computer , Chuck McCann as Blizzard , Neil Dickson as Dreadknight and Scanner Voice and Linda Holdahl as Hypnotia.

The acting in the episode is a little better then the actual story but that's more down to who's in the cast rather then the script. Since alot of these actors do deliver solid performances and are enjoyable to watch and listen to on screen but sadly what let's pretty much everything down is the script which as I said before when talking about the story is just so bad and it gives the actors nothing to work with in terms of character or a character's personality as such the actors only do the best that they can to make the script work.

Now for once I cannot find who did the animation for either this episode or the series as a whole which given what i'm about to say is most likely a good thing. Since yeah the animation in this episode is pretty freaking bad I give whoever did the animation credit because it most likely wasn't easy working on this show but the finished product is clearly not a good example of good animation and if i'm being honest it looks cheap as hell.

Making things worse is for at least the shows first season the show would make use of CGI which as you can see in the above picture looks laughable at best. I will give the CGI this tho for early to mid nineties CGI the CGI isn't that bad the problem is it's aged horribly and it comes out of know where they only use it for two scenes in this episode and that's it I have a feeling that the animation studio only included CGI just to prove that they could do it and not because it was something that actually looked good.

I have to talk about the zombies because it's such a strange and weird thing to have in this episode hell it's strange and weird to have them in this show. Why writer Ron Friedman thought including zombies was a good idea is beyond me because it's no stupid and so out of place with everything else that's going on in the episode I have to assume that he was high as a kite when he wrote this episode because that's the only logical reason I can think of altho he is the guy who milled Optimus Prime in The Transformers: The Movie so maybe he was getting back at the adults who demanded Optimus be brought back by giving them something mother freaking stupid.

Yeah incase I haven't made it clear I don't like the fact that there's zombies in this episode because one as I said it's a stupid idea and two the designs for the zombies are just bland and uninspired. Honestly the writer Ron Friedman could have come up with something a little bit better and something that would have made sense but nope he chose not to any of that which just makes the idea freaking stupid as all hell and I wouldn't blame anyone if the episode lost them the second they entered the picture because that's when the episode lost me.

I will give not only this episode but this series this they do The Mandarin alot better then how Iron Man 3 did the character. Granted that's not really a high bar to reach but it's still something since this version of the character is still trying to be menacing and is actually evil instead of whatever the version in Iron Man 3 was meant to be. However what let's the character down is the fact that his evil plan for this episode is just to kill the hero and nothing more which just makes him blend in with all the other villains which is a shame because his design is pretty cool and the fact that he uses to rings to magic stuff is a pretty unique idea.

Now this show didn't actually have a network that it started on it started airing in syndication so basically a bunch networks had the rights to air the show.I honestly think that this is a first for a Marvel animated show but I could be wrong. the show aired for two seasons spanning from September 24th 1994 until September 23rd 1995 with the series having a total of twenty six episodes which I believe makes this shortest of the nineties Marvel animated shows but again I could be wrong when I say that tho.

                                                                                     

Now then since this is an action show that does mean that we have to talk about the action that's in this episode. Which in my opinion is one of the better things in the episode not that the action is any good but when you compare it to literally anything else in the episode (apart from the acting that is) however if I was comparing the action to something like the acting in this episode then the action would come of looking worse because the action is just boring to watch in my opinion but when you compare to all of the bad things in the episode the action comes of looking better because of it.

Overall to say that this was a bad episode would be like saying alot of people dislike the Captain Marvel movie no duh. There are some good things in this episode the issue is there's alot more bad things with the episode which make this episode pretty bad and since this was the debut episode it gives people a bad impression of the series as such this episode gets a 6 out of 10 from this Marvel / comic book and animation fan.

All the images that I used in this review were gathered from the official Marvel Animated Universe fandom wiki page. As such I have no choice but to recommend them for images from this show or any of the animated nineties Marvel shows but with that being said alot of the images are fairly low quality which is to be expected given the time period that this show came out and so don't expect to find that many if any high quality images from either this show or any of the Marvel Animated Universe shows because you won't find them.

 

 

Hulk And The Agents Of Smash "Doorway to Destruction Parts 1 And 2" Review

 

Well I said that i'd be taking a look at another Disney produced Marvel animated show and i'm a man of my word so here we are. I'll be freaking honest out of all the animated shows that Marvel have done for Disney this is the one that I watched the least simply because it just didn't seem that interesting to me and while I have seen the first first two episodes before now i've never reviewed them and so here is my review of the first two episode of Hulk And The Agents Of Smash called "Doorway to Destruction" so enjoy the review everyone.

The plot of the two parter is Annihilus opens up a portal from space over a town in New Mexico the problem is that's where Hulk lives and so the two are set on a collision cause with the fate of the whole world at stake. I do realise that I most likely undersold these episodes but I do feel that the story is honestly pretty good and is the kind of story one would expect from the first two episodes of a Disney produced Marvel animated show.

Starring in these two episodes are Fred Tatasciore as Bruce Banner / Hulk and Clancy Brown as Red Hulk / General Ross. Also starring in these episodes are Robot Chicken co-creator Seth Green as Rick Jones / A-Bomb , Ben Diskin as Skaar , Robin Atkin Downes as Annihilus , J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson , Eliza Dushku as Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk and the always great James Arnold Taylor as The Leader / TV Director.

In terms of what about the acting in these two episodes it was honestly alot better then what I thought it was going to be. However at the same time it's not as good as it perhaps could have been given whose in the main cast but with that said the actors do a solid job with returning Hulk favourite Fred Tatasciore being a pure joy to listen to and Seth Green is always enjoyable and the same is true for these two episodes but what let's the actors down is the fact that the characters either have no personality or to much personality as such alot of the actors given really over the top performances which doesn't suit either the show or the character there playing.

Doing the animation for these two episodes is DR Movie who I believe have worked on some of the Scooby-Doo direct to DVD  films but I could be wrong but I know for sure they worked on Avatar: The Last Airbender and Suicide Squad: Hell To Pay. As for what I thought about there work on these two episodes it honestly wasn't that bad but the issue is the animation isn't that good either it just feels like all of the animators are just doing the bare minimum and nothing which no matter the studio or what there working on should never be the case.

Unlike pretty much all of the Disney produced Marvel animated shows at this point this one has no design that looks like it's from the movies. Which i'm so freaking glad about because not everything has to look like it's live action counterpart and plus this way the show gets a chance to stand on it's own since it won't remind people that they could be watching something alot better which is always a good thing.

Just to go back to the actors for a second I have to say that Eliza Dushku is perfectly cast as Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk. Whenever I picture Eliza playing a superhero Marvel or DC this is who I picture her playing because like She-Hulk Eliza herself is a strong badas* who looks like she could beat up anyone who disagrees with her and so having her play this tough as nails character to me is just perfect casting.

Even tho the opening two episodes for Avenger Assemble had enough story for the two parts this one I feel had enough story material for at least three parts. Since there's alot of stuff that they had to set up in episode one and just don't all of which could have made for an interesting episode but since they only made it a two parter alot of stuff that should be explained or looked into doesn't get that at all like Rick becoming a hulk type creature could have made for an interesting story and seeing how Hulk deals with what happened to his best friend could have been interesting but nope the episodes do nothing with those two ideas.

For some strange reason they made Rick Jones the comic relief character which to me just doesn't work since he's mean't to be the thing that ties Hulk back to his humanity. As such when you strip that away from the character you strip away everything that the character is and don't get me wrong Seth Green gets alot of laughs out of me in these two episodes but they come at the expense of making an generally interesting character.

Another thing that slightly bugged me is that not only did they have Hulk in his Hulk form for the entire two parter but they also have him speaking complete sentences with know reason given as to why this is the case. This is something that really should have been explained or if they did explain it then it should have been explained better since Bruce Banner is part of Hulk's life and so to explain why he's not in the series would have been great.

Now then since this is an action series that means that I have to talk about the action that's in these episodes. Which like the rest of the two parter is just average for me which is a same because seeing the Hulk smash things should be cool but there's only so many times you can see that in a single episode before it starts to get boring and sadly here it got boring fast as such I didn't find myself invested in the action that much.

Overall out of all the Disney produced animated Marvel shows that i've taken a look at this one is easily the worst one. Simply because it's just average which is a shame because it has Paul Dini writing these episodes and he helped create Batman: The Animated Series and created Harley Quinn and so it's sad to see that one of his stories just isn't that good as such these two episodes gets a combined score of a 5 out of 10 from me.

All the images that I used in this review were taken from either the official Disney fandom wiki page or the official Hulk fandom wiki page. I really cannot say where it's better to get images from either these episodes or this show since the Disney fandom wiki page doesn't have that many images and the Hulk fandom wiki page has fairly low quality images and so I have to say use whichever website you want to use since it really doesn't matter in this case.

 

Avengers Assemble Animated Series "The Avengers Protocol Parts 1 And 2" Review

 

Marvel fans since I had a good time taking a look at a few episodes of the Guardians Of The Galaxy animated series about a few days ago. I thought that I might like to spend the next few days talking about the of the recent Disney Marvel animated shows starting with a pretty badly named show given that it also shows the name of the first Avengers movie and so join me as I review the first two episodes of "Avengers Assemble" with the first two episode both being called "The Avengers Protocol" and so enjoy the review.

The plot of these first two episodes is that Red Skull while fighting Captain America has both himself and Captain America teleported somewhere else in the world and so it's up to Iron Man to get a disbanded Avengers back together and bring in some fresh blood to help save Captain America and stop the villain before he destroys New York. Sorry my summery was a little long but that was the best that I could do as for my opinions on the story first of i'm glad that this was a two part premier because you really couldn't fit all of what happens in these episodes into one single episode and secondly the story told was honestly epic enough that it deserved to be two parts.

Starring in these episodes are Adrian Pasdar as Tony Stark / Iron Man and Roger Craig Smith as Steve Rogers / Captain America. Also starring in these episodes are Travis Willingham as Thor , Fred Tatasciore as Bruce Banner / Hulk , Troy Baker as Cling Burton / Hawkeye , Laura Bailey as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow , Bumper Robinson as Sam Wilson / Falcon , Liam O'Brien as Red Skull , Charlie Adler as M.O.D.O.K. and David Kaye as J.A.R.V.I.S.

Acting wise I felt that the actors in these episodes did a really good job which given that a few of them are voice acting legends isn't really a surprise nor is it a surprise given that Fred Tatasciore has voiced Hulk several times in the past and so he knows what kind of performance would suit this character. As for the other actors they do a really good job playing these characters and making the characters there own.

Doing the animation for these two episodes and the rest of the series is Sunmin Image Pictures Co. don't worry if you've not heard of them i've not heard of them either. Now I know that this might make some of you angry but I actually like the animation in these episodes to me the animation at least was honestly really good and was alot better then it really had any right to be which for me is always a huge plus.

I'm not going to lie and say that this the best Marvel animated product every made simply because I feel that that has yet to be made. However in terms of the Disney produced Marvel animated shows the animation here is alot better then the animation in alot of Disney shows hell it's alot better then the animation seen in a lot of the mid 2000's Disney animated movies it's that good but then again saying the animation is alot better then the one's seen in any mid 2000's animated movies isn't really a high bar to reach.

Now this show for some strange reason bares the exact same name as the title of the first Avengers at least if your from the UK and that's where you saw the first movie anyways. So that basically means that if your from or in any country where the first film was released as Avengers Assemble you actually have to specify that your talking about the film and not the show on top of all this poster to both the show and the movie are basically the exact same.

I honestly have no idea why they chose to give the name of the show the exact same name as the movie since while it won't confuse people in America it would confuse people in other countries. Why they didn't just call it Avengers is beyond me since people would at least be able to tell the two apart even if the poster is the exact same one released for the movie which i'm actually fine with since from a marketing standpoint that actually makes sense since people would associate that poster design and layout with the first Avengers movie.

No matter how bad the show or film is it's always going to be cool seeing the Avengers fight each other and yeah the same is true here. Hell the only bad thing about this idea is that we don't get to see any interesting combinations we only see people who you think they would fight and that's just not that interesting even more so when you take into account that we just saw Thor and Hulk fight each other and Hawkeye and Black Widow fight each other in the first Avengers movie.

Try as I might I cannot find that much wrong with these episodes the only real thing that springs to mind is the pacing of both the episodes is pretty bad. There are times during both episodes were I felt bored and wanted to turn the episodes of but I stuck with them just to give you guys this review but trust me when I tell you that these episodes could and really should have been better paced at least in my opinion.

Now then boys and girls since this is an action show and there is action in these episodes that does mean that I have to talk about the action that's in these episodes. Which I honestly feel was really enjoyable since we did get to see alot of cool stuff in those action scenes and the animation was really good during the action scenes and it's always cool seeing all of the Avengers fight side by side to take down a bad guy.

Overall yeah these episodes are honestly pretty good I obviously cannot say if there better then other Avengers animated series but in terms of the Disney produced Marvel animated shows these episodes are solid. That being said as i've talked about in this review these episodes do have at least one major issue but i'm sure that you guys will find more and tell me about them as such these two episodes get a combined score of a 7.5 out of 10 from me.

All the images that I used in this review were gathered from either the official Disney fandom wiki page , the official Avengers Assemble fandom wiki page or google Images. I honestly feel that the place to get images for this show is the Disney fandom wiki age not due to how many there are because there's not alot but due to how HQ they are which for me at least a big selling point but you guys feel free to use whatever website you want.

 

 

  

Phineas And Ferb The Movie: Candace Against The Universe Review

 

Disney fans the company has been on a role as of late with the company releasing a new film over the past few weeks. Even this week then released two movies on the exact same day that's how much they are killing it when it comes to releasing movies and well since I just reviewed one of the movies that they released it only makes sense that I now take a look at the other film they released today and so here is my review of "Phineas And Ferb The Movie: Candace Against The Universe" and so enjoy the review everyone.

The plot of the movie is Candace and Vanessa get kidnapped by aliens and so it's up Phineas And Ferb and the gang as well as Dr. Doofenshmirtz to get them back before it's to late. Yeah the plot of this movie is just so much fun and is exactly what you think of when you hear the name of the movie and just as fun  which for a Phineas And Ferb movie sequel is something that you honestly want from the story.

Starring in the film is Vincent Martella as Phineas , Ashley Tisdale as Candace and David Errigo Jr. as Ferb. Also starring the film is co-creator and co-writer , Dan Povenmire as Dr. Doofenshmirtz , Alyson Stoner as Isabella , Maulik Pancholy as Baljeet , Bobby Gaylor as Buford , Dee Bradley Baker as Perry and Mama , Olivia Olson as Vanessa , Ali Wong as Super Super Big Doctor , Wayne Brady as Stapler-Fist , Thomas Middleditch as Garnoz , Diedrich Bader as Borthos , Thomas Sanders as Throat-Lobster , Caroline Rhea as Mom , Richard O'Brien as Dad , Mitchel Musso as Jeremy , Kelly Hu as Stacy , Tyler Mann as Carl and co-creator and co-writer Jeff "Swampy" Marsh as Major Monogram. 

As for what I thought about the acting in the film it was honestly as good as I was expecting it to be which is solely due to the fact that the acting in Phineas And Ferb was always really good. As such it only makes sense that the acting in this movie be good as well and while I will miss the original voice actor for Ferb his replacement does a damn good job in my opinion and I wouldn't mind if he took over voicing the character in future appearances.

Doing the animation for the film is Snipple Animation , Yearim Productions and Synergy don't worry if you haven't heard of any of these studios because I haven't either. Either way the animation is where I have my first issue with the film because while it does indeed look good it also looks like something that you'd see in an episode of the show and not like something that you'd want to see in a movie.

Just for comparison the scene just after the title appears in the previous movie you can tell right away that there's been a visual upgrade. Now if you take a look at the opening scene from this movie it looks like something that you'd see in the show it looks like there's been no visual upgrade at all which is a shame because when the animation wants to look like something you'd see in a movie it really goes all out.

I was a fan of Phineas And Ferb when the show was on the air and while I didn't watch every single episode and every single special I watched enough to get the in jokes and long running jokes. As such like many people i'm sure when I saw the characters again I felt like I was seeing old friends which is perhaps the best feeling that I could ever have when watching a movie and I say it was like that because it was like I was catching up with an old friend that hadn't seen in years.

I will admit that I was kind of disappointed that they didn't have the characters from Milo Murphy's Law appear in this movie since the two shows do take place in the same universe and so it would have made sense for those characters to appear. However at the same time this is more of a Phineas And Ferb reunion and so you really want to have as much of those characters in the movie then you do characters from another show.

I'm not going to give anything away in this review but there was a shot in this film which reminded me so much of the 1981 Canadian American animated film Heavy Metal. I'm not going to say what the shot is but I will say that it appears near the end of the movie , I honestly wasn't expecting to be reminded of a very adult animated movie in a kids film but here we are this movie found away to exactly that and I loved it.

Just like with the previous movie there are alot of badas* moments but I honestly preferred the ones in the previous just because they were so cool. That's not to say that the moments in this film aren't badas* because they are it's just I prefer the ones in the previous movie then the ones in this one , nothing is going to top all of the previous gadgets and inventions being brought back for one huge knock down drag out brawl.

Now then boys and girls since this is a comedy that does mean I have to talk about the jokes that are in the movie. Which I honestly feel were really funny there are alot of really solid jokes in this movie all of which made me laugh alot there's even a really funny call back to a character on the show i'm not going to say what it is but that was my favourite joke in this movie just because it caught me so of guard and it was honestly a really funny and well written joke.

Overall yeah this is a fun movie and out of the two movies that Disney released this week this is easily the better of the two. However with that being said I honestly feel that the previous movie is the better of the two simply because that film ends storylines set up in the show where as in this movie that doesn't happen which yeah I guess makes sense but it also means that's no real reason for die hard fans to see this movie outside of seeing these characters again as such this movie gets a solid 7.5 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were taken from either Google Images or the official Phineas And Ferb fandom wiki page. Since I got all the images featuring Phineas and Ferb from the official Phineas and Ferb fandom wiki page I have no choice then to recommend that site for high definition images from either this movie , the previous movie or anything from this franchise but feel free to use whatever website you guys want. 

  

 

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 Animated Series "April Fool" Review

 

Turtles like i'm sure alot of you I grew up watching the the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series. As such I thought that it would be interesting to take a look back at one of the shows episodes mostly because over the years the show has become known more for it's errors and I wanted to see if I could spot any in this episode as such here is my review of the episode "April Fool" which is from season 3 and if episode 11 of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated show and so enjoy the review.

The plot of the episode is April is going to a posh party and so Irma gets her dressed up as a princess meanwhile Shredder tries to get his hand on some valuable science stuff and mistakes April for a real princess and so it's up to the turtles to stop him before it's to late. Plot wise as to be expected from this show the story was pretty thin but to me that's part of this show charm since it then allows for the characters to interact with each in a more natural way but at the same time I would have liked it if the story was better.

Starring in the episode is Cam Clarke as Leonardo and Rocksteady , Barry Gordon as Donatello and Bebop , Townsend Coleman as Michelangelo and Rob Paulsen as Raphael and Second Malacurian Guard. Also starring in the episode is Peter Renaday as Splinter and First Malacurian Guard , Renae Jacobs as April O'Neil and Princess Mallory , Jennifer Darling as Irma , Uncle Phil as Shredder and Pat Fraley as Krang and Emperor Aleister.

I will fully admit I had no idea what to expect from this episode acting wise as such I found the acting to be at best OK. Which really does pain me to say since like I said I grew up with this show but I have to be fair and that does mean finding bad things in things that I love and one of those things is the acting in the episode which yes for the time isn't bad but when you compare these performers to other actors who have played these roles in animated form then these actors come of looking bad which is a shame because these guys had to build up all the characters personalities from the ground up.

Now then since this show had alot of different animation studios working on it for each season and I cannot find who did the animation for season three so i'm just not gonna look further into it. As for what I thought about the animation it was honestly really good at least for the time that the show was being made and given that alot of the shows made around this time had fairly average to bad animation to see a show where the animation was actually good is a good thing.

There is one scene in this episode which is really freaking trippy and that's the scene where the turtles enter the party threw the window. Since the party there going to is a costume we see costumes such as Superman and Batman which is fine but then we see someone came dressed as one of the Ninja Turtles which is just so freaking weird to see and it makes you wonder why the turtles tried to break into the party when they could have just walked in through the front door.

There is no way in hell I could talk about any episode from this show and not talk about the fact that in several countries around the world including my home country the UK this show isn't known as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but is instead known as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. The reasoning behind this has something to do with the word Ninja apparently people thought that an action show with the word Ninja in the title would cause kids to do some Ninja stuff which is just stupid as all hell and it didn't end with the show either since the first movie over here in the UK was called Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles as well.

I will say that this episode is pretty predictable I straight up called one of the plot points in the episode which is never a good thing. I say that because if you can very easily say what that plot point is then it makes the episode predictable and boring to watch which should never be the case you should always never see the plot point coming as it keeps things interesting and thus makes the episode alot more fun to watch.

As the title would suggest this is an April centric episode and for once we actually see her out of her banana outfit. Which yeah is a good thing because my god does April look hot as a princess but even tho it's an April centric episode we don't really get to find out that much about the character which is a shame but given it's about Ninja Turtles and not about her I guess it makes sense but at the same time there's no need to put her name in the title if the episode isn't going to be that much about her but the title did make for a nice pun.

Speaking of the comedy since this version of the turtles leaned more on the comedy it makes sense that I talk about the comedy in this episode. Which I really fell is the episodes weakest aspect since alot of the jokes were made at April's expense which just made the turtles and Splinter seem like d**ks and they just weren't funny but Michelangelo being able to sniff out pizza is something that is both funny and is actually in character.

Now then boys and girls this is also an action show and so that means that we have to talk about the action that's in this episode. Which I honestly feel is the episodes strongest point since the action is really fun to see and is in my opinion when the animation truly comes alive which makes sense since it is an action show and so that's where you want your best animation to go and it helps that they give the turtles some really cool action moments.

Overall yeah this was a pretty bad episode but the issues that I had with the episode could also be given to every episode of this show' Like I said several times there are some good things in this episode there's just not as many when you stack them up against the bad things which is a shame because when this episode wants to be fun it can be a fun episode as such this episode gets a 7.5 out of 10 from me and all the images that I used in this review were gathered from either Google Images or the official Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fandom wiki page

  

Beware The Batman "Secrets" Review

 

DC fans there are alot of shows out that feature Batman both animated and live action and there's going to be a lot more in the future. However there's one show that people seem to forget and honestly that's a good thing since this is so far the only animated show where they used CGI animation which is something I will get into later on in the review and so here is my review of the second episode of Beware The Batman called "Secrets" enjoy.

The plot of the episode is Batman has to find out who the new villain called Magpie as well as work out what her evil plan is and stop her before it's to late all the while Bruce Wayne has to get used to his new bodyguard / driver and a secret that Alfred has kept from him which changes nothing but we need a title. In all honesty the plot of this movie is really good and is a key example of what a Batman show can be like if it's well written but at the same time the plot felt like it was at times at least very fast paced.

Starring in the episode is Anthony Ruivivar as Bruce Wayne / Batman and Sumalee Montano as Tatsu Yamashiro. Also starring in the episode is J.B. Blanc as Alfred Pennyworth, Batcomputer and Lunkhead , Grey DeLisle as Margaret Sorrow / Magpie , Ian James Corlett as Joe Braxton and Police Officer , Kurtwood Smith as Lt. James Gordon , Tara Strong as Barbara Gordon and Cree Summer as Bethanie Ravencroft.

In all honesty the acting in the episode isn't that bad and alot of the voice actors do a solid job in the episode. The main issue I have is that I can't buy Anthony Ruivivar as either Bruce Wayne or Batman to me he sounds like someone who is trying to be Batman and not helping things is the fact that he does little disguise his voice when he's Batman which is a key thing for the character to do since it helps sell that Bruce Wayne and Batman are two different people.

Doing the animation for this episode and i'm assuming the whole series is Xentrix Studios and Oktobor Animation. I'm going to be freaking blunt here the animation in this episode looks cheap as hell and because of that it looks bad which is never a good thing even more so for a character who had a mega hit animated show in the nineties. You can tell that this was done cheap because there's very little to know characters walking on the street when ever there's an action sequence it's usually one on and and the episode is mostly set at night.

I say that these are ways to tell if it's done cheaply because the fewer characters you have walking on a street means you have fewer characters to animate , if an episode is set in night then it means that you don't have to light it that much and for the action just refer back to what I said about the characters walking because it applies here as well. Gotham City is meant to be the busy place and yet it looks freaking empty and so there's no reason for Batman to be around anymore because it looks like there's no people to save and thus no crime to stop.

To me this show looks alot like the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series (which as you can tell by the poster is also called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) which is not a good thing. It's not a good thing because all it did was remind me that I could be watching a much better show and know where is this more apparent then in the design of Batman because just like what they did with the turtles during the action scenes they gave Batman no eyes which I guess works since it would be hard to explain why Batman has the same eyes as Bruce Wayne but at the same time all it did was remind me of a much better show.

It's honestly not that hard to see why this show was a failure because it has a lot of bad things just in this episode alone. Since this episode can be boring as hell which then causes you to question alot of the issues with the episode and possibly find more and so when you can't even make one episode of the show entertaining then I have to question how boring the other episodes of the show are or even how boring the series as a whole is.

I have to seriously wonder who this show is of because given that it's animation and that it aired on Cartoon Network for most of it's run one would assume that it's for kids but then there's villains like Magpie who as you can see by the above picture is wearing something that isn't exactly kids animated show friendly. She's wearing something that is the opposite of kid friendly hell i'm surprised that they got this episode past the censors with that outfit.

This actually had the shortest run of any Batman TV show lasting only one season with twenty six episodes. To say that this show is bad would be a huge understatement since Cartoon Network who will air hours upon hours of Teen Titans Go removed this show after its eleventh episode with the remaining episodes airing on Adult Swim which is where the show finished it's run with the final episode airing on September 28th 2014 and the show started July 13th 2013 with it's hiatus announced on October 23rd 2013.

Now even tho the above picture doesn't tell you this but this is an action show and there is action in this episode which means we have to talk about the action in the episode.There really isn't that much action in this episode at all most likely because this show was so obviously made cheaply that they just couldn't animate action scenes but what little action there is in the episode is at best passable which for a Batman show isn't good enough.

Overall this is a decent episode but given that the show it's from is considered a failure I have to assume that the over episodes aren't that good. I want it known that I have seen the first episode and I don't think very highly of it so this is more of an educated guess then anything but either way it's not a goof thing at all one episode being bad is OK but two your really pushing it as such this episode gets 3.5 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from either the official Beware The Batman fandom wiki page , the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fandom wiki page and the official Batman fandom wiki page. I really cannot recommend either website for images from either this show or this episode mostly because there really aren't any and the one's that they do have are the same quality on both websites and I checked there's very little images from this episode up on Google Images but if you like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I can highly recommend there fandom wiki page for images since alot of those are very high quality.

  

Guardians of The Galaxy: The Animated Series "Road To Knowhere" And "Knowhere To Run" Review

 

Marvel fans the company has put out alot of animated content over the years but ever since Disney bought them they've seen to be putting more and more animated shows out.  Some are pretty good and some are flat out bad but they all have one thing in common there all released a year or two after a live action movie a great example of that is Guardians Of The Galaxy where the movie debuted in 2014 and the show debuted in 2015 and so here is my review of the first to episodes of Guardians Of The Galaxy: The Animated Series called "Road To Knowhere" and "Knowhere To Run" respectively so enjoy everyone.

The plot of the episodes is the Guardians discover an object that only Peter can open and have to hide the device from Thanos. That's most likely the vaguest plot summery i've ever given but it's also the only one that I could give since these two episodes are really lacking in terms of story with there being very little actually going on as such I don't really see why this had to be a two part episode this story could have very easily have been told in just one episode.

Starring in the episodes are Will Friedle as Peter Quill / Star-Lord , Vanessa Marshall as Gamora and David Sobolov as Drax. Also starring in these episodes are Kevin Michael Richardson as Groot and The Broker , Trevor Devall as Rocket Raccoon , Dave Fennoy as Korath , The great James Arnold Taylor as Yondu and Cosmo and Isaac C. Singleton Jr. and the mad titan himself Thanos. For once I don't have to get a cast list for both episodes because every character who appears in the first episode appears in the second.

As for what I thought about the acting in these two episodes it's honestly not that bad but it's also not that good either. The main issue that I have with the acting is that barring a few performers the actors don't really sound right for there characters take for example the actor playing Korath the voice he uses for that character doesn't fit the character and it's the same with Rocket and that to me is very distracting but tho in the case Rocket the performer actually does a solid job even with the voice that doesn't fit the character.

                                                                            

Doing the animation for these episodes and the rest of the series is Studio Mir who people will know for there work on The Legend Of Korra. I honestly feel that the animation in these episodes is one of the best animation seen from the current Disney Marvel animated shows which i'm not quite sure if that's a good thing or not since the animation here does look fairly average at times espically during the scenes where the characters are standing still but when it comes to action the animation in my opinion is really good.

As you can no doubt work out by the poster but these episodes and the show uses designs based on the 2014 film Guardians Of The Galaxy. Which I guess makes sense since that movie was awesome but at the same time it stops the show from having an identity all it's own since it's reminds people that they could be watching something better hell the first song that they play in the episode is Hooked On A Feeling which is now more well known for being in Guardians Of The Galaxy then being a song released decades before the film was even made.

Now before you all say anything yes I know that alot of the images i'm using aren't from these episodes but in my defense none of the fandom pages have alot of images for this episode and there's not that many HD images on Google so i'm doing the best that I can. That being said I liked the fact that we got to see a bit more of Knowhere in these episodes which I liked because the idea of Knowhere is such a cool one and the first movie didn't give us alot of time on Knowhere and so to it come back and play a big role in these episodes was a good thing in my opinion.

Unlike the first movie these episodes actually give Cosmo something to do which is great because after re-watching these episodes I like this character. To me what makes the character of Cosmo so likeable aside from the fact that he's a cute doggie who is most certainly a good boy is the fact that you can have him team up with any character in this show and the interactions that they could have would be different each time and that makes him fun to watch as well as a fun character.

One of the things that I didn't like about these episodes is that even thor Thanos is the main villain for both episodes he doesn't really play that big of a role in the plot. Which is a shame because as the movies show us he can be a cool villain and so it's a shame to see him wasted in these two episodes hell when it comes to these first two episodes we don't even see him in person until the final act of the second episode with alot of his screen time being present via hologram which really isn't as good as seeing him in person.

The other thing that I didn't like about the first episode is that they turned Groot back into a baby for no reason whatsoever. There's no reason given in the story as to why Groot had to be a baby again and him being in baby form has to impact on the story he's in hi baby form for a few seconds and then due to the events of the episode is really tall and then in the second episode is back to his regular normal form and so I have to ask what was the point in having in his baby form when your not going to do anything with him and it's not going to play a role in the story , to me it seems like the creators of the show saw a rough version of the movie and so included baby Groot just to appeal to people who thought that version of the character's cameo was cute and nothing more which is stupid as hell reason to include that version of the character.

The show started airing on September 5th 2015 and finished airing on June 9th 2019 with the series airing on Disney XD. I will always say that three seasons is good run for any animated show good or bad and the same is true here they had a solid run with seventy seven episodes under there belt which regardless of what you think of the show that's an impressive amount of episodes for any show in my opinion.

Now then since this is an action show that does mean that we have to talk about the action that's in these episodes. Like I said the action is where the animation is at it's best for me since everything just leaps of the screen and is stunning to look at during the action scenes it's just a shame then that the action itself is pretty tame we don't get to see the guardians punching or kicking anyone at best we see them shooting the bad guys and that's it which is fine for one or two action scenes but when it's the majority of them it get's boring to watch fast.

Overall these episodes despite there many faults are still fun to watch which for a Guardians Of The Galaxy product is an important thing for me. Even tho i've just said these episodes are fun to watch they do still gave there faults all of which i've covered in this review and i'm sure there's a few of you out there who will tell me that i'm wrong for liking this show but I do feel that it's the best animated show from Marvel under the Disney banner as such these episodes get a combine score of a 7 out of 10 from me.

All images that I used in this review were gathered from either official Guardians Of The Galaxy The Series fandom wiki page or the official Disney fandom wiki page. I honestly cannot say which is the best website to use for images from either this show or these episodes since the Guardians Of The Galaxy The Series fandom wiki page doesn't have that many images and the ones on the Disney fandom wiki page aren't that HD so use either website.