Cartoon Corner- Thor: Tales of Asgard

Originally posted at the DL March 2016

Hmm, so this is only our second of these direct to video Marvel things?  Well then.



So the whole Lions Gate Marvel thing is basically their answer to the DC Animated features, and the idea seems to be that since this is direct-to-video animation they can ramp up the blood and violence a bit and it'll be fine and give them a hook.

That's... a great theory?  And Planet Hulk is legit good.  This one is... not terribly good.

There's just a long list of issues, some fundamental, some nitpicky, some minor but really glaring.  I'll try to just take a couple from each set to save needless ragging on the film since it's not THAT bad.

- The animation is janky.  Lot's of very sudden movements, no real fluidity.  Normally this sort of thing would trim itself down if they were having budget problems but here we are.
- The violence level does not really help this particular story at all.  This is probably the biggest overall issue, the story itself sets off as an innocent youthful adventure that ends up being a lesson for Thor about the responsibilities of being a leader, which is a fine enough premise but I don't think showing the Sword of Surter (really?  you can't call it Twilight?  Because that's what that's called in marvel) burning the flesh from ice giant bones before showing the bones disintegrating is really advancing that story much.
- I gotta say, Thor finishing off the final battle by taking up Gungnir is a huge letdown.  C'moooon, you had Mjolnir in the vault!  Stop teasing me.
- In general the relative ages of everyone and characterization feels slightly off.  Thor and Loki I'm okay with since the main thrust is being the event that sets them on their paths into adulthood, but it's like they had a really specific story idea and jammed the other characters into it with passing reference to their usual personas.
- The Valkyries.  God everything about them is hard to sit through.

As noted, I do like the core idea, and Thor and Loki more or less work.  But everything else around them just feels off and there's a few parts that aren't fun at all to watch.

Rating- 4/10