NYCC 2012: Trailer for ‘Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United’

A week and a half ago we told you that Marvel Entertainment was going to dip its toe into the direct to-DVD/Blu-ray animation game, a game so long dominated by DC Entertainment, with Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United. Yesterday, at New York Comic Con we got our first look at the film via the trailer.

As the charter member of the iFanboy Animation Braintrust and a big fan of superhero animation, I am kind of disappointed. The animation style, which is obviously very CGI based, puts me at arms length. It lacks the warmth of more traditional animation. It took me a while to come around to Green Lantern: The Animated Series, and that show’s more cartoony style works much better with CGI. I am, however, willing to have my mind changed upon viewing the film.

Comments

  1. This looks bad in so many different ways. Marvel needs to make Chris Yost, their Bruce Timm. Any Marvel animated thing he’s not involved in looks like shit.

    • I agree, Chris Yost should be Marvel’s version of Bruce Timm of DC. The only problem with this animation that I have is the dull haze of the trailer. I’ll watch the movie regardless because I love the Hulk and Iron-man.

  2. I was interested in this from the still released a week or two back, but this does not look good at all. The models are stiff and soulless, even video game cutscenes are better!

    I’ll give it a shot, but I don’t have high hopes for this one.

  3. Ouch.

    Stilted dialogue and stiff, uninspired animation. Not much to look forward to here.

  4. Unless the iFanboy Animation Braintrust gives this glowing reviews, I’ll call it a pass. Which is a shame, I had such high hopes.

  5. What a terrible trailer. This looks like a new low for marvel animation, and when you consider some of the absolute crap they’ve put out that says a lot. Jeff Loeb does it again!

  6. Marvel is trying too hard to complicate instead of duplicate what should be fairly simple. DC is killing them in this field because they are staying close to the source material and using animation in the styles of the sources used, New Frontier, All Star Superman, etc. Using CGI when the source material isn’t CGI is disconcerting to a lot of viewers and just complicates the visual that we are accustomed to seeing.

  7. The animation looks worse than ReBoot or Transformers Beast Wars.

    • It’s no Pinocchio. I think you hit the nail on the head with Beast Wars.

    • I was just about to post the same thing. If this were the late 90s (when Beast Wars was on the air), it would be fine, but CGI animation has improved by leaps and bounds since then. Based on the animation alone, this movie is a non-starter for me unfortunately.

  8. That looks surprisingly bad.

  9. I’ve worked in 3D animation before and I know all about the time constrictions the animators often work under, and I say this with all professional curtsey and respect for the artists involved, but this looks awful. I’ve seen PS2-era comic movie tie-ins cut-scenes that look better than this.

    Also in no world are the Mandroids interesting threats to Hulk and Iron Man.

    • Everything as of late from the studio has the reactionary signs of trying to take advantage of an unexpected hit. Which is fine and to be expected, it is just that I am not a fan of what I am seeing. Which seems to saturate the markets with anything that sticks. And with animation like this, it has the appearance of cheap quality at the cost of a fast turn around. Hopefully DC Nation is not railroaded, cause that makes me care a lot less if this particular product is crap. There is just too much quality around
      Korra… Adventure Time… Transformers Prime… Tron Legacy…

  10. “Maybe I shouldn’t have made this many mandroids?”
    “Ya think?”

    *Facepalm.*

  11. Like the other commenters, I’m not feeling it, but I think this is one of those animated projects that’s aimed at the “I have an awesome Avengers backpack I take to school everyday” crowd and not the “I comment on comic book websites” crowd.

    • Here here. I think that they are well taking care of the next generation of fans. A la Star Wars I, II, III . Heck, even Reboot was immensely popular in its day and I have cherished memories of Beast Wars. Especially in its 3rd season onwards. (Though I can not watch it now, seriously.. the animation does suck.)

  12. No sir, I don’t like it… Don’t like it at all.

  13. The things I’ll inevitably watch for you people…

  14. ugh… no… it’s actually pretty impressive how bad MArvel is at animation… considering their sucess everywhere else and being part of Disney should at least make them technically great… but this looks really cheap and soulless …

    I mean, use 3D and all.. it’s great… but only use it when you have th etim eand th emoney it needs to be great… 3D is pretty unforgiving when it’s not don eon a Pixar level or used in an “artsy” way…

    Sometimes it’S better to use stuff you know will work when you are not ready to spent a lot of money on it

  15. I hate to add to the negativity but I really think this preview was lack luster. I would say the target audience must be very young because this is not something that I, as a mature audience member, would want to check out. And I am pretty forgiving.

    “You think?”…c’mon lol

  16. “Wait this ISN’T a video game?” is what I thought when I saw in the trailer that it will be “coming to blu ray”. Somewhat of an embarrassment…for you.

  17. So, what happens if the mandroids defeat the good guys? what are the stakes here? is this just two superheroes fighting robots for an hour inside a futuristic looking facility full of large empty rooms?

  18. I wish Marvel well with this foray into OVA territory.

    If it works well, there are quite a few characters I’d like to see featured.

    A few more of these Avengers Team-Up type films would be a fine start.

    Maybe Cap and ‘Tasha, Hawkeye and Thor.

    Leading up to the eventual and inevitable Taskmaster/Constrictor buddy film.