Before the Hammer… There Was the Sword
I’m by no means an expert (or even a fan of) Thor, but I had never seen a young Thor before (unless you count cartoons). But, it is a young Thor that is the lead role in this movie. As the prince of Asgard, Thor is confined to the kingdom so that he may take the throne of Odin someday. Thor thinks himself a strong warrior, as he spars with real Asgardian warriors, but fails to realize that they always let him win. Sif, a Valkyrie and friend of Thor, demonstrates this falicy to Thor who then becomes determined to leave the kingdom on a daring adventure and prove his worth to his father and fellow Asgardians.
Against his father’s will, and without consulting the Warrior’s Three, Thor and younger brother Loki stowaway on a transport leaving the kingdom. The Warrior’s Three, a trio of Asgardian warriors, are surprised when Thor and Loki reveal themselves. But, the group works together as they try to find the lost sword of Surtur, known as Twilight. Encased in Scabrite, Twilight is a mighty sword regarded to be as powerful as Odin’s spear.
Finding the sword is but one feat, but being able to control its power proves to be another. Thor gets not only himself into trouble, but also all of Asgard when he kills a Jotun and sparks a very tense situation between the Asgardians and Jotun. So, what was supposed to be a relatively safe adventure has now turned into a potential disaster scenario with many lives at stake. Can Thor and his friends save Asgard?
The seventy-seven minute feature is pretty entertaining. It’s odd seeing a young, almost whiny Thor but at the same time it’s good to see him ‘grow up’ throughout the movie. I thought the animation was really good and it looks great in HD. The voiceovers were also very good. The script does a nice job of balancing the action and drama with bits of humor that keep a younger audience in check. It’s a very watchable movie for young and adult viewers.
Combo Pack
The two disc set includes a Blu-ray and a DVD. Both discs contain the same extra features which I will detail shortly. The Blu-ray is presented in 16:9, 1:78:1 with English 7.1 DTS-HD sound as well as support
for 5.1 Spanish Dolby and English and Spanish subtitles. A trailer gallery for a variety of other Lions Gate
releases is thrown in too. The DVD has a 1:78:1 ratio as well, but with English 5.1 and Spanish 2.0 audio. The extra features, which again are identical on both discs are:
-“Worthy” The Making of Thor: Tales of Asgard (22m, HD) – Craig Kyle (Supervising Producer), Erics Rollman (Executive Producer), Greg Johnson (Screenwriter), Joshua Fine (Producer of Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes), and others talk about the goal of the film and a variety of other topics. Lots of clips from the finished movie are shown as well as some concept art, the script, and other production material.
-The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Bonus Episode – The episode is, not surprisingly, “Thor The Mighty,” and is presented in HD.
-Audio Commentary with Supervising Producer Craig Kyle and Screenwriter Greg Johnson.
-Audio Commentary with Supervising Director Gary Hartle, Director Sam Liu and Character Designer Phil Bourassa.
To the summary…
