Official Synopsis
Iron Man and Captain America are out to stop the infamous Red Skull, and his partner Taskmaster, from building an army of Hydra brutes driven by the super soldier serum.
The animated film starts out well. Iron Man and Captain America’s personalities compete against each other in regards to the best style to enter into a battle. Iron Man goes into battle loosy-goosey, while Captain America’s style is more methodical and planned. Too busy bickering, the duo is unexpectedly thrown into battle with the Taskmaster, who ends up not only beating both heroes, but also stealing a secret weapon from Stark — a weapon that could mean almost certain destruction to the world.
Love the beginning of this movie. While I can’t say much for how things get from point A to point B, I will say that this setup lies somewhere between a good comic book plot and something you might find in a middle-of-the-road Saturday morning cartoon, which isn’t a bad thing. You can see how this isn’t overly violent, like Shout! Factory’s Marvel DVD releases, but it’s just good enough in the writing to keep comic book fans interested. In other words, it’s a good balance. This type of movie is trying to attract a younger audience, as well as a more mature comic book fanbase.
Of course, things start to shift towards a bit more hardcore audience when the story shifts onto a darker course in the second act.
While trying to find a way to stop Taskmaster, Iron Man finds himself separated from Captain America, who is knocked out and flown off to the secret base of Red Skull. On top of stealing Stark’s weapon, Captain America is brainwashed by Red Skull and blood is extracted from Cap to help generate and create the Hydra army that RS has dreamed about and will ultimately use to take over the world.
The way that Captain America is tortured in act two is pretty serious. I couldn’t tell you what the heck machine the Red Skull’s folks were using to torture him, but the amount of violent screams from the character made the second act (and the moment) really quite serious. On top of this, the story went so far into detailing that Captain America can’t break his adamantium truly shows that while this is a kid’s cartoon, Marvel/Disney wanted to make hardcore fans aware that they hadn’t simply left out the details, nor the seriousness of Captain America’s predicament. Again, it’s a balance between entertaining a younger audience, while trying to satisfy your hardcore fancbase. It’s the little things that make this impressive.
Anyway, Iron Man has his work cut out for him in the third act because he faces not only the terrible task of bringing down Red Skull and Taskmaster, but also having to watch his back for the evil Captain America as well — and trying to bring him back to his senses. Oh, yeah. And watching out for those Hydra brutes as well.
It’s a lot to put into a third act, but it’s completely showing its comic skin by putting its heroes (well, Iron Man) up against what seems like an impossible task. The overall climb to this point in the film is pretty strong, and the ending is equally as good. There are times where maybe they stretched things out a bit too far in the movie (such as the constant bickering between the two heroes on fighting styles), but for the most part this seems like a competent comic movie that satisfies a younger mind, while also bringing the complication that is needed to draw in their hardcore fanbase. What else could you want?
The biggest knock I have against this film is probably going to sound enormously lame, but when you see it you will find it a very valid complaint. I love the animation of the film and the style of it. The shadows, shading and the vibrant colors look absolutely spectacular. So, what’s my complaint? I hated the mouth movement. The mouth/talking looked like it was around 15 frames per second. Nothing else looked awkward about the animation except the mouth movement. It was absolutely hideous! I know that maybe it was a certain style the animators were shooting for, but it was such a visual distraction. The gorgeous movements of the heroes/villains/henchmen, mixed with visually appealing environments were hurt quite a bit by choppy mouth movement. Again, I know it sounds lame, but wow, whoever decided that was good way to go really needs to rethink that idea.
If you can get beyond the mouth issues, then you’ll find a fun story that has plenty of personality for a comic movie. The voice acting and the script are strong, as is the majority of the animation you get — sans the mouth.