At first I was a bit skeptical. It's a cartoon, rated Y7. So would I as an adult be bored, annoyed? Would my kids who are above that age range feel the same? Doesn't Agents of Smash just sound like a bit of a childish reach?
However, within the first few seconds of the opening episode, my fears began to wane as I hear the voice talents of Seth Green. From his first appearance in my view in Can't Hardly Wait to Buffy to The Italian Job, all the way through to his appearances on TableTop, I have always enjoyed his work. I relaxed and decided to just let the smash happen.
It's a cartoon and they certainly do love to smash. Cartoonish violence on a level of Looney Tones at times. It was a classic cartoon. The first episode sets the stage for the series, a group of Gamma ray enhanced "hulks" including the original Hulk (no reference to Bruce Banner), Red Hulk, She-Hulk, a Conan style Hulk and the Seth Green voiced A-Bomb, previously known as Rick Jones.
The team is placed on par with the Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D. and they deal with all types of villains from The Leader to the living planet Ego. What surprised me most is that the staging, that of a we series designed to show the softer side of the Hulk, actually works quite well. Cutting to confession booth style interviews with each of the Hulks helps to balance out the constant smashing, growling and grunting. Hulk even seems to have a moral or lesson to impart each episode. I honestly didn't see Hulk as the logical, wise leader of a team with Mr Rogers-like themes coming through.
The series makes good use of the Marvel Universe both in villains and guest star heroes. Spider-Man, Iron Man and many other heroes team up with the Hulks from time to time. It created an interesting and fun sideline for me to see how they worked these heroes and their position in this version of the Marvel Universe.
The series also makes excellent use of a myriad of voice talents. Besides Green, the vocal stylings of Clancy Brown, Eliza Dushku, Drake Bell, Chi McBride, Adrian Pasdar, Terry Crews and even Oscar winner JK Simmons all add to the fun of Agents of SMASH.
The talent is vast and latey vocal actors have been a fascination to me. Several actors from Geek and Sundry's Critical Role appear as well and that is one of my current binge watching choices. Another series I need to review...
Nonetheless. The evening was a success. Laundry was folded. We laughed at the smashing. We talked about the morals and themes that Mr Rogers' Hulk imparted. All it all it was an excellent Netflix choice for our evening.
If you like cartoonish violence. If you enjoy good clean fun about smashing and destruction. If you are a stereotypical 8 year old boy. You will enjoy Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.
No comments:
Post a Comment