The next generation. The children of the Avengers. The Avengers are no more. Is this something we want to see?
I sat down with Craig Kyle and Chris Yost again before watching a screening of this movie. I also talked with Fred Tatasciore (voice of the Hulk), Tom Kane (voice of Tony Stark, Iron Man, and Ultron), Steve Bloom (Wolverine in Hulk vs. Wolverine) and producer/director Gary Hartle.
With the Avengers gone, it's been up to Tony Stark to raise the kids James (son of Captain America and Black Widow), Torunn (daughter of Thor), Azari (son of Black Panther and...someone with electric type powers, hmmm), and Pym (son of Giant Man and Wasp). (Hawkeye's son soon becomes involved in their adventure). They are forced to join together to become the Avengers in order to fight Ultron.
Chris Yost talked about the kids being the last generation of heroes. Their world is in big trouble. They pretty much grew up on their own. They have to fight the "baddest of the bad" and don't really know what's in store for them having lived such a sheltered life. You begin to feel for the kids as they begin to go into their parents' "world" for the first time.
Gary Hartle mentioned that it did start out really dark but they decided to change it to be softer. He said your heart really goes out to the kids.
The tone of the movie is more of an adventure versus pure action. "The threat is real but it's fun."
Both Craig and Kyle separately referred to them this as a "Goonies" type adventure. He points out that whenever there's hope for the kids, things get bad.
Fred has done the Hulk a few times now. How does he approach the different "versions"? The Hulk here is an older Hulk. Banner is older. The pains that affect Banner will mirror onto the Hulk. Chris describes the Hulk as always wanting to be left alone. He finally got his wish. Now Banner is like a crazy old man. He's really scared having had the Hulk locked up inside for so long. He's afraid of what could happen if the Hulk was released. The way both Craig and Chris describe the Hulk, they've really analyzed him. They delved deep into his psyche and know what makes him tick.
I wondered why they chose the Black Widow to be paired with Captain America. He has been linked with different women throughout the comics. Craig told me it sort of carries over from the Ultimates dvds. This isn't a direct sequel to those but it could exist in that same universe.
Black Panther's wife is never mentioned. Chris, Craig and Gary were all pretty coy about who she could be. The fact that Azari has some sort of electrical based powers leads you to the obvious conclusion.
Torunn never knew her father (Thor). She tries to "fake talk" like him and the other kids make fun of her.
Despite Craig's...joys of working with the child actors, it all worked out for the best. The character talk and act like kids would.
Tom Kane had the task of playing both hero and villain in the movie. He pointed out that this is a different Tony Stark that hasn't been seen before. He's a different guy now having had to raise this kids as a father. Tom usually is able to find a voice for the different characters he plays. With Tony, this is the first time the voice is just him.
A common question that may be asked is why do kid Avengers. This is the first PG movie that they've done (the others have been PG-13). Craig and Chris both wanted to experiment with something new. Craig describes it as something for the newer/younger viewers that may not know all the history of the original characters. This is their chance to be able to have their own versions. They did look at the different alternate futures already done in the comics. They didn't feel any of those captured what they were looking for.
I asked Craig if it was easier to create new characters or to write existing charcters (that are tied with existing histories). Craig said new characters are always easier. There is no history to worry about. But with these kids, they're not really new as they are connected to their parents.
What did I think?
As I sort of alluded to in the beginning, I wasn't really too keen on this. I did have some faith since Kyle and Yost's other movies have been done so well. In the beginning it felt a little like "Avengers Lite." The visuals, colors and character designs were all nice. The home of the kids felt alive. I liked the little touch like Cap's son being named James (after Bucky, obviously). They did talk to each other like kids. They feel they know everything when they most likely don't.
Is this strictly for kids? Not really. Some of the actions scenes surprised me. They weren't near what I saw on Hulk Versus Wolverine the night before but the battle between Iron Man and Ultron was pretty brutal. Ultron is protrayed as pretty menacing. Just the glow of his mouth could give some children nightmares.
I have to say that I liked it. It wasn't what I expeted it to be. It was more. It was nice talking to the guys before seeing it. What they said really makes sense. You can see that this is a different movie but that's not a bad thing.
I liked it but what about the other Comic-conners? There were very loud cheers and laughs. More than I would've expected. The screening was towards the end of the evening. So it wasn't simply a room full of "kids" watching. The brief Question and Answer at the end had several people stating that they would like more of these characters. Craig has said that he could easily see this as the beginning of a series of movies of ongoing Saturday Morining cartoon. What it comes down to (again) is viewer support. The studio exec's need to know that it'd be financially meaningful.
One thing I wondered was if their story did continue, what would happen next? The ending is set up so that they do still have loose ends to tie up. As mentioned, the world was in a bad place. I wasn't the only one with this thought. Chris said that the other villains of the world are still out there. They could've been in hiding all these years. There's a "milion places to go" with the characters.
Someone asked if we'd see other superhero kids like from the X-Men, Spider-Man, etc. Craig said, "If you each buy 25 copies we will answer those questions."
The guys are on a role. These Marvel dvds have all been good. After talking to them two nights in a row, I see that they really know their stuff. Yeah we already knew that. We've all loved their work on New X-Men, X-23 and the current X-Force. But hearing them talk about the characters, they're doing this because they really enjoy writing about these characters. That's a refreshing feeling. We're not going to have some nameless writer cranking something out just so Marvel can another product on the shelves. Bravo to Marvel for getting all these guys to work on them.
What about the special treat I teased about last night? We got to see the trailer (never shown before) of the second versus feature, Hulk Versus Thor. As Chris said to me, it is on a grander scale. Hulk fighting Asgardian Gods. You'll want a front row seat for that. Next Avengers may be a little "lite" but the Versus movie is anything but.
Here's the trailer if you haven't already seen it.
