Ultimate Avengers: The Movie DVD Home Video Release
Studio: Lionsgate Home Entertainment, Marvel Animation
Release Date: February 21st, 2006
DVD Special Features:
• "Avengers Assemble" Featurette
• The Ultimate Voice Talent Search
• What Avenger Are You? DVD-ROM game
• First Look at Ultimate Avengers II
• Avengers Trivia Track
• Animated interactive menus
• Trailer gallery
Ultimate Avengers: The Movie DVD Review
By Jim Harvey
Lionsgate gives their first Marvel
feature a nice collection of extras, on par with Warner Home Video’s
“The Batman Versus Dracula” video release. We get a main featurette
detailing the history of the characters, with Stan Lee surprisingly
absent, as well as a look at the upcoming sequel the voice search held
for the first feature. Also included is a trivia track and a DVD-Rom
game.
The audio and visual for the release is top notch. The audio comes out
loud and clear, and the battle scenes sound just stupendous. The “World
War II” sequence sounds just amazing, and the climactic battle is a real
assault on the senses. It’s a great audio mix, and the visuals are just
as impressive. Definitely a gorgeous transfer, there appears to be any
hardly noticeable interlacing. If there are any visual problems, really
have to pay attention to see it.
The main featurette clocks in at less than twenty minutes, and goves
over the history of their characters before the launch of “The Ultimates”
in 2002. Interview with Kurt Busiek, George Perez, Joe Quesada, and Tom
Booveret, among others, keep the featurette going at a quick pace. Mixed
with interviews clips are assorted images from the Avengers comics over
the years. Surprisingly, they do discuss “Avengers Disassembled” and
“The New Avengers,” two big controversies for Marvel last year, in a
very frank manner. It’s a nice, short featurette looking at arguably
Marvel’s biggest team of heroes.
And sorry guys, Hawkeye gets a crack at his expense. The guy just can’t
seem to catch a break.
Spotlighting the voice talent search for this movie a year or so back,
the DVD presents us with a featurette, coming in at around five minutes,
of some of their best, and worst, auditions for the movie. It’s a mix of
interesting, funny, and just plain disturbing; fans should get a kick
out of seeing some possibly familiar faces.
The other featurettes are fun, but pretty forgettable. The trivia track
is helpful for new fans of these characters, but long-time readers might
find some of the information repetitive. The DVD-ROM game is something
to a quick time-waster, but nothing to take
note of, unless you’re desperate to know “Which Avenger Are You?”. There
are also trailers for “Elektra,” a “Battledice” game, and both trailers
for “Ultimate Avengers.”
Fans will also get a peek at some early production art for “The Ultimate
Avengers 2,” hitting this summer. The brief peek also contains
interviews with the creative team discussing why they took the route
they did with the sequel. And there are spoilers. The villain and “never
before Ultimatize-d” character are revealed. However, based on the early
information and art, this looks very promising.
Overall, it’s a mixed bag of extras. There’s some truly good material in
here, but there should be more. The featurettes and the look at the
upcoming sequel are worth checking out, but the DVD-ROM is a waste of
space. But given how fun the main feature is, these extras come as
merely an after thought when viewing the DVD. |