There have been many superheroes created over the years for comic books or movies. My first introduction to many of them has been from the movies. During the last few years, Marvel has created a few animated movies about some characters. I recently watched The Invincible Iron Man, the third of those animated movies.

Billionaire Tony Stark was involved in the excavation of an ancient Chinese town. Some people in the area, as well as some of the workers, were afraid that raising the city would allow the Mandarin, the emperor during China’s most violent dynasty, to return. The Jade Dragons, a local group, kept trying to sabotage the excavation. Tony was having problems with the board of directors, but that didn’t stop the raising of the city or Tony from traveling to China to visit the site. He was seriously injured when the Jade Dragons attacked his vehicle. Something happened at the site and the Mandarin’s Elementals, magical beings with the powers of the four elements, rose to prepare for the Mandarin’s return. The Jade Dragons wanted Tony to deal with the situation and were keeping him hostage. Tony created an armored suit that he used to escape. Tony then decided to try to stop the Elementals and prevent the Mandarin from returning.

The Invincible Iron Man was based on the Marvel comic book character created by Stan Lee in 1963. Tony/Iron Man first appeared in Tales of Suspense before eventually getting his own comic book in 1968. I haven’t read the comic book and know very little about Tony. I have heard a bit about the origin story involving Tony being injured during a war and then building the armored suit to survive and escape. Updates to the story over the years have changed which war Tony was injured in. I’m not sure what else in his history was changed for this movie. A live action movie will be out in May of 2008.

The majority of The Invincible Iron Man was showing the origin for Tony becoming Iron Man. That was connected to a Chinese prophecy about the Mandarin. I hadn’t heard of the Mandarin before watching this movie, so I had no idea if he was from the comic books or just created for the movie. I did a little research after watching the movie and discovered that the Mandarin was a villain of Iron Man in the comics. A different version of the character was created for the movie. Tony was just using his armored suits to fight the Elementals and the Mandarin. He never talked about using the suit to fight crime and he never called himself Iron Man.

I thought that the plot of The Invincible Iron Man was interesting. It wasn’t really simple and it wasn’t overly complicated either. There was enough going on to keep the pace moving and keep things from becoming boring. The things shown in the movie did flow together fairly well. There was action and some violence throughout the movie. Most of that took place once Tony decided to start fighting, but there was a bit in earlier scenes as well. The violence was rather graphic for an animated movie, which may surprise some people. Viewers need to remember that it was rated PG-13 and that this is not aimed at children. There were also some hints at nudity added in. Tony was shown in the shower and later in the movie, a female character ended up naked for some strange reason. Some sort of transparent material or fog obscured certain areas of her body but it was made clear that she was naked. That just seemed very odd and out of place.

Using animation for The Invincible Iron Man allowed for certain things to be done that would have been very difficult or impossible to do in a live action movie. The animation was fine, but nothing great. A lot of fog was used when things were happening in the raised city. I’m guessing that was done to make things seem more spooky, but it did make it harder to tell what was going on. CGI was used for certain things and it didn’t really blend in that well with the hand drawn animation. The backgrounds throughout the movie were mostly static looking and lacked the details that the backgrounds in the better animated movies have.

Tony was a rich playboy who had also created many inventions that made his company successful. Tony and his father Howard had a strained relationship. After his injury, Tony started to change the way he thought about certain things. He decided to use the armored suits he’d developed to fight the Elementals. Marc Worden provided the voice for the character. Tony/Iron Man was also featured in the two animated Ultimate Avenger movies. In those, Iron Man was already established as a crime fighter. This movie was set sometime before those movies.

James Rhodes was in charge of the excavation in China. He had been working with Tony for a while and the two men ended up working together. Rodney Saulsberry did fine with the voice for the character. Pepper Potts worked for Tony as some kind of administrative assistant. She wasn’t sure what was going on at times, but she was willing to help Tony. Howard and the members of the board only turned up a few times. Li Mei was a female member of the Jade Dragons that Tony came to like very quickly. The Mandarin had been an extremelly violent ruler during a forgotten dynasty. He caused many people to die and some believed that the Mandarin would return if the city was excavated.

Voice Talent

Elisa Gabrielli - Virginia “Pepper” Potts
John McCook - Howard Stark
Rodney Saulsberry - James “Rhodey” Rhodes
Fred Tatasciore - The Mandarin/Additional Voices
Marc Worden - Tony Stark/Iron Man
Gwendoline Yeo - Li Mei

Directed by Paul Archibald and Jay Oliva

DVD Information

The Invincible Iron Man was released straight to DVD. The disc contained several special features. There was an alternate opening sequence that explained the prophecy. The Origin of Iron Man featured people connected to making this movie talking about the story and the making of the movie. It was discussed how certain things from the comic books were changed for the movie. It was also talked about how Tony was a flawed character and the use of CGI. Some clips from the movie were included throughout this featurette. They would be spoilers if it was watched before the movie. I thought it was interesting. The Hall of Iron Man Armor showed pictures and shared information on fifteen different Iron Man suits. Iron Man Concept Art showed sketches of characters and settings as well as some of the tests done for things created with CGI. A Look at Doctor Strange featured someone briefly talking about the next Marvel animated movie and then the first few minutes of the movie were shown. There was also a trailer gallery that included a preview for a video game and a few movies.

I thought that The Invincible Iron Man was an entertaining introduction for me to the character of Tony Stark. The plot was interesting and worth watching. Fans of the character or superheroes in general may enjoy the movie.

Comic Book/Graphic Novel/Superhero Related Reviews
The Amazing Spider-Man: The Ultimate Guide ~ Batman ~ Batman Returns ~ Batman Forever ~ Batman & Robin ~ Batman Begins ~ Batman: The Ultimate Guide to The Dark Knight ~ Catwoman ~ Daredevil ~ Elektra ~ Fantastic Four ~ Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer ~ Fantastic Four: The Ultimate Guide ~ Flash Gordon ~ Ghost Rider ~ Ghost Rider Visual Guide Hellboy ~ A History of Violence ~ Howard the Duck ~ The Incredibles ~ Judge Dredd ~ The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ~ The Legend of Zorro ~ Lois & Clark: The Complete First Season ~ Lois & Clark: The Complete Second Season ~ Lois & Clark: The Complete Third Season ~ Lois & Clark: The Complete Fourth Season ~ The Mask of Zorro ~ Men in Black ~ Men in Black II ~ Mystery Men ~ My Super Ex-Girlfriend ~ The Punisher (1989) ~ Richie Rich ~ Sky High ~ Spider-Man ~ Spider-Man 2 ~ Spider-Man 3 ~ Stardust ~ Superman: The Movie ~ Superman II ~ Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut ~ Superman Returns ~ Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel ~ TMNT ~ Transformers ~ Ultimate Avengers ~ Ultimate X-Men ~ Underdog ~ X-Men ~ X2: X-Men United ~ X-Men: The Last Stand ~ X-Men: The Legend of Wolverine ~ V for Vendetta ~ Zoom ~


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD