Hulk vs. Thor et Wolverine

The DVD has two relatively short stories, Hulk vs Thor & Hulk Vs Wolverine. Hulk vs Thor is the best of the two & the action is off the charts. The story is well conceived & well executed & the animation is good (not great but good). I'd give a brief synopsis of Hulk vs Thor but I'm afraid it would give to much of the plot away.

Hulk Vs Wolverine,is also pretty good in its' own right, but the fight scenes between Hulk & Wolverine aren't nearly as extensive as in Hulk vs Thor. And much of the story has to do more with Wolverine, his past & all the troubles that come with it (meaning SaberTooth, Lady DeathStrike, etc..). The ending is quite inconclusive & kind of a disappointment. And in case anybody is thinking "kiddie cartoon", guess again! It's got plenty of blood & violence to warrant it's PG-13 rating. Definitely one for the fans.

Rating 9 Large Green Fists out of 10

Hulk vs comprises of two "epic" battles (and I use quotes lightly and meaningfully) as he faces off with Wolverine and Thor, two other Marvel comics staples that he's faced off against many times - indeed the introduction to Wolverine was in a Hulk comic by Len Wein - and what happens when SMASH! becomes the proverbial name of the game here. But there is and there isn't so much smashing all the time. This may be good in some cases, but when the cover emphasis such a SMASH EVERYTHING IN SIGHT thing with the Hulk, it becomes a minor let-down when the Hulk and Wolverine only face off for about, oh, ten minutes out of the relatively short 36 minute running time, and while there is much more Hulk SMASH in the Thor movie, it also isn't as much fun as Wolverine really is.

Why is this? One thing that Wolverine gets right, and it's fascinating to see the short animated film get this right and not at ALL in the theatrical 2009 feature, is Deadpool. He's introduced here as being apart of the Weapon X program, and as the '(Mercenary) with the Mouth', he's awesome here. He's witty and sarcastic and kinda mean but in a fun killer way (kinda like one of the Warner brothers from Animaniacs or something, I got a Yakko vibe off him), and whenever he's on screen he steals the show even away from someone like Wolverine who as animated here can hold his ground too. The basic idea is that Wolverine is brought to the woods to stop a "monster" from tearing stuff up, sees Bruce Banner, he hulks out, they fight a little... and then it goes into this Weapon X sub-plot, more about Wolverine's origin (sort of) and other things, and while Deadpool made it better and it became more entertaining, the Royal-Rumble aspect seemed lacking until near the latter part of the short.

The Thor short is a little more clever in its set-up: here, Loki, Thor's nasty younger and jealous brother, brings Bruce Banner to Asgard for an express purpose, to have him Hulk-out and kick Thor's ass while under his control (he has some kind of magical power to do this, don't ask me why). There is an odd-sorta-interesting twist that didn't make a lot of sense (then again I've yet to read a lot of Hulk comics) where Banner is actually pulled out of the Hulk's body with magic once he turns into the Hulk and then watches with horror as the Hulk (un, not Banner-Hulk, just Hulk-Hulk) not only tries (but obviously doesn't) kick Thor's ass into oblivion, but Asgard as well.

I did like that aspect about Hulk being let loose by Loki's incompetence and arrogance and that Thor was the only one to stop him, but it also doesn't make for a lot of fun as everything is taken so seriously. Some of the animation in this segment is also better than in Wolverine, so there is that. Bottom line, for Hulk/Wolverine/Thor fans, there's a little of something here for you all, and for the Hulk/Thor combo there's a lot of action and destruction - almost too much, but where would Hulk be without being such a destroyer of things - but each film also suffers from some problems. So it's worth checking out, and since it's on video only there's no other way to really see it, but unless one's a die-hard or starting to really get into Marvel animated work (and to be fair they're underrated up against work by DC animated) it's not worth rushing immediately to see.

"Hulk Vs" is really two shorter films combined, "Hulk Vs Wolverine" and "Hulk Vs Thor", complete with their own titles and credits. However, both movies share many thing in common between each other, and with most of the direct-to video animated films that have been produced by Marvel Animation and Lionsgate (Tough, to be fair, I think that the two movies included in Hulk Vs are slightly better) Both movies were funny to watch, and both have some interesting elements concerning the plot and characters...However, as the title suggest, both films are more focused in the action, so those good and complex elements aren't very well developed or just got a shallow treatment. (For example, in both films Bruce Banner is just a wimp, playing a secondary role in the two stories, specially in "Hulk Vs Wolverine") In both films, the animation is decent without being incredible. The influence of the visual style from the animator Bruce Timm is quite clear in the designs from "Hulk Vs" (And in "Planet Hulk" as well) being more fluid and dynamic than the animated series made by the Marvel in the nineties(Where the animation was notoriously uneven.) The voice acting, just like the story and the animation is good: It wasn't anything memorable or outstanding, but at least all the voices worked very well for the characters. The music, in other side, is quite generic and forgettable.

Anyway, I think that "Hulk Vs" delivered exactly what it promised, and even when neither of two movies included here were masterpieces, at least were funny and enjoyable enough to be worth-watching.

The two films got a 7 out 10 stars from me.

whats more to say about this. normally these marvel cartoons are too kiddy-fied for the kids, but these cartoons are something special especially the Hulk Vs Wolverine film. You get to see everything in here, blood, limbs being sliced off etc. By far this is the most entertaining cartoon to watch and due to its more mature content the grown-ups will enjoy it too.

The Hulk vs Thor is in my opinion not as good or as violent as the Hulk vs Wolverine cartoon but its still worth watching to get to know more about the characters on Thor's side of the Marvel universe.

Lenght of the cartoons may be short at 40 mins each but these are all out action packed with less talk and more smashing.

I really enjoyed Hulk Versus Wolverine. This pre X-Men Wolverine is the Wolverine I love. I've used this colloquialism before but "X marks the spot" and there are plenty of big action scenes throughout this amazing animated movie that it has to be called spectacular. Wolverine goes ballistic in a good way and the introduction of Omega Red, Deathstrike and Deadpool makes for an intriguing watch. It's action with a nice mix of smarts and fun. We FINALLY get to see Wolverine draw blood in animated form. I was so tired of him tying in to robots and walls. Some of this stuff is right out of the comics. Adherence to the source material, whenever possible, works well in this case. It more then works as a movie.

Hulk Versus Thor was pretty good even though I feel they made the Hulk too strong in that film. Asgardians like Hogun and Balder shouldn't be treated like tissue paper. It's Hulk Versus Wolverine that's the real treat. Simply Superb.