Marvel Animation’s Planet Hulk Smashes Its Way Onto DVD

*SPOILER FREE*
I was more than pleasantly surprised when I finally got a chance to check out the new Planet Hulk DVD from Marvel Animation and Lionsgate. Based on the hugely popular story arc written by Greg Pak, Planet Hulk deftly distills the epic into 81 minutes of gloriously gladiatorial goodness. No, it doesn’t have nearly as much depth as the original comic story (“a complex Hulk story”, you say? I reply with a “yes”.), but it definitely delivers on the big HULK SMASH action and all of the biggest story points that fans of the story arc loved best.

For those that don’t know what Planet Hulk is all about, I’ll provide you with a spoiler-free synopsis:
When the heroes of Earth realize that the Hulk is just too uncontrollable to contain any longer, they decide to kick him off the planet, sending him to a peaceful uninhabited world to live out the rest of his days. Of course, things don’t go exactly as planned and the spaceship Hulk is trapped in gets diverted to the planet Sakarr, where a tyrannical ruler, the Red King, oversees gladiatorial combat of captured slaves. Hulk quickly finds himself to not be “the strongest one there is” anymore and is forced to fight for his life in the arena. Along the way, he befriends an odd collection of aliens who fight by his side (well, they actually befriend him while he sort of just tolerates them) as he makes enemies of his captors. Some begin to see him as a prophesied messiah, sent from the stars to set the people of Sakaar free, while Hulk just wants to be left alone as usual.

Thankfully, do keep the movie from just being an 81 minute smash-em-up, they focus on more than just the Hulk in the more quiet moments, fleshing out the back stories of a number of his Warbound cohorts and his deadliest opponent, Caiera. Korg‘s origin was a particular favorite of mine as it paid off nicely later in the film. No, it doesn’t follow the storyline and character roster of the original one hundred percent of the way, so get that out of your head right now. There is no Silver Savage. But I believe they actually improved upon his cameo by swapping him out with a lesser known, but still popular character who is able to stand toe-to-toe with the Hulk without breaking a sweat. And speaking of cameos, those responsible for shooting the Hulk into space make a brief cameo, although only Iron Man gets a speaking part. The rest look rightfully ashamed. And watch the arena crowd scenes for glimpses of some of Marvel‘s cosmic B and C-listers, including a Guardian of the Galaxy or two.

The animation and pacing of the story was better than I expected and actually more violent than I expected it to be. Sure, the blood was mostly green and yellow alien blood, but there were more than a few brutal deaths. I know that’s expected for a gladiator movie, but I didn’t expect it in an American produced mainstream Marvel animated comic movie. More than once I thought I was watching Japanese anime. It’s definitely more than a little too intense for little kids, but 9 year olds and older should eat this up. And I didn’t mind one bit. It added some weight to the film as a whole by not going the spineless 80s GI Joe “nobody dies” route.

Which makes me want to ask Marvel and Lionsgate to take the next logical step: an R-Rated (or Unrated) Marvel Zombies animated movie. Considering the popularity of the comic series and the freedom to play with almost any character in the Marvel stable, grab a top-notch Japanese animation studio and go nuts. If nobody shies away from the gore, you’re looking at instant horror fan cred and a pile of money taller than Cinderella’s Castle — oh, that’s right… Disney owns Marvel now. A dark, risky turn that early in the marriage to the family-friendly entertainment giant could make things a bit… iffy… Imagine mom ignorantly popping in the DVD for 7 year old Billy, who loves Spider-Man. Ten minutes later Billy’s screaming and curled up in a fetal position after seeing his hero eat Mary Jane‘s face. Mom takes it back to Target, screaming, “What did you sell me?! How was I supposed to know the rotting animated corpse of Captain America on the cover or the word zombies meant that there would be zombies in it?! IT SAID DISNEY ON THE COVER!!!!”

Okay, back to Planet Hulk. I wish I could say the dialogue is top notch and the delivery is great all the way through, but it isn’t. And to the *ahem* jaded movie geeks, yes, you’ve seen this type of reluctant hero arc more than a few dozen times before. But even so, it’s better than most of what’s put out in recent years and none of those drawbacks are nearly enough to sour me on the pure fun I had watching this movie. There were more than a few holy $&+# moments that stunned me, taking the action and storytelling a few places that I wasn’t expecting in what I originally expected to be a simple “cartoon” adaptation. They need to do more like this with the other epic Marvel comics crossovers. House of M, Civil War, and of course, the follow up to Planet Hulk, World War Hulk, where Hulk returns to Earth for a little payback on the super guys who ditched him in outer space. As a die-hard Marvel umm.. Zombie, I’d eat those up in an instant.

Check out the Planet Hulk DVD trailer below, now available in stores everywhere, from Marvel Animation and Lionsgate films.