The Invincible Iron Man (2007) (V)

Directors:

Patrick Archibald
Jay Oliva
(more)

Writers:

Avi Arad (story)
Greg Johnson (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

23 January 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

A Lone Warrior. A Suit of Armor. Our Only Hope. IRON MAN.

Plot:

When a cocky industrialist's efforts to raise an ancient Chinese temple leads him to be seriously wounded and captured by enemy forces, he must use his ideas for a revolutionary power armor in order to fight back as a superhero.

Plot Keywords:

The Mandarin | China | Prophecy | Elementals | Armor

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Marc Worden	...	Tony Stark / Iron Man (voice)
Gwendoline Yeo	...	Li Mei (voice)
Fred Tatasciore	...	The Mandarin / Additional Voices (voice)
Rodney Saulsberry	...	James 'Rhodey' Rhodes (voice)
Elisa Gabrielli	...	Virginia 'Pepper' Potts (voice)
John McCook	...	Howard Stark (voice)
James Sie	...	Wong Chu (voice)
Stephen Mendillo	...	Boyer (voice)
John DeMita	...	Agent Drake / Additional Voices (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
George Cheung	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Chris Edgerly	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Paul Nakauchi	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Michael Yama	...	Additional Voices (voice)

Directed by
Patrick Archibald
Jay Oliva
Frank Paur		(supervising)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Avi Arad		story
Greg Johnson		writer
Craig Kyle		writer
Stan Lee		comic book and characters
Larry Lieber		comic book and characters

Produced by
Ari Arad	....	co-producer
Avi Arad	....	executive producer
Craig Kyle	....	executive producer
Stan Lee	....	co-executive producer
Frank Paur	....	producer
Eric S. Rollman	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Guy Michelmore

Film Editing by
Aeolan Kelly
George Rizkallah

Casting by
Jamie Simone

Production Management
Carrie Wassenaar	....	production manager

Art Department
Troy Adomitis	....	additional storyboard
Kevin Altieri	....	additional storyboard
Sharon Bridgeman	....	additional storyboard
Joaquim Dos Santos	....	additional storyboard
Peter Ferk	....	additional storyboard
Lynell Forestall	....	storyboard artist
Jennifer Graves	....	additional storyboard
Jason Hanks	....	storyboard artist
Gary Hartle	....	additional storyboard
Sam Liu	....	storyboard artist
Butch Lukic	....	additional storyboard
Juan Jose Meza-Leon	....	storyboard artist
Gary Montalbano	....	development artist
Frank Paur	....	character designer
James Peters	....	color key designer
Chad Townsend	....	prop designer
Kirk Van Wormer	....	additional storyboard (as Kirk Van Wermer)
Brandon Vietti	....	additional storyboard

Sound Department
David Ball	....	foley editor
David Ball	....	foley recordist
Kyle Clausen	....	sound editor
Mike Draghi	....	sound re-recording mixer
Mike Draghi	....	supervising sound editor
Mike Garcia	....	lead dialogue editor
Eric Lewis	....	dialogue recording engineer
Nancy Parker	....	foley artist
Stuart Provine	....	sound designer
Stephen P. Robinson	....	supervising sound editor
Tim Walston	....	sound designer

Animation Department
Ralph A. Eusebio	....	animatic editor
Lynell Forestall	....	character designer
Fedja Jovanovic	....	background designer
Aeolan Kelly	....	animatic editor
Chad Townsend	....	production artist
Paul Yacono	....	animatic editor

Editorial Department
Jana Pennell	....	assistant editor
James Peters	....	color supervisor

Music Department
David Leon	....	music supervisor
Mark Ryan	....	music editor

Other crew
Roy Allen	....	production assistant
Michael Collins	....	production accountant
Joshua Fine	....	production associate
Cory Gustke	....	production coordinator
Laura Lopez	....	production coordinator
Douglas W. McHenry	....	production accountant

Production Companies

• Marvel Studios
• Marvel Enterprises

Distributors

• Lions Gate Films Home Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• IPA Asia Pacific (2007) (Taiwan) (DVD)
• Maple Pictures (2007) (Canada) (DVD)
• Scanbox Entertainment (2008) (Finland) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Studiopolis  sound post-production

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for action violence and some sensuality.

Runtime:

83 min | 83 min (approx)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | English

Color:

Color (NTSC Color) | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | Dolby (Dolby 5.1)

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | USA:PG-13 (DVD) | Singapore:PG | Finland:K-11

Company:

Marvel Studios

Goofs:

Factual errors: The "demon elementals" are earth, fire, water and air - Western elements. The traditional Chinese elements are earth, fire, water, wood and metal.

Quotes:

Rhodey: Today you get to witness a 3,000-year-old city rise from the dead.

Movie Connections:

References Frankenstein (1931)

Iron Man falls flat without the Avengers

Marvel's third installment in their line of animated movies is probably the weakest so far. I was a fan of the two Avengers movies released previously and the concept of a Marvel animated movie dedicated to a single character was something I'd been waiting for. I was a bit let down after watching this movie; I didn't feel it lived up to the decent quality of its predecessors.

This movie retells the origins of Iron Man: Tony Stark (voiced again by Marc Worden) has been using his company, Stark Industies, to fund an archaeological dig in China that has been under constant assault from a rebel group known as the Jade Dragons. After one attack finds James 'Rhodey' Rhodes missing, Stark flies out to China where he is taken prisoner by the Jade Dragons. From here, we find the familiar story of Stark creating his first Iron Man armor to keep him alive/help him escape and he soon assumes the role of Iron Man when he finds himself pulled into a prophecy that the Mandarin will arise and use his powers for world domination.

Now, I've never really followed the Iron Man comics but I know that there are some problems with this already. Mandarin was not an ancient Chinese tyrant and he didn't use magic; he was man from modern times who used alien technology to create his rings of power. So, already, the movie has lost points for straying from the storyline that Iron Man fans know and love. I understand that the creators were probably going for an East vs West theme, magic vs technology, but I got bored with the idea pretty fast into the movie. The story itself felt as if it moved annoying slow at some points and the final confrontation at the end didn't really satisfy.

The animation was pretty good but continued to suffer from the same flaws as the Avengers movies. Action scenes look great but smaller things, such as mouth/voice syncing and facial expressions, were weak. The creators used a bit more computer-generated animation for some of this movie, primarily in the Iron Man armors and in the Mandarin's demon elementals, and I'd say it worked pretty successfully. The majority of the fight scenes look great; I just wish we'd gotten some more time with the iconic Mark III armor.

Overall, the movie is definitely a step backwards for the Marvel animated series. I enjoyed it to an extent, but I still don't consider the movie anything more than average. The film has it's strong points (the demon elementals and Iron Man's armor look fantastic) but continues to suffer from the same flaws as its predecessors. Add to that a mediocre story and you get 83 minutes that didn't quite leave me content.