The Movie
Timed around the theatrical release of this year's big-screen Thor, the animated Thor: Tales of Asgard serves as a prequel of sorts, sharing formative events from the God of Thunder's pre-glory youth. In fact, the son of King Odin is something of a spoiled, delusional child who has never left the royal city. He has even made a habit of inviting an audience to his swordfighting practice, unaware that the elite guard who train him let him win every time.
The petulant heir to the throne is definitely at a crossroads, and there's nothing like a good quest to make a man out of a boy. Stowing away on the ship of the boastful "Warriors Three" -- Fandral, Hogun the Grim and Volstagg the Valiant -- along with his brother Loki, Thor journeys to the dangerous land of the frost giants. There he seeks to reclaim a mystical sword of legend, and make it home alive.
It's a bigger challenge than anyone could have anticipated, culminating in a declaration of war upon blissful Asgard. Sacrifices will be made along the way, and sure enough a hero rises. As corny as that sounds, Tales of Asgard avoids a great many potential clichés, giving us instead a compelling portrait of the Thunder God as a young man.
The Picture
Almost all new animation we see nowadays is rendered on computer, even if it looks like ink and paint, and Tales of Asgard shows off that hyper-sharp, digitally pure look with hyper-fluid motion. There is some modest ringing/banding in soft glows and mists within the 16:9 frame, but also more precise detail than would be possible with old-school analog techniques. The rich vistas in particular really benefit from the1080p high-definition AVC video, albeit at a frequently low bitrate, as in single digits.
The Sound
Gods, giants, monsters and Valkyries do battle here: Is "timid" a word we should be using to describe the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 soundtrack? Sadly, that's the case. Sure, there is the creaking of a sailing vessel, appropriate amounts of wind, credible movement of debris from the rears, but no hard surrounds despite the available channels.
A rollicking pub and the subsequent brawl provide ample opportunity for sonic thrills, but I confirmed that all we had was a bit of room tone in the rears, not the in-scene music, and later on, random crashes but no specific sound effects synched to the action. Yeah, there's some echo, but... hello, "God of Thunder"? Where's the bass?
The Extras
Tales of Asgard packs two audio commentaries, one by supervising producer Craig Kyle and screenwriter Greg Johnson, the other from supervising director/producer Gary Hartle, director Sam Liu and character designer Phil Bourassa. There is also a well-produced 22-minute "making of" in addition to the "Thor the Mighty" episode of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!, both in HD.
Disc Two is a standard-def DVD copy of the movie with all bonus features.
Final Thoughts
We probably shouldn't accuse the makers of Thor: Tales of Asgard of cranking out a quickie to cash in on the blonde hammer-oid's success, being as this animated saga appears to have been copyrighted way back in 2009. Instead, we should appreciate the solid story and strong video, and scratch our helmeted heads at the dreary audio.
Product Details
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