ANI-MOVIES, *Thor: Tales Of Asgard

For the last of the Marvel Animation's movie line with Lionsgate, it was decided to do a story of the younger days of the Thunder God during his awkward teenage years. Slightly based on the Thor: Son Of Asgard comic book mini-series, this was originally supposed to come out around Fall 2009, but instead Lionsgate held onto it for a 1 1/2 years to coincide with the Thor live-action movie. The wait really shows though as the animation could've use a little glossing over as compared to the previous Marvel animated movies like Planet Hulk.

Set possibly a few centuries ago, Thor realizes that all the matches he's has against the Asgardian honor guard were all rigged. Hoping to regain some bit of his street cred, Thor convinces his "brother" Loki to go with him and search for the fabled Sword of Surtur, which was used to defeat the Ice Giants in a war with the Dark Elves. The brothers stowaway on the flying ship of the Warriors Three, but instead of going to the realm of Jotunheim where the trio brag they've been too, they instead end up in a boarding house bar, where they all get into a fight with several other dieties. The presence of the Greek gods here was especially here. The five of them then sail to Jotunheim, and actually manage to find the Sword. It uncontrollably destroys two Ice Giant soldiers, and the heroes are on the run from the rest of the colossal fridges. They go to Thor's wouldbe girlfriend Sif who is training with the Valkyries, in an attempt to get some winged horses back to Asgard. All of them are captured by the misandric Brunhilde and her warrior women, but the Ice Giants interrupt them, which allows Thor and the others to escape with Sif. They encounter their ally Algrim, who was the last of the Dark Elves that was befriended by Thor's father Odin. Algrim takes the Sword, and unexpectedly betrays Thor. Algrim goes back to Asgard with the Sword, and confronts Odin, who he blames for not stopping the war between the Dark Elves and the Ice Giants, which lead to the destructionof his kind. Thor shows up back in Asgard, and stops Algrim, but Loki uses the Sword to barbecue Algrim, revealing a more darker edge to him. Thor then hands the Sword over to the Ice Giants in order to keep the peace between Jotunheim and Asgard.

This movie was somewhat lacking in some of the more dynamic-styled animation of the earlier Marvel animated made-for-video movies. There is some reasonable action in this, although considering that it has viking, valkyries, giants, and werewolves, you'd expect a little more on the level of a Conan kind of flick. Director, Sam Liu, who also did some of the other Marvel and DC animated movies, put together a fair production, although a better Thor story was done in the Hulk Vs. double-feature.