For the past decade plus, we’ve seen countless superhero comic books get adapted into live-action movies and shows, whether in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC universe of films, on networks like the CW and streaming services like Netflix, or any number of other platforms. But live-action wasn’t always the default option for superhero adaptations; back in the ’80s and ’90s, cartoons were the way to go. Now, Amazon’s Invincible adaptation, which boasts a stellar voice cast and series creator Robert Kirkman serving as executive producer, follows in that animated tradition. And the show’s voice actors and Kirkman himself say that was the right choice.
For one thing, it helps the show stand out. “Because there are so many live-action shows, we’re able to set ourselves apart by being in animation, we’re going to look different, we’re going to feel differentVenir de Tragamonedas Gratis Online. I think that’s really cool,” Kirkman told GameSpot during recent roundtable interviews.
Invincible follows Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun), a teenage superhero whose father is Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons), a Superman-like figure. Zazie Beetz, who plays Mark’s love interest Amber Bennett, agreed with Kirkman, saying the copious amounts of CGI in live-action superhero movies can sometimes be too much. “But with animation, I’m suspending my belief for the animation, and so like, go for it,” Beetz said. “I feel like you can just really do a lot more and I think you can just have a lot more fun in the world. You can just push the bounds a bit more than in live-action.”
When Invincible arrives on Amazon Prime Video March 26, it’s going to quickly become notable for its copious gore, which is somewhat unusual for the superhero genre. “You can go to places that live-action probably isn’t able to go to still, even now,” Yeun pointed outVenir de Tragamonedas Gratis Online. “I think it creates a nice barrier and separation so that you can examine what the show might be saying without one-to-one, like, that’s an actual arm being ripped off. It’s a cartoon arm being ripped off. And there’s just something different about that.”
Most of all, everyone agreed, the animated format allows the show to be much larger in scope and ambition than if it were a typical live-action superhero show, where the scale of action tends to be smaller.
“The main benefit is that we’re going to be able to provide the audience with a scope and scale more akin to a $200 million blockbuster movie than what you usually get from your average superhero television show,” Kirkman said. “Drawing an army of a thousand people is a little bit easier than hiring a thousand people and putting costumes on them and things like that. If we want to have an episode that has three different alien invasions in the same episode, we can do that, and we can show you just how crazy things get because of that. I think that that’s really going to help us stand apart in this very crowded superhero landscape.”
“If we were doing the live-action version of this, it would be insanely expensive,” said J.K. Simmons. “Doing this animated version, there’s virtually no limit to where Robert’s creativity can take us.”
