Painting some 28mm Action Force/GI Joe figures recently has sparked a train of nostalgia, which has ended up in reading the old comics in the proper order and, today, watching the animated movie from many many years ago. The difference between the British and American themes is... interesting. I remember the British/Action Force theme tune being quite catchy. Sorry all you Americans, but your intro to the movie is cringe worthy... Let me rephrase that. In comparison to the one I grew up with, the US theme is really jarring and doesn't feel right at all. I can't tell if the British one is just better, or if it is nostalgia that is driving me towards the Action Force intro music instead. You decide
GI Joe - The movie
Vs Action Force, The Movie
Having checked youTube, I can safely say that the TV series intro, even though it shares most of the same lyrics, also seems miles better. The other question that comes up, and was valid back in the day too, who thought Starscream's voice was a good choice for Cobra commander? The guy was an ex-salesman/car dealer and was supposed to be charismatic enough to have formed a mahooosive underground army, just not all that good at military tactics and a bit stroppy... not a whiny idiot. Also... why does Destro, the white guy in a mask, sound like he should be Shaft?!
Aaaaanyhoo.
The comics, however, are actually very good, though some of the stories are different to those that I remember reading when I was a kid. In a cleanup over the weekend I found some of the old issues and discovered why things didn't quite match up. It seems that the UK comics had a slight restructure of the plotlines, with some extra sections added in to allow much quicker turnaround on some of the plots. Well worth the read so far. There are 155 issues of the original series by Larry Hama. So far I'm up to about issue 55 and I think I've just about reached where I originally read up to, so everything from here on is new to me until we reach the new Hama comics. Still no Red Shadows or Baron Ironblood though... pffff. Not proper ;)
Earlier on today I got the chance to watch a preview of the new Disney film, Big Hero 6. Being a big Disney and Marvel fan, I was looking forward to seeing how these meshed together as I'd not seen any reference to Marvel in any of the advertising.
The comic version of Big Hero 6 has gone through a couple of iterations, with different lineups in each, but the latest lineup, from 2008 features the same characters... but that seems to be where the relationships end.
The film doesn't feature the Marvel logo in the credits, which confused me slightly... but as the film progressed it became clear that the reason for that is because this isn't *quite* the same world that we know from the comic. Disney Animation had been given permission to take the concept and run with it in whatever way they wanted, including removing it from the Marvel universe completely. Don't expect Iron Man, Spider-Man or the X-Men to turn up, but there is a cameo from one well known Marvel face.
BH6 is a humorous, characterful... action packed film that will be added to my film collection as soon as humanly possible. Imagine The Incredibles, with a dose of Marvel and various anime influences thrown in and you're getting close.
Oh, stay until after the credits. In typical Marvel style, there is an end credit sequence that is well worth catching.
