Rating: **
Review Date: 1/7/07
Hugely disappointing. Growing up in the 1970's, my favorite toys were Mego's Micronauts. They were incredibly designed and offered worlds of imagination, sophistication, and creativity to young children. I cherished my Micronauts above all else. In the early 1980's, a Micronauts comic book was published by Marvel Comics, and while it had next to nothing to do with the toy line, it proved to be a compelling and captivating series that survived for several years. Twenty years later as part of an 80's revival, Devil's Due reinvented the world of the Micronauts with a new comic book series and a few novels. The new series ultimately failed because of juvenile dialog and too much emphasis placed on Earth and humanity, instead of focusing on the rich untapped mythology of the Microverse. As a result, the series quickly and quietly disappeared into oblivion.
Imagine my surprise and joy when several years later, a Micronauts animated movie comes out! Unfortunately, I was so excited about this that I failed to realize what it actually was, which is a "digital comic book" covering the first five issues of the Devil's Due series. What a major letdown. Remember those read along comic books that used to come with 7" records? This is exactly the same - basically a handful of voice actors reading the dialog while the panels from the comic book pan by. What's even worse is that the dialog bubbles are still present on the screen, which causes a major visual distraction. The DVD really should have an option to hide them, but their presence indicates that the disc really is intended for young children to read along with. That said, the artwork is nice, the voice talent is competent, and the sound effects are good, if not sparse. It's just not what I thought it was, or what I wanted it to be.