G.I JOE
The Live action movie sucked monkey balls. They completely f***ed up the characters and story. For a start they picked some lame ass characters to focus on and even the good characters in the Joe team like Duke and Scarlett were badly portrayed. The movie was also like a Muppet Baby version, the cast in the movie is in their 20s while the cartoon had people who seemed to be 35-45 in age, these were grizzled heros, or should have been, mens men. The movie lacked the trademark humour and epic heroism of the animated series which is pure 80s. They made the Baroness Duke's ex-girlfriend, who was mind wiped into becoming the Baroness?! Then the Baroness' brother turned out to be Cobra Commander, who then locked Destro into his steel mask near the end? They had this lame mech suit scene that went on forever. And Snake had this weird face covering too. About the only good thing about the movie was Storm Shadow and only because of Lee Byung Hun.
The original cartoon was more like a hilarious and action packed A-Team.
Animated wins. But I have yet to watch the live action movie sequel.
THE AVENGERS
Look very closely at Captain America's face and mask. That is my face at the end of this movie.
While people who only watch live action movies may see the Avengers and be like whoaaaaaa totally new. I am well, well past the formation of the Avengers and the movie was like the 4th time I have seen that, bearing in mind the original comics, Ultimate Avengers animated movie, Earths Mightiest Heroes tv series. While the movies cost a zillion dollars and take years to make, animation is pumping out 13-26 episodes a year and is so far beyond the formation of the Avengers you can see that story back in the annals of history. If you wait for these movies you will take ages to get to the good stuff and not only that, the animated form of comic books is a much more true representation than a live action movie is. Especially when it comes to this material.
They can even do stuff which comes across as naff in live action.
A good team superhero film has to balance a few things. It has to give each team member a time to shine, a hero moment, a focus whilst building it around team mechanics and interaction. The one scene in the whole movie that nailed that was when they were arguing. Loki too is a schemer but he should have cronies, the Enchantress maybe and more, he is like a Bond villain. Instead it was him alone against all the avengers which seemed to almost diminish the threat of the avengers, then when the alien dudes showed up they were not even under his control. Instead of being the main bad guy he became like a caretaker that just opened the door for someone else to come in. The Loki I know would want total power and domination for himself, he would trick the aliens into giving him the ultimate power.
Animated Avengers wins.
So far they've had Gamma World, the Avengers Mansion setup, the whole SHIELD shebang, the Ultron Saga, The Fall of Asgard, The Kang Dynasty, Black Panther's Quest, Hydra vs Hawkeye and Black Widow and the Kree too. And that's just the first 30 or so episodes. The series has more plot, better characterisation, better exposition, more teamwork and more interesting situations. Because it's a series and not a film it also has breathing room to set things up properly and follow through. The series plants the seeds slowly then develops them till they bear fruit.
You know the kicker though? As fun as Avengers is, the Justice League animated show is thrice as good.
BLOOD THE LAST VAMPIRE
Ehhhhhhhhhh, the live action movie sucked, despite starring the cute girl from Terra Nova.
They tried to make is an english language movie with mixed results. The ending went off on a complete tangent and not a good one. The animated film is a short but sweet 40 minute stylish vampire movie. It's tight, slick and has a great bleak tone. There is also an epic series called Blood + (plus) which starts slow but builds to epic cliffhanger after epic cliffhanger. There is a new series called Blood C, haven't seen it yet.
Animated wins.
I think GG is the only person in the entire world who didn't love the avengers. Snobby brit! 
Here is my take:
Superman: Animate wins. By a LARGE margin too. I fucking hate the Superman movies.
Batman: Tie. Batman: TAS is perfection and so are a lot of the batman movies.
Xmen: Eeeeh I think I slightly give the edge to the live movies here.
Heman: Both. I fucking love that Dolph Lundren live action movie, but I grew up on the cartoon which is a classic.
how about:
Transformer:
Animated. DEAR GOD ANIMATED. Those Transformers movies make me want to punch Shia Legoof in the gooch. I own the complete series of the original series on dvd and it still holds up today! It is perfection. The last season is particularily awesome and takes place AFTER the transformers movie where they return to cybertron and hot rod is the leader. The season wraps up the whole series nice as it goes right into who created them, why and they make their appearance too. Plus Galvatron is so fucking awesome.
Let me be clear on Street Fighter II The Movie. Yes I did see it in the theater opening night. Yes I did rub one out to Kylie Minogue as Cammy in the theater. But I did not enjoy the rest of the movie.
GodModeEnabled said:I think GG is the only person in the entire world who didn't love the avengers. Snobby brit!
Here is my take:
Superman: Animate wins. By a LARGE margin too. I fucking hate the Superman movies.
This is a text book Canadian reponse. Canadians hate the Superman movies because in the movies he says he fights for "Truth, justice, and the American way." American.... not Canadian. It all goes back to the comic book inferiority complex. All Canadians have is Major Maple Leaf.
Oh yeah and the Transformers movies suck ass. Cartoon was far better.
Major Maple leaf.
I wonder what would a mexican superhero look like.
Mexican super heroes are pretty badass. You guys have el Santo!!
Plus you also have the Mexican Super Friends
El Steelo>>>El Santo.
Dvader said:Very nice thread I see where you are coming from. To me the two are usually very different things. I put more value in live action, if they can pull of the crazy insane action of the cartoons in a life action film I am wowed. The avengers did that better than anyone ever has.
Well I just wanted to show, I'm not animated > everything.
Some things are better live, some are better animated. But with animated if there is a series I am stacking up a whole series of like 30 episodes vs a couple or one movie you see.
GodModeEnabled said:I think GG is the only person in the entire world who didn't love the avengers. Snobby brit!
Here is my take:
Superman: Animate wins. By a LARGE margin too. I fucking hate the Superman movies.
Batman: Tie. Batman: TAS is perfection and so are a lot of the batman movies.
Xmen: Eeeeh I think I slightly give the edge to the live movies here.
Heman: Both. I fucking love that Dolph Lundren live action movie, but I grew up on the cartoon which is a classic.
how about:
Transformer:
Animated. DEAR GOD ANIMATED. Those Transformers movies make me want to punch Shia Legoof in the gooch. I own the complete series of the original series on dvd and it still holds up today! It is perfection. The last season is particularily awesome and takes place AFTER the transformers movie where they return to cybertron and hot rod is the leader. The season wraps up the whole series nice as it goes right into who created them, why and they make their appearance too. Plus Galvatron is so fucking awesome.
How can you hate the Superman movies? 
X-Men, did you see Wolverine and the X-Men?
He-Man, Teela was hawt.
Transformers animated, yeah, fecking awesome. I have the whole series too, wish they would do a proper live action version of the original designs and cut out the human crap. Personally though I preferred the Transformers before the movie which killed nearly everyone.
robio said:Let me be clear on Street Fighter II The Movie. Yes I did see it in the theater opening night. Yes I did rub one out to Kylie Minogue as Cammy in the theater. But I did not enjoy the rest of the movie.
Do you rub one out whenever you see Cammy cosplay?
robio said:
WTH is that!
SteelAttack said:
I wonder what would a mexican superhero look like.
El Toro, Jackie Chan Adventures
THE INCREDIBLE HULK
The best thing you can say about the 90s Hulk cartoon is that it's O.K.
It's watchable, passable and semi-enjoyable. I would never say that it's good.
If I were comparing it to the movies I would give the live action movies the edge. Ang Lee's Hulk was the anti-Hulk, so boring, too cerebal, too slow, monotone acting.
Ed Norton's Hulk righted a lot of those wrongs but the Hulk onscreen is still stuck in the rut of being fighting the General and the army. They need to get past that and have a Hulk that can have a conversation or something.
Planet Hulk is the animated movie of the very well received comic series. It is very good, maybe one of Lionsgate's best Marvel movies. It has an actual plot and motivation, suprises, suspense and action as well as a new premise. So the content here varies in quality.
Overall on screen Hulk is better because it's more visceral and they can capture the violent nature of the beast better. But the stories are not always the best. I hear they may be doing live action Planet Hulk BTW.
Result: Tie? But leaning towards live action..... if they can get it right
Nice I will have to check out that planet hulk movie never heard of it. I watched one marvel movie where it was the avengers vs an alien invasion thing and they had that black panther guy from africa with them and it was awesome.
GodModeEnabled said:Nice I will have to check out that planet hulk movie never heard of it. I watched one marvel movie where it was the avengers vs an alien invasion thing and they had that black panther guy from africa with them and it was awesome.
That was Ultimate Avengers, the sequel is better IMO.
I forgot to mention the All Star Superman movie based on Grant Morrison's epic series now in graphic novel form.
Possibly DCs best standalone animated movie.
Very much like the 70s movie in tone, Superman is dying and has to make peace with the world. Very classy and well done, touching, emotional. Might be the best Superman movie outside the first two live action ones. But still, I have fond memories of live action Supes that cannot be replaced.
THE SILVER SURFER
Animated series is not very good, they messed up the story and characters. It was only 13 episodes. You did get to see on screen Thanos though and he had an eloquent English accent which seemed wrong. It felt like he was going to break out into Shakespeare at any moment. Nova was this skater chick and the series was cancelled before anything good got going, even though it had good ratings.
Live action wins.
In Fantastic Four. It was a little boring and austre portrayal of the SS, but it was more epic and gave you more of a sense of wonderment. A live action film will be hard to do as a solo effort unless they ground everything on earth. That is the cheap way to do it which will happen. SS is mainly an effects movie, even the main character has to be all effects and most of it is set in space too. So live action will probably be gimped in some way because of that.
Still, no one can do on screen SS apart from Fox because they have the rights.
I bring you Hulk vs Thor.
First up we have television action. I am torn, 80s live action Hulk vs Thor is hilarious. But the cartoon one has Brian Blessed voicing Thor and the Abomination too. Cartoon wins.
Next up we have movie action, live action vs animated. Animated wins, being set in Asgard and with larger events at hand. Being over 40 minutes compared with a short minute and a half in the Whedon movie helps.
Dvader said:
Is there anything that isnt a cartoon that you prefer? You seem so anti live action.
So here in this thread that started out as a blog I lay out my opinion on live vs animated action. There isn't that much crossover and it mainly concerns the Superhero comic book characters. Let's start, and please share your opinions on the subject too.
SUPERMAN ANIMATED VS LIVE ACTION
The Superman Animated series I am referring to is done by the same guys who did Batman the Animated series. It's not as good, a lot of the episodes are duff but there is some good stuff in there. If you like Darkseid than animated Superman is the only way to go.
But in Superman terms, live action wins.
Firstly:
This is one of favourite shows in my teens.
This is an excellent series, once it gets going season 3 and up.
And one cannot forget the classic that defined modern on screen superman
BATMAN
This is more difficult as Batman TAS is an excellent show, well measured, surefooted and confident. Yet we have had many good Batman films apart from Batman and Robin.
On the one hand Batman works better in live action, the very nature of saturday morning cartoons means that in violence and dark tones, they can be somewhat neutered and have to tread a fine line. In terms of going darker, the movies have the edge.
In terms of well told stories, there is more solid content in the TA Series as a whole. So overally I would have to tie the result here. No winner.
Also, Batman the Brave and the Bold is disjointed, annoying cheesy crap. The Batman is all right but has a mix of good, middling and bad episodes.
THE X-MEN
Another difficult one to judge, whilst the movies are overall more polished and tonally consistent the cartoons run the gamet of X-Men.
There are so many famous comic book tales told in the 90s X-Men series, it gives you so much more insight and variety. But on screen X-Men works exceptionally well. I feel like they should have continued with the team we all know and love though instead of the First class crew.
Then there is this series which is consistent and intriguing and could have been a really excellent show. It was cut down in its prime though after funding issues so there is only one series. Overall I cannot call it, I like both equally.
STREET FIGHTER
It's difficult discussing Robio's favourite movie, but overall I think the animated version wins.
You also get to see naked Chun Li in the shower.
FIST OF THE NORTH STAR
I'll make this real easy on you. This wins^
HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE
Nice character designs but this series is old and repetitive, they re-use animation and have some fruity sound effects. It's fun but.....
Live action wins.
Pure 80s hilarity, time travelling action. Like Back to the Future with Skelator. You cannot beat this movie.
Further reading:
I will watch X-men the movie but I refuse to read the comic or watch the cartoon - ever