Marvel has found it’s way into every corner of media, included animated series. And these are the 10 best they have to offer, according to IMDb.
Five years after the Fantastic Four first showed up on the four-color page, Marvel’s superheroes got their first animated series. The show, Marvel Super Heroes, aired 65 episodes and adapted 195 comics into the animated form. The show was a precursor to the more polished motion comics that became popular a few years ago, with panels were taken directly from the pages of the books that had minor bits of animation added to them. It was cheap, but it got the job done.
Since then, there have been over 30 Marvel cartoon series, with more on the way. And with that many animated series out there, how can you know which ones are worth your time? To help you out, here are the 10 best Marvel animated series according to IMDb…
10Marvel Knights: Black Panther – 7.2
A six-episode motion comic that aired on BET, Marvel Knights: Black Panther was an adaptation of Reginald Hudlin John Romita Jr.’s Who is theBlack Panther miniseries. The animated series starred Djimon Hounsou as T’Challa, and told the origin of the Black Panther as T’Challa takes on the mantle after his father is assassinated.
Marvel Knights: Black Panther was well received by critics and fans. Like the comic it was based on, the series helped raise the character’s profile to new heights, opening the way for the live-action Black Panther movie.
There are enough occasions over 90 minutes where the line is close enough.
In 1996, director Reginald Hudlin (House Party, Boomerang) tackled the sweet science in a way that few others have ever approached the sport on the silver screen. Boxing has easily lent itself to Alger-esque fairy tales (Rocky), morality plays (Requiem for a Heavyweight), tragedies (Million Dollar Baby), and yes even comedies (Diggstown).
When BoxingScene forum user B_Morph, responding to a previous installment of Boxing Without Boxing, wrote “I’d love to see a review of Great White Hype. I think it’s a pretty accurate portrayal of a behind the scenes look at boxing, even if exaggerated for comedic purposes,” it was an easy request to grant. Not having watched for more than a few minutes here or there in well more than a decade, fresh eyes noticed something striking about Hudlin’s approach.
The Great White Hype is a comedy about what boxing looks like to many of the people who are just passing by. Yes, it rings true enough for those who follow the sport avidly in several ways, but ultimately Hudlin’s film is as much about the spectacle of boxing as it is about the sport itself. Boxing’s spectacle side isn’t really about the folks who get up early to watch an international bantamweight war or spend hours debating the fine points of what might have happened in fights between men of disparate eras.
The genuine spectacle moments in boxing are those that draw in an audience that wasn’t there a month ago and won’t be back until the biggest circuses set up the tent again.
Sometimes those moments produce boxing’s finest hours.
The Great White Hype was released with a fight in mind that wasn’t one of them.
In 1995, Mike Tyson returned to the ring after serving a prison sentence for rape to face unheralded Peter McNeeley. Despite a promise to wrap Tyson in a “cocoon of horror,” McNeeley lasted just 89 seconds. Over 1.5 million homes purchased the fight to the tune of more than $60 million on pay-per-view alone.
Hudlin takes an event that played as a little absurd and combines his eye with a script co-authored by one of the great sports screenwriters of them all to turn the volume to eleven. Ron Shelton, most famous for the great Bull Durham and White Men Can’t Jump, doesn’t ever fully wrap his arms around boxing the way he tackled baseball and basketball. He gets close in many respects.
To briefly recap the plot, heavyweight champion James “The Grim Reaper” Roper (Damon Wayans) has run out of profitable opponents and his promoter Fred Sultan (Samuel L. Jackson) isn’t keen on matching him with his most dangerous opponent. Instead, he seeks out the lone man to defeat Roper as an amatuer, Terry Conklin (Peter Berg). Conklin gave up boxing and is pursuing a music career. The idea is simple. Conklin is white and white can mean green.
For fight fans, discussions in the film of Larry Holmes-Gerry Cooney, and clips of real fights like Ray Mercer-Tommy Morrison, attempt to underscore the thesis. Is it a place where the movie can feel dated at times? The 21st century heavyweight division has been different than much of the previous century. This is a movie grounded American heavyweight landscape of the 1900s and not the more international arena that has arrived. How true it’s examination of racial dynamics in the sport is now will be up to modern viewers to decide.
Regardless, the reason to nickname Conklin “Irish” remains one of the best laughs in the movie.
The idea of finding an unqualified opponent and beefing up their credentials to make a ton of money is unlikely ever to go out of style. A heavyweight getting a shot at the title in their first pro fight should feel ridiculous…accept it’s happened. In 1957, Floyd Patterson defended against Olympic gold medalist Pete Rademacher in Rademacher’s debut.
We haven’t seen it happen again since to that extent. Again though, it was a real thing.
Also possibly dated, in a you’d-have-had-to-be-alive-then to really get it, is the performance of Jackson. Sultan is obviously a play on Don King, down to some of the details of his background, and one has to assume some reading of Newfield in Shelton’s take. While modern promoters like Eddie Hearn, or the ageless Bob Arum, still capture headlines with occasionally wild comments, King was in a class by himself as a personality and presence.
For someone who came to follow the sport in the post-King years, the film could play differently than for fans who were engrossed at the time the movie was released.
What is presented on-screen isn’t so much King as the perception of King in his time by the casual observer, cranked up a notch. Along with Jackson’s performance, Cheech Marin’s stand as a sanctioning body official is much the same. In 1996, and still today, some fighters achieve rankings with sanctioning bodies that don’t seem to measure up to the reality of wins and losses. Hudlin’s movie doesn’t pull punches in mocking the path to contention.
Throw in some over the top press conferences, the idea that access is an easy way to co-opt dissident voices via the character of Mitchell Kane (Jeff Goldblum), and a couple leprechauns on a ring walk and the fun house mirror held up might make some boxing lovers cringe at a story landing too near the belt.
Is it a good movie? Audiences didn’t flock to it upon release. It’s certainly an uneven enterprise. Jackson, Wayans as a champion who trains on ice cream and cigarettes he’s so unconcerned about his foe, Marin, and Berg all turn in fun performances but the parts are stronger than the whole.
Still, as part of the pantheon of boxing film, The Great White Hype is worth at least a viewing. There are too many moments where the visceral reaction to what’s being portrayed is “that’s ridiculous,” followed quickly by “well, except there was that one time…” for it not to have value.
For over 50 years, the entertainment manager and promoter Clarence Avant has been a quiet but influential presence in American music, movies, sports and politics, working behind the scenes to connect the right people with each other. In his documentary “The Black Godfather,” the director Reginald Hudlin turns a spotlight onto Avant, who has helped boost the careers of everyone from Hank Aaron to Quincy Jones to Barack Obama. This is a portrait of a man who has made his many friends a lot of money, but has also urged them — always — to keep their higher ideals in mind.
I was with a friend the other day who asked me how many movies I had made. I started to do a count because I wasn’t sure. I said ten but I realized I was leaving some movies out. So I made this list. It’s much longer than I thought it would be.
I’ve directed 8 movies on this list, and one third of COSMIC SLOP. There are many hours of television work in sitcoms, dramas and producing award shows and being a television executive that I haven’t counted.
There’s an interesting cross section of genres in this list: teen comedy, romantic comedies, family animation, sports comedy, sports drama, science fiction, period action, period drama, contemporary drama, documentary…
1. HOUSE PARTY
My first feature film, based on my senior thesis from college. One of the most profitable films of its decade. Still beloved.
2. BOOMERANG
Finally recognized as one of the great romantic comedies, launching the career of Hallie Berry and the musical career of Toni Braxton.
3. BEBE’S KIDS
After his star making appearance in HOUSE PARTY, my next film was going to be based on Robin Harris’ legendary comedy routine. When he passed away, I made into an animated feature so he would always be remembered. It was released the same summer as BOOMERANG, so I had two movies in the theater at the same time.
4. COSMIC SLOP
https://youtu.be/IfBpjkgn5pY
I included COSMIC SLOP, which I typically list as a television project, but in today’s world, anything feature length can be categorized in different ways. SPACE TRADERS, the segment I directed, is taught in colleges all over the country!
5. RIDE
This is the first feature my brother and I produced but did not direct. It was the debut of Millicent Shelton, who has gone on to have a successful career in television.
6. GREAT WHITE HYPE
https://youtu.be/aewYaN9ctQU
A satire set in the world of boxing, and the first of many times I’ve worked with Jamie Foxx.
7. LADIES MAN
Will Ferrell, Billy Dee Williams and Johnny Witherspoon in the same movie!
8. SERVING SARA
My first “white” movie, starring Matthew Perry and Elizabeth Hurley. This and Ladies Man are the two worst movies I’ve made. Things turn around after this.
9. DJANGO UNCHAINED
A transformative experience for me and an incredible movie! Won Oscars, Golden Globes and National Board of Review.
10. MARSHALL
What a cast! Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, Sterling K. Brown, Kate Hudson, and I got to spend time with the Thurgood Marshall family!
11. BURNING SANDS
Producing another first-time filmmaker, Gerald McMurray, who made a powerful film about fraternity hazing. I know feel protective about their frats, but the story is based on real incidents. Like House Party, this movie also launched a whole generation of stars.
12. BLACK GODFATHER
My first feature length documentary, and one of the most impactful films I’ve ever made.
So many people have seen in many times over.
13. EMPEROR
Back producing another first-time director, telling an epic but little-known story of a great man in American history.
14. SAFETY
This is my next directing project, a sports drama currently in post-production and debuting on Disney Plus this fall.
