OPINION: Invincible isn’t invulnerable, but is still a great watch
It’s not a new thing to place fears and disappointment behind the hit show “Invincible,” produced by Amazon. The show has some of the best written stories in animations in recent times. Yet, there’s more complaints than praises for Invincible. Season 4 is wrapping up, and a lot of fans have criticisms over miscasting voice actors and the “subpar” animation style which I believe is not the fault of the artists, but the studio and the voice actors are extremely well cast.
Invincible is a show about a young superhero named Mark as he navigates his true heritage, identity, and powers, whilst embracing those around him. At this point of the season Mark is at war with aliens that are about the same race as him called Viltrumite. Mark is half Viltrumite as his mom is a human and the season delves deeper into the ideas of forgiveness and action packed fights in space.
The show has all the ingredients for an excellent superhero adventure, so why all the criticism?
Voice Acting
A month ago, the highly anticipated season 4 was released. Instead of excitement there was dread in the air, showing dissatisfaction in the voice acting decision. ”They ruined Thragg’s voice” – TheGeekyCast. The Tiktoker said “it just has to sound confident”, and were not happy with Pace. Lee Pace is portraying the grand emperor of a strong empire named Thragg. Where it was noted that fans wanted a deeper, more intimidating tone from the likes such as Ryan Hurst who also plays Thor in the video game God of War Ragnarok.
Both sides have their arguments, because I can see why a more intimidating voice would fit an emperor like character but at the same time it’s not a bad choice to have Pace play the character. His portfolio consists of similar characters like Ronan the Accuser from Guardians of the Galaxy which can be seen as a villain with similar status. The clip below shows a dramatic speech from Pace where he shows the power and authority that make him a good choice for Thragg.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xZG779dzuzM
Animation
As much as the complaints of voice acting don’t bother me, the issue of animation quality is a topic that was brought up even before this new season that does bring in many opinions. It’s known that the standard of animation for “Invincible” is not up to par to other animated shows that came before and in recent years.” Invincible’s animation is subpar even by American animation standards,” said @Ren Rants on TikTok.
That’s fair enough, as even that’s an issue that I do notice quite a lot. That does grant people to want more love to be put in a show that many enjoy What it doesn’t grant is trashing the animators as it consists of a four person team doing that. The fire should shift to Amazon where the lack of investment in the show is a huge problem that might plague the show’s future. Numbers haven’t been released yet but there was speculation that it was around $2 million dollars spent to budget the show, but the money isn’t going to the right places, being spent on A-list celebrity actors instead of paying animators
If this continues the show might not last, the problems are just stacking up and it puts people off from watching. Though that isn’t fair to the people who work hard to put these seasons out. Even with the animation not being satisfying the story does carry the work load. The character writing is what makes the show so engaging and makes viewers feel grounded and related.
With newer creative decisions, the show is in good hands even with arising issues. Again, the anger should be directed towards Amazon. The animation is serviceable during fights and the story is amazing. It’s doing what it can with a smaller team and with a show of superheroes there can be only hope with the way things are as we strive to leave these fears behind. Season 4 is an epic experience with dramatic highs and lows, absolutely worth watching despite the criticisms.
