Discover the origin of the Incredible Hulk(TM) in this high-impact animated adventure. In a desperate race against time, Hulk's alter-ego, Bruce Banner, is trying to reverse his curse and return back to his normal self, but his arch-enemies have him on the run. Witness the fantastic transformation of the most powerful being that ever existed as the Incredible Hulk(TM) wages an all-out battle against his attackers and smashes his way to fight another day. There was some amazing, classic animation done for superhero cartoons done as far back as Max & Dave Fleisher's Superman series of the early 1940s (echoes of which can be found in Batman: The Animated Series). Those were done for the big screen; by the mid-1960s, superhero cartoons were being brought to television, and some of Marvel Comics' biggest heroes-Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor, and the Incredible Hulk-were the stars. Unfortunately, television didn't have much in terms of cachet-or production values-at the time, and all four heroes suffer for it. The Hulk gets short shrift here; the interesting thing about the character has always been twofold: the misunderstood misfit trying to make a quiet life for himself, and the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde duality of the Hulk and his alter ego, Dr. Bruce Banner. [+]

Independent animator Bill Plympton first received widespread public attention when his outré "Your Face" (1987) was nominated for an Academy Award for Animated Short. His short films-some as brief as 15 seconds-made between 1985 and 1991 showcase his unique talent much more effectively than his ponderous features, The Tune and I Married a Strange Person. Plympton's earliest films indicate that he experimented with a variety of techniques-cutouts, cel animation, stop motion-before finding his personal style: colored pencil drawings on paper to illustrate bizarre, metamorphic transitions that build to an absurd climax. Eyes slide up foreheads, lips elongate, mouths rotate, bodies distort, and heads explode in loose, scribbly sketches. Plympton is not a great animator: he uses only four to six drawings per second, less than a Saturday-morning series (full, Disney-style animation requires 12 to 24 drawings per second), and his attempts to tell a coherent story through his drawings invariably fizzle. But in off-the-wall shorts like "Your Face," "25 Ways to Quit Smoking," and the 15-second "Plymptoons" made for MTV, he emerges as an entertaining and highly original filmmaker. Not rated; suitable for all ages, although bizarre imagery may frighten small children. -Charles Solomon.