Michael Turner was one of the greatest graphic novel creators ever to live, and it was a great tragedy when he died. 2 months before his death from terminal cancer I waited for hours in line hoping he would show up at the Wizard World Los Angeles, not because I wanted him to sign my comics (even though he did) but because I wanted to tell him something. I simply told him "Thank you. Your work is the reason why I got into comics." People were getting impatient with me for saying anything at all to him because of the hundreds of people in line, but I had to say it. I had to thank him. I used to call him the Walt Disney of modern comics and if you had read the Shrugged (which seems to have inspired Monsters Inc) and Soulfire (which HEAVILY inspired this film's world) you would understand why. While most people will probably remember him for his work drawing amazingly beautiful people, for his jaw-dropping comic covers, and perhaps for his masterpiece Fathom, I primarily will always remember him for his endless stream of amazing ideas and creative genius. It's a shame that more people failed to recognize it. This film is loaded with influences from all kinds of science fiction. You've got battling robots from Real Steel, powered body-suits from Bubblegum Crisis, and a super-hero team that seems like combination of The Incredibles and Stars and Stripes (Star Girl and her robot-suit-wearing-dad from the JSA). But what stuck in my mind as the credits rolled was something like...thank goodness someone still remembers Michael Turner and J. Scott Campbell (Wildsiderz). Seriously, read the parts of Soulfire completed before Turner's death. It's like the city in this film is that world breathed into life. This film may be based on a Marvel property, but it's Turner's work and classic anime that are the most obvious influences (to me anyway).
Apart from all that, this is arguably the first Disney animated film specifically designed to appeal to teens, and I can tell you that it succeeds spectacularly as a coming-of-age drama, a science-fiction/adventure, and yes, a super-hero film. The influences permeate everything about this film. It is so self-aware, so well-thought-out, that it skillfully calls attention to tropes, then averts them in smooth side-steps. The medical-robot-turned-reluctant-superhero is reminiscent of the robot from Robot and Frank. It knows what it was designed to do, and resists being changed into something else, but it's FEELINGS for its charge cause it do things that will make you smile, laugh, and cry.
Yes, this film has a lot of heart. It's well-paced, and entertaining. And the animation is absolutely jaw-droppingly gorgeous. This and How to Train Your Dragon 2 are two very large leaps forward in American animation, because they are not cartoons, but animated films, designed not to please children, but to tell a story that teens and adults will find satisfying. They are mature not because of violence and sex, but because of intelligence and depth.
This is the first of the Disney animated films that I will be pre-ordering. It's that good. Long live great animated stories and long-live the memory of creative geniuses like Michael Turner who dreamed of a sunset-hued world of adventure.
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