PLANET HULK VFX Artist On Building The Arena, THOR: RAGNAROK Parallels, & Inspiring MCU Storylines (Exclusive)

PLANET HULK VFX Artist On Building The Arena, THOR: RAGNAROK Parallels, & Inspiring MCU Storylines (Exclusive)

Speaking with Thomas D. Moser about his newest movie, we touched on his Marvel animation work. He explained the process of building the arena for Planet Hulk, the parallels in Thor: Ragnarok, and more.

By LiteraryJoe - Jul 22, 2021 11:07 PM EST
Filed Under: Hulk
Source: Literary Joe's Inner Child Podcast

Thomas D. Moser is multi-talented, working in both live-action and animation. His newest flick, Double Blind, is an exciting action spy thriller that is now available on Amazon Prime.

When we talked to him to promote the movie, we couldn't help but focus on all of the projects he has worked on for Marvel. For the last two decades, Moser has contributed to visual effects and animation on countless projects.

The movie side of things includes titles such as Planet Hulk, Hulk Vs. Wolverine, Hulk Vs. Thor, Thor: Tales of Asgard, and Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow. Meanwhile, when it comes to long-form storytelling with animated television, Tom was an integral part of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Avengers Assemble, Wolverine and the X-Men, The Superhero Squad Show, and even Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.

These days, his focus is on Big Mouth, Duncanville, and live-action films like Double Blind, but Moser's passion for his work with Marvel remains. We have a lengthy discussion in which he talks about certain cues that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has taken from animated projects, especially when comparing the arena and stadium in Planet Hulk with elements from Thor: Ragnarok.

You can hear our full chat with Thomas D. Moser below, scroll down for this portion of the transcript, or fully immerse yourself with the video episode at the bottom!

Thomas D. Moser: So, they sent me designs of what they wanted it to look like, but none of those matched. So, I had to build pieces of it here and pieces of it there and just kind of build the whole thing. And we didn't know how much of it we were going to use, so I just built everything. The stadium itself, the seats, the statues, the arena floor, and where it opens up in the middle. It took weeks to do, down to the flags waving.

It was really, really fun. It was my first time really doing something on that scale, and it was for an animated movie for Marvel, so it was really great. I did visual effects and what's called retake animation, which means most of the animation is done overseas, and then when it comes back, if any of it needs fixing or enhancing, I'm in charge of that.

hulk

I won't name names, but a funny anecdote is that one of the supervising directors that I worked with thought that the MCU had stolen all of the storylines that we had been working on to make the live-action movies. It was so funny.

Because we did do a Doctor Strange film, and then they made a Doctor Strange movie, and a lot of things that we were saying were coming to fruition in the live-action versions. I did think, though, when Ragnarok came out, and there were the elements of Planet Hulk there, I thought, "this is so funny."

hulkk

The Marvel films, how they were done was a little different. The shows were very similar because they were all done in the studio. I believe Film Roman did the animation. But the Marvel films were a part of this partnership with Lionsgate. So that was sort of this family of a crew that did about four or five movies, and that was it. We all wanted more, and I think Planet Hulk was the last or next to last one.

What's really interesting is how similar those stories all are. We did The Next Avengers too, and it was the children of the Avengers having to face Ultron. So that was really cool, and I got to do some really neat stuff with that. That's such a good movie. 

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What do you guys think of these comments? Which of Moser's projects did you enjoy most, and what would you like to see him tackle next?

See our entire exclusive interview below, which also includes Christopher Showerman (Supergirl, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), the lead actor of Double Blind. Be sure to sound off in the comments with your thoughts!


 

To promote their new film Double Blind, Thomas D. Moser and Christopher Showerman honored me by stopping by to chat about the black and white conspiracy spy thriller flick. While Tom directed this film, he has a long history with animation, particularly Marvel-related.


We chatted about his work on Planet Hulk, Hulk Vs., Wolverine and the X-Men, Avengers: Assemble, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, The Superhero Squad Show, Thor: Tales of Asgard, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., and Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow. Discussing the many Marvel animations he worked on, we also talked about the cues the live-action MCU has taken from the shows and films like Planet Hulk and Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Telling us about building the arena for the animated Planet Hulk Film, he also talked about his experience seeing that come to life in Thor: Ragnarok.


Tom also speaks about his more recent animation work on Duncanville and Big mouth. When we finally let Chris talk, we speak on his work in Supergirl and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., George of the Jungle 2, and all the stuntwork he had to do alongside his acting role in Double Blind.


Double Blind is now streaming for free with an Amazon Prime membership.

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micvalpro
micvalpro - 7/23/2021, 12:33 AM
Planet Hulk was really good and Hulk vs Wolverine. It’s funny how Marvel seems to make these animated movies as blue prints as to how to make the live action ones. For example that first Avenger animated movie.
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 7/23/2021, 12:45 AM
Good to see he seems to be a good sport about it. Think it's kinda of a compliment if the big movies take something you worked on
pyramosteu
pyramosteu - 7/23/2021, 1:52 AM
Why doesn't Marvel make these animated films anymore? Planet Hulk was as good as the DC animated stuff.
dragon316
dragon316 - 7/23/2021, 2:26 AM
@pyramosteu - tv series shows movies probably more attention than animated versions
GwenLantern
GwenLantern - 7/23/2021, 2:34 AM
Thor: Ragnarok also had one of their animation directors/storyboarders on a lot of their action sequences (Jay Oliva).

There were two things in particular that I did notice were directly inspired by animated movie rather than the comic.
1. Beta Ray Bill was the big reigning champion in the movie and Ragnarok had an Easter Egg of Beta Ray Bill's head as a previous champion.
2. There was an easter egg in the animation of the Grandmaster being the power behind the Red King in the arena. And of course he actually is the guy who runs things in Thor: Ragnarok.

The animated movie is obviously a better adaptation of the comic, so I like that the MCU movie got these easter eggs in there because we the audience can then infer that a version of the events seen in the animated movie happened previous to Thor's arrival. That Hulk is the Green King (which is why he has a palacial bedroom when the other champions live in squalor) and yet he is still just a subject of the true power, the Grandmaster.
ElricReturns
ElricReturns - 7/23/2021, 3:26 AM
The MCU borrows from everywhere, the comics, cartoons and whatever it can. Sometimes even borrows from other comics. While I do enjoy the work this person has done, I can't exclusively see any connections between his contributions and the MCU. His version of Planet Hulk was lifted from the comics and things they altered for the animated movie weren't elements used in the live action Ragnarok. I'm not sure how there is much of a connection. Style wise Sakar looks totally different in Ragnarok and tonally I wish Ragnarok took itself as seriously as the comic or animated movie.

To me this is like the person who worked on the Days of Future Past episode of Xmen the Animated series taking credit for Days of Future Past being made into a live action movie when the comic should get the credit.
DoubleD
DoubleD - 7/23/2021, 4:19 AM
Planet Hulk was one of few cartoon movies I actually watched. I thought it was done really well. We all know what comes after Planet Hulk, World War Hulk.
WaffeX
WaffeX - 7/23/2021, 5:08 AM
Planet Hulk had great animation
grif
grif - 7/23/2021, 6:33 AM
great hulk movie potential wasted on a bad thor movie.
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