ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
October is here, which means it is officially the spooky season, which further means it is acceptably time to engage in more horror-themed media.
The creative minds at Marvel apparently thought the same with their latest Disney+ project, “Marvel Zombies,” which released last week, and honestly, I can’t think of a better way to kick off the official month of horror than with zombies. The four-episode miniseries is set in an alternate timeline introduced in the "What If... Zombies?!" episode of Marvel’s animated series “What If...?” and follows a group of survivors as they risk their lives fighting super-powered zombies to save the world.
To start, the animation team DEFINITELY had a vision of what the overall aesthetic for the series should be, and all four episodes are pure horror perfection in that regard. The zombies themselves are straight up nightmare fuel with their graying and decomposing skin and exposed bones and internal organs, etc., and I have a feeling the animators had a lot of fun coming up with the overall character design for them. There’s also not really any holding back when it comes to the fight scenes and death scenes, they are EXTREMELY visceral and full of blood and guts and everything else you’d expect from a zombie-centered piece of media. There were multiple times when my jaw was on the floor and made me think ‘HOW did they get away with that in a Disney+ show?!” along with multiple moments that rather broke my heart. With all of that being said, given all the violence and gore shown, I would highly recommend not allowing young children to watch “Marvel Zombies,” because it is absolutely not appropriate for them. There are some people who would argue “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” was the first Marvel horror outing, but I would personally argue “Marvel Zombies” is Marvel’s first true foray into the genre, and the animation team knocked it out of the park.
In terms of the overall story, it’s a typical zombie apocalypse/save-the-world story, but I really liked how Marvel went with it to help kick off October and all the other spookiness. And since I’m a bit of a sucker for alternative universe stories, I did enjoy seeing how they wrote these popular Marvel characters into such a scenario. I did feel like the miniseries felt rather incomplete – there are only four 30-minute episodes, and I felt there was a lot left unanswered and unexplored, including a brief reminder of the origin of the virus and some of those details since probably not everyone watched the aforementioned “What If ... Zombies?!” episode. The miniseries also ends on rather a cliffhanger, and since there hasn’t technically been any indication of another season, there could’ve been at least one more episode to really wrap things up. However, I did appreciate how there’s not an entirely happy ending, and I was definitely reminded of the ending of “Avengers: Infinity War” and the first two-thirds of “Avengers: Endgame.” Overall, there definitely could have been some punch-ups made to the story to make it truly awesome.
A lot of praise also definitely needs to go to the voice cast, because nearly everyone involved does an outstanding job. Iman Vellani is once again fantastic as Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel, and she’s able to convey so much hurt and frustration and confusion with a tinge of hope, and all with just her voice. In this story, Kamala is a young girl thrust into far too mature of a situation, and Vellani also portrays that very well. I loved Vellani in her solo live-action show, and she definitely carried that skill to this project. Other fellow Marvel fixtures David Harbour, Florence Pugh, Simu Liu and Awkwafina (among too many others to name) also do a great job reprising their roles from their live-action projects, and I’m really glad they were all able to be part of this, and I also felt they even upped their game in some ways. The only voice actor I wasn’t very impressed with was Kari Wahlgren as Melina (introduced in the “Black Widow” film) because it felt more like she was imitating the stereotype of a Russian accent instead of attempting a legitimate Russian accent – and with her, her overall acting performance was fine, but she definitely needed some work on the accent in my opinion. Overall, the voice cast for this show is absolutely stellar and they all had great chemistry.
The music throughout the series is also done very well. Laura Karpman and Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum are returning from “What If...?” as the composers for this show, and they did an amazing job. The score absolutely helps set the mood in each episode, whether it’s during a more action-centric scene or a sadder, more emotional scene, and I felt it was all done so, so masterfully. So much so, in fact, there were even a few moments when the music had me slightly more choked up than what was actually happening on screen.
Overall, I enjoyed kicking off my spooky season with “Marvel Zombies” and would give it a “B” grade. The animation in each episode is very well done and EXTREMELY visceral, and the zombies themselves are straight up nightmare fuel – however, the amount of violence and gore is not appropriate for younger viewers. The voice cast is absolutely outstanding, especially leading lady Iman Vellani, and I loved the chemistry the cast had with each other. However, I did feel like the story could have used some punching up in some areas to really make it awesome. The music from composers Laura Karpman and Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum is also great in each episode and really helps set the mood. If you’re a fan of other Marvel media, especially the “What If...?” show, “Marvel Zombies” is a good one to cue up on Disney+.
