Rating:  -
With all the superman hype - my 3 year has become fascinated with Superman. I thought a Superman DVD would be great but this wasn't the right one for a child. He actually liked the story and was very interested but the bad words were put in there (and they so didn't have to be) so he can't watch it anymore.
Rating:  -
The best cartoon series ever done on my favorite super-hero, and I've watched most of the other ones. It's a shame it didn't last very long. Is it an accurate description of the comic book Spider-Man? No, but so what! Neither are the other cartoons, or the movies for that matter. It's really as if we go back to the early days of Peter Parker (which would have been in the early '60's) and see what it would have been like if it took place in the early 21st century. It doesn't have the serious tone of the comics (or movies) but it's not aimed at young children either.
Rating:  -
This new CGI Spider-Man is by far one of the best that I've ever watch. The Action in this series is Great not your average Spider-Man that were use to, in a few episodes the Villains actually die which you never seen before. Its just a shame that it only lasted for (1)season on MTV. I just wish it had been picked up by another company and they continued with the series. This is a must own for any Spider-Man fan.
Rating:  -
What this show does well, it does really well. Sadly, when it drops the ball, the results are disastrous.
The show is entirely CG, but it doesn't look like anything else out there. The world is rendered using relatively simple shading techniques, so that a freeze frame would look like it was in two dimensions instead of three. When this works, the result looks so much like a comic book, you could drop a frame into an issue of Spiderman and never know the difference. Unfortunately it doesn't always work: on occasion the backgrounds look as if they were copied from a video game. A very old video game.
The real problem is that the similarities to comics stop with the animation. The show is a new take on Spiderman. And that take, well... it ain't so good. The writing drags and just isn't enough fun. There are also some huge missteps in the characters' personalities and motivations. What makes it so hard to rate is that the writing isn't actually bad: it's professional, just misguided. There was talent and effort here, but not enough inspiration.
If action alone is enough of a reward, pick this up. There are fight scenes in here that raise the bar for this sort of a thing. Just be aware that this show has some serious flaws.
Also, in case you miss it in every other review, this was made by MTV and isn't intended for young kids.
Rating: -
Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (2003), which aired on MTV nearly four years ago, was a fun, witty, and well-written animated series. Visually, the show sets itself apart from not only all previous incarnations of Spider-Man's animated adventures, but also other animated series made for television as well. The computer animation on the show purposefully looks 2-D, a computer generated effect called cel-shading in computer generated imagery (CGI), created a moving comic book panel feel to the show. This really gives the show an interesting and unique look. Set non-canonically after the first Spider-Man movie, we see Peter, Mary-Jane Watson and Harry Osborn in college, attending Empire State University. Peter, of course works as a freelance photographer at The Daily Bugle. In addition to his obligations at the Bugle, he also shoot videos of city news events for Empire One, a spoof of the real world, New York One (NY1), a local New York cable news channel (to my knowledge, not being a native of the state of New York). Harry, not taking his father's death so well, yet not written as psychologically unstable as he is in the movies. As a self-professed "trust fund baby," he is independently wealthy, inheriting his father's succesful and productive company, to which he owns a controlling interest in. A big flirt, hiding a bitter and angry young man inside who harbors an intense hatred for Spider-Man. Mary Jane, the strong willed and girly love of Peter's life. She is aggressive in her amorous intentions towards and for Peter, confiding in Harry about some of her love/lack of love issues with Peter.
The action in the series is nicely choreographed. Flexible and malleable, Spider-Man moves with a grace, swiftness and uncanny agility, much like what he exhibits in the comics. One of my favorite sequences in the episode titled "Head Over Heels," shows Spider-Man routinely moving from one crime in progress to another, stoping each crime, saving people, then pausing to non-chalantely write his thoughts on a small note pad. Half the time he is barely looking at the people he is fighting or saving. A puzzled and perhaps curious man, after being saved, slowly tries to catch a glimpse at what Spider-Man is writing down on his note pad. Before the man gets close enough to read it, Spider-Man, seemingly without noticing the gentleman, quickly leaps up and away off camera. Dispite its light-hearted moments the series contains many more dark ones. Dealing with obesession, greed, honor, and lonliness, this series was no doubt in my mind, written for mid-teens and up.
Why is Spider-Man: The New Animated Series worth watching you ask? Besides the aforementioned reasons, I'd like to add to the list of praise for this series - great voice acting.
The voice acting for one is superb. Neil Patrick Harris's voice fit the character of Peter Parker perfectly, nerdy and insecure. While when Spider-Man, confident and witty. The ability of the animators to express such a wide range of emotions utilizing a finite facial palette and body language via motion capture was masterful. What makes this series so good and makes it worth watching is the subtle nuances of the character's voice talent, facial expressions and body language. Some notable actors and music artists lent their voices to the animated project. Michael Dorn, Michael Clarke Duncan, Rob Zombie, Eve, Jeffrey Combs and Mr. Excelsior! himself, Stan "The Man" Lee.
Mainframe Entertainment, the company that brought us the first ever computer animated TV show, Reboot was responsible for the computer animation and effects series. Ironically, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series was already in early production before work on the 1st movie was realized, contrary to popular belief. The commentary on the DVD notes that much of reason and inspiration for the show's conception was due to the success of the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book written by Brian Michael Bendis and penciled by one of my favorite artists, Mark Bagley. Speaking of the commentaries section, they can be a bit dry at times, but are very educational as far as how truly in-depth and multi-layered the creation and production process was for an animated series of this caliber. Many behind-the-scenes elements mirror live action movie productions. Due to budget and time constraints, watching the series, you will notice many of the same characters walking around town doing different things and envolved with different events around the city. Not that that is completely unrealistic, especially when the story and events revolve primarily around the Empire State University campus. Another anomaly about the show is the fact that the order in which the episodes aired on MTV differs from the order in which they are presented on the DVDs. For example, the "original" and first episode that aired, ends up being episode 8 on the DVD.
Unfortunately, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series lasted for but 1 season of 13 episodes available in this complete two-disc set. For some reason, this DVD is not available through conventional retail channels. Having tried several different brick and mortar retailers with no success, it appears this is only available online. This show was definitely a sleeper, existing under the radar of many Spider-Man fans that I know. So wake up and buy it today if you are so inclined.
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