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Spider-Man - The '67 Collection (6 Volume Animated Set)
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There was an explosion of superhero cartoons in the 1960's, and the 1967 version of Spider-Man was probably one of the best. The cartoon introduced Marvel Comics founder Stan Lee's remarkable hero, to a whole new audience. The Amazing Spider-Man comic, had only been around for a few years, and many younger kids were unfamiliar with the character. The first season, produced by Grantray-Lawrence Animation, featured two Spiderman adventures per episode, with many of the stories featuring characters from the comic book. Seasons two and three, were produced by Krantz Films, and featured stories from various sources. The two story format, may have helped Spiderman to make a deeper impression on kids, who typically have shorter attention spans.
When the Spiderman cartoon debuted in September of 1967, the Amazing Spiderman comic had just reached the 50 issue mark. The cartoon did a pretty good job of including most of Spidey's major foes up to that point, including Dr. Octopus, the Rhino, Electro, the Lizard, Mysterio, Sandman, the Scorpion, Green Goblin, and the Vulture. Although they made good use of the available Spidey source material, and even featured some villains twice, in order to produce 40 adventures that first season, the writers had to come up with new villains and fresh stories.
Some of these ideas worked well, while others missed the mark, but what was fairly consistent was the goofy and light tone of the series, where a good-natured Spider-Man, displayed a cool style and sassy attitude. Spidey was in a constant battle with J. Jonah Jameson, the crusading publisher of the Daily Bugle, who wanted nothing better, than to see his nemesis (that 'wall crawling weasel'), behind bars. Keeping things light, the cartoon did not get into Peter Parker's various personal problems, but otherwise it did a decent job of capturing the comic book character's basic personality.
The voices chosen were ideal for the roles, with Paul Soles as Peter Parker/Spiderman, Paul Kligman as Jameson, and Peg Dixon as Betty Brant. The original music for Spider-Man was truly amazing, and contributed greatly to the cartoon's impact. Overall, the animation of the Spider-Man character while not super detailed, was quite innovative. Things like swinging on a web, climbing walls, jumping, sliding, fighting, and shooting webbing, are done well enough to bring the comic book character to life, although sometimes Spidey's web was attached to nothing but air, and the webhead was prone to some funky physical quirks. The animation of other characters was pretty good, although the backgrounds were sometimes only average.
Matters took a radical change in the second season, when Krantz Films took over the production. With a reduced budget, Ralph Bakshi gave the cartoon a radical makeover. While the voice talent remained the same, the two adventure per episode format was suspended, as episodes were devoted to a single story. Although the Spider-Man character looked much the same, the stories, settings, and music, were vastly different. Rather than relying on the comic, stories were drawn mostly from other sources. The tone, vibe, look, and attitude of the show was completely revamped, as Spidey went from battling mostly super villains in season one, to also taking on mad scientists, wizards, freaks, monsters, aliens, giant insects, savages, and all manner of assorted weirdos, in season two. These were startling changes, for a character that originally focused on the fun side of being a teenaged superhero.
Instead of being straightforward tales of crime and apprehension, Spidey took off on flights of pure fantasy, with numerous weird adventures in the skies, and below the earth's surface. In `Swing City', the entire island of Manhattan is lifted high into the sky. Some of these stories were so zany and trippy, one wonders if the writers were under the influence of something. Among the 19 episodes in season two, those based on stories from the comics are not surprisingly among the best of the lot (The Origin of Spider-Man, King Pinned, and To Cage A Spider).
Psychedelia was a significant phenomena in the late 60's, and the second season certainly seems to exhibit major psychedelic influences, including colorful fantasy worlds, surrealistic settings with multicolored backgrounds, an abundance of villains with green colored skin, and jazzy musical themes. Partly to fill time, Spidey is prone to extraneous travel, running or swinging around aimlessly. Season two exhibits a kind of dichotomy. On one hand, Peter Parker becomes more like the comics, chasing girls and struggling with various personal issues. Yet on the other hand, the adventures that Spider-Man gets involved in, are so far removed from what the comic book Spider-Man was about, that the cartoon character almost completely disconnects from the essence of his identity.
In the abbreviated third and final season, the stories continued to be mostly weird and wacky, with scant connection to what was currently happening in the comic series. A number of times, footage from past episodes was recycled to create `new' adventures. Fans of the early Amazing Spider-Man comics, probably appreciate the simple approach of the first season. The Baskshi episodes are not without merit, but the quality of the stories is so variable that it is hard to predict how well they may be received.
The Spider-Man 67 Collection contains over 19 hours of content, with 52 episodes, on six discs. Mostly free of blemishes, and with the image quality seemingly close to the original source material, the cartoons look and sound terrific. It would have been fascinating to hear anything Stan Lee had to say about the series, but unfortunately there are no extras.
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Spider-Man The 67' Collection 6 Volume Animated DVD Set:
Classic 1967 Tv series on dvd, 5 stars because it is Spidey! take note the series/episodes at times utilize the same animation more than once,has Canadian Voice actors("Process",A-gain,etcera)Peter Parker sounds like he is 40 and not a Teenager, His suit does not have all the lines. Villains who are not in the Comic book. Very Trippy at times,what were the writers thinking? almost all the made up villains were green or on some other dimension?Demons? other than that,it's a trip back in time for those who were there and those of us who were not.A Must for any SpiderMan Fan!
Highly Recommend it!
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Perfect. Every single episode in order. One of the greatest TV shows of all time. Perfect quality, fast shipping.
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I was only familiar with the 60s Spider-Man Series due to its theme. I didn't pick up this set when it was initially released (around the time the 1st Spider-Man movie was released) because at thought it was too corny to watch. As of late, I've become more nostalgic of some animation that aired before my birth, and after viewing a few episodes on [...], I realized this series is not just good for its time, it holds up quite nicely to TV animation of today.
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My brother when he was younger, he used to record on betamax, some chapters of this spider man collection. Now, when i saw that they sold the collection on DVD i inmediatly bought it and i almost cry when istarted watching them, i saw so many chapters that i've never seen and i recomend this for the fans that love this series!! AMAZING!
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