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Spider-Man - The '67 Collection (6 Volume Animated Set)
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Rating:  -
THE BOX SET IS WONDERFUL, BUT DOES ANYONE ELSE NOTICE A PROBLEM WITH THE QUALITY OF THE EPISODES? WHEN I WATCH MY COPIES, THE PICTURE IS JUMPY AND UNSTABLE AT TIMES, ALMOST LIKE A VHS TAPE WHEN THE TRACKING IS NOT PROPERLY ADJUSTED. I HAVE ALSO NOTICED THAT AT TIME THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE PICTURE SEEMS TO LIGHTEN AND DARKEN, FADING IN AND OUT. I HAVE VIEWED THESE DVDS ON OTHER PEOPLE'S PLAYERS AND T.V.'S AND HAVE NOTICED THE SAME THING! I KNOW IT'S NOT A PROBLEM WITH THE HARDWARE, IT MUST BE THE DVDS. HAS ANYONE ELSE HAD ANY PROBLEMS?
Rating:  -
For the past 2 years, Buena Vista has given us tiny morcels of classic Spider-Man on their DVD releases: "Ultimate Villain Showdown" (Origin of Spider-Man), "Return of the Green Goblin" (Terrible Triumph of Dr. Octopus/Magic Malice) and "Spider-Man VS Daredevil" (King Pinned). These DVD releases showcased the newer 1994-1998 Spider-Man animated series, but many fans (such as myself) bought these exclusively for the bonus episodes of the original 1960s series.
What a treat it was for us fans of the original series when Buena Vista released all 52 episodes (or 77 stories) into a 6 disc DVD set. Most of the episodes have been restored by removing the scratches and imperfections. Although some episodes were not restored, I think that this is a good thing because it gives us the chance to see the episodes as they were most likely viewed while the series was broadcast on syndicated TV. Now that the episodes are in DVD format, they will not degrade as they normally would if they were recorded on VHS cassettes. There's no need to worry about your VCR chewing up your tapes!
Although I give this DVD set a 5 star rating, I do have some minor complaints:
-The graphics depicting Spider-Man on the packaging are not from the TV series. In the TV series, Spider-Man's costume only contains web patterns on his mask, gloves and boots whereas on the packaging, the web pattern appears on the full body of the costume.
-The title "'67 Collection" gives the impression that this series only lasted for 1 year on network television while in fact, it lasted for 3 seasons between 1967-1970.
-Although all of the episodes are in the collection, disc 3 contains episodes from seasons 1&2 and disc 5 contains episodes from seasons 2&3, creating overlap. To avoid this, I would have only included 1 instance of the opening sequence and closing credits on each disc, so that season 1 could easily fit on discs 1&2, season 2 on discs 3&4 and season 3 on discs 5&6.
-Lack of bonus features. If Buena Vista used my idea above, there would have been a lot of room on disc 6 to include many bonus features (season 3 only had 13 episodes). Bonus features such as "next week", TV commercials advertising the series, interviews with those involved with the production of this series would have made this DVD set even better.
-Paul Soles (the voice of Spider-Man) had offered himself to Buena Vista to provide voices for the DVD menus. Buena Vista declined probably because they wanted to keep costs down. But I could imagine the expanded possibilities for this collection had Mr. Soles been used, perhaps even a fake "new" bonus episode as a hidden easter egg? (Imagine re-using footage from earlier episodes with Paul Soles providing new dialogue!)
-Although the DVD menus allows you to easily pick and choose which episodes you want to watch, this feature is called "Scene Selection". I think the more correct term should have been "Episode Selection".
I admit that the above complaints are nit-picks on my part. The good stuff: Discs 2-5 contain images of characters that appear in the series. The book-like format of the DVD case is very well done. The opening sequence of the menus is awesome. Buena Vista could have broken up this collection in several parts but instead, they chose to release it into 1 great-looking package. Overall, I'm extremely pleased with this collection!
Rating:  -
I bought this for two reasons. First, because I used to be into comicbooks and love Marvel. Second, I liked the cartoons and wanted to know if I indeed saw every show. This show was before my time.
After buying it I felt happy about the purchase. After getting through to about the third disc and seeing the repetitve nature of JJ Jameson a PArker's relationship, it got boring fast. Combine that with the main function of superhero cartoons that if missing messes the whole thing up. This is also something that some Hollywood disrectors fail to understand when converting comic hero's to film. If the hero does not fight the villians in the comic books, comicbook fans interest will be lost.
On a whole, most of the episodes are not about Spidey bettling super villians, it is about made up, foolish villians. While ok for a diversion, it cannot sustain a series. Now we see why it did not last long.
After a while, the artwork takes on a kind of physcadelic look in it. I assume that since thise was the lat 1960's, that had something to do with it. The artwork improved, that look was a look that I describe as a "you had to be there to understand" look. The 1960's has some scary cultural traits fors those who have not experienced it. The later episodes relfects this.
So the lack of super-villians,boring stroy lines and the fact that an episode from the first season (with the Rhino) is actually repeated on the last disc. If that is how it aired -cool, but it took up space. Some TV ad's and a story on how popualr the show was could have helped also. SOME OF US WERE NOT AROUND, so we do not fully understand the impact of the show. My time for watching itwas during the 1970's when I was a little boy being baby sat and fed with cartoons.
If you want every show, get it. If you feel like you may be bored because you want to see the comcibook done right, this may not do it for you. Just like that Hulk movie did not do it for me.
Rating: -
This is the real deal Thanks Disney for restoring these great spidey cartoons , i really enjoy this collection thanks much for memories. i hope that you guys release a 2nd collection as good this first collection.
Once Again Thanks A Spidey Fan.
Rating: -
When I was a child, there was no major Spider-Man movie starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. In fact, Kirsten Dunst was barely old enough to talk. Thus, with no Hollywood motion picture, there was not the abundance of Spider-man products that there is today. The only thing I had was a few old action figures I bought at a flea market, a collection of comics, and a VHS tape of Spider-man cartoons from the 1960s. SO, this particular collection of cartoons has a special nostalgic appeal to me.
The cartoons in this DVD collection are from the 1967 series, and they're very "60s," indeed! The colors are brilliantly vibrant and incredibly psychedelic. The clothes the characters are drawn wearing are very "Leve-It-To-Beaver"esque, the dialogue is laughably dated, and the animation is very basic and bare-boned. (Many of the shots of Spidey swinging through the city are constantly reused throughout the series). Thus, these cartoons would be boring to many young kids looking for fast-paced action with good animation graphics. However, for children who enjoy observing the evolution of the Spider-man phenomenon and older fans who like "old-school" Spidey stuff, this DVD set is quite the treasure chest! The cartoons are wholesome and they have all the classic villians, including Doc Ock, The Green Goblin, Electro, and Mysterio. Fans of Mary Jane, however, will be disappointed to learn that she's left out of this series. I guess she just wasn't ready for animation prime-time back in 1967.
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