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| Spider-Man The New Animated Series DVD Review |
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Order this DVD from Amazon.com
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Spider-Man The New Animated Series
Special Edition
(Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment)
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| DVD Release Date:
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January 13, 2004
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| Length:
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275 mins.
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| Rated:
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NR
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| Format:
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Widescreen (1.78:1)
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| Audio:
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English (Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS)
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| Subtitles:
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Closed-Captioned
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| Extras:
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Disc 1 Audio Commentary, Amazing Spider-Facts, DVD-ROM "Character Modeler", Production Artwork, Cast and Crew Filmographies Disc 2 Audio Commentary, Amazing Spider-Facts, Test Footage, Outtake Reel, Building with Layers Featurette, The Making of Spider-Man, Spider-Man Tech: Creating the Models, Spider-Man Tech: Animating Performance, Spider-Man Music: The Composters, Theatrical Trailers
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In 2003, MTV came out with a new Spider-Man cartoon, joining a long list of previous cartoons based on the popular superhero. Set in the events following the Spider-Man movie, the catch with this version is that it's in 3D animation, containing state-of-the-art CG imaging with feature animation processing. Add to that a slew of celebrities contributing their voice talents, including Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser) as Spidey, Lisa Loeb as MJ and Ian Ziering (Steve Sanders from 90210) as Harry.
I've always been a huge fan of Spider-Man, and when I first heard this was coming to MTV, I really wanted to like it. For some reason though, I was just never able to get into it. Maybe it was just the animation, I was never a big fan. Maybe it was their choice of villains--too many unknowns were mixed in with more popular villains like Electro (who had a horrible re-imaging, if you would), Kingpin and Lizard. I enjoyed the plots of the episodes, but I just never felt enthralled by it all.
The 2-disc set, in addition to having all 13 episodes of season 1, was also loaded with features, more than any of the cartoon DVD's I've watched. Every episode had an audio commentary and a Spidey trivia track attached to it. The audio commentaries were interesting and stayed on topic with what was going on with the episode, especially those featuring Spider-Man creator Stan Lee. However, when they focused on the technical aspects of making the episodes, it went over my head and I quickly became uninterested. You also get the feeling that the series did not turn out as popular as they hoped, as there seems to be a lot of mentions in the commentaries about them having a lower budget in the later episodes. The trivia track was not as interesting as the one featured on the movie and was difficult to read at times because it was black writing set on a dark blue background. I don't know who's idea that was, but they should be given a good shake!!
The first disc also had a couple of other features. There were your standard cast & crew filmographies as well as production artwork.
Most of the features were found on the second disc. A number of featurettes here, with the main one being The Making of Spider-Man. It runs about 23 minutes and gives us a good overview in the setup of how the series came to fruition. The other featurettes are probably only going to be of interest for people either really into CG or into Spider-Man. Building With Layers shows how the animators layer a certain scene. There is a feature on creating the models, on the animating performance and finally on composing the score of the cartoon.
A couple of short but neat features wrap up the second disc. An outtake reel is put together that just shows some bloopers that occurred during filming (animated bloopers, of course). There is also test footage shown of what the animators first showed the execs to get their funding. I actually liked the animation in this test footage better than the one that appeared in the actual cartoon.
While this Spider-Man animated series is not the best I've seen (that distinction goes to the mid 90s version), it has plotlines that in the end will be suitable entertainment for fans of Spider-Man. The extras are plentiful and should satiate the appetites of the hardcore Spidey lovers out there.
| The Movie: |
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6.5/10 |
| The
Extras: |
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6.5/10 |
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Sean Cullin - Senior Editor
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