I think the whole series had some great ideas, but was let down by several things that bothered me.
1. No guns, LASERS! WHY!?! As a kid watching this, even then I felt patronised.
2. The animation gradually got worse, I don't know why. Compare the fluid superb animation of the first Lizard story, to something like the MJ Hydro Clone or Carnage saga.
3. The Green Goblin came AFTER the Hobgoblin? I know its an adaptation but come on!
4. It helped get that awful Spidey Unlimited toon on TV.
However, when it was around I absolutely loved it. The stories were great (for kids) and they werent just rehashes of the comics.
I think my favourite storyline had to be the first Venom, the one where Spidey sends the symbiote into space. The first Scorpion and Lizard sagas came close. The Morbius saga was also well done.
The Goblin IMO was awful in the cartoon. I hated him. Comics? great! Cartoon? baaaad. I did like the one where Harry went loopy though.
I also like how they explained the cartoon universe was a seperate reality running next to the comics and OUR world in that episode with six Spideys. There was one based on the comics Peter Parker (Ben Reilly and Spider Carnage), one where he was like Bruce Wayne a millionaire, a couple of other random ones and an ACTOR who played Spiderman from THIS world where he's a fantasy character - at the end he meets Stan Lee, pretty cool.
Originally posted by Red Superfly
I think the whole series had some great ideas, but was let down by several things that bothered me.1. No guns, LASERS! WHY!?! As a kid watching this, even then I felt patronised.
2. The animation gradually got worse, I don't know why. Compare the fluid superb animation of the first Lizard story, to something like the MJ Hydro Clone or Carnage saga.
3. The Green Goblin came AFTER the Hobgoblin? I know its an adaptation but come on!
4. It helped get that awful Spidey Unlimited toon on TV.
However, when it was around I absolutely loved it. The stories were great (for kids) and they werent just rehashes of the comics.
I think my favourite storyline had to be the first Venom, the one where Spidey sends the symbiote into space. The first Scorpion and Lizard sagas came close. The Morbius saga was also well done.
The Goblin IMO was awful in the cartoon. I hated him. Comics? great! Cartoon? baaaad. I did like the one where Harry went loopy though.
I also like how they explained the cartoon universe was a seperate reality running next to the comics and OUR world in that episode with six Spideys. There was one based on the comics Peter Parker (Ben Reilly and Spider Carnage), one where he was like Bruce Wayne a millionaire, a couple of other random ones and an ACTOR who played Spiderman from THIS world where he's a fantasy character - at the end he meets Stan Lee, pretty cool.
Yeah I thought the whole lasers thing was pretty stupid also.
I also noticed the animation got worse.I think its because Stan Lee was involved in some of the animation in the first year and thats why after he left the first season,both the storys and animation got worse.
The Green Goblin coming after hobgoblin I think was a reasonable change though and did not mind that.I also loved the first venom story in the first season.I disagree though that the goblin was done bad in the cartoon,he was awesome,now the goblin from the movie was an inexcusable and stupid looking villian.
This cartoon had potential and I would say the first season holds up as the best incarnation of spidey since it to date is the most loyal adaptation we have had so far,but it began to suck after the first season having spidey main foes become 2nd rate lackeys working for the kingpin with most the storys revolving around the kingpin,that ruined the series.Plus no betty brant or Gwen stacy which was inexcusabel.
The whole madame web thing was redicules.
having him grow 8 arms because of getting bit by the spider was pretty stupid.
the bright side was the black cat,she made the show worth sitting through.
The storylines were incredible. The neo genetic thing was great. The sins of the father was good. I loved the Final Episodes with Spider-Carnage and such... the 6 spidermans.
I thought the Carnage stuff was good, but they could have made it more like Maximum Carage. Those 14 comics were amazing.
The Characters, I thought, always looked good. It was a shame that they changed the actual story's as much as they did. I know, they had to. Staying 100% true to stories is tough (look at the Lord of the Rings movies compared to the books.)
Little things should not have changed as much as they did, though. Why did Doc. Conners take the symbiote off of Parker, and not Reid Richards with a little help from Johnny? Things like that...
But, I loved it. I miss it. I wish I could find the series on DVD.
hey, pssst...u can still d/l episodes off Kazaa or kazaa lite and other P2P sharing software...=P
ehhehee...I have actually EVERY episode on VHS...cuz they kept showing reruns for so long and i decided to make a collection.
I still wonder where MJ is however...that kinda left me hanging. And Felicia never found out who Spidey was! So close!
the animation wasn't bad at all...except when they started to rehash a lot of the old digital 3-D footage (as well as old footage in general). If you thought XMen the cartoon's animation was good, then I think Spider-Man was pretty much along the same line...
The first Green Goblin episode, Turning Point, the first Lizard episode, as well as the first Black Cat were just some of the memorable ones, where the art was crisp and clean. They really drew Spidey's agility superbly--if you ever put it on slo mo, u can see all the wonderful flips and twists the artists carefully crafted.
The best wa probably the last ever episode, it so amazing the story line was great. the reason why there wasn't a gwen stacy was cuz they didn't want to develop a charecter that was eventually killed off, if you noticed felicia (cat) took over the role of ESU student/ good girl that gwen was. Hope that helped 😉
I loved the 90's cartoon. It's still on on Saturday mornings on ABC Family. That show was amazing. I also loved the old X-Men comics and whoever was dissing these cartoons deserves a swift kick to the teeth. Those shows are classics. I think they need to put both these series on DVD. I know I'd buy them.
Yup, I liked Marvel when it comes to animation.
PunkyHermy, I know you love Batman and so do I. I loved Batman and the Animated Series (cuz the stories kicked ass!) but the first time I saw the animation, I was deterred....Batman's angular jaw, people with distorted faces, exaggerated features, everything angular. Then I got used to it and actually liked it in some eps (ie, Clayface pt. 2). And then it all came back with the new animation with Tim Drake as Robin. Did you ever see Bane?? Those were the nastiest shoulders I've ever seen. Catwoman became just a shadow with white slits. Partly in the back of my mind I was thinking they were just saving on animation costs--hence, simplifying the lines and just make it all angular. Of course, they called it "a different style...." This trend continued with Superman and now the Justice League. Still awesome stories nonetheless!
The thing about the Marvel cartoons was that the characters were relatively proportional to the way they looked in comics (at one point in time at least) and in real-life and that is what made them more acceptable. I would say Spidey the Animated Series looked like something John Romita drew--correct me if I'm wrong.