Spider-Man

Spidey on TV has always suffered from being intended for children, and blatant cases of cheesiness, and that was a part of the appeal of it. Recently however, they've come out with a new Spider formula: more mature, having characters die on screen, insanity, and dealing with a broad range of new subject matter like sex, violence, drug abuse, and murder. This show is Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (or MTV Spider-Man).

Being done in full cell shading animation, it loosely follows up on the events of the first Spider-Man movie, following Peter Parkers life as he tries to deal with college, women, life, and his responsibility of being Spider-Man. The 13 eps. series flows in a somewhat sequestered format, with each eps being cut off from the others, aside from a few exceptions (a new love interest being introduced halfway through, and the 2-part series finale), which takes away from the feel that you're watching Pete's life go on, since his actions in one eps don't necessarily reflect in any of the others. But overall it works to establish the villains which show up in every eps.

As said, there is a villain appearance in each eps, ranging from a college girl obsessed with Spider-Man, to Russian terrorists, to telepathic twins. Of course some of your old favorites make an appearance such as Kingpin, The Lizard, and Electro to name a few, though not all of them are handled appropriately. For example, Kingpin, who's basically the nexus with which all crime in New York revolves around, comes off as no more dangerous than a somewhat successful crime boss. While others, such as Electro and The Lizard, are almost epic in their presentation. Both of which will tempt a tear to be released if not making you cry openly.

The voice acting is decent, with Spidey sounding appropriate and having a good hint of silly sarcasm to his voice, but the problem is he doesn't really change it. In some serious scenes, it just doesn't sound much different than when he's taunting a villain, only in a slightly lower tone. The real shining voicework comes from the one-shot villains. Particularly from Rob Zombie as Dr. Kurt Conners and Kathy Griffin as Roxanne (a telepathic twin). Both giving amazing performances and convey their characters marvelously. Especially Kathy Griffin, who doesn't seem like she would be the type to play a psychotic killer at all, but her voice fits amazingly well. One special note I'd like to make is about Ethan Embry who plays Max Dillon/Electro. While his performance isn't really anything special in the first half of his eps, once he becomes Electro his quality skyrockets. With 2 lines being given by him that are the 2 most memorable, and emotionally stirring in the entire series:

• No one is innocent!! NO ONE!! - Spidey: I know.. what it's like!! Electro: No.. you.. don't!!

It's not the lines themselves, but the way that they are said that just rips your heart out. The second line never fails to make me close my eyes and turn away slightly at his pain no matter how many times I see it. It's just that well delivered. You need to listen to it in order to understand what I mean, words can't explain it.

Overall, this is a well made Spider-man series with a more mature twist than what we're expecting to see from a spidey series. Though not without it's flaws (reuse of 3-4 people designs as extras continuously, repetition of Spidey's catch phrase "seriously.. ow!", etc.) it's definitely a worthy addition to the Spidey franchise, and is definitely worth a look if you're at all interested in your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man.

This cartoon was awesome, especially for a show that utilizes so much computer-generated imagery skillfully combined with traditional hand-drawn animation. "Spider-Man" is everything a reader of the original Marvel Comics created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko could want - everything they could ever want - on hyper-drive. "Spider-Man" comes to us from comic book artist Brian Michael Bendis, who has received some pretty strong accolades for his work on Marvel's recent "Ultimate Spider-Man" title.

As a reader of Spider-Man comic books, the new animated series "Spider-Man" features one adrenalin-charged action sequence after the other, and then slows down to focus on the characters and their personal matters, which is what the original Spider-Man comics did to completely change the game after the character made his debut in "Amazing Fantasy #15" in 1962. And this show also features one of the best electronic soundtracks I've ever heard for a cartoon (too bad it's not for sale anywhere).

As we find in this series, which is more or less a follow-up to "Spider-Man" (2002), Peter Parker (Neil Patrick Harris) is now a promising student at Empire State University, together with gorgeous, on/off would-be girlfriend Mary Jane Watson (Lisa Loeb) and rich-boy best pal Harry Osborn (Ian Ziering). Peter divides his time between hitting the books as Everyman Peter Parker and hitting the streets as New York City's favorite wall-crawling vigilante superhero Spider-Man.

In "Spider-Man," a slew of familiar characters get brilliant, hyper-stylized makeovers, including Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin, Kraven the Hunter, The Lizard and Electro, plus some new villains including a Japanese samurai swords-woman, a trio of high-tech ex-KGB terrorists, and a Robin Hood-esquire would-be costumed crime-fighter.

And "Spider-Man" also features some pretty high-priced voice talent, including Michael Clarke Duncan (who played The Kingpin in 2003's "Daredevil"), Ethan Embry, Eve, Gina Gershon, and comedienne Kathy Griffin. This show is something that comic fans have been waiting for, since the animated series that aired in 1994 is no longer in production. This "Spider-Man" has been on hiatus for four years now; when's he coming back?!?

10/10

This new Spider-Man series was very creative and the acting voices were pretty good. I remember I didn't miss any episode. I also remember watching this series all the time before a highschool football game and was just always fixed on it. The mini series was just incredible. I wish these directors could make more. Hopefully they will. The graphice were for sure better great and of course better than the older series. I think everything in this series beat out the older version. I was really happy that they made something like this since I'm a big Spider-Man fan. This was great to look at and hopefully they will make more in the future. But for now I guess they can give it a rest since after the Spider-Man 2 release.

9.5/10

Hi all. Relatively new Spidey fan (the Straczynski run), and long time animation fan here. First off, like many, I was afraid of the idea of a Spider-Man cartoon being on MTV, for fear they might needlessly make the characters more "hip" and "cool" (see: X-Men: Evolution, and comic book Ultimate X-Men) to appeal to those darn kids nowadays. Thankfully, this show does not do that. What it does do is break most of the censoring that has held back dramatic effects in cartoons for a while now by allowing characters to bleed and die, and given Spidey a form of animation that perfectly captures him. Now, while some may be taken aback by the cel-shaded look of the show, I must say I find it works well for the effect (then again, I am one who took to Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker's graphics without a complaint - make of that what you will).

One minor complaint I have of the show, however, is needless recasting the parts of the characters with so-called more "respected actors" like Neil Patrick Harris, when the people who did the voices for the series of the early nineties and several of the video games still work perfectly. I find it just a bit of a cheap ploy to mistakenly get what the producers may see as "real talent". While i'm not complaining on NP Harris' part (he's good, but he's no Christopher Daniel Barnes), does Lisa Loeb really need to be Mary Jane? And Eve playing the Black Cat was woefully miscast, her voice and animation contrasting way too much and taking me right out of the mood the show had set. Now while Rob Zombie as the lizard I can kind of understand, it just seems like MTV is using the "Music" in it's name to cast musicians in the show gratuitously. Please, don't use famous people for cartoons when their voices will pull you out of the moment when lesser-known voice and character actors can pull you in, and keep you there.

But, that medium sized, rarely appearing quibble aside, this show has great promise. Aside from trying to have "hip" voice actors, the show doesn't bother trying to appeal to any target demographic outside of the one that just wants a great Spider-Man cartoon. And, with Brian Michael Bendis on board producing and writing, saying no is nothing easy to do. Even if it means committing a minor sin by turning on MTV, it's worth it.

I was fortunate enough to catch this new animated Spider-Man series very early in its' national MTV exposure. At first I was taken aback by the new animation - it reminds me of the Dreamcast game Jet Set Radio. Now don't get me wrong...just because I say I was taken aback doesn't mean I wasn't impressed. It's very fluid, flashy, and stylish. Spider-Man does all the things you'd expect him to do. The selection of color for the animation is rather eye-catching too. I couldn't complain. I wouldn't doubt kids and early adolescents being impressed by it.

As for the story, I only saw two back-to-back episodes, but they were rewarding for what they were. The voice acting has some big names credited and they certainly don't disappoint either. Perhaps nothing quite outstanding, but after all, the show is young and there is always room for improvement.

At first I was unaware which station this new series was being shown on. To be honest, I didn't even realize it was MTV until after the episodes were finished airing. Surprise, surprise. It's fairly obvious that the show is somewhat tailored to an MTV crowd, but don't let that be a drawback to a new, inspired reincarnation of the Spider-Man animated series.

High marks all across the board.