Easily one of the best cartoons of recent times. VA is spot on for all the characters, animation is very fluid and leads to great fights between Spidey and his rogues, episodes are all linked in some way, and has tons of throwbacks and fanservice for every past Spiderman series. It does it's job well. Discuss the most recent Spider Man incarnation. And you can't deny the awesome main theme.
For whatever reason I decided to take a look at the theme song and am impressed that they somehow managed to make Electro look less lame and still look like Electro. I mean, seriously, Electro's really hard to visually "update" without losing his trademark mask, which is horrifyingly ugly to begin with, but he's just not Electro without it. Though I have my doubts about that costume looking good in motion with the limited budget of a cartoon.
I find the visual design quite grotesque. Although pretty much every cartoon over the last 10 years has gone for the same stylization, so I guess it's unfair to complain about this one.
From what little I've seen, it looks pretty awesome in fight scenes when Peter's in the costume, but any part with un-costumed human characters just looks aaaaaargh.
I've been loving this since the first season started, it's easily my favorite super hero cartoon since Batman TAS and Batman Beyond (actually I can't think of any others that I really liked anyway). There are some areas where I have mixed feelings, and some odd design choices (Harry Osborn appears to have robot arms!) but overall I just freaking love it.
This is the best version of Spider-Man since the original Steve Ditko & Stan Lee comic book run, and certainly the most cohesive. I was cautiously optimistic at first, but the show really won me over when Mary Jane Watson was introduced and she was the classic free spirit party girl MJ, rather than the girl next door type of the movies and Ultimate Spider-Man.
They've been very faithful to the high school era of the comics, whilst folding some of the later characters and plot elements into the mix and making it all fit. There's been no fluff, no filler, no redundancies, every little plot element has consequence and every cast member has their own character arc. Who would've thought that Hammerhead and Venom could be such compelling characters?
The only part I've really disliked is the second half of the Kraven the Hunter episode, but Greg Weisman has gone on record saying that there will be some pay-off for that should season 3 get the green light.
I like the way they changed Gwen Stacy and made her the exact opposite as MJ but still really appealing. Also Tombstone ended up being more bad ass then the king ping.
I like the way they changed Gwen Stacy and made her the exact opposite as MJ but still really appealing. Also Tombstone ended up being more bad ass then the king ping.
Zeta wrote:Wasn't this just canceled due to network shuffling?
I remember reading somewhere (I think it was TV Tropes) that what was left of it (possibly a whole second season) was shunted over to that new "Disney XD" cable channel.
I know this is old hat, but getting rid of good stuff like this is another rerason why I hate 4Kids and their tyrannical takeover of broadcast Saturday morning cartoons. I mean, it's either their (mostly) garbage or Disney Lite (a.k.a. ABC) nowadays.
Yami CJMErl wrote:I know this is old hat, but getting rid of good stuff like this is another rerason why I hate 4Kids and their tyrannical takeover of broadcast Saturday morning cartoons. I mean, it's either their (mostly) garbage or Disney Lite (a.k.a. ABC) nowadays.
Hah, and here I was wondering how else those people were still in business after canning dubbing operations a while back.
Zeta wrote:Wasn't this just canceled due to network shuffling?
I remember reading somewhere (I think it was TV Tropes) that what was left of it (possibly a whole second season) was shunted over to that new "Disney XD" cable channel.
Disney XD is the current broadcaster in the US, and they'll be debuting season 2 (episodes 14-26) in June. It's still possible that a third season will be commissioned, but we won't know until the season 2 ratings come in for the US broadcast. Keep in mind that season 2 has already had successful runs in pretty much every other country on the face of the planet, but apparently that still isn't enough to justify another 13 episodes. Yet at the same time, Wolverine and the X-Men got a second 26 episode season before it even made its US debut. There is no justice.
Spectacular Spider-Man is easily the best super hero cartoon since the original Batman animated series. I also feel that it is matched only by The Venture Bros. as the best animated series currently running on television. If you let the designs turn you away from checking out this show, then you're really missing out. Besides, I haven't talked to a person yet who's actually watched the series and still finds the character designs unappealing.
My family watches it, but I can't say as I really do - don't watch much TV these days, good or not. I do give them props, though, for having the bones to put friggin' opera as the music for a lengthy fight scene.
Shadow Hog wrote:My family watches it, but I can't say as I really do - don't watch much TV these days, good or not. I do give them props, though, for having the bones to put friggin' opera as the music for a lengthy fight scene.
Yeah, I passed it up because the visual style as well, but the content I've seen in this thread has sparked my interest. Lord, that fight scene Pepperidge posted was deserving of a much larger budget than they're working with. For a western Saturday Morning cartoon, that was a sophisticated idea for a fighting sequence.
Dash wrote:Yeah, I passed it up because the visual style as well, but the content I've seen in this thread has sparked my interest. Lord, that fight scene Pepperidge posted was deserving of a much larger budget than they're working with.
Keep in mind that the version seen in that clip is not only badly encoded with a screwed up aspect ratio, it's also suffered from NTSC-PAL conversion due to being from an Australia source. The quality will be much crisper and more fluid if you catch it in on Disney XD's HD feed in a couple of months.
Speaking of which, it looks like they'll FINALLY be starting season 2 in the US on June 22 with episodes 14 and 15. Be sure to spread the word to anyone you know who might have a Nielsen box.
I'm sure that anyone who's interested has pirated it by now, but the episode with the opera fight scene (Gangland) will finally be making its US television premiere tonight on Disney XD at 9pm ET. If you only catch one episode of the series, make it this one.
