Spider-Man: The New Animated Series Review

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

imagination! Welcome to episode 21 of Tooncast

Beyond brought to you by the Geekcast or Radio

Network. I'm your host, Steve, Joe, and Mike,

and joining me is Sketch 1984. Hello, sir. Hey.

Today we are going to be talking about Spider

-Man, the new animated series. What an original

title. Yes. Oh, boy. So what... You know, what's

what what else is going on in your life besides

a few weeks ago? You went to or at this point

you went to About three or four weeks ago. You

went to Emerald City comic -con and you went

to another con that you got Steve blooms autograph

What else you've been doing? Just been watching

cartoons and Doing reviews for websites Alright,

so we'll be back after this It's New York nothing

beats the subway Alright, so we are going to

be setting the stage and to set the stage Spider

-Man the new animated series also known as MTV

Spider -Man is a animated series featuring the

Marvel comic book superhero Spider -Man which

ran for one season 13 episodes starting on July

11th 2003 the show was made using computer -generated

imagery CGI rendered and cell shading and was

produced by mainframe entertainment executive

producer brian michael bendis who also wrote

the ultimate spider -man comic book for sony

pictures television and broadcast on mtv abc

family and why tv initially this series was intended

to be an adaptation of the ultimate spiderman

comic book spiderman was voiced by neil patrick

harris uh... boy uh... okay so the basic gist

of the synopsis of this the cgi version of marvel's

popular superhero features The voice talents

of Neil Patrick Harris as Peter Parker, Lisa

Loeb as Mary Jane, and Steve Sanders as Harry

Osborne. Oh, I'm sorry, Ian Zering. Peter has

graduated from high school and is attending Empire

State University, although in the films he attends

Columbia University. Still burdened with the

desire to use his incredible spider bite derived

powers to do good, he finds it hard balancing

his responsibilities. of being a superhero with

schoolwork and his romance with Mary Jane Watson.

So essentially, this is Spider -Man 1 .5. You

know, because they hadn't got to 2 yet. Obviously.

2 is still a year away from being released in

theaters. What were your first impressions? Did

you see this when it aired? I did see this when

it aired. What were your first impressions when

you saw it when it aired? Yeah, no hmm. I thought

it was pretty decent when it aired it's You know

as a follow -up to the movie there were some

things that didn't quite click Right, but I kind

of enjoyed having a spider -man in the college

setting that was turning nice and I Seen to recall

even way way back, then I thought you know Spider

-Man's really well animated in this. Spider -Man,

yes. Everyone else, no. Not so much. I knew until

I watched this back over the last month or so,

I only knew that this series supposedly at the

time sucked. It was very odd to see it on MTV.

MTV has dabbled in animation before even action

drama animation with like a on flux. Yeah, but

Yeah, it's still You just can't imagine this

being on MTV No, you really can't although it

was I liked all of the the now back in the day

I had seen like a half an episode of this and

I think I had seen like footage of like Peter

not in costume it was just like a a school scene

or you know something like that and I was like

You know this series sucks Just just based on

what I saw from the animation the style of animation

that it has I hadn't even seen spider -man in

the costume knew nothing of the series as far

as what the plot was the fact that it was a semi

follow -up sequel to the 2002 film. All I knew

back then was it was Spider -Man, the new animated

series on MTV, and a lot of stuff MTV was putting

out in 2003 kind of sucked. So that's really

all I knew. So yeah, first impressions. There

you go, ladies and gentlemen. So it is now time

for the Who's Who. of Spider -Man the new animated

series and as much as I love Neil Patrick Harris

as a live -action actor as a voice actor I wish

they would have thrown a truckload of money at

Jason Priestley because you'd have Brandon and

Steve back together again I wasn't that into

90210 oh come on as soon as I heard Ian Zaring's

voice is hairy I was like hey wait a second what's

Steve Sanders doing on this show oh boy um I

don't know what it is about this Mary Jane it's

it's Lisa Loeb voicing her I have heard Lisa

Loeb's actual voice, her speaking voice, maybe

four times in my lifetime. I've heard maybe four

or five songs from her, but I never actually

knew what she spoke like. And I guess this Mary

Jane is okay. I still prefer the one from the

94 Spidey series as far as vocal voice. This

Mary Jane is not sexy. No. Not at all. Not at

all. I don't know how the hell MTV scored the

voice actors that they scored for this You know

they were MTV Well, I know but still I would

you know I kind of equate MTV at this point in

time 2003 to kind of what Fox was in 1989 Keith

Carradine as Jade Jonah Jameson Virginia Madsen

as Silver Sable, Michael Dorn as Craven the Hunter,

Ethan Embry as Electro, and of course, Michael

Clark Duncan reprising his role from Daredevil

as Kingpin. That was kind of cool. That was a

nice touch. Yes, very nice touch. And you had

Devon Sawa as Flash Thompson. Rob Zombie as the

Lizard. Don't know why that had to happen. Rob

also voiced the Lizard alter ego, Dr. Kurt Connors.

Worst voice casting ever for Kurt Connors, I

think. Yeah, only because all the other voices

for Kurt Connors were better, but I didn't think

he did a terrible job. Do you have any favorites

from the voice cast? Well obviously Michael Clarke

Duncan is the kingpin, that was great. I liked

Angela Brooks as Indy. Yeah, that was pretty

good. And, you know, Neil Patrick Harris made

a pretty good Spider -Man. Yeah, and I think

Ian Zaring made a pretty good Harry Osborn as

well because, again, they were carrying over

from the movie about how he hated Spider -Man

because Norman at this point is dead. Neil Patrick

Harris did a great job as this version of Spider

-Man. He kept kind of that sarcastic wit about

him, you know, so I did like that. I actually

think he... He did a better job as Spider -Man

in that recent video game. Something about this

one sounds a little forced, but, yeah, he had

very good timing, which is important for Spider

-Man. Yeah, yeah. Shattered Dimensions was that

video game from a couple years ago. Yeah. So

the basic, you know, as I said earlier about

the premise, You know essentially This is the

one One of the things that I besides the animation

style One of the things I don't like about this

series is the fact that it employed a device

which became a calling card For the show where

Peter Parker could apparently move so fast as

to almost instantly change into his costume at

will some of the scenes were visually creative

police interrogation room sequence from law of

the jungle is frequently said it is one of the

best with Peter shedding his clothes and suiting

up as a spider -man in a series of frozen strobe

light images as the emergency power struggles

to kick in um i don't like this i don't like

i kind of get why they used it in it it is kind

of cool but at the same time normally Most of

the time it was almost believable he could pull

it off but in mind games part two when he literally

just Changed as he walked. Yeah, that was a little

nuts What yeah, he has to take off his clothes

Yeah, I think they just didn't want to animate

him taking his clothes off Probably not. They

preferred to animate people zipping up flies.

Well, see, here's the problem that I have with

this effect of him moving so fast that he just

changes into the costume instantaneously. There

are a couple scenes of the episode with Harry's

potential girlfriend. Oh God, what's her? Not

Talon. Oh God. The black chick with the purple

sunglasses. God, what's her name? I don't remember

off the top of my head. Um, her, you know, that

scene in that episode, he, you know, drops off

a roof, you know, Peter Parker drops off the

roof and then out comes swinging Spiderman. Where

did he put his fucking clothes if he took his

clothes off? He just dropped them. Or, or are

his clothes and his suit reversible like a reversible

jacket? Know that's it. That's impossible, but

that's just a well. He said they weren't spandex

Yeah, that's that's true. I don't know No, we

frequently see him like throw something up against

a wall and shoot webs at it. Yeah, so I Guess

maybe that's what he does with his clothes Somebody's

got a notice that I mean, you know police choppers

traffic cams, you know Hey! There's some clothes

hanging off webs right there! I'll bet they're

Spider -Man's! What? Are you stupid? Why would

Spider -Man leave his clothes somewhere? Oh boy,

um... We don't even know if Spider -Man wears

people clothes! You're an idiot. Oh boy, um...

Did you have any overall thoughts from the series

that you wanted to bring up? Well, I think it

had some very good action sequences. It did,

yes. I will agree to that. The stories were a

little bland. The problem I had with the stories,

really quickly, and I'll let you go after this.

The problem I had is not so much with the stories,

but I don't know if it's the masters that Netflix

received from MTV or if this is how MTV did it

back in the day. A few of the episodes that the

next on was actually like the previous episode

and I'm like, wait, what? Netflix put them out

of order, obviously. That drove me crazy because

there are things that would happen that have...

There isn't a whole lot of continuity, but there's

just a little bit. And that got grating. So what

were you going to say? The thing about the stories

and while I appreciate that they tried to do

new things and introduce New but similar to actual

characters characters Yeah You know, I just kind

of made it feel very empty and pointless Overall

I you get some good action sequences and a little

bit of I Wouldn't even go as far as to say adequate

storytelling for romance on spider -man but yeah

it's it feels like there's a lot of missing potential

here yeah I would agree I would agree so We're

going to go over to how the show stacks up. We

have four categories. Those are actually five

categories. How does the show compare to other

shows within the same franchise? How does it

stack up against shows in the same genre? How

does it stack up against shows in its time slot

if applicable? I don't know what MTV was running

back in the day. when this was on I have no clue

if they were running an animation block or if

they were just running it randomly I don't remember

so I have nothing else to do. They basically

ran it by itself at the time they had animation

blocks before but at that time I'm pretty sure

it was just Spider -Man. And the final category

is which show from a previous decade is this

show most comparable to? For me, you know, the

choices I have for how does the show compare

to other shows in the same franchise. Obviously,

Spidey 94, Spidey Unlimited, Spectacular Spider

-Man, and the new version, Ultimate Spider -Man.

I have yet to see Ultimate Spider -Man. Oh, you

are going to hate! God. I don't like it, so you

know you're gonna hate it. Oh, God. uh... so

what it was your choice what is the small stack

up to uh... ninety -four spec or unlimited uh...

uh... uh... uh... both spectacular ninety -four

way way way better uh... i would say yes i would

i would give a little bit of the edge against

this one because it was more creative Yeah, I

would say as far as design and stuff, I know

this version is CGI and all the other ones aren't,

well, the other previous ones aren't. But I would

compare it with Unlimited simply because of the

music and stuff like that for it. That's really

for me how I would compare it to Unlimited. What

were you going to say? This and Unlimited are

about in the same tier for me as far as Spider

-Man shows go. Yeah. Now, as far as other shows

in the same genre, I have listed here a number

of shows. Iron Man 94, X -Men 92, X Evolution,

Wolverine and the X -Men, Batman the Animated

Series, Superman, and JLJLU. Honestly, this show...

For me, I enjoyed watching this more than I enjoyed

watching x -men evolution. So it's in my personal

opinion. It's better than x -men evolution But

it's not better than any of the other ones that

I have listed here. Incidentally, it's the only

other one that was animated in Canada Well, well

that was voiced in Canada. I don't know where

it was animated. No, it was animated by Roman

wasn't it? I don't remember off the top of my

head. We'll get to that when we get to the evolution

episode What about you? On this list, it's worse

than all of them except for maybe half of Iron

Man. The first half, the second half was good.

Yeah, that's basically what I mean. Alright,

so which show from a previous decade is this

show most comparable to? I put Spidey 94 but

worse. That sounds about right. There's not that

many Spider -Man cartoons when he's in college.

So there's Spidey 94 and I think Spider -Man

and his amazing friends and maybe the 80s solo

series he was in college. Yeah. I want to say...

Was he in college in the 60s series? I don't

remember. I've never seen the 60s series. I know

it's on Netflix, so I'm sure I'll watch it at

some point. Didn't you guys cover that in Tooncast?

The 60s series? No, we covered the 90s series

briefly. Okay. Yeah, I don't know. I only saw

some of the 60s series, but I want to say there

hasn't been one. since this series in which Spider

-Man was in college. Right. I think your opinion

that it's Spider -Man 94 but worse is pretty

accurate. It should have had better Spider -Man

animation though. Yeah, that's true because 94,

I mean, it was red all over with a little bit

of black and a little bit of blue because that

red bled. So we are the IGN Replacement Crew.

Zero to four. Zero is you just want to kick somebody

in the nuts for watching this. One is don't ever

watch this show at all. Two is show is worth

a watch and watch view if you come across it.

Three is you should definitely be DVRing this

show. Well, obviously you can't do that anymore

because it's not airing. And four is you need

to add this to your DVD collection as soon as

possible. I don't even get a DVD release, I don't

even know. It got a full series release and it

also got, I would say, three or four single disc

releases that made up the whole series. Because

Sony really milked this one. Yeah, they did.

So, you know, I would say it's a two or a three.

uh... simply because if you're already paying

the eight bucks a month for netflix or if you're

paying for hulu plus and i don't know if it's

on the plus i know it's on netflix it's on netflix

it's on crackle there's there's so many ways

to catch this show okay well i'm just saying

if you're If you're already paying that monthly

price for Netflix and you want to see a slightly

different take on Spider -Man, check this show

out. The reason why I say that is because what

I found really interesting in this show is the

music. Outside of the voice acting, outside of

the animation, the one thing that made me absolutely

get into this show was the techno music that

they used for the theme and for all the action

sequences. I absolutely loved it. Probably a

two I'd give it a generous two Generous two and

as as sketch said before the complete series

was released on DVD as spider -man the new animated

series special edition on January 13th 2004 Wow

Huh that old okay? And as I've just said it it

can as as sketch said it can be viewed many places

online Cuz so this was on to billion for a while,

which is ridiculous. The show is not for children

Wow Yeah back in the day Sony really wanted to

milk this spider cow So with that I think we're

gonna take a commercial break and we'll come

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one thing that we forgot to talk about was the

actual episodes yeah how long have you been doing

this? shut up and the rookie had to remind you

fuck you um i will say i like stanley guesting

as the guy in uh in in mind games oh i didn't

like that i didn't like evil stanley i thought

it was kind of cool Well, it was cool, but I

think they could have used Stan Lee better. What

are you going to do? Make him a Hugh Hefner lookalike?

I mean, come on. That would be good. What are

you going to do? Give him a poison bottle of

soda? I mean, come on. Stan Lee should have been

there to give good advice, not bad advice. Okay,

so again I ask, what are you gonna do? Have him

go to the real world and have him hang out with

Stan on the top of the roof and then he just

leaves Stan there to find his own way down from

the roof? No, that was uh... 94. That was uh...

that was... ugh. Why? You know they were totally

shipping Stan Lee and Madame Webb. Oh boy, I

did not want to know about that. Thank you very

much. Oh good lord. So what did you want to say

about the episodes? Well, you know, a lot of

these are entirely forgettable. What I remembered

off the bat from watching the show back on MTV

was I remembered Electro's storyline because

that was kind of sad. and I remembered Spider

-Man fighting Kraven once, and the lizard, I

remember the lizard one. The lizard episode is

probably the best. It had a pretty good story,

a good mystery to its good action sequences and

that rather stylish scene when Spider -Man suits

up in the police. But what's Peter gonna do to

explain why he was no longer where they left

him in the precinct yeah there was a lot of that

kind of thing going on but i like that at first

when the table flew out the window i was like

spider -man why aren't you stopping the table

that's usually what you do in these instances

you really should do that but then they made

a joke of it that nobody was hit by the table

as uh jamison was pointing out Yeah, like okay

that almost saves it but still Like yeah that

that kind of thing seems odd because it was very

inconsistent in how spider -man would save people

I Will say that heroes and villains episode 6

with turbo jet I Will say that spider -man was

actually trying to help The guy as far as you

know why you know what and again the same thing

with like the episode with Harry's girlfriend

wants her name You know I thought that was Talon

You know I thought that was cool that he was

trying to help her as well without you know You

know sending her to jail or you know beating

the ever little ever living crap out of turbojet

I thought that was kind of cool about the episodes

Honestly, this is probably a series. I will never

watch again You know, I think I can emulate those

sentiments That's why I haven't watched this

show again Well, it's not that the series is

bad. It's just okay. I've seen it and that's

like like memorable enough to care about seeing

more than once Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know,

I can go back to spidey 94 and I can watch Neogenic

nightmare the multi -parter or I can watch you

know secret wars the two -part finale You know

I can go back and watch those because I like

those episodes regardless of how badly animated

some of those are and that Yes, so weird yeah,

yeah, that's true and plus. You know Jennifer

Hale as Felicia Hardy in that series. Oh boy

anyway That's gonna do it for spider -man 2003

You got anything you want to pimp out before

we close the show? There is one thing I want

to say about spider -man 2003 it ended on a really

downer note Because I think MTV and Sony and

Paramount wanted it to come back for a second

season they and yeah They did they were actually

shopping it around for quite a while and people

were like, well, where they gonna put it? Maybe

it won't be back on MTV. There was a lot of discussion

and maybe it would come to Cartoon Network or

Nickelodeon or something. Maybe they would tone

it down. And I believe after that convoluted

process, Sony eventually remade this as the Spectacular

Spider -Man, only it's not at all similar. Yeah.

So that's the convoluted story of never getting

a second season and you know what? Spectacular

spider -man way more worth the second season

of this In my thing yeah, I feel like they probably

could have done some interesting things if they

were you know that they did more of the actual

spider -man villains they were kind of Tied down

by what Sony wanted to do with movies So they

couldn't use Doctor Octopus, they couldn't use

Venom, they couldn't use probably various other

characters that they were considering using in

movies. So it was kind of a victim of circumstance,

but they still should have been able to pull

something a bit more worthwhile out of it, in

my opinion. It's just pretty forgettable. I agree.

It's amazing how much Sony pimps this out on

their services and stuff, considering how forgettable

it is. You know, watch it if you want. Don't

watch it if you don't want. You're good either

way. Anything you want to pimp up before we close

the show? Still doing reviews and occasionally

doing podcasts with the scratch pad guys at the

real scratch pad dot wordpress dot com we just

did uh an upfront overview which i missed half

of because i had to go do something in the middle

of it still sick apparently yeah so thank you

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We hope you enjoyed this episode of Tooncast

Beyond and wish you would join us next time when

we will be continuing on in the season of superheroes

with the show that defeated everything with friendship,

The Spectacular Spider -Man. For now, I am TFG1

Mike with Sketch 1984. Thank you for listening.

Until next time. Same Spider time, same Spider

channel.