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Spider-Man - The 1967 Classic Collection (6 Volume Set)

Spider-Man - The 1967 Classic Collection (6 Volume Set)

List Price: $59.99
Your Price: $47.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: It's a blast for those who were there
Review: Not being a real rabid comic book fan (I'm more into films and shows) most of my comic book character memories come from thier TV and movie incarnations.

So my seminal Spiderman experience comes from seeing these 67-70 cartoons in generous syndication rotation on a number of local channels after school afternoon schedules.

Me and my Mego Spiderman action figure would always try to catch Spiderman the cartoon back in the day.

I haven't seen them in years and since I am always up for nostalga, this set was a must buy.

Seeing the shows on the set, I am once again charmed by them. Although I more then recognize all the limited animation and stilted dialog. Still, the show had moments of good animation and storytelling that I think rose it above normal 60's/70's Saturday morning fare.

But when Ralph Bakshi comes in, the show is redefined. The straight arrow comic book stories of the first season are replaced by tripped out Sci-fi fantasy.

The bright and colorful art of the first season is replaced by a darker psychedelic color design.

It's a given that Ralph and the boys were "experimenting". A lot of thier episodes look like the avarage acid trip.

Also, it seems that more and more technical mistakes creeped in. Oftentimes, when Spidey talks the cel overlays for his moving jaw would jump all over the place and even disapear. Effects cels like smoke coming out of a vocano would also be misaligned so it's not acutally coming out of the top of the vocano.

A few times I would even see cels with paint scartched off of them. It's pretty funny to see all this and I can just imagine the parties that the animators must of had the night before they did some of this animation.

As many have said before, entire animation sequences were recycled for later episodes (with little changes). It particularly funny to have elements that were in the previous episode that they lifting animation from appear in the new episode where they don't belong.

If Bakshi's stuff was sometimes technically flawed, one still has to appreciate the unique approach to Spiderman in terms of the abstract look to the backgrounds, music and overall design.

But the edge for enjoyability for me goes to the more conventional comic book approach of season 1. But Bakshi's stuff is definataly worthy in it's own way.

The DVD set is fantastic. Most of the shows are restored to razor sharp quality and blazing colors. There are a few shows though that look fuzzy compared to the rest (though the color is still great). My guess is that while I'm sure the show was shot 35mm (and 35mm elements were used for most of the show's transfers)that these few shows could only be turned up in 16mm.

Depending on the needs of a local station, they would send out either 16 or 35 mm prints for film chain broadcast. Perhaps there were no 35mm prints to be found for the episodes with inferior quality.

But this is not a problem for me. With these shows (all Bakshi's) the transfer just emulates the way most of us would watch the show back in the day.

In fact it's better as sometimes the color would be wacky on these afternoon broadcasts in addition to the soft quality of old fashioned TV broadcast.

My message is enjoy it when the transfer looks better then you've ever seen the show before but also enjoy it when the elements available make for less than an optinum transfer more in keeping with how we used to see it was kids.

One episode has the "next week" preview, which was pretty much the same for every episode except for the voiceover and that same episode has a little in between commercials clip of spiderman climbing down a web.

The set makes for great viewing, so if you are wondering if you should get it, maybe you ought to.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What... were... they... thinking?
Review: Take away the catchy tune, and all you have as an insult to the classic character known as Spider-man. Let's ignore the bad animation, despite the fact that other cartoons from the past had much better animation than this. Animation that vomits on the beautiful arwork of Spider-man artists Steve Ditko and John Romita Sr. At least the other Marvel cartoons at the time made their artwork like like the artist's. Let's just focus on the stories, if that's what you called them. Stan Lee's stories focused on Peter Parker dealing with the difficulties of being Spider-man, and his relations trying to live a normal life while also doing his best to battle evil under the identity of Spider-man. However, the series itself doesn't go near touching his normal life. We don't see Peter dealing with the problems in his life that made us sympathize with him in the first place. He is nothing but a one-dimensional "I need to save the day" character, and even when the enevitable "origin" episode is done, it is quite lacking in the story. But even aside from zero character development, the stories are possibly the stupidest I have ever seen in my life. Take the Green Goblin as an example. Originally, he is a criminal mastermind, his goal to control the criminal underworld empire, and make a name for himself by destroying the Spider-man as an example of his power. This gave way for an interesting and compelling villain. In this, however, he is nothing but a petty crook, determined to use his skills to rob jewelry stores. What a waste. And even when you take away the poor characterization of the regular villains, the other opponents are also an insult. The cliche mad scientist is bad enough, but Spider-man vs. evil aliens from another planet?! Ugh. Do yourself a favor, and instead check out the DVDs with the 1994 and 2003 cartoons, and leave this travesty in the dust, where it belongs.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Ever
Review: The 1967 Spider-Man cartoon is still the best one ever done. It has nice clean animation (modern animation is hideous and obnoxious), good stories, no long soap-opera filler, and is true to the comic book character. Another reviewer said the music is underrated and I agree with that, it's terrific. The restoration process was excellent, everything is bright and colorful.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Bad animation but a great series with good stories
Review: The animation is ancient, laughable, almost impossible to look at at times. But you know what? It was still good ol' Spidey, the way you knew him. The stories were good classic stories without all the junk that was written in the 1990's. I highly recommend this as it shows the roots of a classic superhero cartoon and the stories which made him timeless.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: QUALITY ISSUES
Review: THE BOX SET IS WONDERFUL, BUT DOES ANYONE ELSE NOTICE A PROBLEM WITH THE QUALITY OF THE EPISODES? WHEN I WATCH MY COPIES, THE PICTURE IS JUMPY AND UNSTABLE AT TIMES, ALMOST LIKE A VHS TAPE WHEN THE TRACKING IS NOT PROPERLY ADJUSTED. I HAVE ALSO NOTICED THAT AT TIME THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE PICTURE SEEMS TO LIGHTEN AND DARKEN, FADING IN AND OUT. I HAVE VIEWED THESE DVDS ON OTHER PEOPLE'S PLAYERS AND T.V.'S AND HAVE NOTICED THE SAME THING! I KNOW IT'S NOT A PROBLEM WITH THE HARDWARE, IT MUST BE THE DVDS. HAS ANYONE ELSE HAD ANY PROBLEMS?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: How can I explain?
Review: The real pleasure one gets from watching this or any other vintage cartoon is that the people who made them probably had more life experience than the worshipful geeks who base their more polished recent TV offerings on the TV shows they watched as kids. Sure, it can be 'aliens from outer-space' silly sometimes, but no more silly than radioactive spiders.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Scratched Discs
Review: The show is good, but the packaging of the discs leave the discs scratched. I ordered this item and 4 out of 6 discs were scratched. I returned and received another through amazon and 3 out of 6 discs were scratched. This is not amazon's fault, this is the manufactures poor quality of how the disc rests in it's case. Where the disc lays there is a small pimple bubble when creating the disc rest so when via shipment the disc slides on it and scratches. I bought this dvd again at Costco and the same issue, 4 out of 6 discs were scratched.
The show is great for a collection though, unfortunately the manufacturer produced poor quality packaging.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wow What Collection of 67 Spiderman thank.
Review: This is the real deal Thanks Disney for restoring these great spidey cartoons , i really enjoy this collection thanks much for memories. i hope that you guys release a 2nd collection as good this first collection.

Once Again Thanks A Spidey Fan.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great stuff if you don't take it too seriously
Review: This sixties cartoon should be fondly remembered by most late-30s or 40-something Spiderman fans. It certainly can be a target for criticism if you're going to hold it up against Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and John Romita's work in the comic mags, but I think it's silly and unproductive to do so. Very few animated shows have ever lived up to the potential of a good comic book because they don't generally have the running time or the budget to do so... and anyway they're aimed at a younger audience. We're not talking about the Batman and Spiderman cartoons of today, which play on Cable stations and certainly are aimed at late teens and adults. Batman Beyond or The New Adventures of Spiderman are more deserving of comparison by virtue of their intended audience. This cartoon, however, was definitely for kids. College students would have known damn well back then not to look for the depth of Stan Lee's writing in this series after viewing the first episode. Therefore, taken at face value, it's great entertainment for young kids, and the simple motives of it's villians and cowboy mentality of the hero are fine for what it's attempting to be: simple saturday morning entertainment. I watched it in reruns as a kid in the early seventies, and found it to be great stuff. If you want high art, look elsewhere... but to recapture a bit of your youth and share it with your kids, buy this with no worries.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Classic!
Review: When I was a child, there was no major Spider-Man movie starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. In fact, Kirsten Dunst was barely old enough to talk. Thus, with no Hollywood motion picture, there was not the abundance of Spider-man products that there is today. The only thing I had was a few old action figures I bought at a flea market, a collection of comics, and a VHS tape of Spider-man cartoons from the 1960s. SO, this particular collection of cartoons has a special nostalgic appeal to me.

The cartoons in this DVD collection are from the 1967 series, and they're very "60s," indeed! The colors are brilliantly vibrant and incredibly psychedelic. The clothes the characters are drawn wearing are very "Leve-It-To-Beaver"esque, the dialogue is laughably dated, and the animation is very basic and bare-boned. (Many of the shots of Spidey swinging through the city are constantly reused throughout the series). Thus, these cartoons would be boring to many young kids looking for fast-paced action with good animation graphics. However, for children who enjoy observing the evolution of the Spider-man phenomenon and older fans who like "old-school" Spidey stuff, this DVD set is quite the treasure chest! The cartoons are wholesome and they have all the classic villians, including Doc Ock, The Green Goblin, Electro, and Mysterio. Fans of Mary Jane, however, will be disappointed to learn that she's left out of this series. I guess she just wasn't ready for animation prime-time back in 1967.


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