Rating: 
Summary: Well, more like 2 and half stars.
Review: I wonder if the series producer John Semper reads these reviews. If so, he might remember me from GEnie, where I was a well-intentioned, fairly good-natured critic of the series. What I remember from those long-ago days is that his heart always seemed to be in the right place. And there are some good things about the series. Spidey is basically Spidey. The soap opera elements are important to the character. The voice acting of Spidey and Jameson (Ed Asner!) is good. But the whole thing seems a bit laboured -- a bit mechanical. Much like the somewhat jerky animation which jumps between computer and traditional-looking far too often. Also, Spidey's always has been a chatterbox, but it seemed to me that he talks just a bit too much to work outside of the comics page. (Mind you, I'd like to see the movie Spidey be a bit more chatty.)
As for the individual episodes, I don't think they are the best of the series. But we do get to see a lot of classic bad guys -- always a good thing. Two episodes are somewhat based on the classic "The Kid Who Collected Spider-Man" story. That basic, warm story is not improved when the whole Doc Ock, Octobot, amnesia plot is graphed onto it. A half hour of Spider-Man visiting the girl in the hospital would have been more enjoyable, and the Doc Ock stuff dilutes that. There's also The Origin of Spiderman (sic) episode from the 1960s series. Ah, now talk about limited animation. And stock footage. But I love those funky Ralph Baskhi-directed backgrounds. And it's a pretty good adaptation of the comic origin. And hey, I loved it as a kid. Nostalgia produces a kind of blindness. The special features were pretty good. The gallery of villains was a nice round-up. I was particularly amused by Stan Lee comments on the bad guys who he didn't co-create and didn't really know. Oh, and I'm really glad that Carnage and Venom weren't the bad guys on this DVD. Young whippersnapper upstarts! Next year, I could see a special crossover DVD featuring the Daredevil and X-Men episodes to promote their new movies. Allen
Rating: 
Summary: A tiny bit of the FOX series
Review: I'll admit when I bought this I was thinking they made a new Spider-Man cartoon. It's really just a little peace of the Fox series I grew up with, which is all fine and good, but the title and everything is more than a bit misleading. I would have ejoyed it far more if they had had the whole "Sins Of The Father" arc on this tape becuse the title does'nt even mean anything if you have'nt seen the start of the story:). The episode with the ill girl was very sad at the ending though. Personally I think the whole FOX series should be put out in normal volumes and *in order*. The '60s series holds no memories for me since I was born in the 80's, so I really can't say how it would do if they started bringing it out again. I did'nt think the animation was *that* bad, given it's age, and it's nice to see what started it all.
Rating: 
Summary: A review
Review: In 1995 when the new Spidey TV series was launched, producer
John Semper said in an interview with a popular comics magazine
that the 1967-1970 Spidey TV cartoon was badly done and that
the early 1980s cartoon was rubbish. For the producer of the 1990s series to take such digs at
his predecessors just invites the same harsh criticism of
his Spider-Man. I concur with all of the prior negative
comments about it. It looks and sounds like any superhero
cartoon of the 1990s, characterless and computerised, full
of soap opera and very little fantasy, and what's with the freaking ray guns being used by police and villains alike? Is Spidey a futuristic or contemporary hero? I always understood that Spidey's adventures, however fantastic, are supposed to be present-day. They may have used the voices of actors like Efram Zembalist,
Roscoe Lee Browne, Martin Landau, Joseph Campanella, Mark
Hamill, and Ed Asner to give life to the characters, but the
look of the series and the overabundance of computer generated
backgrounds and gratuitious action sequences with dull incidental music denies it any real flair or individuality. There's more
audio-visual sophistication in a minute of the 1960s episode than in the 4 1990s ones combined. Gray Morrow's backgrounds bring New York City to abstract life while the techies of the 1990s only succeed in making New York look like a Nintendo game. Also, this DVD is not without its flaws. There's aliasing around many of the lines both on characters and on backgrounds, and the 1960s episode could have done with some digital clean-up. I saw a shadowy "Place Commercial Here" at a break halfway through the
episode plus a lot of film grain. Let's see more of the 1960s Spider-Man with a proper DVD release.
Now's the time for it with Spidey flying high at the movies.
Rating: 
Summary: Action, Adventure, Humor, and A Heartwarming Story!
Review: In Spider-Man: The Ultimate Villain Showdown, a wonderful set of episodes gathered together, you get everything. After a showdown with Doctor Octopus, Spider-Man leaves damage done to a medical facility, putting him in deep. He thinks of throwing in the towel, but with the advice of Madame Webb and the faith of one little girl, Spider-Man is soon back to slinging webs. Just in time to deal with the arrival of the Green Goblin. Also contains Spidey's origin, and several appearances from Spider-Man creator, Stan Lee, in addition to information and clips of some of the best Spider-Man villains, this is one DVD any Spider-Fan will die to have.
Rating:
Summary: ORIGINAL 1960's CARTOONS
Review: Looks like this DVD is a collection of the 1960's Spider-man cartoons.Includes the origin episode and shows with the Green Goblin and Doc Ock.Not the best animation but worth it just just to hear the classic song - Spider-man Spider-man does whatever a spider can...
Rating:
Summary: Spidey is back in full sling!
Review: Morbid curiosity - that was the sole reason I considered picking up this DVD especially after reading that the Mouse House had did a cut and paste job to what is easily one of my favorite cartoons of all time. When I found it released early I couldn't pass it up. Let me say one thing - I was wrong. The chapter sheet features the cover art for the front and back of the DVD and the disk is just a picture of the Spider-Man face reflecting back the Green Goblin. When I put the disk in I found something else to be amazing - no forced trailers, something Buena Vista home video is notorious for. The menu opens with a bunch of screen caps of villains flashing onto the screen and eventually leads into the city with a still Spidey in mid crawl on the side of a building. Starting the movie will lead you to the long opening theme for the Spidey toon and only has one change - an added "The Ultimate Villain Showdown" label under the Spidey logo. By now you probably want to know what is on the disk - the episodes go in order - "Make a Wish", "Attack of the Octto Bot", "Enter the Green Goblin", and "Rocket Racer". This is also known as Chapter 2,3,4 and 5 in the Sins of the Fathers story arc. The transfer was very well done but a little slow at times - altho this is more than likely the animation and not the transfer. The episodes still contain the original title cards and at the end of the first three episodes flow directly into the next episode, avoiding the end credits until the end of the movie. The special features include the 1967 Origin of Spider-Man toon with an intro by Stan "The Man" Lee. There is also a Stan's Soapbox feature which is about 20 mins long and features Stan talking about the creation of Spidey and some other details of the Marvel U. As a fan boy I found this feature very enjoyable and even got a couple of chuckles out of Stan. There is also another feature that allows you to watch commentary by Stan before each episode - once again, great stuff. Another feature is a Villains Gallery that allows you to select either Venom, Doc Ock, the Hobgoblin or the Green Goblin and get a complete bio of the character. Each villain has at least two clips that show some aspect of the character as well as Stan's thoughts about the character. The final feature was a sneak peek section - featuring Spy Kids 2, Snow Dogs, Digimon and a couple others that I can't remember right at the moment. Conclusion - Overall I think the disk is really worth the pick up and was very happy that Disney hadn't pasted together a new movie and followed a story arc from the series. While the DVD had a lot of features I wish there had been an easter egg with Sins of the Fathers Chapter 1 but overall this DVD comes with a lot more extra features than the X-Men DVD's that were released by Universal. Hopefully sales will be good on this disk and we'll see Disney release season sets. An added note to Disney - make Origin of the Silver Surfer your next attempt.
Rating:
Summary: The "Ultimate" showdown? Nope.
Review: No one expected much from this disc. With the big box-office take of Spider-Man (2002), it was inevitable that they'd compile some episodes on DVD as a quick cash-in. The fact that Buena-Vista didn't attempt to explain just what an "ultimate villain showdown" included made everyone even more skeptical. Fortunately, Buena-Vista has done an excellent job with this DVD, at least with respects to the presentation. Menus are colorful, with animated transitions and the theme music from the 90's series. There are also a lot of extras that feature new interviews by Stan Lee himself. While I don't know how much of this information is new to die-hard Spider-Man fans, it's always nice hearing the original creator do a retrospective, and I'm glad Buena Vista took the time to consult with him. However, the main feature of the DVD, the 4 episodes from the 90's series, are below par. Now I actually enjoyed the 90's version, theme song, story arcs, and all. Upon repeated viewing, it *does* become painfully obvious that chunks of the animation were recycled or badly animated, but overall the series seemed to capture the essense of Spider-Man's history like the Batman animated series did. To Buena-Vista's credit, the four episodes are in order, even if they are from the middle of the series. But WHY, oh WHY did they have to be these four episodes?? I can understand the Green Goblin episode, as it ties into the movie, and another episode deals with Spider-Man's origin. But the second part of the Dr. Octopus story is embarassing (tired plot of little child who nobody believes in saving superhero) and the last story piles on the morals in a disgustingly thick way without even offering a cool villain! What happened to all those wonderful villains listed in the extras section of the DVD? Also included is the pilot episode of the old Spider-Man series. I never watched enough of these old episodes to become a fan, but it was enjoyable, especially with the classic theme song. My only complaint is the time spent web-slinging, which seems to go on forever. If you like Spider-Man, it's worth picking up. However, most of the main feature isn't very exciting, so although there are good extras included, I can't give this disc another star. Hopefully Buena Vista's next collection will do better, or maybe even be a season set.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad
Review: Ok, so it's a topical 'buy' right now, but if you've ever been a fan of the series, you'll probably appreciate this DVD. The quality is not too bad (not great either), but it does have a few neat features. Aside from the main story and that very-dated first episode of 1967, you'll also get bonus material of a select villain 'bios' (each with an accompanying interview with Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee). While Lee didn't create all of these bad-guys, the main ones are covered and their 1st introduction to our lives is chronicled in the volume/number classification (with date). The 1st episode is very dated (as I said) but could be because we're a much more sophisticated audience now. However, the perspectives are pretty amateur (surprising) as are the clearly recycled panels that are constantly being re-introduced. The editing between interview (of creator Lee) and flashes of animation are abysmal too (alas). However, as an inexpensive addition to your library, this really isn't too bad a buy.
Rating:
Summary: The 1990's show is over-rated.
Review: Regreatfully the 1990's Spider-Man animated show had pretty below average animation, the characters looked more like dolls with moving mouths and limited body movement. Off times they would just use footage from other episodes of the show not bother with new animation, the voice acting was pretty bad, and the last two seasons were very poorly written. Much like the X-Men animated show was at the time also. These shows made me quit watching animation superhero programs for good and I went back to the good old comedy cartoons from Warner Brothers, starring Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes Gang.
Rating:
Summary: Rented this out of ignorance.
Review: Silly me. I assumed this contained selected episodes from the classic old 1967-70 cartoon series. I was disappointed to learn that it was instead a 1990's incarnation. I'm 28 years-old and was stuck with the universally-reviled "Spiderman and his Amazing Friends" to watch as a kid. Myself and many other spidey fans much prefer the older series. I never watched the 90's series at all. From what I watched of the dvd, it was adequate. But I'm puzzled as to why no re-release of the classic production.
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