Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (Special Edition)

Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (2003), which aired on MTV nearly four years ago, was a fun, witty, and well-written animated series. Visually, the show sets itself apart from not only all previous incarnations of Spider-Man's animated adventures, but also other animated series made for television as well. The computer animation on the show purposefully looks 2-D, a computer generated effect called cel-shading in computer generated imagery (CGI), created a moving comic book panel feel to the show. This really gives the show an interesting and unique look. Set non-canonically after the first Spider-Man movie, we see Peter, Mary-Jane Watson and Harry Osborn in college, attending Empire State University. Peter, of course works as a freelance photographer at The Daily Bugle. In addition to his obligations at the Bugle, he also shoot videos of city news events for Empire One, a spoof of the real world, New York One (NY1), a local New York cable news channel (to my knowledge, not being a native of the state of New York). Harry, not taking his father's death so well, yet not written as psychologically unstable as he is in the movies. As a self-professed "trust fund baby," he is independently wealthy, inheriting his father's succesful and productive company, to which he owns a controlling interest in. A big flirt, hiding a bitter and angry young man inside who harbors an intense hatred for Spider-Man. Mary Jane, the strong willed and girly love of Peter's life. She is aggressive in her amorous intentions towards and for Peter, confiding in Harry about some of her love/lack of love issues with Peter.The action in the series is nicely choreographed. Flexible and malleable, Spider-Man moves with a grace, swiftness and uncanny agility, much like what he exhibits in the comics. One of my favorite sequences in the episode titled "Head Over Heels," shows Spider-Man routinely moving from one crime in progress to another, stoping each crime, saving people, then pausing to non-chalantely write his thoughts on a small note pad. Half the time he is barely looking at the people he is fighting or saving. A puzzled and perhaps curious man, after being saved, slowly tries to catch a glimpse at what Spider-Man is writing down on his note pad. Before the man gets close enough to read it, Spider-Man, seemingly without noticing the gentleman, quickly leaps up and away off camera. Dispite its light-hearted moments the series contains many more dark ones. Dealing with obesession, greed, honor, and lonliness, this series was no doubt in my mind, written for mid-teens and up.Why is Spider-Man: The New Animated Series worth watching you ask? Besides the aforementioned reasons, I'd like to add to the list of praise for this series - great voice acting.The voice acting for one is superb. Neil Patrick Harris's voice fit the character of Peter Parker perfectly, nerdy and insecure. While when Spider-Man, confident and witty. The ability of the animators to express such a wide range of emotions utilizing a finite facial palette and body language via motion capture was masterful. What makes this series so good and makes it worth watching is the subtle nuances of the character's voice talent, facial expressions and body language. Some notable actors and music artists lent their voices to the animated project. Michael Dorn, Michael Clarke Duncan, Rob Zombie, Eve, Jeffrey Combs and Mr. Excelsior! himself, Stan "The Man" Lee.Mainframe Entertainment, the company that brought us the first ever computer animated TV show, Reboot was responsible for the computer animation and effects series. Ironically, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series was already in early production before work on the 1st movie was realized, contrary to popular belief. The commentary on the DVD notes that much of reason and inspiration for the show's conception was due to the success of the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book written by Brian Michael Bendis and penciled by one of my favorite artists, Mark Bagley. Speaking of the commentaries section, they can be a bit dry at times, but are very educational as far as how truly in-depth and multi-layered the creation and production process was for an animated series of this caliber. Many behind-the-scenes elements mirror live action movie productions. Due to budget and time constraints, watching the series, you will notice many of the same characters walking around town doing different things and envolved with different events around the city. Not that that is completely unrealistic, especially when the story and events revolve primarily around the Empire State University campus. Another anomaly about the show is the fact that the order in which the episodes aired on MTV differs from the order in which they are presented on the DVDs. For example, the "original" and first episode that aired, ends up being episode 8 on the DVD.Unfortunately, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series lasted for but 1 season of 13 episodes available in this complete two-disc set. For some reason, this DVD is not available through conventional retail channels. Having tried several different brick and mortar retailers with no success, it appears this is only available online. This show was definitely a sleeper, existing under the radar of many Spider-Man fans that I know. So wake up and buy it today if you are so inclined.

I remember watching this as a kiddo and I just can't explain the atmosphere in this show. I love the animation of the show. I liked how it showed things you wouldn't normally see in a Spider-Man show (blood, death, cursing) it wasn't watered down. I liked how this show balanced out Spider-Man and Peter Parker, it wasn't too focused on one or the other. The episodes were unique not your typical evil robots or overuse of villains. I miss this show and I just watched it! I really wish it had more episodes but it's one of those things where it's not too long but not too short. It had an ending that was acceptable but I just wish there was a bit more. Loved going on a nostalgia trip with this Spider-Man

Its my favorite spider man multimedia item. This series is from MTV, with the style of lot of action, romanticism and drama. Its the best spider man series ever created.

I remember watching the 90's cartoon animated Spider-man series and when I saw that a new CG Spider-man series was coming out on DVD, I was jumping with joy! I immediately ordered it and I must say that it is an awesome Spider-man series. This DVD is for the first season of the MTV show. The CG graphics make the show seem like a 3-D cartoon, as opposed to a more realistic-looking world like Beast Wars or Reboot. The characters all sound like you would think. I myself never saw this show on MTV but it sounds like it takes place after the Spider-man movie since Harry blames Spider-man for his father's (The Green Goblin's) death. The shows are very intense and keep you on the edge of your seat. The fights are really cool and don't look dorky like some other CG fights. The movement is very fluid in this show. My favorite fight has Spider-man going against a green-clad female hunter. They rebound off of lamp posts and by the end of the fight, Spider-man is actually cut and bleeding pretty bad. The cool thing about this hunter is that she can block bullets with her sword, even if 3 guns are being fired at her. Some of the episodes do have some blood in it and some scenes may not be appropiate for children. In one scene, a person's head gets cut-off (but you don't see it) and later on, a girl walks into the room and sees it (but you only see her expression and the head, not the body). Because of this, some scenes may be inappropiate for young children. Still, the majority of the episodes don't have any blood or anything like that scene in them. I would definitely recommend this DVD to any Spidey fan. Even the music is awesome. This series, IMO, is just as good as the 90's cartoon series. So go and get this great DVD. And hopefully, the 90's cartoon series seasons will come out on DVD soon.

Good for the spidey fan.

Me gustó mucho esta edición, la cual es la serie completa (13 capítulos).¿A quién se la recomiendo? Si eres fan o viste esta serie en su momento y hoy en día te da curiosidad echarle un vistazo, te recomiendo adquirirla cuando este a un precio accesible, me gustó más de lo que la recordaba pero no siento que valga la pena por un costo mayor de 15 dólares.Si solo sientes curiosidad de verla, se encuentra disponible en uno que otro sistema de streaming y en español (si es que ese es un problema, para mi no, este DVD venía completamente en ingles y estoy bien con ello).

Very fast shipping and a great deal

Thank you for having this underrated gem I'm only taking a star off because there was a rip on the plastic sheet on the spine of the case.

one the best spider man cartoons other than the 90s one. but this one is literally a more mature take on spider man.