Look Out! 67 Spider-Man Arrives At Marvel Animation Age!

[Stu]

Hey everyone,

I have recently finished a new addition to The Marvel Animation Age a site based on the classic Spider-Man show from 1967. Inside you'll find the episode reviews, DVD grabs, avatars and one of the greatest theme tunes ever available for download! Click on the banner below to visit the site

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Hope you all enjoy it! If you've any feedback, we'd love to hear it! Check back later this week for more episode reviews and grabs, courtesy of Jon T!

Big thanks to Bird Boy for the layout and avatars!

--Stu

Coming Soon To Marvel Animation Age: The Incredible Hulk

 

[The Overlord]

Good work. You know if want know who voiced the villains all you have to do is go to Paul Sole's website: http://www.wallopinwebsnappers.com/index2.htm

Here are the voice actors I got from that site:

Doc Ock I: Vern Chapman
Dr. Smarter: Gillie Fenwick
Dr. Connors/Lizard: Gillie Fenwick
Billy Connors: Billie May Richards
Mrs. Connors: Peg Dixon
Electro: Tom Harvey
Mysterio: Chris Wiggins
Vulture: Gillie Fenwick
Dr. Smythe: Henry Ramer
Sandman: Tom Harvey
Dr. Stillwell: Tom Harvey
Scorpion: Carl Banas
Green Goblin: Len Carlson
Parafino: Len Carlson
Aunt May: Peg Dixon
Rhino: Ed Macnamara
Clivendon (Aussie Hunter guy): Chris Wiggins
Phantom: Max Ferguson
Dr. Magneto: Bernard Cowen
Charles Cameo: Claude Ray
Dr. Noah Boddy: Henry Ramer
Fakir: Paul Soles
Blackwell: Chris Wiggins
Plotter (the midget): Gillie Fenwick
Ox: Paul Soles
Cowboy: Bernard Cowen
Dr. Von Schlick: Bernard Cowen
Vulture II: Paul Soles
Doc Ock II: Tom Harvey
Blackwell II: Gillie Fenwick
Fiddler: Paul Kligman
Charles Cameo II: Carl Banas
Fly (Stan Patterson): Len Carlson
Fly (Lee Patterson): Henry Ramer

 

[adreed24]

Congratulations on the "1967 Spidey" website!

The show may not have been the most sophisticated, but it did 2 important things.

1. It entertained many kids, and later these same kids, now as adults.

2. It introduced many people to the Spider-Man character, during the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s (in syndication). I think most people saw the show, before picking up a Spidey comic book.

I know that is what happened to me. I saw the "Spidey" series in 1970 and throughout the 1970s, when I was a kid. This show, along with the "1967 Fantastic Four" show, got me interested in superhero comics and animation.

I prefer the "1967 Spidey" series' season 1. Seasons 2 and 3 are interesting because of the unique use of shadows and colors. The title card (below) of seasons 2 and 3, with the moonlit water and docks, is visually striking for a "kids' cartoon show".

Also, the theme song was very cool.

Thanks for the new site!

 

[Donald Duck 12]

Even J. Jonah Jameson would be impressed with a nifty site like that!

 

[Crossdive]

I'd say pretty good. It appears to be missing a lot of episode reviews at the moment and the design is the usual, but clearly you guys have been doing a good job and working hard, it's nice to see such devoted fans and great sites to help us when we need to find something out.

 

[Stu]

I'd say pretty good. It appears to be missing a lot of episode reviews at the moment and the design is the usual, but clearly you guys have been doing a good job and working hard, it's nice to see such devoted fans and great sites to help us when we need to find something out.

More reviews are soon to be added by Jon T. I've no idea if we'll ever get around to reviewing all the episodes, but the ones with the most relevance have been reviewed. The show was an utter mess by the time season 2 started and it became difficult to watch, never mind review or screengrab.

Glad you all seemed to like it!

 

[JabarR]

Give me an opportunity to write some reviews, and I won't let you down. I know the show from the back of my head.

 

[Jon T]

Just a heads up to let anyone and everyone know that I've finally added some more reviews to the '67 Spider-Man page to compliment Stu's comments!

Now there are additional reviews and grabs for the various moody and surreal season two and three tales from the famous animation director Ralph Bakshi.

Enjoy!

 

[Skyknight]

The same synopsis is used twice for two episodes "The Vultrues Prey", and
"The Slippery Dr Von Schlick"

The Vulture featured in this series was the Blackie Drago character who breifly took over for a few appearances, including a classic strip team up with Kraven The Hunter which I only regret was not covered in this series

 

[krankyboy]

I'm really glad that the Spider-Man 1967 series has finally received it's own page along with screengrabs from a number of episodes. I've got the entire series on DVD of course (thank you, Buena Vista), but it's still nice to have those freeze-frame stills to look at.

I think the reviews of the episodes are a bit harsh, considering the show was produced with a tiny budget for little 1960's children. Every season featured character designs or artwork consulted by Stan Lee and "Jazzy" John Romita, leading to the most accurate depictions of Peter Parker and Jonah Jameson in any cartoon (although poor Spidey didn't get any webbing on his costume due to the budgetary constraints). Even Seasons Two and Three had a few bright moments. "The Origin of Spider-Man" is actually a first rate retelling of Peter Parker's transformation into the amazing wall crawler, despite some crude animation and breaks in continuity which plagued the show in its later seasons. Much of the dialogue was actually lifted from the comic book in that episode, and it also featured some great Film Noir-ish effects (Peter's shadow thrown on an alley wall as he changes into Spider-Man, the webhead's hunt for Uncle Ben's killer in the warehouse).

Overall, I guess I have a soft spot for it. I'm sorry that Stu and Jon T seem a little less enthused, but I hope you guys will get around to a few other episodes from Season Two which had their own psychadelic, strange charm like "Spider-Man Meets Skyboy" (Skyboy's costume is a riot), "Diamond Dust" (with Peter trying to join the college baseball team and running into a bunch of gem-stealing apes, of all things), "Vine," and "Neptune's Nose Cone."

But great work overall, guys!

 

[Jon T]

Speaking for myself, I would have personally given most, if not all the first season episodes favorable reviews than Stu (sorry buddy ). Compared to contemporary super-hero shows, they're certainly no better or worse and have some charm to them.

Certainly the animation in those early episodes, while primitive, does seem to be of a higher quality than Filmation's Superman, Aquaman and Batman series. I guess Grantray-Lawrence's work on the 1966 Marvel Super Heroes cartoons wasn't a clear indication of their general level of quality! However, the nice animation of that first season clearly came at a price, since they went bust afterwards.

The Ralph Bakshi episodes that I mainly reviewed seem all the more disappointing to me considering that they came after that impressive first season. While I do appreciate some of the moody music and imagery, the animation quality is shockingly poor in those episodes, almost on a par with the Marvel Super Heroes episodes (and they were done like that so they could crank lots of them out in a short space of time). Also, either Bakshi or the writers of the show clearly didn't care much for Spider-Man's rogues gallery, and so we instead end up with hoards of lesser, and often downright bizarre original adversaries. Stan Lee and John Romita clearly had some input in the first season, but ironically (since it was animated in New York) seem to have had very little to none input in the second season.

The last thing I'd like to do is to judge a show as old as this completely by modern eyes; I like to take stock of what the show was like in its original context. The DC super-hero shows (seemingly forgotten due to a lack of snazzy theme tunes) have one over on the 1967 Spider-Man's second and third seasons by virtue of them usually using characters and concepts from the comics. If Krantz Films' consistently didn't shun the same things for Spider-Man, since there was clearly nothing from stopping them, then poor animation or not, those later episodes would simply have been better in my opinion. For instance, those Marvel Super Heroes cartoons are famed for having the most exceedingly primitive animation ever seen on TV, yet I find them very entertaining due to the quality of the stories (since they came almost word for word from the original high-quality comics of the time).

At the very least, I hope I have explained myself a little better; in any case, it's cool to see that the show has its defenders!

 

[krankyboy]

I just felt kinda sorry for the beating that the show was taking, so I wanted to stick up for it a little bit.

Truthfully, the Ralph Bakshi episodes did see a marked decline in quality from the previous first season which featured a lot of the comic book villains in simplified storylines. But as you pointed out, there were still some cool images and a few enjoyable episodes to savor, the best being "The Origin of Spider-Man," but I also got a kick out of some of the others. Maybe I'm just watching everything through the rose colored blinders of a kid who grew up with the stuff, but hey ... isn't that where our appreciation of comic book superheroes comes from?

And Jon T, if you do get around to "Diamond Dust," definitely get a screen grab or two or that silhouetted change from Peter to Spider-Man. I loved that particular scene (which came from the "Origin" episode).

 

[Skyknight]

I really did not like the review for "Origin Of Spider-Man", I beleive it did the entire story justice with only a few real errors, it was dark, haunting, if it had bene done in the first season, a lot of its' effect would have been lost, I've always defended the best examples of Ralphs' work, and this is one of them, if not one of the best origin stories ever animated for a Marvel cartoon

 

[angilbas]

The Origin of Spider-Man was powerful for me in 1968. Spidey's awareness of his involvement in Ben's death set this ep apart from any other adventure cartoon of the 1960s. Like other Bakshi eps of the time, this looked gritty in black-and-white. The animation, though limited and erratic, was not without a moment or two (my favorite is when the killer's mouth trembles as Spidey corners him).


-Tony

 

[krankyboy]

The Origin of Spider-Man was powerful for me in 1968. Spidey's awareness of his involvement in Ben's death set this ep apart from any other adventure cartoon of the 1960s. Like other Bakshi eps of the time, this looked gritty in black-and-white. The animation, though limited and erratic, was not without a moment or two (my favorite is when the killer's mouth trembles as Spidey corners him).

I agree that this is a great episode, despite whatever shortcomings the series might have had in terms of limited animation, and is probably the best representation of Spidey's origin in a cartoon.

Again, just showing the series some love.

 

[Stu]

I'd better explain this whole Origin Of Spider-Man review, hadn't I?

As you're probably aware from the site, I'm not a fan of season 2 at all. Whilst I enjoyed a lot of season one, I found that everything I enjoyed about the show was taken in season 2. I realise the budget was non-existant, but why waste money creating new original villains (and why give them green skin!) when you already had models of much more interesting villains already created? The same with the backgrounds and music, they were already fine (in the case of the music, great!) so why go to the cost of redoing them, when the budget would've clearly been better spent anywhere else?

The sheer amount of web slinging ruins any sense of pace, but they had no money to fill anything else with. The most excruciating part of the pilot is the scene in which the two guys attempt to get Peter to have a drink with them. Why is there voice overs? It lasts a minute, and absoloutly nothing is happening on screen!

As far as faithfullness to the comic goes, I did like his final battle with the burgler. I thought the image of him sobbing over the unconsious villains' body was very well done. His speech about "it was me who really killed him" was quite powerful stuff. To me though, it didn't make up for the other 20+ minutes. Ironically enough, despite my love for the 90's show (which is to me, by far the best Spider-Man cartoon), the finest animated origin episode is Along Came Spidey, from Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends. Did any of you guys ever catch that?

And since I haven't done it yet, I'd like to welcome krankyboy to the forum. It's been a pleasure reading your posts.

 

[krankyboy]

And since I haven't done it yet, I'd like to welcome krankyboy to the forum. It's been a pleasure reading your posts.

Thanks Stu!

I just hope I didn't sound like I was living up to my username in the defense of the series. I get your arguments, and I totally see where you're coming from (although I wasn't quite so bothered by the opening of the "Origin of Spider-Man" episode since it depicted how Peter was basically a loner). But I have a greater affinity for the cartoon as a whole -- possibly because I grew up with it, although I do think it has its merits. The green skinned villains were lifted from other Bakshi series, as you know, to save money -- but many of them just didn't "fit" into Spider-Man at all. Mysterio in the third season was probably the worst case of sticking a round peg into a square hole, but I did enjoy some of Spidey's freaky adventures in strange lands during the second season, such as "Vine" and "Neptune's Nose Cone."

I agree about there being far too much swinging.

Additionally, I also think the first season was the strongest overall (I thought that "Captured by J. Jonah Jameson" was a really fun episode and straight out of the comic book, albeit simplified a little). The character designs were spot on for the most part (Peter and Jonah's look were great), and we also were able to see many of the villains from the sixties. And unlike the recent MTV series -- we also got to see Peter change into Spider-Man!

Strangely enough, I heard a rumor about the original animation studio having lost a lot of its production materials and cels in a fire, and that they had to rush the first season of production (and thus also led to their bankruptcy). Is there any truth to this, or it completely false?