Spider-Man: The Animated Series "Night Of The Lizard" Review

 

Marvel fans i've taken a look at many Marvel movies in the past and I will be looking at more in the future however the one thing that i've very rarely done is look at the companies previous animated projects. Which is a shame because alot of those shows especially the ones in the nineties served as my introduction to those characters with all that in mind here is my review of the very first episode of the 1994 Spider-Man animated series "Night Of The Lizard" enjoy comic book and animation fans and everyone inbetween.

The plot of the episode is there's a new creature in New York and Peter Parker and Eddie Brock are both tasked with getting pictures with the winner receiving a prize meanwhile Spider-Man has to find out who the creature is before it's to late. Plot wise I felt that the episode was pretty good with the story moving along at a nice pace but the story wasn't the series best in my opinion but it did a good job f setting up most of the main cast of characters.

Starring in the episode is Christopher Daniel Barnes as Peter Parker / Spider-Man and Edward Asner as J. Jonah Jameson. Also starring in the episode is , Linda Gary as Aunt May Parker , Rodney Saulsberry as Joseph Robertson , Liz Georges as Debra Whitman , Hank Azaria as Eddie Brock and Bud , Joseph Campanella as Curt Connors / Lizard , Giselle Loren as Margaret Connors , Toby Scott Ganger as Billy Connors and Ken Chandler as Sam.

As for what I thought about the acting in the episode it honestly wasn't that bad but at the same time I feel that it could have been alot better. While the acting was indeed good and was very passable for the episode that's all it was and that to me isn't a good thing since you should always be trying to put in a solid performance that could rival better shows and not turn in a performance that would earn you a paycheck.

Doing the animation for not only this episode but also the whole series is TMS Entertainment who have mainly worked on anime like Akira and episodes of Batman: the Animated Series among many others. The animation here I thought for the time that this show was made it was honestly really good i'm not going to say that it's amazing animation because it's really not but for a mid nineties animated show it's really good.

That said however there is something that we have to talk about and that's the fact that not only this episode but this entire series makes use of CGI. Which is just as bad as you'd think it would be don't get me wrong as a kid growing up when this show was I thought that the CGI looked really good but yikes it hasn't aged well at all the only good thing about the CGI is they don't use it often in this episode but when they do my god do you notice it.

Now this is something that I never noticed before now but to me the character of Debra Whitman (Liz Georges) looks so much like Betty Ross from the nineties Incredible Hulk animated series. I know that these shows were produced at least a year apart and so chances of the studio working on The Incredible Hulk getting there hands on the Debra character model are very unlikely but one cannot help but wonder why they chose to make Betty Ross character look so similar to Debra.

Now as you can no doubt work out by any of the above images this episode and the show aired on Fox Kids starting in 1994 and lasted until 1998 which I think makes it the longest running Marvel animated series of the nineties but I might be wrong. Either way way there is no way in hell you can tell that this show was made in the nineties apart from the dated CGI since the episode doesn't make any kind of reference to things from the nineties which oddly makes the episode feel timeless.

I have to say that I liked how they did Lizard in this episode which is they basically made him a Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde type of character. With Lizard not really being able to remember much of what his human half is doing and what Curt's memories are all of which make him a vastly interesting character since your now wondering if the character is acting like this because he's evil or is it because he feels threatened by Spider-Man basically breaking into his home.

Let's talk about the show's theme song because it really needs to be talked about just like any other superhero show that came out around this time the theme song is so freaking good. Which shouldn't come as a surprise since it was performed by the lead guitarist of Aerosmith Joe Perry it's just a shame that the lyrics don't quite match up the awesome electric guitar but the theme song is still so freaking good.

Now then since this is an action show that means that we have to talk about the action that's in this episode. Which yeah is exactly what you'd think it would be like for a nineties animated action show in that there's not much action when there it's just two people fighting but that to me works in the episodes favour since the focus of the episode isn't the action it's the story being told and the characters but I still would have liked to better action tho.

Overall this episode wasn't that bad since it does a good job of setting up the world and the characters in the show. That being said however I do feel that this episode could have been since there are alot of issues with the episode which i've covered in this review but at the same time I feel that those issues serve as part of both the show and the episodes charm and so to change them would cause both the episode and the show to loose something and so this episode gets a 7 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from the official Marvel Animated Universe fandom wiki page and oddly enough nowhere else. I wasn't expecting tho find any of these images to be high definition and so I wasn't shocked at all to see that there are very little HD images as such I can't really recommend you use the official Marvel Animated Universe fandom wiki page but if you want to use it then I say go for it.

The Little Mermaid "Whale Of A Tale" Review

Disney fans the company has produced many animated films over the years and well some of those films were so popular that they eventually got there own TV series. Now how good those shows depends on who you ask but there is one thing that people cannot deney which this trend that Disney started started with The Little Mermaid and so I thought that i'd take a look at the very first episode of the show to see if it still holds up and so here is my review "Whale Of A Tale" enjoy.

The plot of the episode is Ariel and Flounder come across a baby killer whale and name it spot due to the spot on it's tail and the duo along with Sebastian are ordered by King Triton to train the whale before releasing it back into the wild. Plot wise the episode is pretty weak due to the fact that there aren't really any stakes and so there's no real reason as to why we the audience should be invested in the story but with that being said the story is exactly what you think of when you think of a TV show based on Disney's version of The Little Mermaid and it tells the story well enough that you barely notice any of the flaws that I just mentioned.

Reprising their roles from the film are Jodi Benson as Ariel , Samuel E. Wright as Sebastian and Kenneth Mars as King Triton. Joining them in this episode is Edan Gross as Flounder and Frank Welker as Spot. I love the fact that the crew behind the TV show actually reached out to get back as many of the original voice cast as they could since for many myself included these actors simply are these characters and so it makes sense that they would bring them back for the TV show instead of recasting all of the parts.

In terms of what I thought about the acting in the episode it was honestly a lot better then what I remember it being. Which for me is a very good thing but at the same time what makes the acting so good is the returning cast since they know these characters and so they know there character would react and how they would talk and so there performance feels true to the characters which is always a good thing.

Now this episode had animation provided by Walt Disney Animation Japan as well as Shanghai Animation Film Studio and Shanghai Morning Sun Animation. For an early nineties show the animation was alot better then it really had any right to be since alot of shows that came out around this time had animation that just looked cheap but nope here the animation actually good of course it's not on par with the movies but for a TV based of a movie it looks alot better then it really had any right to in my opinion.

This show is a prequel to the movie and so that means that you already know how this show and I guess this episode is going to end. Which I do consider to be a flaw for this episode since it makes the episode feel predictable which is a shame because given how the movie ended there's alot that you could do with a TV series set after the events of the movie but for some reason Disney went with a prequel series rather then a sequel series.

The heart of this episode for me at least is the friendship between Ariel and Spot without any dialog coming from Spot you get to see how much she means it / him which makes there bond a truly standout point of the episode. On the flip side of that you get to see Ariel become somewhat of a mother to Spot something which she even says herself in the episode and I thought that that was honestly a really interesting thing to do.

However the episode due to it's twenty four minuet running time can't really develop that or explore what it truly means to be a mother. As such it comes out of know where and doesn't play a part in the episode's climax Ariel just says it and that's it that's the only mention we get on the subject which is a shame because again there's alot you could do with that idea if the episode was given the proper time to fully develop that idea.

This episode and thus the show aired on CBS from 1992 to 1994 before moving over to the Disney Channel and Toon Disney Disney for reruns. What makes this episode however standout isn't where it aired but where's it didn't air because for some strange reason this episode isn't on Disney+ which is weird because Disney own the rights to the show and so they could have put up all the episodes but for some reason they added every episode barring this one for no reason whatsoever.

Now then boys and girls this is a musical comedy show and so we have to take a look at both of those aspects starting with the comedy. Which I honestly found to be rather hit and miss since for every good joke that the episode had there were two or three that followed it that didn't get a smile out of me which is a shame because they really went all out on the jokes but they just weren't that funny to me but given that all comedy is subjective maybe someone did find all the jokes in the episode to be freaking funny as all hell

Now that we've talked about the jokes in the episode let's now talk about the songs which were written by Jack Feldman. Yeah like the comedy both songs in this episode were very hit and miss for me with the first song "Just A Little Love" being in my opinion a pretty bad song which is full of early nineties cheesy music which dates it right away but on the flip side of that "You Got To Be You" is actually a pretty good song which oddly feels in keeping with the movie.

Overall this was a pretty fun episode but at the same given that it's a prequel and that Spot isn't mentioned in the film you know exactly what's going to happen. I can honestly see little kids or little girls getting more enjoyment out of this then little boys would but that's not to see that little boys will hate it it's just that this is a show aimed at little girls even so this episode gets a 7 out of 10 from this Disney fan.

All of the images that I used in this review were gathered from the official Disney fandom wiki page and for once nowhere else. I wasn't expecting alot of the images from the episode to be as high definition as they are but I was honestly shocked to see how many HD images there are of this episode and as such I have t recommend that you use the Disney fandom wiki page for any HD images from Disney owned shows or movies.