Spider-Man: The Venom
Curse (animated)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C+ Episodes: B-
Spider-Man continues to be one of the big three in comic
book superheroes and long before any live action version surfaced, he was
animated. After issuing the terrific
multi-DVD set of his 1967 cartoon series, Disney has continued to issue
episodes from the early 2000s animated show.
Spider-Man: The Venom Curse compiles the episodes that brought
the title villain to the small screen.
Venom is actually a space alien in liquid form that became Spider-Man’s
actual outfit for a while, but then things went wrong and Peter Parker had to
reject it. The result was that the
alien found one of our hero’s biggest enemies, no matter what identity Parker
was under, and Venom became the most recent of the classic villains. Offshoot Carnage was even worse.
Though the show was ambitious, this animated Spider-Man
was not always as colorful or charming as the earlier 1967 shows, or as dark as
the later Ralph Bakshi-masterminded stories.
It also tended to speed along some of the storytelling thanks to the TV
commercial crunch, which was often to its detriment. Starting with J. Jonah Jameson’s son coming back on a space
shuttle, the show has dated a bit quicker than expected, but the teleplays are
written by people who like the characters.
The arrival of Venom, then Carnage, feel awkward in the way they are
placed in the ongoing story, which in these episodes have a certain order they
need to be watched in.
Cut together as if it were a TV movie, this flows better
than with the commercial breaks and other unnecessary distractions, so that is
a plus. The inclusion of some guest
Marvel heroes and villains is also awkward.
Since Venom & Carnage are so thematically dark, the producers may
have found this necessary. Christopher
Daniel Barnes does the voice for Spider-Man and did not get the credit he
deserved for it. Ed Asner was terrific
as Jameson, avoiding the temptation of doing Lou Grant for a second, while the
late, great Roscoe Lee Browne was underrated as Kingpin’s voice. This also worked out far better than the all
computer-animated show MTV did with Sony that did not last very long. This is a fun-enough disc worth checking
out.
The 1.33 x 1 image is not bad, but has an even
then-awkward combination of hand drawn animation early video/computer
graphics. The result are detail
troubles, combinations of such that do not always work and both detail limits
and errors throughout. Fortunately the
color is consistent, though the art style has always been a bit odd to me,
looking more like the comic books that are now published like magazines than
the traditional print type. The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo has Pro Logic surrounds and they have some interesting
moments. Extras include Stan Lee’s
Soapbox featuring Lee’s thoughts on the character, an introduction by Lee for
the program and a clever section called The Venomous Web, in which you can
highlight a series of pictures in which Venom’s creator offers voice-over
explanations of the differences between the comic books and this show. It is intelligent, as is Lee all the time,
making this one of the most interesting releases of this series of Spider-Man
DVDs to date.
- Nicholas Sheffo
