Spider-Man [DVD] [2002]

I only recently bought this DVD when it was on sale, because I was curious to see what sort of extras it held, after discovering the kind of job Buena Vista had done with it's other, more recent formerly-Saban releases. Well, I must say, I was pleasantly surprised! The 20-minute interview with Stan Lee was a real treat, with "The Man" coming across as likeable as ever. His introductions to the episodes were welcome, reminiscent of the similar sequences including in the "Marvel Action Hour" cartoons, only much, much better. Undoubtedly, though, the real prize was the Rogue's Dossier, spotlighting twelve of Spider-Man's greatest villains. Upon reading about it, I thought it would just be another bland series of short, uninteresting profiles - but I was seriously proven wrong. Each profile contains the character's vital stats and details of their powers and abilities, all read out to the viewer. Their origin and history is covered, along with interesting trivia facts, and most excellent of all, each profile has two video clips of the villain from all across the TV series (NOT just limited to the episodes on the disc!), as well as Stan Lee's thoughts and comments on each character. The only complaint I could possibly level at this section is that the profiles are written based on the comic books, rather than the animated series, so they do not always jive with the cartoon (particularly in the case of Electro), but on this disc, the only character this has any bearing on is the Green Goblin, and even then, the difference is not that great.

It is a pity then, that with such wonderful, carefully-made extras, that the actual episodes on the disc are not so great. It is a set of four from near the beginning of the show's third season, which had the subtitle, "Sins of the Fathers." The first, "Make A Wish," sees Spidey visit a young girl, and tell her all about his history - clearly, this origin retelling and fairly in-depth coverage of what Spidey can do was why the episode was chosen for the disc. It is the first part of a two-part story, and it, and it's sequel, "Attack of the Octobot," also feature big-time Spidey villains the Kingpin and Doctor Octopus, so in that respect, they are fairly good choices - just not very good episodes. The third episode, "Enter the Green Goblin," is the star of the quartet, showcasing the Goblin's first appearance in the cartoon, clearly because he was the villain in the movie. It's still a cracking good episode, though. Finally, "Rocket Racer" rounds out the bunch for no reason other than it came directly after these three episodes in airing order. It's got no relation to the other three, and features the hugely unpopular character of the Rocket Racer, and the laughably bad villain, the Big Wheel. In fact, it's probably the worst episode of the whole series.

The disc is bolstered by it's bonus episode, "Return of the Green Goblin," which was taken from the fourth season of the show, and sees Harry Osborn become the second Green Goblin. It's a good episode, but the thing is, on the region 1 release of this disc, it wasn't present - in it's place was an episode of the 60's Spider-Man cartoon, "The Origin of Spider-Man." "Return of the Green Goblin" instead featured as a bonus episode on the R1 release of the second Spider-Man animated DVD, which shared it's name. The episode fitted better on that disc, both because of it's title, and beacuse it follows on from the story the main episodes on that disc tell.

All in all, this disc is actually worth getting more for the extras than the episodes, although the Goblin episodes are always worth a look. And if you search hard, you'll find two hidden Easter Eggs on the disc, too!