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Todd McFarlane's Spawn - The Ultimate Collection (Animated Series)

Todd McFarlane's Spawn - The Ultimate Collection (Animated Series)

List Price: $37.92
Your Price: $34.13
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not your mother's Spawn...
Review: I bought this collection mainly because I am a fan of sophisticated animation and I also enjoy the reluctant hero of McFarlane's comics, Spawn. I usually turn to animation to escape from reality. However, I found this series a little TOO real. Let's just say I don't sleep better at night knowing there are writers out there spending a lot of time coming up with new ways to kill people. There are a few endearing parts where Spawn's heroism shines, but it isn't worth stomaching the gore. In addition, the story doesn't seem to run in a continuous line, but wanders off periodically in different directions, it seems, in order to draw out the series. The bonus disc which includes interviews of McFarlane would only interest the hardcore fan. I actually like him and Spawn less after seeing this interview. I would only recommend this to folks that really liked movies such as "Silence of the Lambs," "Pulp Fiction," or some of the gorier anime. No matter what age you are, don't let your mom catch you watching this or be prepared to spend some serious time with a psychologist.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Just another review
Review: I buy many things in any given day, week, or month. Just today, for instance, I bought some pastries before breakfast. Clothes, books, DVDs - I buy many different things. Having said this, I can honestly add the following: This Spawn DVD series is one of the best purchases I have made in quite some time....If I win the lotto, I will pay Todd Mcfarlane to make season 4. If you buy this series because of this review, send me some lucky numbers to play.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This is bad!!
Review: I cant believe Amazons readers. I bought this serie from Amazon.com and expected something great cause i had been reading the excellent reviews this serie got from the readers and when o saw the movies i got totally dissappointed. This is BAD...very, very bad and really not worth the money and if you want a good animated movie then buy Akira or Princess Mononoke but not this crap. Cant believe that i had to pay for this, i should have been paid for watching this crap.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Spawn Ultimate Collection
Review: I found that each of the Spawn videos had their own merits and with each new video making the character and storyline even better. Compared to the comic book the animated videos are much more concise and follow the plot with great style. Spawn 3 - Ultimate Battle particulary impressed me. Todd Mcfarlane and company are now dipping into the urban myth that is Spawn. I can't wait for the next season!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: too damn impressed!
Review: I liked the D.V.D so much, I bought the whole company!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Bring back Spawn...
Review: I really loved this cartoon series when it was on for 3 years on HBO. I was so disappointed to hear that it would not continue and it left an open ending. I really hope it returns sometime. This cartoon series is awesome! I really miss it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Spawn the series is just plain great
Review: I saw this a couple times on HBO when it was out a couple years ago. I was hooked right away.

It's very faithful to the comics. But a word of warning, keep this away from the little ones. Very violent, oppressive atmosphere. lots of swearing, and lots of nudity. Not what you usually expect from the american side of cartoons.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The ultimate cliffhanger....what happened?
Review: I'll start of by saying that this is some of the best storytelling in animation today. Absolutely fantastic! I haven't looked through the credits or anything, but the team responsible for this masterpiece defenitely did their homework. Everything fits into place nicely. Character development, mood, consistency, true to form in every respect! A lot of people simply did their jobs and cared about what they were doing. Sadly this isn't the case with most anime these days, but this HBO series delivers.
There are a couple of blemishes though. Two to be exact. First off, the animation itself isn't what it could have been. Don't get me wrong, it does it's job well enough, but there are some rough spots that i couldn't help but notice. Fortunately though, unless you are a nitpicker as i am, then you won't notice, and the mood and ambience lends itself to the overall quality. While watching the series, there were several moments when i found myself curled up on the couch in the dark watching my back. You know, just in case. I mean, at times you could seriously call this a horror flick. Very dark and moody, very dirty and raw. A minor gripe however, like i said.
Now the big, glaring blemish on this whole thing is the way the series abruptly ends. I mean what the HELL was that? On the b-side of the third disc, i was beginning to get this sinking feeling that there was no way they were going to be able to wrap it all up properly. I mean at least within the confines of the series itself. I won't begin to spoil plotlines and things here, but c'mon man, that's totally unfair! Hopefully, there will be a second effort to pick it up again, but that sucked in the purist sense. I felt sorta let down, like i was trying to make sense out of a David lynch movie or something. There were too many loose ends, and thus the reason for four stars instead of five. Simply cruel and unjust punishment for fans of this series.
All in all, i'd say it's definitely worth the 35 bucks or whatever. Definitely an achievement to boast about!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: MacFarlane's Masterpiece Finally Makes It To DVD
Review: Nearly every comic book collector, old and new, flocked to their local stores to pick up Image Comics' launcher Spawn, by Todd MacFarlane, coming off a superb SpiderMan run; the overhyped (and badly done) movie also grabbed attention, but few fans got to see the animated series as it was played on HBO, a necessary compromise to allow all the nudity, violence and gore to get airtime.

Just as a reminder for newbies, Spawn is really Al Simmons, once the government's deadliest secret forces soldier, betrayed and murdered; he makes a deal with the devil to be able to come back to see his wife one more time, and instead is endowed with supernatural powers, stripped of his memories, and thrown back to Earth as one of Hell's own elite force.

Just as with every comic book to TV effort, the great details on paper don't translate as accurately onto film, (save for pure Japanese anime, which seems to have little or no problem doing this) something that is once again true with Spawn: The Animated Series. The animators do a decent job of getting the characters well within the ballpark of MacFarlane's vision: the bums' depressive, glazed faces, bad guy Wynn's evil glare and Twitch's I-Don't-Care face, complete with reflective glasses.

But the art is still nowhere near the top anime products out there (this was a 1999 effort), and is closer to the animation in the X-Men series on Fox (not Evolution, the original). The lines are extremely thick, the proportions unmaintained, and the direction choppy. While award-winning series like Batman, and the subsequent Superman and Justice League efforts recruited Japanese animators, they sacrificed a tremendous amount of detail for crisper, more fluid action. Spawn cannot afford such a sacrifice; part of its appeal is the grimy, realistic tint that MacFarlane excelled in creating. At least knowing that MacFarlane approved of the series gives you some peace of mind, although he also approved of the live action movie.

The voices are top notch. They are exactly how you would imagine them to be. Spawn/Simmons growls out in a grating baritone; Wynn projects an arrogant Jonathan Frakes' (of Star Trek The Next Generation's Will Riker fame) voice; and the Violator moves away from John Leguizamoville to the more taunting, feisty urbanite jeer that it should be.

The series plays out much like the comic book, although it is often abbreviated, without losing too many important parts. The first disc of this collection covers Simmons' arrival on Earth as Spawn, and his ongoing struggle to regain his identity and purpose as he lives among humanity's rubble. Disc two moves backward and forward in time as Simmons begins to reclaim the whos, whats, whens, whens, wheres, whys and hows of his life; he rediscovers his best friend Terry Fitzgerald, now married to his wife Wanda and caring for his daughter Cyan. He flashes back to his old special forces days, his comrades of that time, one of whom killed him, and seeks him yet again. The third disc shows the world turning to chaos, just as Simmons is beginning to learn and manage his power; he now has to contend with Heaven's bounty hunters, who have been set out to destroy him--apparently, there have been many Spawns over the course of time, always in battle, not always victorious, against Heaven's own army.

The series does lack closure; it ends with the feeling that a fourth season is on the way (which we all know isn't). For such a franchise loaded with beautifully grim landscapes and colorful characters with artistically brilliant power effects, not much seems to have been invested into getting the most out of the animation. If you can remember what the old X-Men series of the mid-1990s was like, then you can visualize the art of this series: very third-rate, when compared to what is available.

Spawn front loads the discs with 32 chapters on the first disc; 19 on the second and 29 on the third. Be careful with the discs as they are double-sided (Side A, Side B) DVDs that need to be flipped over for the rest of the show.

It's a must-buy for Spawn fans, since it gives us the chance to see the characters we're so used to seeing on paper finally move around; those unfamiliar with the series and looking for "anime" will be severely disappointed by the art, but not the storyline. Recommended for Spawn fans, but not for the casual viewer.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Spawn Ultimate Collection
Review: Not a review. Ive ordered this series based on seeing and enjoying the HBO presentation. My question is, Why does this DVD have a release date of Aug 21, 2001, when I have seen it in stores and others obviously already own it? Is there something different about this release?


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