World Famous Comics: Todd McFarlane's Spawn - The Ultimate Collection (Animated Series)
Todd McFarlane's Spawn - The Ultimate Collection (Animated Series)
Starring: Spawn Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: Unrated Binding: DVD Format: Animated, Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC Label: Hbo Home Video Number of Items: 4 Picture Format: Academy Ratio Region Code: 1 Release Date: October 05, 1999 Running Time: 440 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 1999
Amazon.com: Todd McFarlane's Spawn Adult, stylish, and more than a little mean, this full-length animated tale has one very strong thing going for it--it knows how to milk "cool." The animation is superior to anything recently devoted to a superhero...or super-antihero, in this case. Al Simmons was a government assassin before he was burned to death and sent to hell (plot summary's starting out nicely, isn't it?). After making a particularly bad deal with the devil--to lead Satan's dark armies in exchange for seeing his wife again--Spawn is let loose upon the world. He immediately whacks three mob hit men, making his presence known and getting himself into all sorts of trouble. Spawn is also visited by the Clown, an obese, disgusting Beatrice, guiding our third-degree-burned Dante through this hellish, topside world. There are other nasty characters, but in this first segment a very gratuitous inclusion of a child murderer goes too far for even this mature fare. Spawn isn't fun; there's very little joy in any of this. But the point isn't fun--it's brutal, adult-comic style. And there's plenty of it. --Keith Simanton
Todd McFarlane's Spawn 2 From the mind of comic-book maestro Todd McFarlane comes the second season of episodes of the animated Spawn. Highly stylized animation and provocative story lines make Spawn a sophisticated cartoon sometimes more appropriate for older audiences. Murder victim Al Simmons has returned from hell to earth as a "hellspawn," a soldier for the army of darkness sent to collect more souls for hell. In these episodes, Spawn meets the man who assassinated him and becomes suspicious of the organization that ordered him killed. Jason Wynn, the leader of the group, plans to sell weapons of mass destruction stolen from the military. Spawn's former wife, Wanda, has since remarried Terry Fitzgerald, with whom Spawn must reconcile. Terry is hot on the trail of the missing arms, and Wynn and his assassins, including the highly trained Merrick, set out to kill Terry, Wanda, and their daughter, Cyan. Spawn foils the plot while realizing the hard truth that Wanda has a new life. --Shannon Gee
Spawn 3: The Ultimate Battle The third chapter of this compelling HBO miniseries answers a number of questions--namely, who is the omnipotent old man who hides in the shadows and why is the mysterious Asian reporter (Jade) investigating the alley murders? Spawn has reached a crossroads, and he must choose between the forces of darkness and light. But it's not clear-cut: Al (Spawn) must deliberate over the seemingly minor differences that separate heaven and hell in his world. As a former assassin for the NSA, he "opened the eyes of hell" with his iniquitous deeds of depravity; therefore, his journey to hell was preordained. But this particular section of the series intriguingly asks, What if you had no choice, and killing was not just the only way out of a squeeze but was also your fate? Intellectual stuff, indeed. But as with the rest of the series, a profound metaphysical puzzle is brought to the fore without justifying it with an answer. It's frustrating, but also keeps you firmly planted in your chair, pondering conundrum after conundrum. --Jeremy Storey
It was okay... To be honest, what got me to buy this item were the reviews saying that this is a stellar series. I hadn't seen any of the episodes proir to the purchase, and have only dabbled in the comics. I love Todd McFarlane's work, and find it very good for the most part. Not that this is BAD, it just isn't as great as everyone has made it out to be. The animation is very slick for the time it was made, but is slightly outdated for the picky viewers. The dialogue and plot pretty much follow the general idea of the comics, but stray a bit (as is necessary to do in order to keep a coherent story). The voice-overs were pretty good (except for the old wizard guy, Cogliostro, who made it feel like I was watching a discovery channel show on Spawn rather than an action series) and the story flowed nicely from episode to episode, often times making it difficult to tell when one episode ends and the other begins. They also reused several shots a few too many times. It's okay to recycle shots to save money, but when it is noticeable to the veiwer, then there is a problem. For the most part the series was entertaining, but it's nothing I would record on my Tivo. It was just okay for me, and there was no huge dissappointment when it ended, like others have said, because, honestly, I didn't care that terribly about the characters. This is a show I would watch if it was on, but wouldn't go out of my way to make sure I saw every episode. It was just okay for me...
A keeper to pass on to the next generation in animation Love the Series, but why did they stop making it? Great storyline throughout the series didn't stray away from the comics stuck with it and the artwork amazing. Todd McFarlane at his best since spider man. Great adult action lots of violence and vulgarity but what do you expect from the mind of Mc Farlane dancing teddy bears and flying horses. Spawn was and is his best creation and nothing can replace this series. I will never get sick of watching this. You rock McFarlane and spawn
Wish it continued.... This series is definitely for the mature. Very dark and not at all happy, fairly depressing. But I really really liked the third season. Would love to see where they were taking this series.
I remember this being a lot better I watched this series when it first aired. I thought it was great. I watched it again last night...I thought it was kind of bad.
The animation is very cheap. They use the same animation over and over to save money. But even the artwork is cheaply done.
The story is as good as ever. But the voice acting helps to bring it down. Everybody is on one note through the entire thing. Which gets old and boring fast.
Bad animation and bad voice acting really hurt this series. I wish they'd redo it.
The Original Mofo! Ok, the movie wasn't THAT bad, but nothing compares to the HBO Original Series, animated version of Spawn. The movie could have been so much better had they stuck to this format, but I understand you wanna clean things up so the kiddies can come along too and make that extra money.
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