I recently decided to rewatch the first episode of the Spider-man the Animated Series, which is entitled "Night of the Lizard". After my rewatch, I found it to be surprisingly adult in both content and humor. As a kid I could remember Spider-many cracking jokes during fight scenes, but much to my surprise the show also took jabs at careers (it insinuated that working in the sewers was a more enjoyable job than being a TV executive) and relationships.
Even beyond the jokes, that kids would almost certainly not understand, the show also showed many of the difficulties often faced in the real world, such as Peter thinking about how he could put a down payment on a new vehicle with his thousand dollar bonus, before feeling guilty when he finds out that Aunt May is having trouble paying her bills on time, and is past due on her rent.
With these adult aspects in mind, the show is also almost painfully juvenile at times. While being fairly realistic looking, almost every single male character in the show has the exact same body type, and I'm not expert, but I don't think every male in New York City has six pack abs and broad shoulders. The same can be said for the women in the show, all of them are skinny and in excellent shape, but wear nicely moderate clothing. The show is also very careful to keep things child friendly, as a necessity to the plot line, Doctor Connors only has one arm, but it is always kept tastefully hidden by long sleeves, even when the long sleeves become tattered and frayed, they are conveniently long enough and frayed in the right places to completely cover his amputated body parts.
Probably the single most childish aspect of the show is the need to spell out everything that is going on, just to make sure the viewer is not confused by the plot line, During one scene the Lizard has stolen the "Neogenic Recombinator" and is going to use it to turn everyone in the city into lizard people like him. His wife (who he's kidnapped to help him, because he can't press the buttons) says "But if you transform everyone, then we'll all be like you" I think I may have audibly groaned during this line, While this was easily the worst line in the episode, it was by no means the only line that was groan worthy.
Moving beyond the story and dialogue aspects of the show, the direction and animation style is actually quite nice and even enjoyable, especially compared to what much of the animation looks like in today's cartoons. The animator/director definitely put a lot of time and thought into spins and jumps Spider-man performs, not just during his fight scenes, but also during scenes of him just swinging through the city. Probably 35% of an episode in comprised of swinging or jumping scenes, but they all vary enough in location and style that they don't begin to feel repetitive.
Overall while by no means perfect Spider-man the Animated Series has not only aged well since the 90's, but it has also aged well in respect to the shifting view of children's entertainment to adult entertainment. It provides a fun look at where both superheroes and art were in the mid 90's and it still provides an enjoyable escape from life for a half an hour curled up in front of the TV.
Even beyond the jokes, that kids would almost certainly not understand, the show also showed many of the difficulties often faced in the real world, such as Peter thinking about how he could put a down payment on a new vehicle with his thousand dollar bonus, before feeling guilty when he finds out that Aunt May is having trouble paying her bills on time, and is past due on her rent.
With these adult aspects in mind, the show is also almost painfully juvenile at times. While being fairly realistic looking, almost every single male character in the show has the exact same body type, and I'm not expert, but I don't think every male in New York City has six pack abs and broad shoulders. The same can be said for the women in the show, all of them are skinny and in excellent shape, but wear nicely moderate clothing. The show is also very careful to keep things child friendly, as a necessity to the plot line, Doctor Connors only has one arm, but it is always kept tastefully hidden by long sleeves, even when the long sleeves become tattered and frayed, they are conveniently long enough and frayed in the right places to completely cover his amputated body parts.
Probably the single most childish aspect of the show is the need to spell out everything that is going on, just to make sure the viewer is not confused by the plot line, During one scene the Lizard has stolen the "Neogenic Recombinator" and is going to use it to turn everyone in the city into lizard people like him. His wife (who he's kidnapped to help him, because he can't press the buttons) says "But if you transform everyone, then we'll all be like you" I think I may have audibly groaned during this line, While this was easily the worst line in the episode, it was by no means the only line that was groan worthy.
Moving beyond the story and dialogue aspects of the show, the direction and animation style is actually quite nice and even enjoyable, especially compared to what much of the animation looks like in today's cartoons. The animator/director definitely put a lot of time and thought into spins and jumps Spider-man performs, not just during his fight scenes, but also during scenes of him just swinging through the city. Probably 35% of an episode in comprised of swinging or jumping scenes, but they all vary enough in location and style that they don't begin to feel repetitive.
Overall while by no means perfect Spider-man the Animated Series has not only aged well since the 90's, but it has also aged well in respect to the shifting view of children's entertainment to adult entertainment. It provides a fun look at where both superheroes and art were in the mid 90's and it still provides an enjoyable escape from life for a half an hour curled up in front of the TV.
