Two of the most famous comics adaptations are now available on DVD: Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman and the legendary 1967 Ralph Bakshi Spider-man cartoon show...IN COLOR. These shows are products of my childhood in some sense (the Spider-man cartoon first aired before I was born) and have brought a wave of nostalgia with them. The Spider-man cartoon is a perfect introduction to the character, even if Bakshi did go a little nuts as regards some of his story choices. Wonder Woman...well, it is not quite the jiggle television spectacle that "Charlie's Angels" and "Three's Company" were, but it had plenty of jiggle involved. The show managed to transcend that, if only barely.
The good news for Spider-fans is that Disney is distributing the cartoon show, and Disney will not release a sub-par animation product. The good news for Wonder Woman fans is that Warner Bros has finally realized there is a market for tv and DVD and is showing its desire to release restored products in that realm as well. (They have done yeomen's work restoring the Marx Brothers movies, Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Loony Toons and Robin Hood. The early Citizen Kane misstep appears to be an aberration.)
The 1967 Spider-Man cartoon probably did not look this good when it originally aired. It certainly did not look this good in syndication. The color is pristine. There is no grain. The bit rate occasionally climbs into the super bit range, which is downright weird given the lack of detail in some of the more flatly animated first season episodes, as I would not have thought there was enough there to give 8/9 mbs even at maximum quality. The audio is clear if a bit low. The voices and incidental music have been re-mixed a little, I suspect. This transfer is a glorious job, and well worthy of the Mouse's current policy on classic animation. Now, to the show itself...
I am apparently in the minority in preferring the first season, pre-Bakshi cartoons with the limited animation, but with stories taken directly from the comics and villains like Scorpion, Electro, Mysterio, Vulture, the Green Goblin, Kraven the Hunter, and Sandman. That first season was done by a Canadian outift: Grantray Lawrence Animation. The art is nothing special, but the stories are pure Stan Lee, and these cartoons were my introduction to Spider-man. Also, the relationships at the Bugle are well-defined, with JJJ and Betty Brant being the key characters. Your kids will love it. That company went bankrupt, however, and Bakshi was brought in. The art did improve. He used not only his own growing talents that would soon lead to such classics as "Fritz the Cat" and "American Pop" but also such classic comic book artists as Wally Wood and even Steve Ditko. Those of you who have seen his Lord of the Rings, have no fear, there is, as far as I can tell, no rotoscoping. Unfortunately, the stories were just this side of abyssmal.
I do not know what went through the producers heads when they decided to hire Lin Carter to help with the story telling. Larry Leiber, I can see. Stan Lee, of course. Lin Carter? Huh? At least, I assume Lin Carter is responsible for a couple of the shlock scifi/science fantasy episodes. Also, Bakshi reused footage in several episodes to save money, and while a child might not notice, today I did. In fact, he made the same show, back-to-back. Which episode I describe, I'll leave as an exercise to the reader.
Also, I bemoan the lack of extras.
Wonder Woman, on the other hand, has a slightly less glorious transfer, but it is still very, very good.
Needless to say Lynda Carter was incredibly gorgeous, as was Debra Winger as her sister. Of course, Winger's costume actually showed more skin than Carter's outfit. The freeze frame function comes in very handy here. And not only am I a pig, but so are you women who freeze frame the shirtless Lyle Waggoner. And so is the DVD tech, who picked the still of Lynda Carter bending over forward to display her cleavage as the menu shot. On top of that, some of the guest stars were also incredibly attractive, like Stella Stevens, Carol Lynley, Christine Belford and Gretchen Corbett. This show apparently had a thing for employing the significant others of 1970's TV detectives. All we need are Diana Muldaur, Kate Mulgrew and Susan St. James.
The stories are, well, I will not say they do not age well. The incidental music will give you 1970's flashbacks, but the stories are mostly handled tongue in cheek. These shows were meant to have a comic book feel. They use captions between scenes in the comic book style. They have a Hall of Fame cast of comic actors: Kenneth Mars, Cloris Leachman, Carolyn Jones, Henry Gibson, John Randolph, and most especially Lyle Waggoner of the old Carol Burnett Show.
One word about eyeglasses: Lynda Carter looks just as stunning as Diana Prince. The idea that she is frumpy in the military outfit is sold only by the fact that we have comic actors like John Randolph and Waggoner telling us. This is why Tim Burton cast Michael Keaton as Batman: only a comedian could sell the costume, he claimed to Michael Uslan.
The extras include a commentary track on the pilot by Lynda Carter and the producer. There is a decent documentary including an appearance by Alex Ross in addition to Carter and the producer. I would have liked to see the Cathy Lee Crosby pilot movie and the four minute "Wonder Woman: Who's Afraid of Diana Prince" short included in the set, especially given that the third disc only has one-side to it.
Posted by Mike Chary at July 22, 2004 10:32 AM
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Spider-Man: Even as a kid, I notice a LOT of wholesale reuse. There were a whole bunch of stories that aired in two variations (like the two plant empire stories, the two floating Manhattan eps...one of which put fins on the head of the mad scientist and called him Atlantean, the many Lizard In The Everglades eps, etc). Haven't gotten this set, though. I don't really have such fond memories of it.
Wonder-Woman: Did pick this one up, and watched the pilot plus part of the first ep before overdosing on cheese. :) Notice that Diana Prince's glasses are not only fake, they're not even flat GLASS. There's one scene in the first regular episode where it's clear that the lenses are thin sheet plastic, and the crimping is visible as light reflects off them. Heh.
BTW, while I'm sure there's some official Hollywood term for it, I call the whole idea of trying to pass a hot actress off as frumpy by putting her hair in a bun and making her wear glasses by the name "Glasses Ugly". You know, whenever you see a Glasses Ugly character on screen, she's gonna lose the glasses (and much of her clothing) at some point later on, with her hair whipping out in some sort of Charlie's Angels toss.
Spider-man: They even reused footage from other Bakshi projects like "Rocket Robin Hood." And according to _Spider-Man Confidential_ to "fix" stories, Bakshi would sometimes just cut out dialogue. I do have fond memories of the show however. Especially the giant Scorpion episode.
Wonder Woman: I was watching this again this morning, and Lynda Carter was clearly put on Earth by God to play Wonder Woman. Athletic, enough acting chops to stand-up to a bunch of established stars and stars in making, plus a phenomenal physique. I didn't notice her glasses, but I am surprised they didn't give her real glasses, because Carter says in the commentary that her vision was so bad without glasses that she had to have sand bags as "marks" in some scenes.
As long as we're talking DVDs and "Glasses Ugly," Arrested Development had a great take on the concept of Glasses Ugly.
This post has been a shameless excuse to point out that Season 1 of Arrested Development comes out on DVD October 19. Buy it. Watch it. Get caught up before Season 2 premieres on November 7. Please don't let this show go the way of Sports Night.