Releases - DVD - Todd McFarlane's Spawn:
10th Anniversary Signature Edition
Release Information
Announce Date: 5/1/07
Street Date: 7/24/07
MSRP: $39.98
MPAA: NR
Subformat: Multi Disc
Media Quantity: 4
Packaging: Steelbook
Soundtrack Language: English, Espanol
Subtitles: English, Francais, Espanol |
Aspect Ratio
Standard [4:3 Transfer]
Audio
English: Dolby Surround 5.1
Espanol: 2.0
Edition Details
� Encoding: Region 1
� Animated, Color, Closed-captioned
|
Special Features
�
Audio Commentary by Todd McFarlane on Select Episodes ("Burning Visions" [Episode 1, Season 1]; "Home Bitter
Home" [Episode 1, Season 2]; "A Made Guy" [Episode 1, Season 3];
"Prophecy" [Episode 6, Season 3])*
� Extended Interview with Todd McFarlane
� Behind the Scenes Featurette
� Episode One Storyboard: Frame by Frame*
� The McFarlane Process: Step by Step*
� Character Profiles*
� All-New Transfer - See
Comparisons*
* - New to this release. |
Synopsis: Evil begets evil. Hell begets hellspawn. Exploding from
the comic book page onto the screen, Spawn is a deadly tornado of
untapped, unwrapped merciless power. He was once a man...now he's a
hellspawn, battling the forces of evil on earth...and in himself.
Gradually discovering the terrifying power he possesses, Spawn fights to
uncover the truth about his identity and fulfill his destiny.
Review
Be forewarned: I have an intense bias with the character and
universe of Spawn, the animated series in particular. I couldn�t
just be a �normal� fan and purchase the DVDs of Todd McFarlane�s
Spawn (which I of course did), no. I went to the extremes and took
what I learned at The World�s Finest when covering Batman: The
Animated Series and the myriad of shows that follow and created my
own website for the animated Spawn series. Despite the show getting a
full release on DVD already, I was eager to get my hands on this new set
for no other reason than I�m a huge fan of Spawn in all of his
incarnations.
Todd McFarlane�s Spawn debuted as the flagship title of HBOs
Animation division in May of 1997 and continued through May of 1999 with
a total of eighteen episodes spread across three production seasons. Todd
McFarlane�s Spawn pushed the envelope in terms of what was generally
done in US animation up to that point and culled talent from the Batman:
The Animated Series team, bringing in Eric Radomski as the
supervising director for the first two seasons and Frank Paur for the
final season, as well as Shirley Walker to score the first two seasons
of the show. The similarities between Todd McFarlane�s Spawn and
Batman: The Animated Series end there, however, as the tone of Todd
McFarlane�s Spawn was nothing that the general public had seen
before when they thought of animation.
While there�s no doubt been a ton of adult animation made in Japan
before Todd McFarlane�s Spawn was even conceived, but Todd
McFarlane�s Spawn was really the most �adult� piece of animation the
US had seen at that point in 1997. McFarlane stated that he wanted to
define his audience in the opening act of the very first episode of the
series, �The Burning Vision� and he was quickly able to do so. The
violence, gore and language used in these opening minutes would quickly
pick out those who would be interested in watching the show from those
who would have no desire. While I may disagree with the tactics in which
the viewers were weeded out as it may have turned away more viewers than
necessary, it�s easy to see why McFarlane took this route in the pilot.
However, in the later seasons of Todd McFarlane�s Spawn, they
would dial down the language and nudity found in the first season to
something more akin to what was in the comics at the time.
For those looking for pure blood, gore and nudity, you�ll be drawn in by
what we�re given in the first season, but the second season really pulls
back on all of this, while the third season again trickles in some more
nudity while amping up the mystical aspect of the season. While I
originally thought that the third season of the show was my favorite
with the introduction of the Jade character as the bounty hunter for
Spawn (essentially replacing the role that the angel Angela filled in
the comics), it�s really hard to pick out a favorite after rewatching
the series for a fourth time. Watching it on DVD without a critical eye
for anything more than the DVD transfer this time around, I was able to
really absorb the storylines and get a feel for the world of this Spawn,
which is so much different from the other renditions I�ve seen over the
years.
The animation in the show is also something that�s remarkable to see.
Due to the over ambitious nature of the show, the production budget was
way out of proportions with other animated fanare on television of the
day and the demands that McFarlane put on what would make it to screen
caused a lot of animation that was sent back from the overseas studios
to never make it and instead footage from past episodes or flipped views
of Spawn were inserted to fill the space. This is particularly
noticeable in the first and second seasons and can get distracting and
make the show feel particularly �cheap� at times, but that�s what often
happens with McFarlane and Spawn at times: he wants the best for his
creation and in the end, studios can�t pony up to his vision.
Frustrating for him I�m sure, but even more so for those backing his
projects (probably why he had to produce the new animated Spawn with his
own funding).
It�s odd that the most obscene version of Spawn is found in the animated
world. The comic book never had as much nudity or language that I recall
and the live action film was certainly nothing that shocked movie goers
(except for those of the movie goers who were fans and were extremely
disappointed in what came out of the movie screens and speakers). And
while the comic book has since gone light years away from what we left
Spawn off at in Todd McFarlane�s Spawn, I am eagerly awaiting the
day we get to revisit the animated Spawn, which if McFarlane�s comments
on this new 10th Anniversarry DVD set are any indication, we may be
seeing sometime in 2008 (of course he said that we�d see it in 2006 as
well).
Still, no matter which way you cut it, this version of Spawn is
important in the history of animation as well as in the world of Spawn.
True, the show may have a smaller audience than your average superhero
cartoon due to its explicit nature, but the Emmy awards the show won
speak enough about the show: it�s a remarkable piece of work that
deserves far more attention than it�s received.
The DVD
Arriving all gussied up for its 10th Anniversary DVD release, Todd
McFarlane�s Spawn shows off some beautiful art on its single sized
amaray Steelbook casing. Steelbook casing has just recently become
popular, with Fox releasing a full line of two-disc editions of its more
popular films in this new type of DVD casing, which looks and feels just
as it sounds. Heavy and shiny to look at, the Steelbook is certainly
going to move more units of this set than another generic cardboard
sleeve release would.
On the rear of the Steelbook is a piece of cardboard that gives the
purchaser an idea of what to expect from the series and DVD. This
cardboard is held on by �snot glue� (I�ve no scientific name for it�you
know what is is) and on the reverse side lists the disc specifics. The
only drawback of this cardboard info sheet is once you take the snot
glue off, you�ve nowhere to put it as the inside of the steelbook is so
cramped you can�t slip it inside unless you cut it (and want holes
punched in it like the paper insert advertising the Spawn comic, toys
and website).
On the inside of the DVD set is a set of dual layer trays on either
side, each holding two discs. Underneath the trays is a printed image of
Spawn against a bookcase from the third season of the show, as well as a
few model sheets of Spawn, Clown and some storyboards to pepper up the
dark image. Disc art pulls images from the series to adorn the discs,
except for the third season which reuses the original single disc
release of season 1 as its art (a very, very odd choice and it
completely messes up the flow of the rest of the discs). Menu is in 4:3
and menu art is the same animations on all discs, with the images of
characters being changed around for some of the sub menus.
The video and audio for this release is all new and one of the key
points in setting it apart from the previous release. Not only are the
episodes finally divided into individual episodes (and not cut together
as a sprawling movie for each season), but we get the original McFarlane
intros with each episode as well, something we missed from the last
release. Of course with the new individual cuts of each episode we lose
the full length commentary of season one and three that Todd McFarlane
provided (he didn�t record one for the second season), but considering
McFarlane is one of the more annoying commentators I�ve ever listened to
on a DVD (more on that in a bit), it�s not a huge loss. The addition of
the 5.1 Dolby Surround (not DTS as was originally solicited) track is a
great edition, even if the rear channels aren�t utilized too much.
On the video front it�s a mixed bag; most of the first season looks a
lot better than the original transfer and all three seasons have seen a
reduction in the amount of grain, but
overall there isn�t a huge
difference. Everything is cleaner, brighter and sharper, but the second
and third seasons are so dark in the color palette that it was hard to
tell if the video was grainy on the old transfer. There are ghosting and
interlacing errors on this set as well, noticeable mainly on Spawn�s
blood red cloak which can also show a bit of compression at times
(though I watched a few of the episodes on different sets and while I
noticed the compression on my 4:3 CRT TV through 480p, watching it on my
PC monitor didn�t make it look nearly as bad), but it�s nothing that you
don�t see on the myriad of other animated titles on DVD.
Moving onto the special features we get four commentaries from Todd
McFarlane. These are all-new and have been recorded specifically for
this 10th Anniversary DVD release and�I swear I�ve listened to these
before. Despite his mentioning of the 10th anniversary and the new
animated series in the works, nearly everything McFarlane says I�ve
heard before, which means he spouted it all off on the commentaries on
season one and three on the last set. On top of that he is very
un-informative on his tracks, often commenting only on what�s happening
on the screen and rarely dropping information about the show other than
how groundbreaking it was (as much as I love the man and his work,
McFarlane does toot his own horn quite a lot, not to say he doesn�t have
the right too, it just gets old after awhile). The commentaries, even
for those that are fans of Spawn, can be skipped as they are really
nothing spectacular.
On the special feature front we get repeated special features from the
exclusive fourth disc bonus in the original �Ultimate Collection�
release. The extended Todd McFarlane interview is here as well as the
behind-the-scenes featurette and the only other new content is the
�Episode One Storyboard: Frame by Frame� which literally shows each
storyboard used in the episode next to the episode itself as it plays
(which is neat to watch for the first five minutes then it just gets
dull). The other new feature is �The McFarlane Process� which shows how
the episodes are made. I�m not sure why it�s called �The McFarlane
Process� as I�m pretty sure this is how the general animation process
goes on all shows, at least what I�ve heard about the production of
Bruce Timm�s line of DC shows for Warner Brothers.
The character profiles are new as well and are essentially mini-bios for
the characters, which accompany the menu descriptions of the individual
episodes (which pop up when you click on each episode to watch on each
disc). While these are a nice extra, I would�ve really liked to see some
of the original promotional spots for the show that McFarlane talks
about the commentaries or the test footage of the show that was on the
Spawn website so many years ago. Considering the chance of getting a
third release for this series is slim to none, it sucks we won�t get to
see any of that.
So in the end, those who are wondering whether to upgrade to this new
set over the old one are met with a question: do you sacrifice a few
hours of commentary for the new extras and commentaries along with the
Steelbook packaging and new video and audio transfer? I�d say it�s worth
it, if only to have the episodes split individually with the original
McFarlane intros and not have to worry about the flipper discs
(something I didn�t really mind, but seriously�flipper discs for six
episodes is annoying, no matter how you cut it). It�s up to the fan in
the end, but I�d easily recommend selling your old set to purchase the
new one�it takes up less shelf space and the Steelbook casing is just
too awesome.
Previous Owners of Todd McFarlane�s Spawn: Recommended
Never Owned Todd McFarlane�s Spawn: Highly Recommended
Now, here�s hoping we get some word of the new series at this year�s
SDCC�I can hope, right? |
|
