Spider-Man vs. Doc Ock DVD Review

Spider-Man vs. Doc Ock
Release Date: June 29, 2004
Format: DVD
Run Time: 79 Minutes
Episodes:
-Make A Wish
-Attack Of The Octobot
-Enter The Green Goblin
-The Rocket Racer

Description: Get ready for more spine-tingling excitement as America's favorite Super Hero battles Doctor Octopus and a host of his most famous foes in these thrilling animated adventures. Doctor Octavius was a brilliant scientist working on a revolutionary new invention until a laboratory accident fused a set of mechanical arms to his body and turned him into the dreaded supervillain Doctor Octopus. Now Doc Ock seeks his revenge on those who did him wrong, and there are only two men who can put an end to his plan of destruction -- Spider-Man or his secret alter-ego, Peter Parker!

Spider-Man vs. Doc Ock
Review and Media by Stu

Spider-Man is back on the big screen, which means more episodes of the fan-favorite 1990s animated series featuring our favorite web-slinger is hitting shelves! Walt Disney Home Entertainment has released another single-disc Spider-Man: The Animated Series DVD title, this one to featuring episodes that tie into the big-screen Spider-Man 2 live-action film and its big bad, Doc Ock!

Unlike Disney's previous Spider-Man: The Animated Series releases, these episodes don't form a mini-movie; its four random episodes, most of which don't have a lot to do with Dr. Octopus at all. Two of the episodes focus on Spidey ally The Black Cat, and Dr. Octupus is barely even in them! Still, despite the iffy selection of episodes, the ones chosen are entertaining. My favorite would be "Dr. Octopus: Armed and Dangerous," which did a fantastic job of introducing Dr. Octopus, and had one of the best fight scenes the series ever did, despite censor limitations. It also had a nice, slower pace compared to the rest of the episodes of the show. The animation was provided by TMS and was beautiful throughout.

The other 3 episodes are enjoyable. "Partners" is a little weak, and simply doesn't fit in here. It has nothing to do with Doc Ock at all! I would've loved to see the two-part "Insidious Six" episode included here instead.

The features are the more or less the same as the ones on the previous Disney DVDs. Fans will be pleased to know a new menu is included, but it's nowhere near as cool as the old one. The inclusion of the Spider-Man 1960s episodes are a little mind boggling, seeing as the studio is releasing all of 'complete series' DVD collection on the same day! I still don't understand why we couldn't have seen a Doc Ock episode from Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, especially since fans have been clamoring for that series to hit DVD for a long time. Still, the 1967 Spider-Man episodes here offer a good look at how the Spider-Man: The '67 Collection DVD set will look.

Stan Lee's Soapbox is pretty much the same as the previous releases. He talks about the creation of Dr. Octopus, and how difficult it is to come up with original characters. Pretty interesting stuff, since Stan created most of Marvel Comics characters. However, this stuff simply wouldn't compare to hearing John Semper comment on the episodes. I know the chances of hearing his thoughts on the episodes are almost non-existant but still, hopefully one day Disney will make the effort.

To round the disc off, there are trailers for a Special Edition DVD of Aladdin, a hilarious trailer for Disney's The Incredibles, and Spider-Man: The Venom Saga, the next Spider-Man: The Animated Series DVD. Disney also included a bonus sneak peek at Spider-Man: The Venom Saga, which basically breaking down the three-part "The Alien Costume" episode to roughly 3-1/2 minutes. It was cool to see, and left me looking forward to the DVD.

Overall, if you are a Spidey fan of any kind, I think you'll enjoy this. There's good stuff on here, but it does hammer home that there should be bigger releases for Spider-Man: The Animated Series. The show deserves better than random episodes whenever a cash-in opportunity is available. Hopefully Disney will realize this soon and give us the box sets the series truly deserves.

Review written in 2004