Disney restoring 60's Spider-Man

**Joe Wagner** · 11-05-2002, 12:15 PM

According to the Animation Artist Disney is currently in the process of restoring the original 35mm cels from the classic 1967 Spider-Man toon. As a huge Spidey fan I'm glad to see that Disney has taken it upon themselves to restore the series to prestine condition.

The original article is also being posted here:

Buena Vista International Television Renovating Original Spider-Man Animated Series
Process involves remastering to HD format from original 35mm negatives

HAMMERSMITH, Australia (Nov. 04, 2002) -- In an ambitious restoration project, Buena Vista International Television (BVI-TV), a division of The Walt Disney Company, will renovate the first-ever 1967 Spider-Man animated series, in which the web-slinging Marvel superhero was first seen on television.

In the restoration process, the rarely-seen Marvel ‘Classic Spider-Man’ 52 x half hour series will be remastered to a high definition format from the original 35mm film negatives. The episodes’ original English soundtrack, including the memorable title song, will be renovated and a new music & effects track added.

‘Classic Spider-Man’ and other Spider-man animated series from the ‘90s, ‘80s and ‘70s are part of the Fox Kids Europe (FKE) and BVS portfolios (formerly known as Saban), of which BVI-TV services the distribution. The portfolios comprise of more than 6,300 episodes of children’s programming and have strong international appeal, with more than 1,500 episodes produced in Europe.

Tom Toumazis, Senior Vice President & Managing Director, BVI-TV, Europe, Middle East & Africa said: “We are delighted to be able to preserve the heritage of a character as iconic across all media as Spider-Man, whilst strengthening even further the resources of popular animated entertainment in the FKE and BVS portfolios.”

“By using today’s technology, we can both halt the severe deterioration of the original film and improve upon its sound and visual effects, whilst maintaining the series’ classic retro look and witty storylines. Our company has a historic commitment to high quality animation and it is important to include both the driving forward of contemporary animation and the preservation of classic animation within this remit.”

The FKE and BVS portfolios include major programming franchises such as Power Rangers, Digimon, Inspector Gadget and classic Marvel heros such as The Incredible Hulk and X-Men, together with recent titles such as Action Man, So Little Time and Wunschpunsch. BVI-TV has been providing distribution services for the portfolios since May 1, 2002.

For more information, go to www.bvitv.com.

Comments?

-Joe!

**Chris Wood** · 11-05-2002, 12:19 PM

Originally posted by Joe Wagner
According to the Animation Artist Disney is currently in the process of restoring the original 35mm cels from the classic 1967 Spider-Man toon. As a huge Spidey fan I'm glad to see that Disney has taken it upon themselves to restore the series to prestine condition.

The original article is also being posted here:

Comments?

-Joe!

Sounds great. Is that for a DVD release?

**Beat** · 11-05-2002, 12:30 PM

Probably. The show is quite good for something from the 60's, and of course, the song-

All together now-

Spider Man, Spider Man, does whatever a spider can...

**Joe Wagner** · 11-05-2002, 12:34 PM

Originally posted by Desslar
Sounds great. Is that for a DVD release?

It's possible that it could be used on future Spider-Man releases (like Ultimate Villains and Return of the Green Goblin has done) but the article seems to indicate that the show still gets played in Europe quite frequently so it could be a case of Buena Vista making the series look better for the Fox Kids Europe market and perhaps create more revenue for the series. It is also possible that this restoration could be done for both purposes - future DVD's and airings.

-Joe!

**czyznyck99** · 11-05-2002, 12:39 PM

A step in the right direction...finally.

Probably will be DVD extras for future Spiderman DVD releases, the recent animated series or the future movies.

Later.

**James Harvey** · 11-05-2002, 12:44 PM

The restoration looks great - there are some images up at Animation Artist you should see - wow! I watch the classic series on almost a daily basis on TELETOON (which rotates all 52 episodes in two blocks) and...oh boy...it really needs some restoration. Hopefully once all of the restoring is complete, we'll get to see some primo DVDs of the series.

**Joe Wagner** · 11-05-2002, 12:53 PM

Here are the links for the pics that Jim mentioned above:

Before

and

After

The difference is astonishing and it's amazing how much better the restored series looks!

-Joe!

**Cere** · 11-05-2002, 02:06 PM

Personally, the couple episodes I've seen were laughably bad. I love how, in the origin episode, you see Spidey swinging across the screen in the same manner about fourteen times! So I don't really give a hoot, but, that said, the restoration looks awesome! Those links illustrate the point wonderfully.

**Chris Wood** · 11-05-2002, 02:40 PM

Originally posted by Cere
Personally, the couple episodes I've seen were laughably bad. I love how, in the origin episode, you see Spidey swinging across the screen in the same manner about fourteen times! .

Heresy! Just 'cause they cut several dozen corners doesn't make it any less a classic.

**mbaker** · 11-05-2002, 02:45 PM

That restored picture looks stunning. After seeing the episodes this past Memorial day, the picture did looked pretty bad. One of the things that bothered me about the 60's Spider-Man (As well as "Amazing Friends", and the Activision games) was that sometimes when Spidey is web slinging, you'd see him About 5 feet abouve the whole city, (with no taller buildings around him.) and I always ask myself, "what's that web sticking to, the clouds?" Other times you'd see the web line going upward while he's between two buildings when it should be diagonally attached to A building, or something. I've always found that wierd.

**StrangerAtaru** · 11-05-2002, 02:52 PM

I tried to watch it on the Memorial Day thing as well. It was just so cheesy and dumb it was funny. I rather stick with the Saban/Marvel early/mid 1990's show, but that is me.

**Auggie Doggie** · 11-05-2002, 02:55 PM

I don't know how to express my joy.

**spyke** · 11-05-2002, 03:22 PM

I said it before, and I'll say it again, Disney needs to buy Marvel. The restored and cleaned up pic of the 60's spidey cartoon (which looks good, by the way) proves that Marvel can only benefit from being owned by Disney.

**RZetlin** · 11-05-2002, 04:27 PM

Before people start jumping for joy, I read that new music and sound effects will be added.

So what does that mean?

Does it mean there will be hip hop music in the restored 1960s cartoon?

**jkoolpe** · 11-05-2002, 04:47 PM

Originally posted by Joe Wagner
According to the Animation Artist Disney is currently in the process of restoring the original 35mm cels from the classic 1967 Spider-Man toon. As a huge Spidey fan I'm glad to see that Disney has taken it upon themselves to restore the series to prestine condition.

The original article is also being posted here:

Comments?

-Joe!

I'm with the previous poster...the picture restoration is most welcome, but I'm worried about what they might do to the music and sound effects.

I think you had to have grown up watching this show to appreciate it now...to a young adult today who never saw the show as a child, I can see why he might not like it very much.

I did grow up in the '70's when this show was the KING

, and I've been wanting to at least get it on tape (DVD would be even better of course) for a LONG time. I was very disappointed when ABC Family elected to not show the old show and stick with the 90's show which I didn't care for that much.

Anyway, back to my original concern...I loved that old music from this show and hope they merely remaster it rather than change it. I have a few episodes on tape only, but some of of the background music still runs through my head from time to time....it was very distinctive, especially considering how long ago the show was actually produced (and I'm not talking only about just the familiar title theme song).

I suppose they could offer both new music and the original music as separate sound options if the show makes it to DVD

...

Well...that's my two cents at any rate.

Jonathan

**justicefan61** · 11-05-2002, 05:32 PM

this is great news.. I grew up watching the show when it was first on and was glad to see a couple of old episodes on family channel and included on the new spiderman dvds.. I don't care much for the newer 1990's show because it didn't follow the comics as close as the 1960's show or even amazing friends sometimes did. it started out good but didn't have many stand alone shows ,just large story arcs that didn't make sense unless you watched the whole season. the secret wars ending was really bad and the whole captain America story made no sense.. the 1960's Spiderman series was my favorite series (along with the old Hulk, Iron man, Thor, Fantastic four, ect. )and I hope they put it out on DVD . I look forward to the new MTV series coming out soon ( next year ? ) and new marvel cartoon series of the future.. ( Hulk? )

**Mek** · 11-05-2002, 05:37 PM

Wow! I am tickled pink at this news. =D I have been so anxiously awating seeing this classic Spidey-series, so this'll be great. I am worried about the music and SFX though. Perhaps Disney should have 'Original Music/SFX' and 'New Music/SFX' audio options? That would work, I guess. =>

**Marc** · 11-05-2002, 05:55 PM

One of the greatest superhero cartoons of all time. Each episode was an almost exact recreation of Lee & Ditko's original comic book issues. It's outstanding news if this series comes to DVD.

**Chris Wood** · 11-05-2002, 06:25 PM

Originally posted by spyke
I said it before, and I'll say it again, Disney needs to buy Marvel. The restored and cleaned up pic of the 60's spidey cartoon (which looks good, by the way) proves that Marvel can only benefit from being owned by Disney.

Are you nuts? Marvel would never produce anything decent again if that happened. You'd get nothing but My Little Pony.

**LadyM** · 11-05-2002, 06:48 PM

I've never really seen that Spider-Man series aside from the episode included as an extra on the "Spider-Man's Greatest Villains" or whatever that recent release was. (I thought it was pretty cheesy, myself.) But yowza, the restoration is certainly impressive!

~LM~