Marvel TAS shows...thoughts?

[Jeikobu]

My younger brother is nuts over the '90s Marvel Animated Series shows (Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Hulk, Silver Surfer, etc.) and hates Disney for not releasing them on DVD (save Fantastic Four). Personally, I am in agreement that these need to be put on DVD box sets. If timed right, they could be great promotion for upcoming movies (like Spider-Man 3 next year), and besides, these were pretty good, definitely good enough to be preserved on DVD. And while boxes like Spider-Man would almost certainly have the stupid edits made to them (anything relating to crashing into a building, mention of World Trade Center, mention of Princess Diana, etc.), it'd certainly be better than nothing.

Any thoughts? Why isn't Disney getting with it? Did the Fantastic Four box set flop and they don't care to try the others? Are they worried about releasing Spider-Man and X-Men since they're bigger series? Maybe Disney should be petitioned.

[Mr. Toad]

I am not sure Disney has the rights to all of these. They released the Fantasitic Four set through Buena Vista but this does not mean they have the rights, they were just probably the handiest distributor.

Also the quality of the animation and storytelling was not nearly as good as the DC series of the 90s like Superman and Batman.

I am sure if enough people cared and the season sets sold enough they would have put out more.

Part of the problem is the first season(there were two in the Fantastic Four set) is considered among the worst superhero animation ever, so that did not help.

[xxhplinkxx]

Well, whoever has the rights, I would kill to have the X-Men and Spider-Man AS.

[Jeikobu]

Buena Vista does have the rights, they just aren't putting them out.

And I completely agree, while I really liked FF season 2, the first was horrible. Even my brother agrees with that.

True, the DC shows had much greater quality (and no US cartoon tops Batman TAS, IMO), but the Marvel ones still deserve a DVD release. I grew up with Spidey TAS, and would really like to relive it on DVD.

[Mr. Toad]

How do you know Buena Vista has the rights - its certainly not exclusive to all Marvel series as Warner's(talk about sleeping with the enemy) have the rights to X Men Evolution.

[Mr. Toad]

How do you know Buena Vista has the rights - its certainly not exclusive to all Marvel series as Warner's(talk about sleeping with the enemy) have the rights to X Men Evolution.

[Beast]

How do you know Buena Vista has the rights - its certainly not exclusive to all Marvel series as Warner's(talk about sleeping with the enemy) have the rights to X Men Evolution.

Marvel and Avi Arad have both confirmed that Buena Vista has the rights to those series. They gobbled them up at the same time that they gobbled up Power Ranger and a bunch of other shows. However Disney seems to be reluctant to release them, outside of the few Spider-Man singles and the one X-Men single. Hopefully BV will crack at some point and release them. They seem to miss their chance everytime a movie comes out. There's also supposedly some lawsuit regarding these, over profits if I recall correctly. Best thing would be for Marvel to outright aquire the rights to these shows again, and relase them through Lionsgate with the rest of their Animated features.

[2099net]

I'd rather Amazon shipped that 60's Marvel Cartoon collection I ordered way back in November 2005! (Yes, its still an open order! Even though the product is in limbo) Come on Buena Vista - release these old "limited animation" episodes to match my 60's Spider-Man set.

I believe that the issue isn't rights to the series, but that certain rights to certain characters have been licenced out by Marvel exclusively. Similar to why The Hulk couldn't appear in the videogame Marvel: Ultimate Allience but Bruce Banner could. Activision paid for a "Marvel Universe" licence and got it, but with certain conditions - one being The Hulk had been licenced out to Universal for videogames for a number of years when the Hulk movie was produced.

So while Spider-Man The Animated Series may belong to Marvel - for example, Lionsgate may have the exclusive video media rights to The Punisher - for example, for the next year or so. This would cause problems if Spider-Man episodes featuring the Punisher were to be released.

I understand this is the hold-up on the 60's cartoon collection. They are basically (slightly ) animated versions of the original 60's comics, and as such feature a loads of crossovers.