MovieChat Forums > Spider-Man (1994) Discussion > Would you agree it was a bit toned down?

Would you agree it was a bit toned down?

posted 16 years ago by jason005-1
16 replies | jump to latest

I think it was undertoned because it's called Fox Kids there for they couldn't do anything as extreme in the comics.

Instead of the Sinister Six they used Insidious Six.

Green Goblin (Norman Osborne) didn't get to kill Gwen, or Mary Jane.

Carnage was insane but he couldn't be as graphic, and murdurous as his comic counterpart.

Punisher didn't get to kill scum in his guest appearnces. I liked that they still depicted him close to his comic counterpart, and remained a straight shooter.

Spiderman wasn't allowed to punch. I don't understand this because he was shown doing super kicks.

Feel free to add anything I missed. It was still not overly undertoned. They showed Venom as a scary revenge seeking super villain focused on killing his hated enemy Spiderman, Hydroman was depicted as a threatning super villain that just didn't give up on getting Mary Jane to love him who was not interested at all. In the Alien Costume episodes Spiderman was acting more violent, arrogant, and Peter Parker was having trouble with getting along with people when he wore the alien costume. Mysterio like his comic counterpart worked in Hollywood, and was aiming at getting revenge on Spiderman. Add in his wisecracks.

[–] jason005-1 16 years ago

No takers.

[–] TheMonkofDestiny 16 years ago

No one ever flatly mentions death or dying/killing in the series. Which I find laughable now, since it completely glosses over the fate of uncle Ben, leaving the viewer to infer on their own if they aren't already aware of his fate in the mythology as a whole.

They also had to gimp Morbius, giving him "plasma suckers" on his hands as opposed to him just chomping on necks and partaking in blood.

I think Semper also mentioned that they couldn't depict Spider-Man hurting any birds on rooftops/etc. even if it was completely accidental.

There's a lot more but you're absolutely right - the censor's axe fell hard on this show. I honestly wonder if it'd been as successful had it not been so heavily censored. Keeping it relatively kid friendly definitely had perks as far as ratings were concerned, I'd imagine.

[–] lylethegreat 16 years ago

I always thought the plasma suckers on Morbius' hands were way freakier than the standard vampire fangs would be. Those things were weird looking.

[–] Dachunde 16 years ago

I always wanted to know why it seemed to be set in 'Present Day' or something near to that and every sucker had a laser gun/blaster.
As a kid I just thought it kool...now I realise it was all non-violent bull. But then again saying that, if they HAD included a touch more spice I might've turned into a psychopathic mime stabber.

Thank you FOX - You and your conservative values concerning violence and pigeon distress have saved my life and that of many mimes. God bless you

Oh God. Did you eat all this acid?
That's right! M U S I C!!

[–] bg9903 16 years ago

I would have to disagree with you guys with toned down. I think what you have to realize is that what this show focused on was Peter Parker and his inner conflict with being Spiderman and dealing with trying to live a normal life as well. This show was not meant to be all action it was meant to be an action drama. Some things as you say were glossed over in regards to the violence but the intensity was there. This show valued substance more than flash just like it was with the X-Men t.v. show. The story was more important than blowing things up, or whether Spidey punched or kicked someone. These shows were meant for post Power Rangers kids, kids who been watching things blow up and get kicked/punched all the time. This show was for the kids who cared about the story more than the action. Toned down no, made more mature yes

[–] Dachunde 16 years ago

Agreed. Still think it was toned down, what with the FOX request that Spidey disturb no pigeons whilst webbing.

...pigeons!! The flying rodent.

Oh God. Did you eat all this acid?
That's right! M U S I C!!

[–] bg9903 16 years ago

IDK maybe they wanted him to be preceived that he was a person that cared about animals even stupid pidgeons

[–] TheMonkofDestiny 16 years ago

Disagree as you like, but that this series was toned down isn't subjective, it's a very obvious fact. Call it a shift toward a more mature audience all you like but censorship is still censorship.

You can also tell a story without censorship and still manage not to over-indulge in a lot of the common flash in the pan "ooooohs" and "ahhs". X-Men was far less censored by contrast and you seem to have gleaned that it did exactly what Spider-Man managed to accomplish with heavier restriction.

The story as it was, censored heavily, was still good. They clearly managed to utilize creativity without tipping the bar into a lot of what is commonplace in the current time. They knew their limits and they were still able to make a largely cohesive and flowing narrative within said limits. It's a real testament to their talent as a whole, since it rarely ends up coming across as truly hackneyed.

[–] T-eschberger 16 years ago

Not that big of a deal if you ask me. All superhero shows were toned down. Even Batman: TAS. If you wanna bitch about toned down, then Joker never even killed anyone on the show, yet he was still a great villain.

[–] ginobrandon69 14 years ago

i would of liked the cartoon to be more like batman- tas.

more dark, more violent and adult themed. i would of liked to of seen more fights including spiderman punching and kicking people. i know its a kids show, but still, alil more content would of been nice.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] topherwriter 14 years ago

You see I'd heard that Spider Man wasn't allowed to punch. But I actually had seen it a couple times where he did punch someone. I don't know where it was, but I'm pretty sure that's not a real thing. If it is, it is probably that it depended on the way he punched them. It might have been that he could only punch on the defensive, because come to think of it, I think that's how he did it.

[–] KCJ506 13 years ago

Throughout the entire series only about two punches were thrown and both were by Spider-man. Due to the censorship the fight scenes were pretty lacking. They mostly just consisted of characters ramming each other, grappling each other, throwing each other, and throwing things at each other. It was more like pro wrestling than actual throwdowns.

Sick of threads "Megan Fox should play this!"

[–] DarklordRB 13 years ago

Well at least the Kingpin was squeezing Spiderman to death in a bearhug, so was Tombstone when he was beating Spiderman up.

[–] Gustav_Fiers 13 years ago

No punching allowed. No guns allowed, they used lasers instead. They're the two biggest censorship's. The no killing applied to most comic book based cartoons.

[–] Cold_In_Space 13 years ago

No punching was plain ridiculous. I don't know about others but when I saw Spider-Man couldn't punch while the Powerpuff girls could tear villains apart I wanted to falcon-punch the people in charge of censorship.

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