Todd McFarlane's Spawn - The Ultimate Collection (Animated Series)

Todd McFarlane's Spawn 2
From the mind of comic-book maestro Todd McFarlane comes the second season of episodes of the animated Spawn. Highly stylized animation and provocative story lines make Spawn a sophisticated cartoon sometimes more appropriate for older audiences. Murder victim Al Simmons has returned from hell to earth as a "hellspawn," a soldier for the army of darkness sent to collect more souls for hell. In these episodes, Spawn meets the man who assassinated him and becomes suspicious of the organization that ordered him killed. Jason Wynn, the leader of the group, plans to sell weapons of mass destruction stolen from the military. Spawn's former wife, Wanda, has since remarried Terry Fitzgerald, with whom Spawn must reconcile. Terry is hot on the trail of the missing arms, and Wynn and his assassins, including the highly trained Merrick, set out to kill Terry, Wanda, and their daughter, Cyan. Spawn foils the plot while realizing the hard truth that Wanda has a new life. --Shannon Gee

Spawn 3: The Ultimate Battle
The third chapter of this compelling HBO miniseries answers a number of questions--namely, who is the omnipotent old man who hides in the shadows and why is the mysterious Asian reporter (Jade) investigating the alley murders? Spawn has reached a crossroads, and he must choose between the forces of darkness and light. But it's not clear-cut: Al (Spawn) must deliberate over the seemingly minor differences that separate heaven and hell in his world. As a former assassin for the NSA, he "opened the eyes of hell" with his iniquitous deeds of depravity; therefore, his journey to hell was preordained. But this particular section of the series intriguingly asks, What if you had no choice, and killing was not just the only way out of a squeeze but was also your fate? Intellectual stuff, indeed. But as with the rest of the series, a profound metaphysical puzzle is brought to the fore without justifying it with an answer. It's frustrating, but also keeps you firmly planted in your chair, pondering conundrum after conundrum. --Jeremy Storey

Out of all the Spawn seasons I've come to like this one the best. This particular season gets much more into the characters and gives them quite a bit more depth. The story lines are very entertianing and interesting.

This particular season has many shifts in overall mood. One moment in shock over seeing someone get torn apart in graphic fashion and the next feeling compassion and pity for the situation Al is in.

The things that knocked this thing down to only 3 stars is: 1. DVD Menu exhibits unusual behavior on my player, a Sony 530D. The menu background loop has to start over before I can pick anything. Very annoying!

2. The sound seems badly mixed. The music is coming through WAY too strong and makes the dialog difficult to hear. I was trying all kinds of different combinations to alleviate that to no avail.

3. OK HBO, what is up with double sided DVD?!? I own numerous other discs, some of them animated like Record of the Lodoss War (highly recommended!) and they put everything on ONE side of the DVD, eliminating the annoyance of flipping it over.

Bottom line, if you're a fan of the series I would recommend it. I would even buy it again if I were to lose the disc. My only issues are that the disc could have been done much better.


Spawn: The Ultimate Video Collection   December 8, 1999
Joey Mills (Springfield, U.S.A.)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful

Excellent collection from the HBO animated series. First selection introduces the audience to the central plot and key characters, as well as setting the tone for the rest of the videos in the package. Second selection picks up where the first leaves off, though seemed to lack the excitement of the first. Third selection brings back the intensity of the first, as well as twisting the plot and bringing it to a climax while leaving us wanting more. Don't necessarily have to be familiar with the "Spawn" story to enjoy this package. Can't wait for the forth season! NOT SUGGESTED FOR CHILDREN UNDER 13!


Extremely Dark Third Season   November 28, 2002
The No Evil Killer (Everywhere, Anywhere, Nowhere)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

The movie was one of the worst I had seen in my life. I did not have high hope for the animated series but I was very much surprised. The dialogue and, bizzarly enough, the acting are a hundred times as good as the film and the plot and characters are also much more intriguing.

This is the third season of Spawn and it just seems to be getting darker and darker. But the one thing I can be sure of from this is that it's going to have one hell of a send-off when the entire story finally climaxes.

I'd start watching this if I were you. But be prepared. The violence is quite graphic and the overall tone of the stories ranges from kiddie fiddlers to satanic demons. Needless to say, it's not a cartoon for kids. It's an animated series for adults.

The DVD is in full screen format, as originally drawn and is in Dolby 2.0 surround.


A Thrilling Conclusion.....   July 24, 2004
Prince Albert
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

Todd McFarlane is a Comic genius. He created one of the best Animated series' in history. This story is great, but it would take too long to tell you the story, there is no easy way to sum it up. The best advice I could give would simply be to NOT buy this until you have seen the 1st two, otherwise, you will hate it, and not understand it.
There is only 1 downfall to this show, it leaves you hanging in a place that makes you beg for more. I was quite upset about it, until I found out T-McFarlane will eventually start on Season 4 (thank God!!). But it is a good buy, and a good addition to all DVD collections (unless you dont have the first two). Dont ever buy the Spawn Live Action Movie!! EVER!!


just average   May 1, 2005
Daddy (NorCal)
4 out of 10 found this review helpful

I give this one an average rating. Why? I hate it when they add asian characters but forget to do the research on their background to make it 'accurate'? I'm japanese, so it's quite obvious that there was HUGE HUGE errors in Jade's character. For one thing Khan is a character out of China. Jade is using Samuri swords from feudal Japan. Completely opposite sides of the wars and cultures during that time period. It's like what us Japanese say about the zen gardens and zen furniture. "I don't remember ever seen that in Japan. Oh wait, it's American".

The Jade character being an mercenary is way to cheezy. The fight between evil and good was ok, but to add a mask of Khan, the chinese Triads, and a samurai warrior from china was way outside of what this could have been.

If you ever watch the makings of animated counter-parts from Japan, you'll realize that the first thing they do is make sure that the character designs and parts of the towns, allies are always based on realism. Ghost in the Shell, they actually flew to Guam (outside Japan) just to practice shooting guns, to see how they work, shoot, see sparks, and do damage. The realism team brought this back and added it to the film.

Spawn 3? Really really blew the factoid on this one. Jade is so way off in regards to her culture country background, and the outfit just doesn't look accurate either. I was really dissapointed by the characters.

However I did like the blond mercenary whom was so well animated and would've passed a character from the Street Fighter II animated film.

Buy Spawn I, but forget about III.