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Dr. Octopus: Armed And Dangerous
Review by Amazing Spidey, Media by Kolbar

Episode #6 - Dr. Octopus: Armed And Dangerous
Original Airdate February 18, 1995

Dr. Otto Octavius is permanently endowed with four mechanical arms after an accident he blames on the Hardy Foundation. Assuming the persona Dr. Octopus, he kidnaps Felicia Hardy, and later J. Jonah Jameson - can Spider-Man save them in time?

Credits
Story By: Stan Lee and Avi Arad
Written By: Brooks Wachtel and Cynthia Harrison
Music Composed By: Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahchi
Animation Services By: Toyko Movie Shinsha (TMS)
Guest Starring: Christopher Daniel Barnes as Spider-Man/ Peter Parker, Ed Asner as J. Jonah Jameson, Linda Gary as Aunt May and Efrem Zimbalist Jr As Dr. Octopus/Otto Octavius
Based On Amazing Spider-Man #13


Review: TMS are masters when it comes to animating Spider-Man, and his villains. It's all good here, especially the scene where Spider-Man dodges and flips out of the way of Doc Ock's tentacles! It was all animated so quickly, and just beautiful. Arguably some of the show's finest animation is found in this episode, and TMS used Doc Ock's arms to thier full extent. The best fight scenes this show ever did are the ones in this episode.

It did a good job introducing Doc Ock for the newer audience, and showed the full extent of his powers, and unlike a lot of his previous incarnations, he was actually motivated to due something with his new-found power. Octavious being Peter's teacher was a unique touch, developed from this series, not adapted from a comic. It developed him that little bit more, in his original appearances, Octopus was a mad scientist, that's not the case here, in this cartoon, he was a very passionate one. A lot of Octavious character came from Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (Alfred from "Batman: The Animated Series") who just nailed him, bang on. No 80's high pitched squeaky voice here.

It was also nice to see Peter Parker do something other than screw up, after he realized there wasn't a lot Spider-Man could do to beat Octavious, he used his head to find out where he was located, and, how to defeat him in the end. Peter was often the subject of some bizarre writing in this show, but he was just as effective out of costume here as he was in costume.

The plot itself greatly added to my enjoyment of the episode. On top of some great animation and fights, the story and characters shined in this episode. Especially Spider-Man's scenes with Robbie and Anastasia Hardy. Although often overlooked, this episode is easily one of the show's best.

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