Re: Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel Universe on DXD
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Disney XD's Marvel Universe block would seem to be Marvel's equivalent to the DC Nation block on Cartoon Network.
I don't know how good an idea it was scheduling MU on Sunday afternoons; it's OK in households where each family member has their own TV, but in the ones where people have to share sets, that could be a problem. After all, Dad isn't going to switch off the big game because Junior wants to watch Spider-Man.
I'm pretty sure Disney doesn't want MU to become another case like Nickelodeon's SLAM! For those who don't remember that, SLAM! was an attempt by Nickelodeon to have their own Toonami style action cartoon block, but it ran on Sunday afternoons and thus was largely ignored by viewers and died a prompt death.
Mind you, the Marvel properties carry much more clout than Super Duper Sumos or Butt Ugly Martians, but still, I can't help but feel that the Mouse House could've landed a more desirable time slot for Marvel Universe.
Re: Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel Universe on DXD
[In reply to]
I'm willing to cut CN and Nick some slack about jetisoning action cartoons to Saturday mornings because they have on a bit of prime time to work with. But DXD is 24/7 and has all of prime time every night so premieres on a Sunday morning are inexcusable.
Disney has no high profile premieres on Saturday night so they could have put it there without affecting their Friday and Sunday prime time and Tuesday - Thursday don't have much going on either.
It really goes to show how little interest Disney has in the Marvel library.
But I suppose it is good they didn't go with 11 am on Saturday because Korra will air then. Then again Korra might have an encore at 11 on Sunday.
Re: Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel Universe on DXD
[In reply to]
I think the Sunday morning will the great timing for the cartoon or the Disney show. This is peak time where all the kids are free and active to watch it.
Re: Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel Universe on DXD
[In reply to]
In Reply To
I think the Sunday morning will the great timing for the cartoon or the Disney show. This is peak time where all the kids are free and active to watch it.
There's a HUGE reason why Sunday morning is hardly a peak viewing time. That reason is called church. Many families attend religious services on Sunday mornings, which makes SunAM a very bad time to premiere a kids cartoon block. Keep in mind also that Sunday afternoons is the main time for televised sports and sports related programming. MU at 11AM Sundays is fine for the households in which every member of the family has his/her own TV, but not so much for the households where only the main TV is wired for cable/satellite. Dad's not going to switch off the big game so that Junior can watch Ultimate Spider Man.
Honestly, Disney XD could premiere Marvel Universe at a much better time than Sundays at 11AM. The only reason I can see why DXD doesn't run the MU premieres at night is because the network doesn't want MU competing with the other premieres on Disney Channel.
Does anyone remember SLAM? SLAM was Nickelodeon's attempt to have their own equivalent to Cartoon Network's Toonami. This itself wasn't an inherently bad idea, however, it was a bad idea running the block on Sunday afternoons. No one saw the block and consequently it disappeared in less than a year.
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Procrastinators unite....tomorrow.
(This post was edited by SpaceDemon on Apr 12, 2012, 7:09 AM)
Re: Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel Universe on DXD
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Just going to copy my post from Toon Zone regarding last week's episode, "Doomed":
Having finally seen this show after missing the initial 2 installments, I guess I'm in the minority among viewers in that I actually didn't mind the show's wacky, zany, nutty humor; I love comedy, especially zany comedy, so that didn't bother me (they could have trimmed down the cutaways and asides to the audience, but other than that, no complaints about the silliness). What did bother me about Ultimate Spider-Man was how I didn't find any of the characters especially compelling or likable. Iron Fist had a couple of good lines, but he seemed under-utilized, Luke Cage/Power Man was kind of just there, and Spider-Man himself, Nova and White Tiger were just annoying. (I'm normally in favor of strong female characters, but I would've enjoyed WT a lot more if 95% of her dialogue wasn't her insulting the boys at every turn).
Super Hero Squad was a very silly show, but I found the lighter SHS characters to be funny and entertaining. One a semi-related note, the more realistic designs of USM seemed to jarringly contrast with the goofy humor and lighter tone. Perhaps the artists should have gone with a simpler more cartoonish design for this show.
It's a shame, because if you made the lead characters more appealing, had the kids getting along instead of being at each others' throats all the time and toned down the 'meta' jokes and references, this is the kind of show I could see a DC's Super Best Friends Forever (the Lauren Faust directed shorts on DC Nation starring Supergirl, Wonder Girl and Batgirl) series being like.
Re: Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel Universe on DXD
[In reply to]
Having just recently seen The Avengers in the theater this past Friday (loved it, BTW), it's just recently dawned on me what's been bugging me about the teen team that Spider-Man's been placed on for this show:
It's their powers. They're all too similar.
Spidey's powers: acrobatics and web shooting White Tiger's powers: acrobatics and claws Luke Cage's powers: strength and melee brawling Iron Fist's powers: martial arts and the Iron Fist technique
It's the same problem I had with main cast in the Spider-Man & Friends book series with Spider-Man, Spider-Girl, Captain America and Hulk: too many physical brawlers and no other hero types: no techies, no elementals, no magic users, no ferals, etc. Nova, while his character is somewhat grating, at least brings something different to the table power-wise with his flight and energy blasts. It's just not enough of a mix. (Also for a Five Man Band I would've gone with 3 boys and 2 girls instead of 4 boys and 1 girl.)
Also, last week's Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes episode "To Steal an Ant-Man" featured the more familiar adult versions of Luke Cage and Iron Fist (proving conclusively that A:EMH and USM aren't connected), which only served to show what an odd choice it was to turn Power Man and Iron Fist into teens for USM. It's not like there weren't any other teenage Marvel heroes they could've used for this show: they could have selected any of the New Warriors or some obscure mutant character they have lying around, there are plenty of those. Heck, I would've gone with Firestar before White Tiger; it would've been a nice homage to Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, Angelica would've brought something different to the table and it would've meant not having to listen to Aya's gravely voice.
