Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (also known as Spider-Man 2003 and MTV Spider-Man) is an American-Canadian animated television series based on the Marvel comic book superhero character Spider-Man, and is a loose continuation of Sam Raimi's 2002 Spider-Man film. The show was made using computer generated imagery (CGI) rendered in cel shading. It ran for only one season of 13 episodes, premiering on July 11, 2003, and was broadcast on cable channels MTV in America and YTV in Canada. The series received mostly positive reviews from critics and audiences, with praise aimed at the voice acting, Neil Patrick Harris' portrayal of Spider-Man, the considerably mature, darker and adult-oriented tone, writing and direction compared to other animated Spider-Man adaptations, the series' potential, quality CGI animation, techno/synthwave-influenced soundtrack, the darker re-imagining and modifications to classic Spider-Man villains (E.G-The Lizard and Electro), though it also received criticism from fans for its divergence from the sequel films to the 2002 film, most notably with the abrupt cliffhanger ending contradicting the events of the 2004 film Spider-Man 2.