Film: B-

The second time the X-Men saw anything other than the pages of a Marvel comic book was in 1992 on Fox Saturday mornings. Let us fondly remember the half hour 1989 X-Men special, Pryde of the X-Men as the first. [Pause for silence.] Marvel’s second attempt was a noble and modest attempt at trying to bring Marvel’s convoluted and complex mutant saga to television. In many ways they succeeded.

What was enjoyable out of the series was the dark and heavy tone, and the timely stories that reflected many classic X-Men stories such as The Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past, and Storm and the Morlocks. It also reflected the X-Men stories that were running through the comics that were being released at the time. Characters like Cable, Bishop, Omega Red and their relevant stories like the Legacy Virus and the Phalanx Covenant found their way on TV eventually. It was a fun time to be an X-Men fan both as a reader and a TV watcher. Stand-alone episodes like “Mojovision” worked as a distraction to an otherwise heavy series and it never strayed away from the relationships, the outer space stories, or the X-Men Traitor subplot. Give it credit, it wasn’t dumbed down to a younger audience by any means.

The animated series did a better of developing the characters than any of the movies which were all made to make Wolverine (and Magneto) look like bad mothers and succeeded in doing so, but so many of the other characters are given any real justice. Here, Storm actually looked and acted like the regal character that she is, The Dark Phoenix Saga actually worked in this format. And I think this was the first time I really felt Mystique was properly handled, and became the template for her movie counterpart.

But X-Men’s animation style left much to be desired. Everyone had hulking bodies, blocky shading, muted colors, but everything did work together somehow. The voice acting was hit or miss. Rogue was downright over-the-top at times, Gambit was laughable, but Beast, Wolverine, and many of the villains like Mr. Sinister and Apocalypse were dead on. One final thing I despised about the series was that terrible theme song. It’s as if it was put together with no thought and sounded as if it were put together on a cheap electronic Casio keyboard. What happened to the jazzy, finger-snapping, and catchy tunes of the 60’s Marvel cartoons? X-Men’s theme is embarassing, compounded even more when you compare the X-Men series with what the WB was doing with Batman: The Animated Series at the time. No contest.

The series’ strength is in the storytelling and extracting the classic X-Men stories in grand fashion. The first two volumes (of four) have been released and run through the middle of the third season with the Dark Phoenix Saga.

Volume 1 (391 minutes)
Disc 1
Night of the Sentinels (Part 1)
Night of the Sentinels (Part 2)
Enter Magneto
Deadly Reunions
Captive Hearts
Cold Vengeance
Slave Island
The Unstoppable Juggernaut

Disc 2
The Cure
Come the Apocalypse
Days of Future Past (Part 1)
Days of Future Past (Past 2)
The Final Decision
Till Death Do Us Part (Part 1)
Till Death Do Us Part (Part 2)
Whatever It Takes

Volume 2 (368 Minutes)
Disc 1
Red Dawn
Repo Man
X-Ternally Yours
Time Fugitives (Part 1)
Time Fugitives (Part 2)
A Rogue’s Tale
Beauty & The BEast
Mojovision

Disc 2
Reunion (Part 1)
Reunion (Part 2)
Out of the Past (Part 1)
Out of the Past (Part 2)
The Phoenix Saga (Part 1)
The Phoenix Saga (Part 2)
The Phoenix Saga (Part 3)
The Phoenix Saga (Part 4)
The Phoenix Saga (Part 5)

Video: B-
Both X-Men volumes comes in a standard definition MPEG-2 video transfer in their original 1.33:1 full screen aspect ratio. There’s nothing bad here but nothing spectacular either. It’s saturday morning affair, but the colors are bright, contrast ratio is acceptable, and all around solid for throwing into your portable laptop or an up-converting blu-ray player.

Audio: B-
Nothing major has been done to the audio department except for preserving the original Dolby Digital Surround 2.0 soundtrack. There’s some nice left to right and right to left effects, but is what you expect out of a television show from the 90’s.

Extras: D-
Outside of trailers for the new Sony 3-D animated film, G-Force, Monsters Inc., The Black Cauldron, Morning Light, and Lost Season 4 on blu-ray there’s absolutely nothing of extra value which is a waste. I’m not expecting any commentaries but perhaps some small feature on working with the editors/writers of the comics at the time would have been nice. Perhaps some interviews with the creators who had some of their stories tapped for the television series could have been put together. It’s disappointing and lazy but it’s the best we’ll get.

Overall Shock Value: C+
If you can overlook the style choices, the 90’s X-Men cartoons still put forth a faithful and likable series. The stories built on one another, the effort felt epic, and outside of reading 40 years worth of comics, this is a good an X-Men experience as any. For longtime X-Men readers this was a great supplement, but I wonder how many new comic readers came out of this series. The usual dark and barrage of characters were hardly inviting to new audiences. But forget new readers, this series was for fanboys who eagerly awaited for their favorite characters to have their own spotlight (Alpha Flight anyone, or the Juggernaut; before he was hilariously bastardized on the internet). Depending on how deep your love for the X-Men goes, warts and all, the X-Men Animated Series on DVD is an affordable must-have for Marvel Mutant Zombies and DCU Haters.

Ernie Estrella