I didn't remember it too well because it's been such a long time, but I agree. They jumped right into a complex arc right off the bat, and I'm really impressed with it. I've watched about 5 episodes so far.
90s 'X-Men' cartoon on DVD today
- Thread starter Brikar99
- Start date
I didn't remember it too well because it's been such a long time, but I agree. They jumped right into a complex arc right off the bat, and I'm really impressed with it. I've watched about 5 episodes so far.
Awesome. I remember loving this show when I was younger. I may have to pick these up. I'm curious how well they've held up.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
I like them both.
My impression is:
Transfer Quality: pretty good. Less "interlacing" problems than I've come to expect from animation transfers.
Actual Animation quality: fair. Good character designs, decent animation (a lot smoother than Exo Squad, for example) but they paid for it with VERY rough backgrounds with little detail.
Story writing and dialogue: pretty good. Mature in places, but not graphic.
Voice cast: good to excellent. I particularly liked that the voice actors took pains to make their portayals "sound natural" as opposed to the more stilted performances in Exo Squad.
Okay, here's a random question for anyone with an answer:
I'm watching "Days of Future Past" right now, and Bishop just told the X-Men that one of them is the assassin. Jean Grey responds that it's possible, and she says, "I've had my dark days, or have you forgotten?"
I vaguely remember this line from when I was a kid, and I think I always assumed she was talking about her time as the Dark Phoenix. However, now that I'm watching these episodes in order, I'm seeing that this actually takes place BEFORE the Dark Phoenix Saga. So...what "dark days" is she referring to?
I'm watching "Days of Future Past" right now, and Bishop just told the X-Men that one of them is the assassin. Jean Grey responds that it's possible, and she says, "I've had my dark days, or have you forgotten?"
I vaguely remember this line from when I was a kid, and I think I always assumed she was talking about her time as the Dark Phoenix. However, now that I'm watching these episodes in order, I'm seeing that this actually takes place BEFORE the Dark Phoenix Saga. So...what "dark days" is she referring to?
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
In universe I have no explination. In reality, it was supposed to be a "nod" to Dark Phoenix that they either forgot or decided to ignore when they wrote the animated version of the story 2 seasons later.
^Like I said, I think there was a change of producers after the first season, so there were some tweaks in how they were approaching the continuity. Characters and story threads that were just casually referenced in the first season (like Cable and some of the background mutants in the Genosha labor camp) got reinterpreted to a more comics-faithful form in later seasons, even at the risk of creating slight continuity errors. So maybe the first-season producers intended merely to allude to the Phoenix Saga as something from Jean's past, but their successors decided to tell the story directly.
Another refreshing change the new producers made was to abandon the first-season tendency to have the characters perpetually refer to one another only by their code names. I have always been annoyed by the scene at the end of the first-season finale:
SCOTT: "Jean, will you marry me?"
JEAN: "Ohh, Cyclops!"
The man she loves has just proposed marriage, and she calls him by his cumbersome and vaguely insulting codename rather than using "Scott"?!
Another refreshing change the new producers made was to abandon the first-season tendency to have the characters perpetually refer to one another only by their code names. I have always been annoyed by the scene at the end of the first-season finale:
SCOTT: "Jean, will you marry me?"
JEAN: "Ohh, Cyclops!"
The man she loves has just proposed marriage, and she calls him by his cumbersome and vaguely insulting codename rather than using "Scott"?!
I partly agree. I probably wouldn't have if I didn't catch eps. of this show last night on a Disney network.
I do find the interpretation of Storm very melodramatic, while the animation & dialog is a little sloppy in places. I had to laugh at the bad perspective in one shot. Cyclops' hand was bigger than his head.
I'm also disappointed that after all these years, they've never cleaned up an animation cell mistake in the "Cold Comfort" ep.However, after all is said and done this show is still a classic. So yes dispite it's flaws, it's still one of the better comicbook cartoons to date and I will be buying it.
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Another refreshing change the new producers made was to abandon the first-season tendency to have the characters perpetually refer to one another only by their code names. I have always been annoyed by the scene at the end of the first-season finale:
SCOTT: "Jean, will you marry me?"
JEAN: "Ohh, Cyclops!"
The man she loves has just proposed marriage, and she calls him by his cumbersome and vaguely insulting codename rather than using "Scott"?!
Haha I noticed this during the Morlock episode on the first disc. It really stands out as being utterly bizarre.
S
Stone_Cold_Sisko
Guest
Fun show as a kid. Actually kind of vastly overrated nowadays by online fans, I'm surprised at how cheesy or terrible everything is, but eh that's what being a kid is all about. Batman TAS otoh still holds up now, a little jerky early animation aside.
Absolutely, "Batman" rocks!
Ahh, I love this show flaws and all. I'm probably the only one who thinks this, but I actually prefer the 'sloppy' animation style to the overly clean 'Spider-man' style. And I don't mind the melodrama.
But I am glad they allowed them to use their first names after the first season.
You are not of the body! You will be absorbed.
One might retcon it to mean that Jean's had some control issues in the past...
You dare mock the all-seeing glowing eyes of the mistress of the elements!! Lightning, cast down vengeance upon this heretic!!
Well said.
But I am glad they allowed them to use their first names after the first season.
You are not of the body! You will be absorbed.
One might retcon it to mean that Jean's had some control issues in the past...
I do find the interpretation of Storm very melodramatic, while the animation & dialog is a little sloppy in places. I had to laugh at the bad perspective in one shot. Cyclops' hand was bigger than his head.
You dare mock the all-seeing glowing eyes of the mistress of the elements!! Lightning, cast down vengeance upon this heretic!!
Well said.
Thanks for the heads up
Didn't know this came out, sounds good.
Now if only the animated Spider-Man show can be released. Or did that come out already and I don't know about it either?
My only problem with this show was that they didn't do enough Cable episodes.
Of course not! They were on a broadcast network, not cable!
I didn't care for the way they handled Cable, and I didn't care for the character anyway -- too much an example of the overmuscled, overviolent antiheroes that dominated comics in the '80s and '90s. His portrayal was inconsistent, I think because the show underwent a producer change after the first season and some things were tweaked to make them truer to the comics. When he first appeared in the initial Genosha arc, he was just some guy who happened to be around, a mercenary with a big futuristic gun. When he appeared again later on, suddenly he was a time traveller from the future, and his presence in the first-season Genosha storyline was never explained.
I actually got into Cable in one of his later incarnations, when they'd actually given him some depth and purpose. I agree his portrayal on the cartoon wasn't that great, but then the show always had trouble with any kind of subtlety.
They started releasing these on R2 last year and then suddenly stopped after volume 2.
Just had a quick check and it looks as though the releases have resumed. Season 2 is currently available. No announcement, they've just snuck that one in under the radar. Hurrah though!
Just had a quick check and it looks as though the releases have resumed. Season 2 is currently available. No announcement, they've just snuck that one in under the radar. Hurrah though!
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
My only problem with this show was that they didn't do enough Cable episodes.
Of course not! They were on a broadcast network, not cable!
I didn't care for the way they handled Cable, and I didn't care for the character anyway -- too much an example of the overmuscled, overviolent antiheroes that dominated comics in the '80s and '90s. His portrayal was inconsistent, I think because the show underwent a producer change after the first season and some things were tweaked to make them truer to the comics. When he first appeared in the initial Genosha arc, he was just some guy who happened to be around, a mercenary with a big futuristic gun. When he appeared again later on, suddenly he was a time traveller from the future, and his presence in the first-season Genosha storyline was never explained.
I actually got into Cable in one of his later incarnations, when they'd actually given him some depth and purpose. I agree his portrayal on the cartoon wasn't that great, but then the show always had trouble with any kind of subtlety.
There isn't really anything about his S1 portrayal that rings false if you stop and think about it. Cable often worked under the "cover" of being a merc in the comics. I just assumed that he was in Genosha for his own reasons and that pretending to work for and then turning on The Leader was part of whatever plan he had going on.
That was the beauty of Cable as a character when he was written right. You could never assume you knew what he was really doing or why.
I watched the "Phoenix Saga"; having read the original story, I think the animated show does it better (also, having the benefit of hindsight, they come up with a coherent explanation for what the Phoenix Force is; having it be the guardian of the M'Kraan Crystal is a great idea).
