Marvel's new Wolverine and the X-Men animated series just aired on YTV in Canada (it's aired as well in Brazil, I believe). My thoughts:
First, the first three episodes are individual episodes that were intended to be shown together as a sort of pilot movie, but YTV just showed the first episode, so it feels a bit incomplete (if you've seen any of the trailers, you'll be waiting for them to get to the other story points shown there).
That said, I thought it was quite good.
Plot: The story skips around in time a bit, beginning with Logan planning to leave the Institute for some reason (which has Jean annoyed with Scott, and Rogue brooding); then, bam, weird explosion, Professor X and Jean Grey go missing. Go ahead a year in time to Logan on his own; he rescues a little girl from a big car wreck, earning the gratitude of the family in question, who take care of him (for people familiar with the comics, this is a really scaled-down version of his healing factor), until their neighbours call in the MRD (Mutant Response Department) led by Col. John Wraith (Michael Ironside, the voice of Darkseid in the DCAU). They don't get Logan, but they arrest the family (mom, dad, little girl; it goes without saying that the little girl bonds with Logan, just like any pre/teen female in his presence does; also notable for this being a multi-racial couple (black dad, white mom), which isn't something you see much in animation) and take them away for torture to find information. Logan returns to the X-Mansion, which is in ruins, with only Beast still there; the two of them spring the family and all the other mutants being held there, but as Beast observes, those cells will just fill up the next day; Logan and Hank decide it's time to bring back the X-Men.
Cast: This is basically just the Logan and Hank show; there's one scene with Rogue, and some minor appearances by the others (there's a semi-superfluous opening scene with Shadowcat, Colossus, and Nightcrawler in the Danger Room).
Cameos: The inmates at the MRD facility include the New Mutants/X-Force castmembers Wolfsbane and Boom Boom, New X-Men Rockslide and Dust (the latter gets a cool action bit), and Pyro.
Thoughts: As I said, this suffers a bit from being split up (there's presumably more backstory in the next two episodes involving why everybody split up after the attack, for example), but it's a fine episode on its own. All the voices are well cast (the guy voicing Beast does a good job, invoking the tone of both George Buza and Kelsey Grammer, albeit his character is a bit jokier then those two), and the animation looks great.
Comparing this to the two previous shows, it's closer to the 90s show in story approach, taking the existence of the X-Men and the characters' histories mainly for granted rather than starting out from scratch (the X-Men don't have an especially compelling or important team origin story anyway, which is why pretty much every adaptation skips the chronological approach).
First, the first three episodes are individual episodes that were intended to be shown together as a sort of pilot movie, but YTV just showed the first episode, so it feels a bit incomplete (if you've seen any of the trailers, you'll be waiting for them to get to the other story points shown there).
That said, I thought it was quite good.
Plot: The story skips around in time a bit, beginning with Logan planning to leave the Institute for some reason (which has Jean annoyed with Scott, and Rogue brooding); then, bam, weird explosion, Professor X and Jean Grey go missing. Go ahead a year in time to Logan on his own; he rescues a little girl from a big car wreck, earning the gratitude of the family in question, who take care of him (for people familiar with the comics, this is a really scaled-down version of his healing factor), until their neighbours call in the MRD (Mutant Response Department) led by Col. John Wraith (Michael Ironside, the voice of Darkseid in the DCAU). They don't get Logan, but they arrest the family (mom, dad, little girl; it goes without saying that the little girl bonds with Logan, just like any pre/teen female in his presence does; also notable for this being a multi-racial couple (black dad, white mom), which isn't something you see much in animation) and take them away for torture to find information. Logan returns to the X-Mansion, which is in ruins, with only Beast still there; the two of them spring the family and all the other mutants being held there, but as Beast observes, those cells will just fill up the next day; Logan and Hank decide it's time to bring back the X-Men.
Cast: This is basically just the Logan and Hank show; there's one scene with Rogue, and some minor appearances by the others (there's a semi-superfluous opening scene with Shadowcat, Colossus, and Nightcrawler in the Danger Room).
Cameos: The inmates at the MRD facility include the New Mutants/X-Force castmembers Wolfsbane and Boom Boom, New X-Men Rockslide and Dust (the latter gets a cool action bit), and Pyro.
Thoughts: As I said, this suffers a bit from being split up (there's presumably more backstory in the next two episodes involving why everybody split up after the attack, for example), but it's a fine episode on its own. All the voices are well cast (the guy voicing Beast does a good job, invoking the tone of both George Buza and Kelsey Grammer, albeit his character is a bit jokier then those two), and the animation looks great.
Comparing this to the two previous shows, it's closer to the 90s show in story approach, taking the existence of the X-Men and the characters' histories mainly for granted rather than starting out from scratch (the X-Men don't have an especially compelling or important team origin story anyway, which is why pretty much every adaptation skips the chronological approach).
