Monday, March 16, 2009

"The Fight for Justice and Human Acceptance."

Remember the X Men Animated Series? Well I do, and I am excited to say that rumors have begun circulating the net (as well as an official statement from Disney) that the series is going to have a limited test release on DVD to see how the show will do. Disney has the distribution rights since they fully acquired all of Saban’s programming (and with it a lot of random shows, including Power Rangers).

For a comic-book follower of X-Men, this series was nine levels of awesome. The art is based on Jim Lee’s artistic interpretations (especially appearance of the main team). Much of the comic book storyline is featured throughout the run of the series and there were TONS of awesome cameos by non-regular characters whenever the show got the chance. I personally was the most excited when Nightcrawler and Archangel showed up. Also, the Dark Phoenix saga rocks! But let me not get too far off on a tangent here. There is A LOT to say about this show.

X Men had no problem dealing with some pretty intense content for a Saturday morning cartoon. The obvious subjects of racism and discrimination were frequently tackled, along with other alluded topics such as the Holocaust (since Magneto survived it), Christianity, and the AIDS epidemic. Stan Lee said, when interviewed, “It is one of the best selling, if not the best selling, group of comic books in the world, and I think that says something about the fact that people are basically good, and they basically agree that prejudice is bad… And they enjoy what it is we’re saying, of course we’re saying it in a very exciting way but the message is there and they’re getting it…”

In the first episode they had no qualms about killing off Morph, something that rarely occurred in your average Saturday morning cartoon, let alone in the first episode! “Night of the Sentinels” is a fantastic introduction into one of the best animated series to ever run for a Marvel series. They had me hooked when I was a kid and first saw it, and when Darci and I went back and watched my old Pizza Hut tapes (which I got from the Book It Program, remember that?) we were hooked all over again.
The second set of episodes (Enter Magneto and Deadly Reunions) brings us Magneto and his crew of mutants.

Great quotes include:
“I go… where I wanna go!” – Wolverine.
“Pick a card, any card!” – Gambit.
“I hate machines!” – Jubilee.
“Have a seat, sugah.” – Rogue.
“Unidentified mutants…ignore.” – Sentinel.
“Time to blow this joint!” – Jubilee.
“Miss me, Petite? I reckon so.” – Gambit.
“Does a mall babe eat chili fries?” – Jubilee. (I dunno, does one, Jubilee?)
“My trial serves a purpose. It shall prove my innocence, and the righteousness of our cause.” – Beast.
“Are these the people whose laws you trust? They don’t seem to share your sense of brotherhood…Our mutant powers make us superior. THAT is why they fear us!” - Magneto.
"All right, you egg-suckin' piece of gutter trash! You always did like pushin' around people smaller than you! Well I'M smaller! Try pushin' me!" - Wolverine.
"Magnus, your violence will solve nothing. We must use our special gifts to bring peace to mankind." - Charles/Professor X. "You're a fool, Charles! Look at them, they can't even make peace with each other!" - Magneto.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but tanks will never hurt me." - Juggernaut.


And who could forget the epic theme song they had for their introduction? It was a guitar-shredding good time that certainly fit with the early 90’s influences that were fully embedded into the show. That yellow spandex…ugh…lol.

And now, for your enjoyment. The original cartoon opening, and then the two Japanese openings that ran in the early 90s. Heck yeah, nostalgia.
Lady Laura Jones.





3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahh, back when the X-Men's plotline made a modicum of sense... *Sigh* I miss those days, and cannot WAIT until X-Men Forever come out so I can go back to them.

Seriously though, The X-Men really have covertly tackled some serious issues. The Legacy Virus was pretty obviously AIDS, Professor X and Magneto are just analogs for Dr. King and Malcolm X, it's amazing how layered the X-men stories used to be.

Now... it seems like an alien is just an alien. Lame.

Darcy said...

mmm...Jim Lee art...preeety!

Ancillary Art said...

Still waiting for Pirates of Dark Water