Movie:
Disc:
With
the movie franchise now into its fourth film and Hugh Jackman bestriding
the Earth like a colossus, it's hard to remember a time when the
X-Men weren't pop culture staples. But back in
the early 1990s, things were much different for Marvel's Merry Mutants.
Comic book aficionados knew them and loved them of course, but the man on
the street couldn't tell Wolverine from Emma Frost if his life depended on
it.
The X-Men cartoon from that era
constitutes the first real attempt to break the characters into the
mainstream. It suffers from poor voice acting, clunky animation and far
too many characters for its own good, but fans at the time must have seen
it as manna from heaven. Volumes 3 and 4 of the series - representing the
last half of Season 3 and the first half of Season 4 - are being released
to coincide with the Wolverine DVD. They
encompass a good cross-section of the show, highlighting both its
interesting strengths and copious weaknesses all too well.
The best thing that can be said is that it remains
extremely loyal to the comics. The animation style is enthusiastically
busy, with lots of ink work and details that look like they sprang right
off the page. The storylines, too, stick very close to the source, though
newcomers may find themselves overwhelmed by the Byzantine plotlines.
Volumes 3 and 4 cover a number of notable arcs, particularly the Dark
Phoenix saga - considered by many to be the pinnacle of the
X-Men franchise - the Age of Apocalypse and
the Proteus storyline. The accuracy and attention to detail is impressive,
both in the physical look and in the respect it shows for its roots. (Some
of the episodes even cite Chris Claremont -longtime writer of the X-Men
comics - in their opening credits.)
The difficulty starts when X-Men tries to be
entertaining in and of itself. Though visually impressive, the animation
suffers from a herky-jerky quality that renders the action awkward in the
extreme. The dialogue and delivery are even worse, marred by poor
screenwriting which assumes that kids' shows should be vapid and dumb
because the target audience doesn't know any better.
Eight principle characters form the core of the team -
Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, Jean Grey, Storm, Gambit, Rogue and Jubilee -
along with Professor X himself and a staggering list of guest stars such
as Cable and Nightcrawler. That's a lot of superheroes to pack into half
an hour, and X-Men proves incapable of juggling them in an elegant
fashion. When coupled with the show's other flaws, it makes the experience
of watching it an exercise in frustration.
X-Men's real problem comes in comparison to the
heroes' current cartoon incarnation -Wolverine and the X-Men -
which proves demonstrably superior in every conceivable way. X-Men
was the trendsetter, but Wolverine has the advantage of a more
sophisticated environment for children's programming. Considering that
such alternatives are available, the older series functions best as a
nostalgic throwback rather than for any legitimate sense of enjoyment on
its own.
THE DISC: A nice transfer and plentiful episodes
on each disc make up for the noticeable lack of extras. Volume 3 contains
15 half-hour installations, Volume 4 contains 14 . . . and neither has
anything else worth mentioning. The image is decent, however - retaining
the original 1.33:1 ratio and allowing a good long look at the show's
compositional details - while the comparatively inexpensive price makes up
for the threadbare content.
WORTH IT? X-Men
fans should appreciate the devotion to the source comics, while those who
grew up in the early 1990s may enjoy the trip down memory lane. Anyone
else is likely to be disappointed by the generally shabby quality of the
show.
RECOMMENDATION: If you're the type who rushed out
to buy Volumes 1 and 2, you'd be well served picking up the next two
editions. More casual X-Men fans or those interested in better
entertainment value for their dollar should wait for Wolverine and the
X-Men to appear on DVD. It features the same characters delivered in a
much better fashion.
- Rob Vaux
