Title: X-Men [TV series] Volumes 1 and 2
Format: DVD
Producers: Marvel Entertainment and Saban Entertainment
Review by: John Gustafson
For anyone who watched Saturday morning cartoons during the early 1990s, the X-Men theme song is easily recognizable and adored for its mixture of bombastic synthesizers and orchestral arrangements, rousing young viewers from their cereal comas for some of the best animated programming of its time.
Debuting in 1992 on the Fox Network, X-Men ushered in a new era for Saturday morning cartoons with its ever-faithful representation of the popular characters and the mature story lines ripped right from the comics themselves. Along with Batman: The Animated Series, X-Men shared extremely high ratings and critical reception, praising its sophistication of story and animation.
What was certainly most special about this series was the level of reverence and respect shown toward the source material. All character designs were from Jim Lee’s pencils, and plot elements were taken from the pages to the screen with minor tweaks for a younger audience and time constraints. The main team from the comics – Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, Beast and Jubilee – felt like its print counterpart with little compromises…well except for Wolverine. Sadly, he couldn’t go around stabbing people while kids clutched their action figures. Comic fans were able to gush over ancillary character cameos like Nightcrawler, Colossus, Bishop, Cable, Iceman and a plethora of others. There was something and someone for everyone to enjoy.
The stories themselves were also notable for their context and maturity. The same heavy issues the books dealt with, and continue to do today, were ever-present and never sacrificed. X-Men was never shy about the main elements of racism, intolerance, social prejudice, AIDS (Legacy Virus), death, sacrifice, family violence and violence at large. Direct comparisons can be made between the show and the books themselves, and very little is different.
From a technical standpoint, the show was very well animated and vibrant for its time with large action sequences paired with intimate talking scenes. It looked like the pages from the books in animated form, and was all the better for it. Today, the animation is notably slower than present shows, but there is a nostalgic charm to how it all plays out. It is, however, an injustice to the show that very little has been done to update the visual fidelity for HD televisions and the digital world. There is a notable grain to the picture on high-definition screens that the typical standard-definition show will have despite an upscaling DVD player or Blu-ray player. The colors and black levels could use a nice once-over to increase their contrast as the intensity is dulled. Overall though, the picture is entirely watchable.
As for DVD extras…there are none. Besides Dolby Digital Surround Sound, subtitles for French and Spanish, and a ton of trailers for Disney shows and movies, there is nothing else. A retrospective piece on the impact the show had would have been simple enough. Or something about how the show brought a level of cultural awareness of the X-Men to the greater public in ways that had never before been achieved. Without this show, Batman and the Spider-Man animated show, the movie industry might not be populated with the major comic films it has today.
Additionally, for continuity buffs and those interested, the first two volumes of the DVD release are a collection of the first two seasons in addition to the first seven episodes from the third season. That rounds out to 33 episodes in two volumes.
X-Men was released in two volumes by Buena Vista Home Entertainment on April 28.
