:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73223227/XMen97_DisneyPlus_Ringer.0.jpg)
[ad_1]
The Disney+ sequel to ’90s favorite ‘X-Men: The Animated Series’ combines the familiar and the modern in a tasty appetizer to the main course of the X-Men MCU.
The 76-episode series X-Men: The Animated Series ends on a bittersweet note. In the 1997 series finale, “Graduation Day”, Professor Charles Xavier is nearly killed by Henry Gyrich. His only chance to save himself from it is distant alien technology, so he leaves Earth and his beloved X-Men to travel to the far reaches of space. The episode ends with a touching farewell between Xavier and his students (along with Xavier’s old enemy, Magneto), but it’s also an abrupt and suspenseful conclusion to a story that had a long way to go. Xavier’s fate is unresolved, and his dream of coexistence between mutants and humans is left to his X-Men to make it a reality.
X-Men: TAS It had already passed its original expiration date. The iconic series was supposed to end after 65 episodes culminating in a four-part story arc in season four with the return of the series’ biggest villains. The shows Strong ratings and critical praise. earned it an extra track, but the fifth and final season suffered a notable decline in quality when cheaper animation houses took over production due to budget constraints resulting from the bankruptcy of Marvel Entertainment. Still X-Men: TAS still paved the way for 20th Century Fox’s live action X Men film in 2000 and the rise of superhero blockbusters that followed. Without the hit Saturday morning cartoon, the Marvel Cinematic Universe likely would never have existed.
More than 25 years after “Graduation Day” first aired on Fox Kids, X-Men ’97 has arrived on Disney+ to continue where X-Men: TAS Stopped. The first two episodes of the new animated series premiered on Wednesday, and the remainder of the 10-episode season will follow a weekly release schedule. Created by Beau DeMayo, X-Men ’97 features many of the original series’ voice actors in the same or new roles, as well as the return of a trio of creatives (showrunner Eric Lewald, writer Julia Lewald and director Larry Huston) as consultants for a new generation of creators who grew up watching their work. (Most notably DeMayo, who was fired by Marvel Studios just a few weeks before the show’s premiere, for reasons that have not yet been made public). Through this calculated mix of old and new voices, X-Men ’97 recover the spirit of X-Men: TAS at the same time that it imbues it with fresh ideas that take it into the 21st century.
The series premiere, “To Me, My X-Men,” establishes X-Men ’97The delicate combination of nostalgia-driven fan service and a distinctive identity that can stand on its own for a new generation of viewers. It’s been a year since Xavier’s tearful goodbye to his X-Men, and the ongoing conflict between humans and mutants has only intensified. Xavier is presumed dead, Jean Gray and Cyclops are expecting a child, and the anti-mutant humans are stepping up their methods to level the playing field in the evolutionary war. The series premiere reintroduces familiar antagonists from X-Men: TAS such as the Friends of Humanity, who have acquired new technology to hunt mutants, as well as the imprisoned Gyrich, Bolivar Trask and his robot Sentinels, and another Master Mold to boot. Most important of all, Magneto appears at Xavier’s school in the final moments of “To Me, My X-Men” to reveal Xavier’s last will and testament, in which he trusted his school, his fortune, and even his heroic team at the hands of Magneto. .
Aside from the updated version of the original show’s iconic intro and theme song, what immediately stands out is X-Men ’97The new animation style. The sequel series retains much of the look of the world and character designs of the original, but the new animation shines in the show’s impressive action sequences, which are more dynamic and fluid than their predecessors. While some of that improvement comes from advances in animation technology in the more than 30 years since X-Men: TAS premiered in 1992, the most integral reason is that the production of the new series was not limited to the tight budgets and deadlines that X-Men: TAS had to overcome. Like Houston recently said Variety: “When we did our show, we did the best we could with the money we had. But in this current show they have Disney money. “Disney money makes things really good.”
In the first two episodes, X-Men ’97 It also innovates by deploying the familiar X-Men abilities in creative and refreshing ways. Cyclops uses the force of his optic blasts to alter his momentum, allowing him to slide his entire body to avoid his enemies or prepare for falls from great heights. Storm’s weather-controlling powers are conveyed more vividly than ever on screen, showcasing her nearly limitless potential as one of the most powerful mutants on the planet. (And she still narrates dramatically all of his moves in advance as well.) Morph seamlessly transforms mid-combat into various heroes and villains, including Blob, Colossus, and Psylocke, producing a crowd-pleasing confluence of practicality and fan service. Gambit charges Wolverine’s adamantium claws with his kinetic energy for an inspired and devastating combination.
Courtesy of Marvel Animation
There are also new characters to the series, such as Roberto da Costa (aka Sunspot), whose introduction to the X-Men parallels Jubilee’s experience in X-Men: TAS: They are both rebellious but insecure teenagers who are still discovering the nature of their powers. And there’s baby Nathan Summers, whose birth in episode 2, “Mutant Liberation Begins,” sets up his evolution into the time-traveling mutant Cable, who was a recurring character in the original series (and who was played by Josh Brolin in the Fox live series). -action Deadpool 2).
For everything new and different in X-Men ’97, the series is shaping up to be a strong resurgence thanks in large part to how closely it follows its predecessors’ playbook. According Variety, director Jake Castorena used some of Huston’s original storyboards during the production process, allowing the new series to include scenes that had been previously cut. And, fundamentally, X-Men ’97 follows the same model of adapting (and sometimes refining) comics’ stories and character designs, drawing on decades of new material. “Mutant Liberation Begins” loosely adapts the “Trial of Magneto” story arc from amazing x-men No. 200even borrowing Magneto’s sleeveless purple suit, and works into plot points from previous comics that introduced Storm’s loss of powers. As the second episode ends, a distraught Jean Gray doppelgänger arrives at the door of the X-Mansion, marking the beginning of another famous arc that has sinister implications for episodes to come.
Given the fundamental role that X-Men: TAS It played as a turning point for Marvel at a time when the company was struggling financially and superheroes were still relegated to the margins of popular culture. X-Men ’97 It was never going to be able to match the enormous impact of its predecessor. But the new series doesn’t have to be like that. Throughout its first two episodes, X-Men ’97 has proven more than worthy of continuing the unfinished story of the original series and building on its legacy in an era where superheroes are ubiquitous. As Marvel Studios gets ready To finally bring the In their sandbox outside the MCU’s Sacred Timeline, X-Men ’97 honors the legendary superhero team’s past and makes room for its future.