(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from X-Men: Evolution)
Doug (vo): So for the longest time, I avoided X-Men: Evolution, because I got the feeling it was trying to mix the X-Men comic and cartoon show with the X-Men movies. And I like the X-Men movies okay, but I thought they should stay there, 'cause, you know, they’re trying to make it more adult and grounded, and that's not what I wanted out of X-Men. I, of course, love the adult themes, but I wanted to go big and epic, and that's not really what the movies were. They tried to be, but they were too busy saying yellow spandex was silly. So, eh, I guess we're gonna lean away from it being, you know, comic booky. Why would I want that in a comic book show? You get where I'm coming from. But after a ton of people told me it was really, really good and it's also where X-23 came from, I had to check it out. Come on, it’s become, like, a big character. It’d be like not watching Batman: The Animated Series when you find out Harley Quinn is from there. So I finally sat through every single episode, and...yeah, people were pretty right. This is really, really, pretty damn good. As good as the original animated series? Eh, that's where it gets a little complicated. The setup is a little strange, but honestly kind of clever when you think about it.
Premise[]
Doug (vo): It takes place very clearly in the early 2000s. Yeah, that style sometimes does get in the way. All throughout the series, they have these edits where it just suddenly cuts to black and white, and shots you just saw with sound effects, and then back to the story. There is no reason for it, it just exists because the early 2000s did it. Mutants are just starting to be found out. Honestly, it's kind of like a big secret, some people know, some don't, and, yeah, it's a little hard to believe when you see just how damn many there are, but you give it a little leeway. Some mutant teams are brought into the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, and others are being manipulated by a school principal who’s secretly Mystique in disguise, trying to get the strongest and baddest to join the army of Magneto, who, you guessed it, sees humanity as a threat and must be destroyed. Xavier has a few teachers at his school, including Wolverine and Storm, and plenty of students including Cyclops, Jean, Nightcrawler, Kitty, Rogue, Spike, the list goes on.
Review[]
Doug (vo): One of the interesting things is while, yes, Xavier does have a school, it's mainly for mutants and it's mainly just teaching them about their powers. The kids still do go to a regular school where they not only have to interact with humans, but also the bad mutants, the ones that Mystique is trying to make an army out of. And at first, I really didn't like the idea of making them younger again. Something about Cyclops being a kid and Wolverine being an adult, I mean, I know it's already a big age difference in the comics, but I felt like they should both be grown-ups butting heads. But what the show reminded me is that, honestly, high school life can be very interesting. That was the initial idea of X-Men. It was young people who had these powers, and they were outcasts, and, yeah, high school is a perfect place to really explore this. I feel like a lot of teens can see this and really sympathize, hell, a lot of adults can see this and sympathize. remembering what it was like to be a teen. It actually kind of captures it pretty well.
(Footage focusing on Rogue is shown, along with clips of her from the original animated series)
Doug (vo): The powers only enhance the drama the characters are going through. Rogue, by far, has some of the most dramatic stuff in all of the show. Something they add in there...which, yes, was part of the character, but not really explored that much...is that when she sucks out a person's powers and abilities and energy and stuff, she gets their memories, too. And in one episode, she loses control and just starts changing into all the people she's ever touched. That is so goddamn clever. That's like commentary out of a monster movie, 'cause you can read a lot into that. When you mentally and physically get too close to someone, you kind of take on their identity or searching for identity or becoming different people, trying to find yourself. But the show doesn't hammer it in, either. It kind of has all these themes and ideas that you can read into, but never straight up says, “We're saying this”. I like they kind of work in there's a reason she's called Rogue. Like, at first, she doesn't know if she wants to join the bad guys or the good guys, and sometimes, she'll change sides, and I really thought I wasn't gonna like her because they took away the flying and the super strength and the cheerful personality. I mean, that's Rogue to me. But, yes, this does definitely hearken back to her earlier days, and I kind of forgot how much you can do with her just sucking out a person's energy and powers, like, not being able to touch anyone, that's enough. I knew the show was working where she has to interact with Mystique as a statue, and I won't go into spoilers, but I legitimately gasped when I saw what they did. I always say anything that gets me to gasp is doing something really right.
(Footage focusing on Nightcrawler is shown)
Doug (vo): But the show also has some really good humor. I like seeing all these characters interact off each other. Nightcrawler is probably the most likable I've ever seen him outside of the comics. I guess in movies and the animated series, you couldn't really have that much time with him, so his really likable personality couldn't rub off as much. But here, he's one of the main leads and he is impossible not to enjoy. He is just so upbeat and fun. He gets in trouble, but he's not a brat, he's always looking on the bright side of stuff, even when things are going to shit, and it's really infectious.
(Footage focusing on Cyclops and Jean is shown)
Doug (vo): Most of the characters are like that. Even if you start off not enjoying them that much, you eventually will. I was shocked how invested I was getting with Cyclops and Jean, two of the most boring characters I never got into in X-Men. But I really like how Jean is always trying to find the peaceful path, and sometimes, it works, sometimes, it doesn't, but she always gives it a shot. She always wants to talk it out and she's good at it, but she has her limits, too. I also really like seeing Cyclops grow. I feel like they were trying to do this in X-Men: Apocalypse, where they have them kind of like this badass rogue, like, “Oh, I don't play part of the team, whatever”. But there, that made no sense, because it's just a movie. In a show, you can really explore this, and it is fun seeing him be kind of this cocky, know-it-all jock who eventually overtime has to learn some real responsibility and become a leader. I really love when he finally does start butting heads with Wolverine, and, yeah, you feel this definite change and you kind of see, “Oh, like, this does kind of make sense”, and you see where this rivalry kind of started. And they do have different ways of going about things and you see where they come from.
(Various footage is shown, primarily focusing on Wolverine, Storm and the side characters)
Doug (vo): With that said, there are a few characters that are weirdly kind of sidelined. Okay, not weirdly 'cause any character is sidelined, there's a lot of characters, but I bizarrely felt Wolverine and Storm didn't get much attention. Like, they're there and they'll get an occasional episode about them, but compared to other shows, movies and comics, I didn't feel like they got a ton of attention. But in a weird way, that's kind of refreshing. It's not like we're short of Wolverine material. (The poster for Wolverine and the X-Men is shown) There is literally a show called Wolverine and the X-Men. I really like we're focusing more on these side characters. Oh, my God, I totally forgot Boom Boom was a thing. Hell, I forgot X-Force even existed. And it's really fun seeing these characters interact off each other. At first, I thought I was really gonna get turned off by the constant love triangles and people just kind of flip-flopping from one mate to another, but then again, that is kind of high school. They'll kind of put two random characters together you wouldn't think would go together, and, yeah, you're right, they don't. But they're very clever at not dwelling on it too long and just showing the interesting stuff. Sometimes, when a young couple breaks up, it can be heartbreaking, but other times, it's like, “Yeah, no, didn't work, I'm on to the next person already”, and it's surprisingly believable.
(Footage focusing on the villains is shown)
Doug (vo): The villains are also a lot of fun. I really love the Brotherhood, it's kind of like a frat house and they mess up everything and they're legitimately pretty funny. Mystique as a principal, at first, I really didn't like, but then again, the more I thought about it, it does make sense. This is not a bad way to get a lot of impressionable young mutants together to exploit them for your own evil deeds. And Magneto is legit kind of creepy in this. Whenever he shows up and you don't see his face and you hear that deep, booming voice, it's rather intimidating.
(Various footage is shown, primarily focusing on Nick Fury)
Doug (vo): Some of the voices start off a little shaky. Like, I remember Kitty Pryde kind of sounded a little weird and Xavier sounded a little weird, but as time goes on, they do get better. Some characters I feel like they just didn't know what to do with after a while. Like, Spike is kind of tossed out of the X-Men after a while, which is weird, he's been there for several seasons. This is some of the earlier Marvel media to actually use an expanded universe, you actually do get to see Nick Fury in this and S.H.I.E.L.D and some of this other stuff that you don't really see outside of the comics, but nowadays, everybody knows what they are.
(While various footage continues to show, a good chunk focuses on X-23)
Doug (vo): Now with all that said, this sounds like this would be ten times better than the original animated series, and, well...it-it's close, it is different. It's kind of like comparing Batman Begins to Batman. One definitely takes much more time to dive into the psychological and the details of what the characters are going through, but it does kind of lose that epic size. When X-23 shows up, for example, it's a great setup, and, man, she's like this clone of Wolverine and she's like this little kid and she's going back and forth between she wants to be a little kid, but she also wants to be a weapon, and you don't always know if she's gonna be good or bad or if she's crying. Is she really crying or is she just trying to trick someone? But she's only in, like, two episodes, and at the end of the episode when Wolverine figures this out, “Oh, my God, here's this clone, it's practically my daughter!”, it just kind of ends with him playing dodgeball with everyone, saying, “Oh, well, I've learned a lot.” And, yeah, that doesn't feel right.
(Clips from the original animated series are shown)
Doug (vo): The original animated series crammed in a lot of information, but they did have to sacrifice a little bit of character for that. Yes, the characters were going through a lot, but you couldn't take as much time as a show like this does, where they really will let someone just kind of sit there and be with their emotions. It was kind of like Clone Wars, the story drove the characters. Here, the characters drive the story. But it is still an animated kids show that has to squeeze in a lot of characters and a lot of fighting and a lot of bullet points that people want to see in a comic book kids show, and it doesn't always juggle it that great.
(Footage focusing on Apocalypse is shown)
Doug (vo): For example, there's a whole season...hell, I'd even argue a couple seasons...that's building up Apocalypse. Okay, I love that, that's really good build up. But when you actually get to him and the big finale with him, it's...okay. With the original animated series, when they had to do a big finale, it was a big finale. It felt big, it felt epic, everything felt earned.
(Footage interspersing between X-Men: Evolution and the original animated series is shown)
Doug (vo): I was really impressed to see Asteroid M was in this. Oh, my God, it was so cool to finally see that on a TV show. But it's built up, then just kind of taken out in an episode or two, and it never comes back. I get the feeling there were a lot of talks behind the scenes of where the show should go and in what way it should go there and which characters to focus on and everything, which, yeah, is expected, that's part of a TV show. But because we were so used to so much being crammed into the original animated series, it always felt big. This one felt more emotional, but not really large in scale.
(Footage focusing on the series finale is shown)
Doug (vo): Even the final episode is kind of a series finale, but also kind of saying, “Hey, if you want another season, everybody, we can do it, we got ideas”, which obviously never happened. And it is a shame. I would have liked to have seen this explored even more.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): But yes, don't get me wrong, I'm still really, really recommending this, especially if you're an X-Men fan. It kind of juggles all X-Men media in one show, including the movies and the original animated series and years and years of comics. Hell, their end credits is a send up to their old trading cards. That is a crazy detail. But yes, there are gonna be slip-ups here and there and some things that don't connect, and that does stop it from having that epic feel, even though there are times where it can feel pretty big, but not epic big. I'm still going to think back to the original animated series when I think of X-Men. What is X-Men? I think of the comics like the Jim Lee stuff, or I think of the animated series, like, that's it in a nutshell for me. But this is an interesting experiment that really does pay off, almost like it's trying to combine all the things you know about X-Men, but still make something new as well. You can't really point to this X-Men and say, “Oh, that's the movie” or “Oh, that's the Jim Lee version”. No, it is uniquely its own thing. But it does have so many echoes of so many other different types of X-Men, and I really do appreciate it for that. If you're into X-Men, it's absolutely required viewing. If you're not an X-Men fan, I don't know if it’s gonna win you over, but it might. I can definitely see kids and teens really getting into it. I don't know how many new adult fans would really gravitate towards it, but you never know. It's worth a shot. I could definitely say after all these years, I'm so glad everybody recommended it to me. And if you're an X-Men fan who hasn't checked it out, report to the danger room immediately.
(A scene of the class of Xavier getting their photo taken is shown)