(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from X-Men '97. At one point, clips of two movies about to be mentioned are shown as well)
Doug (vo): It's okay. (beat) No, I'm just kidding. X-Men '97 is, like, one of the greatest things I've seen in years...if you're an X-Men fan, which, at this point, who isn't? I mean, I don't know, this is like going into Batman and being like, "Well, yeah, it's good, but only if you're a Batman fan." Well, yeah, everybody knows what this is now. Can you really enjoy Spider-Man: No Way Home if you don't know the other movies? I mean, technically, yes, but you're not going to get why it's so massive and important if you haven't seen those movies. X-Men is very similar. If you're a newcomer to X-Men, you've never seen the original shows or any of the movies or anything like that, I think you'll still like it, but you're not going to see why everyone else is so obsessed with it. It probably goes without saying, I'm a huge X-Men fan. I feel like I grew up during peak X-Men comics and media. Like I said, I like some of the movies fine, but I'm obviously going to go back to the Jim Lee era, the original animated series and I'm going to kind of compare everything to that. And sometimes they do grow beyond that, like X-Men: Evolution. I'm totally fine with that, I like something a little different. But what makes it so special is not only does this capture the original look and voice of the original series as well as the original comics, but it knows its audience has grown up and it grows up with them. It still holds on to a lot of the things we love about the comic and the show, even some of the cornier stuff. But, as the comics and series have shown us, when it's done well, the corniness can enhance the drama.
Premise and review[]
Doug (vo): This is a world where they talk about real human issues: prejudice, violence, intolerance, vengeance, when it's right to fight, when it's not right to fight. I mean, really heavy stuff, but they talk about it in yellow spandex.
Cyclops: What did you expect? Black leather?
Doug (vo): You hear that, Singer? When the kids cartoon is throwing shade at you and being a lot more intense and badass than the live-action movie for adults, you miss something. Is anybody going, "Oh, man, I could really take the timeless stories of Greek mythology seriously if they didn't all wear togas?" Yeah, no, that's clearly part of it, and this show not only embraces it, but it takes it to uncomfortable territories.
(Footage focusing on the violent moments are shown along with clips from the NC review of X-Men: The Animated Series)
Doug (vo): I am serious when I say there is some nightmare imagery in this. The body count is high, the violence intense, far beyond what the original show could do. I mean, I really like the original series, I thought it changed a lot, but I never finished an episode where at the end, I just shouted, "Christ!" But it doesn't feel out of place for two reasons. One, this is closer to what the original comics were like; they could have a really high body count and even get really bloody. Two, at least speaking for myself, it was recreating the look and feel of the original show, but also recreating the excitement of seeing the next episode for adults. I am really not kidding when I say I went out and got a small bag of cereal every Wednesday whenever this came on in the morning. It really felt like I was teleported back to watching these every Saturday morning. And a big part of that is it makes the stakes really high and gets you super invested to a point where you can't wait for the next episode. And I think a big part of that is that the original creators of the show had a lot of input. From what they told me, they said that every major choice they ran by them, and they were very, very die-hard at saying, "We want this to feel like a continuation of the show, but evolve it, too." And I think this is a good mix. The original creators aren't the ones who directed it or anything. They did bring in new blood with new ideas, but they knew they wanted something that captured the excitement of the original, and I think combining that with the people who made the original makes a big difference. I'm not going to act like the answer to recreate something that has the feel for the original, but also gets us excited for something new is always going to be bringing in the original people, but man, I feel like this half-and-half is a pretty good compromise. I wish they did this with The Last Airbender show, I wish they did this with Animaniacs (2020). I really wish a lot more people would kind of wake up and say, "Hey, there's really something to this mixing of old and new and not just nostalgia pandering," which, yes, the show does have a little bit of, but it doesn't feel like pandering.
(Footage focusing on X-Men Easter eggs is shown)
Doug (vo): If you've grown up with the comics or X-Men media in the '90s, you notice all sorts of cool little callbacks in the pictures and the background, or even this video game is technically an X-Men video game. Like, they're good nods to X-Men lore, but it doesn't feel odd if you don't know what they are. It's not like where just everything comes to a halt to show us a Twinkie in a glove compartment, you know what I mean? If you don't know what it is, it's not awkward, but if you do know what it is, it adds a whole lot.
(Footage focusing on the characters is shown, mostly focusing on Wolverine, Cyclops and Magneto)
Doug (vo): I was particularly surprised at how well done the characters were handled in this, too. And I guess, yeah, obviously you would think that'd be done well; I mean, that was always the core focus: the characters. But Wolverine is barely in this season, and I didn't miss it. Now, Wolverine is still one of my favorite characters, but it's kind of like the Joker and Batman, he's just been over utilized. And part of what's fun about these universes is that there are so many characters, and that's always what I liked about X-Men. If there was an episode focusing on a character maybe I didn't get into as much, I know that next week the focus on a character I do really enjoy. And, yeah, I think it goes without saying, X-Men has kind of become the all-Wolverine show. There is literally a show called Wolverine and the X-Men. I love this character, but he's clearly gotten too much attention. And the one who arguably gets not only the most attention, but also a structural makeover is Cyclops. Probably the most hated/boring member of the team is done spectacularly here. Like, I couldn't believe how well they handled this character. He goes from being a dull boy scout to a really intriguing, complex, tortured, but still strong-willed leader, and that's really what he feels like in this series, a leader. He feels like someone who's really diving into what it means to be in this role—or twists and turns happen—not to be in this role. I mean, Magneto takes over a lot in the show, and that's surprisingly done really well, too. I mean, it's just such a great contrast to have your biggest enemy suddenly lead your team. And I'm really, really not kidding when I say there are a lot of twists and turns and surprises in this that not only was my jaw on the ground watching half the time, but brought up some really tricky, difficult questions that these characters can only answer in this world. There's a character that loses her powers, there's a couple that, without going into spoilers, discover maybe they're not who they always thought they were. There's people with complicated pasts that suddenly have to confront their feelings again while they might be with other people. And yeah, a lot of these sound very similar to stuff we may go through in real life, but the way it's handled here with these mutant powers and special abilities and time traveling and all that makes it so that it stands on its own, but you can also read something deeper into it. It's not where you look at something and say, "Oh, this can only mean one thing: this is prejudice against only one group." No, it can be about racial identity, sexual identity, even if you're just kind of different from the rest of the crowd. There's layers to this commentary again, and that's what I'm missing from so much commentary in today's media. Not to say it's never done, but it's so obviously done in a way that just wants to get one thing across, and I find that boring. I really like that there's several different things you can connect these stories to that are going on in today's world.
(Various footage is shown, including footage from the episode "Remember It")
Doug (vo): Now, of course, like any X-Men fan, I'm going to find things I don't get into, and very few of them are like legit criticisms, they're more just stuff that I want to see. So, okay, in terms of like legit criticism—like, this is something that didn't work—I really only have two. One is, like I said before, there is a couple that had a past romance that nobody knew about and it's clearly something that was added later, which you can do and it feels very comic-booky, but the excuse for why this was never brought up in the past is, "We just pretended it didn't happen." No, in a world where you can erase people's minds and time travel and parallel dimensions and everything, this is a lazy excuse. I can't go back to the original episodes and be like, "Oh, so they were just pretending the whole time? Yeah, they really had this deep history." No, I know it wasn't written that way. I cannot in any way look at those old episodes and pretend that's what's going on. Second, kind of in the same vein, there are one or two moments where there might be just a little too much going on in the show, and I know that's part of its charm. The original creators said they wanted the show to have as much information as possible, and I think that makes sense, it's very comic-booky. But on top of that, I think kids like taking in a lot of information, a lot of stuff that, yes, can be overload, but also allows for a lot of character to shine. When it got to the halfway point where it was talking about this couple and their past and them going to Genosha and if you see the show, you know something really big and major happens there, it did feel like there was too much going on. Like, there were so many plot threads and characters dealing with so many different types of problems that when it got to the end of that episode, I know they want me to have a certain reaction, but I was just kind of exhausted. My brain did check out a little bit, and that was during one of the biggest episodes of the entire season. Thankfully, that doesn't happen too much. For the most part, it does balance out, but there are some moments where there was just a little too much going on.
(Footage focusing on other characters like Bishop, Sunspot, Morph, Sinister and Jubilee is shown)
Doug (vo): Aside from that, any other problems I have are either nitpicks or very personal. Like, I'm a big Bishop fan. I was really excited to see more of him in this, and they don't really do that much with him; they kind of get rid of him really quick, and I still don't entirely know why he's there. Like, when he comes back, it's a big deal—"Oh, no, something bad is happening with the future!"—but in this one, he's just kind of there. He's like, "Yeah, sometimes, I have different outlooks on the future, whatever," like, and he's just gone. Give me more Bishop! The intro is making it look like they were going to do more with Morph and Sinister, and they don't really do that much. Sunspot's not particularly that interesting, and I think it's very clear they're trying to recreate what they do with Jubilee with him. And yeah, I do kind of like her coming in, saying, "Oh, hey, yeah, I've been there, done that; I've been the newcomer, too." Like, that works okay and I kind of like the love interest between them, but they just kind of go the standard route you would think they would go with this character, there's not really many surprises with them.
(Footage of part 3 of the three-part season finale, "Tolerance is Extinction", is shown)
Doug (vo): And I don't know what to think of the cliffhanger. I'm really on the fence about it cause on the one hand, yeah, it does look like it's introducing something kind of new and interesting, but if the whole next season focuses on this, I don't know if I'm going to get into it as much, 'cause I do like this world, I do like the school, I do like these characters, I like it being in '97 in that time period. I think that's the most interesting, but again, without going into spoilers, the next season might not be taking place around then. And the show is called X-Men '97, I do think it should focus on the X-Men in 1997.
(Footage focusing on the animation is shown)
Doug (vo): The animation 90% of the time is stellar. I like the filters they put on it to make it look like it's kind of being played on a VCR, and the fight sequences are out of this world. I could not believe how much they utilize the characters' powers and the camera angles and the movement. Like, it was mind-blowing. But every once in a while, it's very obvious Flash animation shines through, which again, for the most part, they blended it very well in this, but every here and there, you can tell they took a drawing and didn't really draw a new drawing of somebody looking up or having an expression, they just kind of used the computer to move the eyes around or have them turn a different direction. That can be a little distracting, but like I said, these are nitpicks.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): I really was impressed with how much focus the characters got, how interesting their problems were, how even though they tried to force in a lot, it usually balanced out, and everything seemed to be moving either the plot or something new we didn't know about the characters forward. Everything felt like it was constantly evolving, which makes sense in a show about characters that are constantly evolving both psychologically and physically. Where I feel like a lot of nostalgia-bait stuff devolves, like, even ones that are done okay feel like they're taking away some of the special qualities that we like about the original, this one holds on to those special qualities and adds even more, and that is very difficult to do. I know it sounds easy, but when you're taking a show that already had a ton of characters and you want to add even more stuff to it and still have it all balance out and be good, that is a huge undertaking and makes me appreciate the show even more. So yeah, sorry, I can't say anything that much different from what everyone else is saying about this show. I mean, it is pretty much universally loved. My hope is it continues to move in this direction and it continues to innovate and still draw things from the past, but also evolve it in a way that's exciting and new, but still keeps its essential core focus. I was blown away by this show. I can't wait to see more, and whenever season 2 premieres, you know I'll have a great big bowl of Crunch Berries waiting.
(A scene showing the X-Men assembling is shown)