X-Men

Plot synopsis:
In 1944 Nazi-occupied Auschwitz, Poland, 14-year-old Erik Lehnsherr is separated from his parents upon entering the Auschwitz concentration camp. While trying to reach them, he causes a set of metal gates to bend towards him before being knocked out by guards. Fifty-six years later, U.S. Senator Robert Kelly attempts to pass a "Mutant Registration Act" in Congress, which would force mutants to publicly reveal their identities and abilities. Present are a middle-aged Lehnsherr, now going by the name "Magneto", and an old friend of his, the telepathic Professor Charles Xavier. Seeing Lehnsherr in attendance, Xavier becomes concerned with how he will respond to the Registration Act.
Meanwhile, in Meridian, Mississippi, 17-year-old Marie D'Ancanto accidentally puts her boyfriend into a coma upon kissing him, her mutant ability to absorb the powers and life force of others manifesting. She runs away from home and adopts the name Rogue. In Alberta she meets a mutant named Logan, also known as Wolverine, who possesses superhuman healing abilities and metal claws that protrude from his knuckles. While on the road together, they are attacked by a minion of Magneto's, Sabretooth, until two of Xavier's students, Cyclops and Storm, arrive to successfully save them. Wolverine and Rogue are brought to Xavier's mansion and school for mutants in Westchester County, New York. Xavier tells Logan that Magneto appears to have taken an interest in Wolverine, and he asks him to stay while Xavier's mutants, the X-Men, investigate why. Rogue meanwhile enrolls in the school.
Senator Kelly is abducted by two more of Magneto's minions, Toad and the Mystique, and brought to their hideout on the uncharted island of Genosha. There, Magneto himself uses Kelly as a test subject for a machine powered by his magnetic abilities that regenerate a field of radiation, inducing mutation in normal humans. Kelly later escapes. When Rogue uses her power on Wolverine in view of her classmates, she is convinced by Mystique (disguised as classmate Bobby Drake) that Xavier is angry with her and she should leave the school. Xavier uses his mutant-locating machine Cerebro to find Rogue at a train station, and the X-Men go to retrieve her. Meanwhile, Mystique enters Cerebro and sabotages it.
At the train station, Magneto reveals he does not want Wolverine but Rogue, whom he abducts. Kelly arrives at Xavier's school and Xavier reads his mind to learn about Magneto's machine. Realizing the strain of powering it nearly killed Magneto, the group deduces he intends to transfer his powers to Rogue and use her to power it at the cost of her life. Kelly's newly gained powers backfire and he dies when his body breaks down into a slimy goop of substance. Xavier attempts to locate Rogue using Cerebro, but Mystique's sabotage incapacitates him and he falls into a coma. Fellow telekinetic/telepath Jean Grey fixes Cerebro and uses it, learning that Magneto plans to place his mutation-inducing machine on Liberty Island and use it to "mutate" the world leaders meeting at a summit on nearby Ellis Island. The X-Men scale the Statue of Liberty battling Magneto's mutants while Magneto transfers his powers to Rogue and activates the mutating machine. As Wolverine confronts and distracts Magneto, Cyclops blasts him away, allowing Wolverine to destroy the machine. He transfers his powers to Rogue and his healing abilities rejuvenate her, while incapacitating himself.
Professor Xavier and Wolverine recover from their comas. The group also learn that Mystique escaped the island battle and is impersonating Senator Kelly. Xavier gives Wolverine a lead to his past at an abandoned military installation in Canada. Magneto is imprisoned in a complex constructed of plastic and is visited by Xavier, and warns him he intends to escape one day and continue the fight.

Tags: good versus evil, psychedelic

Review:
The X-Men animated series was a terrific try at bringing the ultra-popular comic book featuring mutant outcasts to the small screen.
It's been a while since I last watched "X-Men," the animated series from the early 1990s, but I do remember that this is/was one of the greatest comic book superhero shows I ever watched during my childhood.
"X-Men," "Spider-Man: The Animated Series," and "Batman: The Animated Series" were all the reasons why during the early '90s, I loved comic book superhero cartoon shows.10/10.
The fact that this animated series is one of the highest-rated and most-viewed Saturday morning programs in American history to date, that it is very popular in other countries aside from the U.S., and that it boosts sales of X-Men comics--as people who who didn't read x-men comics before this one started reading them as soon as they got obsessed with it--- are proofs that this is definitely one of the best cartoon series in 90s.
X-Men The Animated Series(90s) is undeniably one of the most excellent, most watched and ultra-popular cartoon series up to this day!!!!!!!!.
I'm guessing the writers simply didn't have a good grasp of her character or a strong idea of how to make her powers look cool and dynamic compared to the weather controlling Storm, high flying super tanker Rogue or even fire work shooting Jubilee.
Also I regret that Colossus and Night-Crawler were not regular members of the cast, as Night-Crawler was a very soulful character and Colossus, well, he's just so damn cool.But these complaints are very minor in light of what was otherwise one of the best comic book to cartoon adaptations ever to air.
Basically what I am trying to say is that I am not a superhero guy but this show might be the best cartoon ever ...You know those shows/movies you loved as a kid then re-watch as an adult and they just seem corny and/or stupid, boring, childish or just plain lame?
I recently got all 5 seasons of X-men for my kids to watch because I remember absolutely loving it watching it new as a kid myself, it was my most anticipated cartoon (besides the simpsons) and I thought the kids would enjoy it...the theme music gave me butterflies, so lets start there.
shows like this don't come along every day and i hope people enjoy it for a long time.OK i feel like i should throw a couple negatives in just so i don't seem to biased (remember i am not a comic geek so i cant talk about comic book accuracy) just from the first episode though ...1.
If there was ever a lesson to be learnt about what it is to produce a faithful, involving adaptation (be it from a comic or a book) this show was the perfect example as it managed to successfully transfer the characters and plots from page to screen without dumbing down or altering things for the sake of making them 'cooler'.The cartoon focused mainly on 'X-Men' favourites including Cyclops, Jean, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, Beast, Jubilee and, of course, Xavier.
Unlike the recent films, aimed at pleasing teenagers and casual cinema-goers, this series was more intent on depicting the characters properly so there is the same interactions as seen in the comics including the Scott/Jean/Wolverine triangle, the love/hate relationship between Gambit and Rogue and the sibling bond that Storm and Gambit share.
It also wonderfully portrays Wolverine's darkly sarcastic side, which brings humour to the show.While the films (and the childish 'X-Men: Evolutions') show the X-Men having rather calm, settled lives on the whole, this series gave a darker view of the universe, showing the team striving to do good in a world where much of humanity loathed mutants and saw them as the threat.
It also tackled story arcs, like Onslaught, Dark Phoenix, Days of Future's End and Angel's transformation into Archangel, that appeared in the comic-verse in a way that retained the essence of the stories.This was certainly one of the best cartoons to come out of the Nineties and still holds appeal to me even now that I'm an adult.
It was this animated series that got me into the world of the-Men and other Marvel comics, which are far superior, but that is not to say this cartoon wasn't good, for it was.
What we have here is the four core X-Men - Cyclops, Wolverine, Jean Grey and Storm - along with popular characters from the comics - Rogue, Beast and Gambit - and Jubilee for the teens and Professor X as the basis for the series.
In terms of supporting characters, Bishop, Cable, Moira MacTaggert, Banshee, Arachangel, Forge and Colossus showed up a few times, but we could have seen more of Iceman, Darkstar, Polaris, Alpha Flight, Sunfire and Nightcrawler.A lot of the stories were taken directly from the comics and adapted for this series (like the Dark Phoenix Saga, Phalanx Covenant and Days of Future Past) others were taken from ongoing comic stories and changed into single or multiple episodes for this series, like the Savage Land and the Sentinels.There was some ongoing narrative, but it is also possible to watch episodes out of order, they were generally self contained (with the exception of multiple part episodes).
In my very own opinion, the X-Men cartoon series was arguably the closest remake of the X-men that fans could get and much more faithful to the comic books themselves than what the live action movies will ever be.
The artwork was also excellent, but just what you'd expected from Marvel.Whilst the films were in all a shambles in terms of the design and look of the characters, the cartoon series and Marvel have thankfully retained the originality, appeal and quality of the comics, and the appearances of which made the X-men one of the most successful comic book hero franchises in history.
Another difference between the cartoon series and the films was the fact the creators of the show put a lot of emphasis on character development and the emotional plight of the mutants's own expectations of wanting to belong to the world and to feel accepted, which this has been addressed much better in the series than the film trilogy ever did.
Unlike the movies, the animated show had a raw ness and bite to each and every one of those characters that was totally devoid in the live action versions and it never managed to pussyfoot around the issues, as well as the story lines, of which again were far more realistic and believable.This is what the movies themselves ought to have been like, but rather than leave things as they were, the directors Brett Ratner and Brian Singer decided to change a couple things round, without realising how much this would put die-hard and ardent X-men fans off.
Besides, the film's disappointment shouldn't take away from the fact that the cartoon series is the best on- screen version of the X-Men.Forget the films, either stick with the comics or go for this, the animated version instead..
After 16 years since its release and almost 11 after its last episode, I still think that X-Men TAS stills being the perfect animated series ever based on a comic book so powerful as X-Men ever was.
TAS was an animated series for teenagers and adults, because it was fun for the kids and mature on its plot and all its stories were very consistent for the adult audience.I must say that I like a lot the movie trilogy, but just because I'm a huge fan of the mutants, but the movies wasn't faithful to the comics at all.
The important stories like The Savage Island or The Genosha Island, Apocalipse and mainly (I SAID MAINLY) The Phoenix Saga and The Dark Phoenix Saga were masterpieces and I still watch to them till today like they were the real movies that I though one day X-Men would be, but never was.They tried to insert some kind of Phoenix in the movies but it was a joke comparing to the importance of this entire saga in the comics, and TAS did an amazing experience with entire saga for over 9 episodes.
All the animated technique used in production are no longer in use by any kind of studio and that's another great thing to admire.X-Men TAS is a strongly recommended series for those who enjoy a lot so loved mutants and also for those who became fans after the movies and don't know anything about them in the early years or think that Evolutions is a great piece of work.
I also remember that on the 1994 Spider-Man cartoon that the X-Men made some guest appearances on some episodes of Spider-Man. The series is most same way as the comic book about a group of mutant superheroes who live at a school for mutants hosted by Professor Charles Xavier who formed a group of superhero mutants to fight against Magneto and the other evil brotherhood of mutants.
But the only stuff that usually interested me were the superhero shows, and by the mid-90s I'd make sure to catch X-Men and Spider-Man, which were coincidentally the two comic book titles I usually spent my allowance on (more specifically, X-Men and The Amazing Spider-Man back in their Jim Lee/Andy Kubert and Mark Bagley days, respectively).Just recently, thanks to the hype surrounding Superman Returns, I made it a point to try and watch all of Bruce Timm's DC animated shows on DVD, and I found myself absolutely enthralled and in love with this animated universe.
From the dark mysteries and noirish atmosphere of Batman to the epic and rousing sci-fi adventures of Superman and Justice League these were shows that delivered great animation, top-notch voice acting, mature writing, and action scenes that would put most summer blockbusters to shame.
The writing, the animation, the voice acting, and even the music all felt shoddy compared to Bruce Timm's DCAU.Unfortunately, X-Men happens to be one of those cartoons.
I love everything about X Men. The animation is very detailed and atmospheric, and the character designs especially with Wolverine are quite sophisticated for the time.
This is taken, as far as I can tell from my limited knowledge of the original comics that featured the main cast assembled here (Cyclops, Wolverine, Rogue, Storm, Gambit, Jean Grey, Xavier, Jubilee), right from the source material, and it's a pleasure to see how the series in the first two seasons followed a fairly straightforward continuity.
Indeed it's like going through a comic book series; you can't really jump in on any episode to really gage the plot (albeit there are some great stand-alone episodes, particularly in the second season where we get some backstories on Gambit and Rogue), though at the least you get an idea of who every character is and what their interests, powers, concerns and little dramas tend to veer toward.This is not to say sometimes it can't get a little confusing; by the time it gets into time travel with Cable it can be a little crazy, especially in terms of how much affects what or why an apocalypse still seems to be taking place.
And along with the breakneck animation (some of it quite sophisticated for the time, some on par with the Ninja Turtles cartoons if not quite up there with Batman), there's the whole issue of being a mutant, the identity of it and how it is to be a human and an outsider in society that works its way into the show and theme in general.It's got a message but it doesn't overstate it, it's got action that is believable enough so that we don't roll our eyes and incredible at times to keep the kids wondering (there's a moment where the flying-angel character in an episode asks Rogue how she can fly and she gives a shrug kind of answer, a perfect little comic-book moment), not to mention characters like Beast and Wolverine and Magneto, who are the kinds of icons that need strong storytelling to keep them interesting to new and old fans.
The main characters in this series are as such: Wolverine, Xavier, Jean, Scott, Rogue, Gambit, Jubilee, Beast and Storm.
I was glad to see that it involves the love triangle between Logan/Jean/Scott and Rogue/Gambit and was done reasonably realistically but without getting in the way of the main story lines.Moving on, some of the story arcs were fantastic, particularly the Dark Phoneix saga and Days of Future Past.
As a fan of Rogue and Gambit (a couple from the later age of X-Men) I watched this series all the time on FOX.
It's plots are very true to it's comic book roots (which a lot of series and movie makers seem to over look so much currently) and it was very well drawn to mirror the early detail put into the characters at the time.
If you want to watch a better animated Marvel cartoon that's a little more consistent to the comic, watch the earlier seasons of Fox's "Spider-Man"..
My favorite episodes dealt with Wolverine's origin, the Phoenix Saga, and the time traveling characters like Bishop and Cable.
X-Men Evolution on the other hand, I liked that it created some really good characters who will later be in their own comic book series (but given better back-stories such as X-23) but on the whole the show wasn't that great.I like the characters of this show.
I started watching X-Men when I was in elementary school around the time it debuted on Fox. I never followed the comic books to closely, so I don't care if this series deviated from it.
Though it takes it's time to find good footing, X-MEN THE ANIMATED SERIES is right up there among the best of 1990s cartoons.
The show was close enough to the comics to stay interesting but not too close so that it's like watching reruns of the comics...It was a great show and I will always love it, but when they changed the art and a few voices a few years ago and hired some other person (that was not the original writer) to write it it all started to go to hell.
There are so many characters that I enjoyed watching, Rogue and Gambit, Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Jubilee, Beast, Storm, and the infamous Professor Xavier are just some of these well thought out X men.
Perhaps the writing does reflect that of the original comic, but c'mon, guys, that was Stan Lee. He may have created some great characters and plot lines (and even that is disputed at times), but as far as dialogue, he's always been a hack.Don't get me wrong, I love the X-Men, having read them when I was a kid in the 70s, watched the movies, as well as X-Men Evolution, all of which are good, but the 90s animated series was lousy..
The 1990s were a great time for cartoon adaptations of comic books superheroes, such as Spider-man, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Fantastic Four and Batman.
Many of the villains get to show their ideology that drives them, which makes X-Men so much better then most superheroes and I why I think they are the best.Within the series they is many different plots, some having massive arcs like the Phoenix storyline to stand alone episodes.
Many of the characters get to shine, from Wolverine with his tortured background and rage, Gambit as a theft, Rogue with the inability to touch and suffers horrible memories, to Beast's intelligent, etc Many elements and story lines from the comics are brought into the series such as Days of the Future Past and the Dark Phoenix.
Many of the mutants from the comics even get to play supporting roles or have cameos, e.g. Angel, Nightcrawler and Psylocke.They is good animation, excellent storytelling and writing, strong character development and lots of action to satisfy fans.
I must say that the X-Men is the best series cartoon ever.
For the most part, the "X-Men" series was okay for kids, when compared to the other god-awful Marvel cartoons that came out in the 1990s (with the exception of Spider-Man).
X Men will be regarded as one of the best cartoons of the 1990s.This series was handled very well especially when you consider the amount of characters that there are in the X Men universe.My favourite characters in the series were Mr Sinister (who i think is the coolest villain)and Magneto (I like the fact that there is always respect between himself and Xavier).I think that Jean Grey and Rogue were very hot.One thing that sometimes annoyed me were the episodes that involved travelling either backwards or forwards in time.I rate the series in the top 3 of the last 10 years just behind Spiderman..
A classic cartoon about Marvel comic's team of mutant's called the X-men led by professor X, fighting for peace even if it means protecting those who hate them..
Marvel comics done a great job in creating many, many truly interesting characters with great powers, back-stories, personalities and cool looks.
Also, it was pretty funny to watch, mostly because I always was a huge fan of the "X-Men" comics (Which are my favorite comic book characters) and this series made justice to the original source material.
X-men The Animated Series is one of the best cartoons ever made and one of the few that gives justice to the comic book it's based on.If you're a fan of X-Men you will enjoy this classic series for it's strong characters, animation style to tell the story and smart writing.
I have a love/hate relationship with this series, both as a comic and as a cartoon.
Some of my all time favorite comic characters came from X-Men related books, from Wolverine (although I liked him better when there was a mystery about him; that 'implanted memories' nonsense ruined a lot!), Storm, Colossus, and the Phoenix.