X-Men

X-Men (also known as X-Men: The Animated Series) is a Canadian-American superhero animated television series which debuted on October 31, 1992, in the United States on the Fox Kids Network. X-Men was Marvel Comics' second attempt at an animated X-Men TV series after the pilot, X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, was not picked up.

## Production

In 1991, Margaret Loesch became head of Fox Children's Network. Having championed the *Pryde of the X-Men* pilot in 1989, she was quick to set up an order for 13 episodes of *X-Men*. Saban Entertainment was contracted to produce the show and hired a small studio Graz Entertainment to produce the episodes as it did not have sufficient staff at the time to handle production in house. Graz employed the creative staff, wrote and designed each episode, and drew the storyboards. The voice work was done using Canadian studios and South Korean studio AKOM was hired to animate the episodes. *X-Men* was originally to premiere over the Labor Day weekend in September; due to production delays, it was pushed to the end of October. When the animation team AKOM turned in the first episode, it contained hundreds of animation errors, which AKOM refused to fix. Because of time constraints, the episode was aired in an unfinished form. The second episode was turned in just before deadline, with 50 scenes missing and only a single day reserved for editing. The "Night of the Sentinels" two-part episode originally aired as a "sneak preview" on October 31.

Because of the production delays and animation errors in these two episodes, Fox threatened to sever AKOM's contracts. When Fox re-aired the pilot in early 1993, the errors were corrected. The series earned top ratings throughout its first season, and was renewed for a second season of 13 episodes. Throughout the series run, producers had to deal with quality control issues including attempts to cut costs, requests to change the tone of the series to something more child-friendly as well to integrate toys being sold into the show.

The show was originally planned to run for 65 episodes. Given its success and Marvel's bankruptcy, Saban funded the additional episodes, a season's worth and more. Philippine Animation Studio Inc. and Hong Ying Animation also contributed some of the animation for this series.

## Voice cast

The series' voice acting was recorded in Toronto studios, with Dan Hennessey serving as voice director. Toronto voice actors had been already used for the 1960s Marvel Comics cartoons.

### Principal cast

* Cyclops / Scott Summers (Norm Spencer): The second-in-command and field commander of the X-Men. He possesses the ability to fire concussive blasts from his eyes. He and Jean Grey are in a longstanding relationship, and marry at the end of season four when Apocalypse is working in between the time space continuum.
* Wolverine / Logan (Cathal J. Dodd): A mutant with a regenerative healing factor, heightened senses, an adamantium-laced skeleton that render his bones virtually indestructible, and retractable claws capable of cutting virtually anything. He was attracted to Jean Grey, but decided not to come against Scott Summers.
* Rogue (Lenore Zann): She possesses the uncontrollable ability to absorb the memories, powers and energy of those she touches; however, if Rogue holds onto someone too long, their consciousness will be trapped in her subconscious. She has permanently absorbed the superhuman strength, durability and flight of Ms. Marvel who was left comatose due to this.
* Storm / Ororo Munroe (Iona Morris (1992–1993), Alison Sealy-Smith (1993–1997)): She is able to control the weather, using it to injure her foes or fly and is third in command of the X-Men. Storm has to remain in constant control of her emotions, as they are linked to her powers; if she let loose, she would call horrific weather conditions that would put lives at jeopardy.
* Beast / Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy (George Buza): His mutation covers his body in fur and morphs his body, granting him superhuman strength and agility to complement his genius mind. He spends most of the first season imprisoned for destroying the government's records of registered mutants, which was being abused by Henry Gyrich and Bolivar Trask. Buza would later appear in a small role in the 2000 live action film, playing a truck driver at the start of the film.
* Gambit / Remy LeBeau (Chris Potter (1992–1996), Tony Daniels (1997)): He can charge virtually any object with explosive energy, turning them into bombs; they only explode once he lets go of the object. He also wields a staff for close combat, and for when he's out of playing cards to throw. Potter was cast while filming *Kung Fu: The Legend Continues* in Toronto; unfamiliar with the X-Men, his co-star David Carradine was a big fan of the comics. Potter later auditioned for the role of Cyclops in the 2000 film.
* Jubilee / Jubilation Lee (Alyson Court): The newest and youngest member of the X-Men, she is close to Wolverine. She is still getting used to her powers, which are the ability to generate firework-like explosions. Court and Dodd had been neighbors when Court was still a child and Dodd was already a well-known actor in Canada. Court attributes their characters' chemistry to being previously acquainted with one another. Originally another voice actor had been cast as Jubilee, but Court was cast when the original voice was deemed too sweet and innocent sounding for the role.
* Jean Grey / Phoenix (Catherine Disher): A telekinetic and telepath. She is in a longstanding relationship with Cyclops, and they marry at the end of the fourth season, when she is captured by Apocalypse in the time space continuum. Disher had originally auditioned for the part of Storm.
* Professor X / Charles Xavier (Cedric Smith): The founder and leader of the X-Men and a powerful telepath. Throughout the series, he fights for mutant rights while teaching his students the importance of never giving into temptation or lose sight of what really matters.

### Additional cast

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* Philip Akin
* Lawrence Bayne
* Rick Bennett
* Lally Cadeau
* Robert Cait
* Randall Carpenter
* John Colicos
* Rodney Coneybeare
* Jennifer Dale
* Adrian Egan
* Barry Flatman
* David Fox
* Don Francks
* Catherine Gallant
* Paul Haddad

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* Graham Haley
* Brett Halsey
* David Hemblen
* Dan Hennessey
* Judy Marshak
* George Merner
* Jim Millington
* Stephen Ouimette
* Ross Petty
* Jeremy Ratchford
* Ron Rubin
* Stuart Stone
* Marc Strange
* Kay Trembley

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## Other versions

The original opening sequence features the X-Men demonstrating their mutant abilities to a now very distinctive instrumental theme (written by Ron Wasserman). This intro is used throughout the first four seasons. A modified version is eventually introduced in season five, episode one ("Phalanx Covenant, Part One"). In this new intro, the beginning of the theme is slightly changed. When UPN began airing repeats on Sunday mornings, an alternate credits sequence was used: a high-quality Japanese-animated version of the original opening. This modified version occasionally appears in the digital streaming release of the show, which was used for re-runs on Toon Disney.Template:Citation needed

*X-Men* originally aired on TV Tokyo from 1994 through 1995. For the TV Tokyo dub of the series, the intro was replaced with a new, Japanese-animated sequence as well as a new theme called "Rising" (ライジング), by the band Ambience (アンビエンス). Starting with episode 42, a second new intro was used, featuring the song "Dakishimetai Dare Yori Mo" (抱きしめたい誰よりも...). The end credits sequence was also changed: it featured shots of American *X-Men* comic books set to the song "Back to You" (バック･トウ･ユー), also by Ambience.

The TV Tokyo dub was directed by Yoshikazu Iwanami and featured scripts rewritten to include a more humorous, self-satirical tone as well as an emphasis on comical adlibbing (a hallmark of Iwanami's dubbing style). Episodes were edited for time so that new segments could be added to the end which promoted the *X-Men: Children of the Atom* video game from Capcom. The dub actors would pretend to play the game as their characters and make humorous asides and remarks. *X-Men* was dubbed a second time in the early 2000s for broadcast on Toon Disney (Japan). This dub was more faithful to the original English scripts and episodes were not cut for time. The Toon Disney version used the original American intro and end credits rather than the unique ones created for the TV Tokyo version.

Two versions of the episode "No Mutant is an Island" exist with completely different animation. The first version was aired for Toon Disney re-runs and can be seen in digital streaming services such as Amazon Video, aired on Fox Kids in the United States, and uses the remixed intro theme from Season 5. The second version is available on region 1 DVD, aired on Fox Kids overseas, and uses the default intro theme from Seasons 1–4.Template:Citation needed

## Reception

The show was both acclaimed and commercially successful. Along with *Batman: The Animated Series*, the series success helped launch numerous comic book shows in the 1990s.

In its prime, *X-Men* garnered very high ratings for a Saturday morning cartoon, and like *Batman: The Animated Series*, it received wide critical praise for its portrayal of many different storylines from the comics. Haim Saban credits the success of the series in assisting him to sell his next project to Fox, the live action series, *Mighty Morphin Power Rangers*.

The show has been hailed as a pioneer in crafting mature, serialized storylines for an animated series, as well as paving the way for the 2000 X-Men feature film. In 2009, IGN ranked *X-Men* as the 13th greatest animated show of all time in their Top 100 list.

## Release

The *X-Men* animated series is currently available on the Disney+ streaming service, which launched on November 12, 2019.

## Lawsuit

In 2019, Hungarian immigrant Zoltan Krisko has filed a lawsuit against the theme song from the series as he claims the song was plagiarized from the theme song to the 1984–91 Hungarian action-adventure television series *Linda*, which was composed by Gyorgy Vukan.

## Revival

In August 2020, it was announced that there were talks ongoing with Disney+ to revive the series.

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4. ↑ DRG4's Exclusive X-Men Cartoon Pilot Differences.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Couch, Aaron and Burton, Byron (October 30, 2017). 'X-Men' at 25: The Unlikely Story of the Animated Hit No Network Wanted. *Hollywood Reporter*.
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7. ↑ Animation Changes in No Mutant Is An Island.
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21. ↑ Every Single X-Men Animated Appearance on Disney+, in Order (27 November 2019).
22. ↑ X-Men, Spider-Man & More Animated Series Confirmed for Disney+ Launch Day. Comic Book Resources (14 October 2019).
23. ↑ Erik Pedersen (2019-10-09). ‘X-Men’ Cartoon Theme Song Sparks Lawsuit Against Marvel, Disney, Amazon, Apple – Deadline. Deadline.com.
24. ↑ https://www.cbr.com/x-men-the-animated-series-revival-disney/