I remember when Saturday Morning Cartoons were the rule of the land. From 4 am to 11 am we were treated to some classic shows, but out of them all, one dared to talk about things like interracial prejudice, racism, war, disease and much more and most of all it did this without pissing on the viewer and forcing a narrative as Hollywood is doing now.
That show was “X-Men: The Animated Series”.
Based off of the comics of the same name, the show debuted on October 31, 1992, on Fox. Marvel’s second attempt to do an X-Men series, the show was produced by Larry Houston and Will Meugniot and lasted for 76 episodes.
The show features a team similar to that of the early 1990s X-Men comics by Jim Lee, mainly what was referred to as the Blue Team, consisting of Cyclops, Wolverine, Rogue, Storm, Beast, Gambit, Jubilee, Jean Grey, and Professor X, as well as original character Morph, who is based on Changeling.
The series deals with social issues, including divorce ("Proteus"), Christianity("Nightcrawler" and "Bloodlines"), the Holocaust ("Enter Magneto", "Deadly Reunions", "Days of Future Past" and "The Phalanx Covenant") AIDS hysteria ("Time Fugitives"), and loneliness ("No Mutant Is an Island"). It also satirizes television in the episodes "Mojovision" and "Longshot".
X-Men garnered very high ratings for a Saturday morning cartoon, and received praise for adapting many different storylines from the comics. Haim Saban credits the success of the series in assisting him to sell his next project to Fox: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, reaching a viewership of over 23 million households.
Since the show ended in 1997, many fans including me have wanted a revival of the series. In 2019, talks began to do just that and by 2021 it was announced…
X-Men ‘97.
Beau DeMayo will serve as head writer, with most of the surviving cast members of the original series reprising their roles, including Dodd, Zann, Buza, Disher, Potter, Sealy-Smith, Hough, and Britton. They will be joined by Jennifer Hale, Anniwaa Buachie, Ray Chase, Matthew Waterson, JP Karliak, Holly Chou, Jeff Bennett, and A. J. Locascio.
But the only issue is that Disney now owned Marvel and had the rights to all characters. So certain changes are almost a must.
For me I am both excited and skeptical as anything brought out by Disney is far from entertaining these days. So I will be keeping my eye on this one.
The show premiere on March 20th on Disney+ with two 10 episode seasons.
I’m…worried, but like what I see so far. Though I have been fooled before.
We shall see..we shall see.
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