X-Men '97: The Animated Series (Disney+)

[AdamFTF]

That's fair. Never really got into the Wolverine cartoon (can't say it was bad, but it didn't click for whatever reason), but it ending on a cliffhanger is begging for some kind of revival. While the Evolution cartoon did have some unfinished business, it at least was able to wrap up the major plot points it had set up and offer closure to the series as a whole. That one was my favorite, so my interests in a revival of that are pretty subjective.

I guess the thing with '90s cartoon is I don't really "get" why it's such a sacred cow, much less the only one that Marvel keeps alive (I mean, they had that "making of" book awhile back, a comic book continuation, and now the revival, which is more than any of the others have gotten). I will concede that I've never watched the whole thing through, but the production values and acting aren't that good. I guess you can argue that it tried to do mature storytelling, but it all falls flat when you consider that it was a contemporary of the original Batman cartoon, which did all those things better (as in having aged extremely well and still regarded as a legitimate classic).

I love stuff that's probably objectively not that "good," so I do get why it has its fans and I hope they get something that's well-made with the revival, but I guess I don't appreciate how it's overshadowed its successors that (IMHO) were better made and I question if the franchise should be getting something new that could capitalize on how the X-Men franchise has evolved in the years since the cartoon went off the air. Not sure if any of that makes sense, but there it is.

If you didn't experience it in the '90s, it's going to be hard to explain the sheer impact of that show at the time. They had been trying to bring X-Men out of the comic shops and into the mainstream for a little while with tepid results. There was an arcade machine, a failed TV pilot and an anemically selling action figure line. That, and the usual mainstream scuttlebutt about how selling a copy of X-Men #1 might make you a millionaire (it was the '90s after all). After the show premiered, that all changed. X-Men was a household name. Those lame action figures flew off the shelves. Trading cards got printed. They made band-aids with Wolverine on them. It was even the goodwill from the show that got the movies off the ground. And though you may think it's "cringe" now, the reason it gained that kind of popularity is that the people making the show fought hard to make the show as dramatic, grown-up and hard-hitting as they could given the circumstances (no lie, they had to fight against making it a comedy show where Prof. X, Cyclops and a dog go driving around in a van looking for mutants like it was some kind of mutant Scooby-Doo). And comparing it to Batman does nothing to diminish that effect, because kids watched both on Saturday mornings. They complemented each other like bacon and eggs. Batman was DC. It had an orchestral theme. It had rounder, smoother animation. X-Men was Marvel. It had a rockin' electric guitar theme. It had jerkier animation but often of crazy detailed visuals. And while both mixed stuff from the past and present, Batman leaned more toward the classic (they were, after all, still playing up Dick Grayson in what had become a Tim Drake world) while X-Men with its character choices and Jim Lee designs at least looked and felt more like what they were putting in contemporary comics that kids could buy.

And you'll probably say "Well, this is all just nostalgia from someone who watched it growing up". And yeah, that's kind of true.

But also . . . it created a baseline. It created a baseline for what the mainstream people should expect from the X-Men. The movies? HA! The movies are some black and chrome, Matrix-era, desaturated take on the cartoon that didn't do the Phoenix right and didn't really use Gambit or Jubilee. X-Men Evolution? The cartoon crossed with Saved by the Bell. Wolverine and the X-Men? The cartoon but more serialized and for some reason that blonde lady from Dark Phoenix Saga is hanging around with the good guys now. It doesn't matter who does it better. After all, it's expected that storytelling will get better and more sophisticated over time. What matters is what gets the concept stuck in people's minds. And this is especially going to be important to remember with Marvel Studios going forward. Because with their needing to essentially relaunch the X-Men for the mainstream and as the comics have kind of become mutations of mutations as different writers have introduced different weird, experimental status quos to play around with, they're going to need a solid baseline to start with or go back to.

[Anthony W]

I think in the case of X-Men: TAS it was impactful for several reasons:

- Trying to go for a more darker and grittier comic book adaption compared to some of its contemporaries.

X-Men TAS was a part of the holy trinity of Batman TAS and Gargoyles when it came to this. Not to mention (you might want to brace yourself I'm about to go all caps) X-MEN THE ANIMATED SERIES STILL HAS THE BEST ADAPTATION OF THE PHOENIX SAGA!

X-Men Evolution was garbage. It was like watching classic Scooby Doo and then watching new episodes that introduced Scrappy/X-23. Then there was Wolverine and the X-Men and I can't even remember one episode from that.

Now I feel sad because you can't go home again and Disney animation is garbage (just look at What If?) so they are going to screw the pooch.

[Gryphon]

I wonder if my cousin will reprise his role from the original run

[Frontier]

X-Men TAS was a part of the holy trinity of Batman TAS and Gargoyles when it came to this. Not to mention (you might want to brace yourself I'm about to go all caps) X-MEN THE ANIMATED SERIES STILL HAS THE BEST ADAPTATION OF THE PHOENIX SAGA!

I'd throw in Spider-Man: The Animated Series for me.

[90'sCartoonMan]

I guess the thing with '90s cartoon is I don't really "get" why it's such a sacred cow, much less the only one that Marvel keeps alive (I mean, they had that "making of" book awhile back, a comic book continuation, and now the revival, which is more than any of the others have gotten).

It ran for longer and had a larger audience than the other cartoons. X-Men The Animated Series is prime "You loved it as a kid, now share the new version with your kids". It's like the same line of thinking that gave us a new Duck Tales cartoon, or even live action versions of 90's Disney movies. None of the other X-Men cartoons have that level of fond memories that have stood the test of time.

I will concede that I've never watched the whole thing through, but the production values and acting aren't that good. I guess you can argue that it tried to do mature storytelling, but it all falls flat when you consider that it was a contemporary of the original Batman cartoon, which did all those things better (as in having aged extremely well and still regarded as a legitimate classic.

I love both shows, but I wouldn't really compare the best of each series in terms of storytelling. X-Men was at its best when it did far reaching long epics while Batman's strength was in its introspective psychological character studies.

- Mature themes like racism, religion, hope and heroism in a brutal and embittered role.

Nightcrawler trying to teach Wolverine faith, Archangel's maddening obsession with killing Apocalypse, and Jean's sacrifice and the mourning period the team went through were some of the strongest explorations of those themes I've ever seen a cartoon tackle.

World War II, The Holocaust, Cold War paranoia, and segregation in the 1950's were all touched upon in addition to the usual civil rights debate that comes from the concept of mutants.

Dated as the show may be, it was still progressive. It had four distinct female cast members and a near 1:1 ratio of male to female heroes. That dynamic has never been achieved by any Marvel team cartoon since, not even when Avengers Assemble had Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and Wasp all on the same team.

If you didn't experience it in the '90s, it's going to be hard to explain the sheer impact of that show at the time. They had been trying to bring X-Men out of the comic shops and into the mainstream for a little while with tepid results. There was an arcade machine, a failed TV pilot and an anemically selling action figure line. That, and the usual mainstream scuttlebutt about how selling a copy of X-Men #1 might make you a millionaire (it was the '90s after all). After the show premiered, that all changed. X-Men was a household name.

The leap from Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (the previous Marvel cartoon) to X-Men The Animated Series was tremendous.

But also . . . it created a baseline. It created a baseline for what the mainstream people should expect from the X-Men. The movies? HA! The movies are some black and chrome, Matrix-era, desaturated take on the cartoon that didn't do the Phoenix right and didn't really use Gambit or Jubilee. X-Men Evolution? The cartoon crossed with Saved by the Bell.

I loved X-Men Evolution, but it's interesting to think that the X-Men movies were helped along because of X-Men The Animated Series, and then X-Men Evolution ended up taking elements from the movies (like the design of Cerebro, Wolverine's redesign costume, which was based on the comics, which had somewhat adapted itself for movie fans). X-Men TAS was a massively important building block.

[Mercury]

Jake Castorena, Supervising Director for X-Men '97, has confirmed that this was designed by the series' Lead Character Designer Amelia Vidal, so there is a possibility that these are the official looks, though it's too soon to say for sure.

[Anthony W]

I'd throw in Spider-Man: The Animated Series for me.

How could I forget.

[Frontier]

Jake Castorena, Supervising Director for X-Men '97, has confirmed that this was designed by the series' Lead Character Designer Amelia Vidal, so there is a possibility that these are the official looks, though it's too soon to say for sure.

It's looking like they're sticking with traditional animation, which makes me really curious to see how well the animation will flow.

[GOLGO 13]

Why is Disney trying to revive a cartoon from the 1990s. Disney must be desperate to make us forget the turd of Eternals. Announcing a new X-Men Cartoon that is already old seems to be doing just that.

Can't wait for them to have Wolverine AGAIN, only use his claws on robots, steel doors, trees or something to use as a ladder.

Can't.
Wait...

[ChrisIII]

Jake Castorena, Supervising Director for X-Men '97, has confirmed that this was designed by the series' Lead Character Designer Amelia Vidal, so there is a possibility that these are the official looks, though it's too soon to say for sure.

Didn't the last few episodes change Jubilee's look to one more like her Generation X hair?

[Agent Z]

Why is Disney trying to revive a cartoon from the 1990s. Disney must be desperate to make us forget the turd of Eternals. Announcing a new X-Men Cartoon that is already old seems to be doing just that.

Or, it has nothing to do with Eternals.

[KabutoRyder]

Or, it has nothing to do with Eternals.

Facts. That was the most random take about this I think I have ever ever seen. And probably will see.

[AdamFTF]

Facts. That was the most random take about this I think I have ever ever seen. And probably will see.

Yeah. This who would have been in pre-production for a few years prior to Eternals being released. I mean, just production design alone must have been underway already.

Anyway, it seems like we've entered the "Why does this exist?" phase of the conversation. So, I'd like to put forward a couple of things:

1) This didn't come out of nowhere. Ever since the old show's head writer Eric Lewald's book Previously on X-Men came out in 2017, he's been making the rounds promoting the book and frequently saying "Gee, I'd love to bring the show back." which has been echoed by series director Larry Houston as well as a number of the original voice talents from the show. They've been pushing for it and the cause has been picked up by a number of their followers on social media.

2) The original show did really well when it first showed up on Disney+ with a number of people tweeting about how it was the first thing they binge-watched when they first got the service.

3) The previous mass culture version of the X-Men ended with kind of a whimper. And remember what I said about the old show establishing a "baseline". Well, Disney probably wants to get people's minds back to that baseline. Though some comics fans may rankle at the idea, a lot of people think of this show as kind of the platonic ideal of the X-Men. So, Disney wants to be like "Hey, remember the X-Men you know and love? Well, they're coming back." Heck, they were already using this team lineup on merchandise.

[BeastieRunner]

Yeah. This who would have been in pre-production for a few years prior to Eternals being released. I mean, just production design alone must have been underway already.

Anyway, it seems like we've entered the "Why does this exist?" phase of the conversation. So, I'd like to put forward a couple of things:

1) This didn't come out of nowhere. Ever since the old show's head writer Eric Lewald's book Previously on X-Men came out in 2017, he's been making the rounds promoting the book and frequently saying "Gee, I'd love to bring the show back." which has been echoed by series director Larry Houston as well as a number of the original voice talents from the show. They've been pushing for it and the cause has been picked up by a number of their followers on social media.

2) The original show did really well when it first showed up on Disney+ with a number of people tweeting about how it was the first thing they binge-watched when they first got the service.

3) The previous mass culture version of the X-Men ended with kind of a whimper. And remember what I said about the old show establishing a "baseline". Well, Disney probably wants to get people's minds back to that baseline. Though some comics fans may rankle at the idea, a lot of people think of this show as kind of the platonic ideal of the X-Men. So, Disney wants to be like "Hey, remember the X-Men you know and love? Well, they're coming back." Heck, they were already using this team lineup on merchandise.

I mean I voted yes and I am excited AND I understand AND agree with your points.

BUT ...

Why not just make a new show with some of the same people?

[AdamFTF]

I mean I voted yes and I am excited AND I understand AND agree with your points.

BUT ...

Why not just make a new show with some of the same people?

I don't know. Maybe a continuation was one of the best ideas anyone brought them. I'm not sure a new show really has all the advantages people think.