I'm actually pleased that my love\/hate for this cartoon still holds true today, only moreso. Amazon Prime has these cartoons available for free, and Kay express an interest in watching them. \u00a0How could I refuse?<\/p>\n
So to start with the awful. It's 1992, and the X-costumes are all into the whole Image \/ Rob Liefeld \/ Jim Lee \/ pop music scene. Thus, lots of belts and straps and gear pockets wrapped around arms and thighs. Also, many jackets, usually with the collars turned way up. \u00a0And the hair — oh, Lordy, the hair. Also, the masks that wrap around the lower face, but leave the hair flowing freely.<\/p>\n
Those were strange times, my friends.<\/p>\n
The other part of the awful is that this was a Saban production which had animation production values somewhere between mediocre and "oh my God, have you consulted your attorneys?" \u00a0What makes it nearly forgivable (if all the more obvious) is that they go big with all the animation attempts — people move in all dimensions, all sorts of things are going on, perspectives shift, camera angles are challenging — it's all done horribly, but with audacity that you have to give it an A- for effort.<\/p>\n
The good, though, is what makes it work. Within the bounds of acceptability for Saturday morning cartoons, this X-Men cartoon hews amazingly closely to actual canonical events in the X-comics. People are in the current costumes. Story arcs and big events make their way to the cartoon. A panoply of villains (and heroes) make appearances, from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, to Cable and Domino and all that crowd, to Omega Red, to Bishop, to the Days of Future Past, to the Rise and Fall of the Phoenix, to the Starjammers, to the Hellfire Club, to … well, just about anyone showing up in the X-comics in that era.<\/p>\n
And it contains one of the most awesome animated X-sequences ever, as Magneto, down inside of a ship, must protect himself against non-ferrous Sentinels. \u00a0Seriously kick-ass here.<\/p>\n
It's so badly executed, but such good material, I have to give it a passing grade.<\/p>\n
(A good parallel review:\u00a0http:\/\/www.zakiscorner.com\/2012\/12\/nostalgia-theater-x-men-crappy-cartoon.html<\/a> )<\/p>\n