X-Men: The Animated Series – Unlikely Story of the '90s Cartoon Hit

149 点作者 ALee超过 7 年前

27 条评论

slg超过 7 年前

For a generation of kids like me the definitive story of X-Men wasn't the comics or the movies, it was this TV show. The complexity and the maturity of the stories in the series might even go beyond the current Marvel cinematic universe.

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korethr超过 7 年前

I'm one of the 90s kids who watched this series. I'd not realized that there'd been executive pressure to make the show into another 20 minute toy commercial -- I never got that vibe from watching it. So, IMO, they successfully resisted that pressure, which I'm glad of.I was only half-aware of it at the time, but I absolutely loved the fact that it wasn't overly silly, wacky or talking down to me. It offered serious, mature storytelling with relatable characters, and a longer serialized plot. I couldn't quite articulate those qualities at my young age, but at some level, I felt their lack in other cartoons. Even if I couldn't explain why, I knew what I was watching was good.In that way, it reminds me of another cartoon from the early 90s, DiC's Saturday morning version of Sonic the Hedgehog (dubbed "SatAM" by fans the to distinguish it from the other Sonic cartoon which ran concurrently on weekdays). SatAM also tried it's hand at a darker setting, more mature story telling, and in its second season, a longer serialized plot. And again, I recognized quality and lapped it up. Not to say it was without flaws; quality zig-zagged through the show's run. But like X-men, it was neither infantilizing or preachy, and I loved it for that.Now, cartoons are no longer _only_ for young children; take for example Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block, or South Park. But I think there still should be some kids cartoons that attempt serious storytelling alongside the comedic ones. Not having kids, I've not been closely following kids cartoons. Are there any of that latter type presently?

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chriskanan超过 7 年前

As a child, I thought Dungeons and Dragons, X-Men, Spider Man (the 90s version), and the DCAU series (Batman, Superman, etc.) were really fantastic cartoon series. I've seen some of them since then, and they still hold up really well.Most of the comic book and related shows today, including Marvel's, seem comparatively unwatchable and immature. They are definitely not designed to be for anyone but the youngest children. Young Justice is a notable exception.

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pkamb超过 7 年前

Interesting that the famous 6-stick X-Men arcade game, also released in 1992, used the character designs from the failed 1989 pilot episode rather than the 1992 animated series. I remember thinking how weird it was that the video game characters were wearing the wrong costumes.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Men_(1992_video_game)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Men_(1992_video_game)</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Men:_Pryde_of_the_X-Men" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Men:_Pryde_of_the_X-Men</a>

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eumenides1超过 7 年前

"Previously on X-men", Who else hears the voice of cyclops?I can't be the only one to have pieced together the story of "days of future past" in a non-linear fashion because you keep missing episodes due to Saturday school?

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tsilva超过 7 年前

This was huge in Brazil, too, at the time. Though with some setbacks, when aired in open/FTA networks. For example, the multi-part episodes were cut down (i.e. destroyed) as a single episode -- we only discovered they were actually two episodes a couple of years later, when cable tv got popular and the show aired on Fox Kids without the mutilations.Also there were some translation mistakes (specially in the first episodes). However, the brazilian voice actors were amazing and extremely memorable -- Brazil had an incredible pool of voice actors in the 80's and 90's. It was so memorable that the same voice actors who did the animated series were used to produce the dubbed versions of the movies a decade+ later, a rare gift given to fans in these lands.As for the comics, they were also a few years behind US. Uncanny X-Men #262 was published when the show first aired. So as kids coming from the show to the comics, we were also pretty confused about uniforms and team members.

gwern超过 7 年前

> Eric Lewald : The Hollywood normalcy is you provide a number one hit and the money starts flowing. What happened with us was we had a number one hit, but it was four or five companies working on this. One of them was Saban. What he did after the first season was cut $500 off the script fee for the writers. > > Julia Lewald: Me being one of the writers. > > Eric Lewald: His rationale was, "it's a hit. They want to be part of it, so they'll take less money." > > JuliaLewald: "And if not, there's a line out the door of people who will."Brutal.

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viseztrance超过 7 年前

>> There was incredible pressure to change it around and make it younger, sillier, or give them a pet dog. To dumb it down or make it younger. Luckily, everybody on the creative side banded together and had, "No, you'll have to fire me" moments.Now more than ever, I wish more shows were like this.

pavel_lishin超过 7 年前

> Disher: I remember us smoking in the recording studio. I remember because when I got pregnant, I had to ask people to not smoke when I was in the room. It just boggles my mind now, that we were allowed to light up in a recording studio.It's amazing how that sort of thing gets hard to remember. Reading that paragraph, I remember now that when I was 12 or so, we'd go out to restaurants which had smoking or non- sections - and the only real "separation" between the two was the main aisle from the entrance to the back.Boggles the mind to imagine something like that now. A guy walked into a pizza place with a pinched off cigarette over lunch, and I did a double-take.

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40acres超过 7 年前

The 90s were truly a golden age for TV adaptations of coming books. X-Men,the Batman & Superman animated series,along with Spiderman and more were classics.

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AdmiralAsshat超过 7 年前

It's a pity that they didn't get the voice actors for Professor Xavier or Magneto in the roundtable discussion. They were the most interesting of the batch, particularly Magneto. I don't think any other version of Magneto comes close to nailing Chris Claremont's interpretation of the character.

laumars超过 7 年前

I grew up watching those X-Men cartoons and the equally good (as I recall) Spider-Man seasons that followed too.My favourite show wasn't a cartoon though, it was Knightmare. Which is probably easiest explained as a very British take on Dungeons and Dragons.

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ajeet_dhaliwal超过 7 年前

Thank you Margaret Loesch, this was my favorite cartoon series when I was a child and it is what got me into Marvel.

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grifter超过 7 年前

Couldn't agree more with all the comments on quality and maturity of X-Men, Spiderman, and Batman series of that era. Paired with reading the comics they really cemented the Marvel and DC universes for me.Have add in Exo Squad! While it's not a comic book adaptation, it's a kids-targeted cartoon from that 90s era with very mature themes. Great first-gen action figures and genesis game as well.I've rewatched the series recently (can purchase on iTunes and find on youtube) and it still holds up. Would love to see it as a live-action series and/or in cinematic form.

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Cyph0n超过 7 年前

This was one of the most memorable cartoons from my teens!It was dubbed to Arabic by either a Syrian or Lebanese studio and was broadcast on MBC3, a Saudi cartoon/kids channel, in the mid-2000s. I may be mistaken on the channel, but the time frame should be accurate.As a side note, probably 80% of all cartoons from the 90s onwards are dubbed by a few Lebanese, Syrian, and Egyptian studios.The previous generation of cartoons, around the 70s and 80s, were mainly dubbed in Kuwait. Future Boy Conan[1] and Grendizer were from this era; if you ask an Arab about either of these two cartoons and they don't know them, they are not Arab![1]: The show's name in Arabic is A'adnan wa Leena, which are the Arabic names of the two main characters, separated by the conjunction wa ("and").

toblender超过 7 年前

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rSw4Xl5qfs" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rSw4Xl5qfs</a>The Japanese intro for those of you who haven't seen it.

miiiiiike超过 7 年前

If you're in this thread you're also going to want to check out Batman: The Animated Podcast (<a href="http://www.btaspodcast.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.btaspodcast.com/</a>).It has some great interviews with the writers and producers.

lowglow超过 7 年前

This cartoon was my jam. Growing up on comics as a kid with idols like Tony Stark, etc and all the sci-fi future stuff, just made me want to become an engineer/scientist.

santaclaus超过 7 年前

I was just thinking how much better The Gifted would be if it were animated like the 90s cartoon. Somehow comics don't translate well into low-budget live action TV.

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kelukelugames超过 7 年前

This is my favorite parody video.<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSuvOVH0aSQ" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSuvOVH0aSQ</a>

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wink超过 7 年前

Unlike many other 90s cartoons at that time I totally have no memory of seeing this on German television. Wikipedia says they dubbed (yes, everything's dubbed here) the first 26 episodes then didn't continue and only in 2001 as a rerun on a different channel season 3 and 4 were added.

seppin超过 7 年前

I was amazed, even then, about how advanced the story telling was.They had one scene in the time traveling season, where Cable said something along the lines of: "It's just like the nuclear disarmament of the 21st century, every country kept one."Game theory in a kids show? Awesome.

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staunch超过 7 年前

When that theme song played we got so quiet and so excited. It still has an incredible effect on me.<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa1RMD1f5Es" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa1RMD1f5Es</a>

oweiler超过 7 年前

For anyone who loved X-Men as a kid should have a look at: Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes. Pretty similar with regards to story telling and much more mature than most MCU movies.

sethammons超过 7 年前

Man, I enjoyed this show. The opening theme is my ringtone and has been for years at this point. When it goes off, usually someone nearby is like, "whoa, is that X-Men?!" :)

bellab超过 7 年前

You can relate to those who think Rambo movies have no political agenda when they clearly do.

jewel777超过 7 年前

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was my favorite cartoon at the time. Cartoons today are so lame.

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