Studios: Walt Disney Studio
$29.99 US
Running Time: 345 minutes
Release Date: September 15 2009
Rating: PG
Distributors: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
In this volume, the follow up to the first Dark Phoenix saga returns, the Hellfire club pushes Jean Grey to the edge and forces the Shi’ar Imperial Guard to intervene by attempting to kill Jean Grey. But the other X-Men, led by Professor Charles Xavier will not let go of their friend and challenge the Imperial Guard, in an attempt to save their friend. Will they prevail?
If you have watched this cartoon series when it was originally broadcasted, you will know the answer to the question above. The joy of being able to watch this DVD collection is not to guess the plot. Rather, it is to relive these exciting moments from the X-Men’s history as interpreted by a team of animator working on classic comic book material. Because it’s been so long since I watched these cartoons and that at the time, I would miss several episodes, watching this collected edition was like rediscovering a treasure trove filled with cartoons. It’s always fun to discover a rich saga involving a whole universe with strong characters and epic stories. And this is what the original X-Men series must have done for a whole generation back then. I often credited this cartoon series as the one that built the X-Men’s reputation outside of the comic book world and cultivated a public for the X-Men film franchise that continues to grace the screens. Many of these stories adapt classic X-Men stories in a different way than how they were told in the comic books and the plots are simpler than the comic books. Yet, they were compelling enough to attract a wide following.
Visually, the animators and the post production team tried some effects that they would have had difficulties with in the first season. Even back then, I remember grimacing at the live flame footage that was composited on top of the animated levels. In hindsight, it’s not as bad as I remembered it. I interpreted these “touches” as the creative team realizing that they were working with golden material and wanting to do it justice as best as they could with the limited tools they had. This must have been one of the first cartoon series to use digital colouring and compositing, if they did and this is what may have emboldened the animators. Still, you can’t go wrong with this third volume of X-Men cartoons which I find much more engaging than X-men Evolution.
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