X-Men: The Animated Series is perhaps one of if not the best animated series that Marvel has ever produced. With the series being so good that in little under a weeks time the series is to return and well with there being a ton of great episodes to watch from this wonderful series it was hard to pick one to be the basis of this tie in review and so then join me as I review the four part saga that is best adaptation of The Dark Phoenix saga with all four episodes of this show being collectively known as "The Dark Phoenix" enjoy.
The plot of all four of these episodes is when the Phoenix begins to fully take control of Jean Grey it's up to the X-Men to find a way of destroying it without destroying Jean. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty really good with the plot of all four episodes being really well written with the plot despite being in a kids cartoon series being just as mature and adult as you'd really want it to be and unlike the Dark Phoenix movie the plot of these episodes felt fresh , new and different compared to the type of plots that you'd normally get from a kids cartoon from around the same time as this show as well as being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in these episodes is Cedric Smith as Professor Charles Xavier and Norm Spencer as Scott Summers / Cyclops. Also starring in these episodes are Catherine Disher as Jean Grey / Dark Phoenix and Dazzler , Lenore Zann as Rogue , Chris Potter as Gambit , Cal Dodd as Logan / Wolverine , George Buza as Beast , Nigel Bennett as Jason Wyngarde / Mastermind , Walker Boone as Donald Pierce , David Bryant as Sebastian Shaw , Geoff Kahnert as Harry Leland , Camilla Scott as Lilandra , Tracey Moore as Emma Frost , Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm , Len Carlson as The Supreme Intelligence and anime voice acting legend Richard Epcar as A Gladiator.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented t us in these very episodes was in all honesty really good. With all of these episodes cast members turning in some really solid performances with the best performer in these episodes going being Catherine Disher who voices multiple characters across all four episodes and yet she still manages to make you feel something during the more emotional moments that are all in all four of these episodes and while all of the cast members do turn in some really good performances none of them make you feel something when all four of these episodes getting emotional with the same thing also being true for Norm Spencer who does turn in a good performance but he just can't hold a candle to Catherine Disher with the acting in all of these episodes really being helped by the fact that the script for all fur pf these episodes being really good as it gives the cast a whole lot to work with interms of it is that there respective characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place.
Doing the animation for all fours of these episodes is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Akom Production Company. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty not that bad which is in line with this shows standard of animation as while the show has always had some really good looking animation with these episodes not being an exception the animation in this show isn't as good as say Spider-Man: The Animated Series for example as the animation in this show and in these episodes in particular whilst they do look expensive it also looks really dated as well with there not really being any animation errors in any of these four episodes.
These four episodes are the only adaptations to do the The Dark Phoenix saga any kind of justice as while yes these four episodes only cover the end of the saga. Literally just a few episodes before these four aired they did the opening of the saga in five episodes with this proving that this saga will never work in film media unless it was done in multiple parts as that's the only way to do it any kind of justice and yet it's something that Hollywood has tried and failed to learn not once but twice now and while yes these episodes don't end with Jean dying which is an understandable change as this is still after all a kids show the fact that they even dared to do an adaptation of this saga at all and do it in a way that was respectful to the comics means that the story doesn't loose any of if it's impact as the story will still hit you the same way that it did in the comic books.
While the episodes do have plenty of good things going for them there are some issues to be found in all four episodes. The chief amongst which is the fact that they introduce a new mutant into the show but then they do nothing with her with that show being Dazzler who appears in the first episode and they make it look like that she's going to play a big part in the story but then they just drop her character after that first episode and they never mention her again and the second thing that's wrong with this episode is the fact that while the plot of this episode is indeed a really solid plot that works well in the medium of television it's also a really weakly drawn out plot as well with it being hard to tell what the actual plot of the episode is even meant to be alot of the time both of which are things that could have been fixed as they could have had Jean see Scott and Dazzler kiss like she does at the end of episode but then have that be what triggers the phoenix force to come out and have her try to kill Dazzler as this would show us that Jean isn't in control of her own body and it would also give Dazzler alot more to do interms of the overall story of all four episodes of this show.
Another kind of issue with these four episodes is The Hellfire Club as while they are yes the villains of the first two episodes. They are pretty much all gone and forgotten about by the end of episode three which does make sense as the stories overall villain isn't meant to be The Hellfire Club it's meant to be the phoenix force itself but at the same time give that they played such a big role in the stories early episodes it would have made sense to give us some closure on those characters even if it's just a brief scene with this being made even worse when you take into account that these characters aren't as fully developed as the other characters are with us the audience not even finding out why these are even after The Phoenix Force in the first place and as a result of that it's hard for us the audience to feel anything for Jean when they do capture her outside of the fact that there the bad guys and there for we're meant to hate them which isn't enough to make them interesting characters and yet despite all of this the members of the The Hellfire Club do seem like there interesting characters in there own right there just given the chance the shine in these episodes.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember whatever this episodes grand total running tie even was I do know that for a fact that all of these episodes has / had an exact grand total running time of roughly one hour and thirty minuets. With all four episodes not being any longer then twenty two minuets with all four episodes averaging n about twenty one minuets which is a solid running time for all of these episode to have as while the episodes do have more then enough plot there to cover that one hour and thirty combined running time this is a story that really could have done with being five or even six episodes long just to give the story really alot more room to breathe as they really could have gotten a good six episodes out of this one story alone and with that adding running time it really would mean that the episodes could be alot more faithful that what it might already be as there are bound to be some things that are cut out or cut down really just to meet the running time of the episodes but I will admit that all four of these episodes really do have some really good pacing to them all tho.
So now then as this is an action show that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes and as well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty really good. Which is really nothing new for this show as one of the things that this show is known for is it's top notch action with the same thing also being true for these four episodes as all of the episodes have some really good action in them and while yes some of the action in episodes one and two really could have been better when the action gets really good like it does from at the end of episode two onwards it is really good to see with it being the kind of exciting action that you'd both expect and really want to to see in a nineties superhero action TV shown as it's really just that good to see and is just that entertaining to watch as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall these four episodes are a good example of just how good this show really was when it was at it's best and it does prove that The Dark Phoenix saga really should only be told in a television format as they could spend several episodes telling the story instead of just covering in one two hour movie in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in these very episodes in this very review ad as such that meas that these episodes really do earn a grand old score of exactly an 8 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Marvel Animated Universe fandom wiki page , the official Marvel Database fandom wiki page , the official Disney fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very episodes that I used in this very review being the really great and really legendary Google Images simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this episode and are really of course on Google Images are all really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.