To say that the classic X-Men animated is one if not the best X-Men adaptation of all time would be a huge understatement. Heck the show itself really is still so popular that people talk about and are showing it to there kids and well now the long awaited sequel series has finally debuted it's first two episodes on Disney+ well you all just knew that I had to check this shown the very first chance that I got and so then join me as In review the first two episodes of a show that brings back alot of classic things from X-Men: The Animated Series with the show in question being called simply just "X-Men '97" enjoy.
The plot of the first episode is when Sentinel tech is found in the hands of a terrorist group the X-Men have to find out who the source is that is selling them the tech and stop it once and for all where as the plot of the second episode is when Magneto is brought to court for his past crimes the X-Men have to protect hi when someone tries to kill him. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plots that are actually featured / presented to us in these very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plots that are actually featured / presented to us in these first two episodes was in all honesty not that bad with the first episodes plot defiantly being the stronger plot of the two as while the plot for episode two is indeed a good plot it's not the strongest plot that the show has had where as the plot of episode one was one of the more stronger plots of both series with both plots 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 are Ray Chase as Scott Summers / Cyclops and Cal Dodd as James Howlett / Wolverine. Also starring in these episodes are Lenore Zann as Anna-Marie Raven / Rogue , Alison Sealy-Smith as Ororo Munroe / Storm , George Buza as Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy / Beast , A.J. LoCascio as Remy LeBeau / Gambit , Holly Chou as Jubilation Lee / Jubilee , Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey , Matthew Waterson as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto , Gui Agustini as Roberto Da Costa / Sunspot , J.P. Karliak as Kevin Sydney / Morph , Isaac Robinson-Smith as Lucas Bishop / Bishop Gavin Hammon as Bolivar Trask , Eric Bauza as Mastermind , Sentinels and A News Anchor and Lawrence Bayne as Lawrence Baynen and Carl Denti.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in these first two episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in these first two episodes was in all honesty alot better then what it really had right to be. As while yes alot of the original series cast members do indeed return for these new episodes alot of them haven't been playing these characters for decades and as a result it would have been understandable if they didn't turn in that good of a performance in these first two episodes but nope all of the cast members in both of these first episodes really do hit it out of the park with the old actors sounding like that they just finished there playing there characters just yesterday and the replacement actors do such a good job of sounding like the original voice actors with the acting in these first two episodes well being helped by the fact that the script for both of these first two episodes being so good that all the cast have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out them naturally.
Doing the animation for these episodes and the rest of the series is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Studio Mir. 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 really good and was easily better then the animation that was in the original show which is not a knock against the original show at all it's just that the original shown really didn't have that good animation to it and yet here it's like they took what they did with the animation in the original series and just updated it and made it better and unlike the original show this show actually doesn't feature any animation errors with the show taking on what could best be described as an anime inspired look with it not really being all that surprising that the animation in these first two episodes was good as it's being done by Studio Mir who really only produce very high quality animation.
SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!
One of the things that was Kevin Feige wanted when being convince to make this show was the rights to use the theme song. Well could job because they use the theme song once again for this show but on top of that is the fact that gave us a pretty much shot for shot recreation of the shows original intro all of which go a really long way to make this show feeling like the start of season six of the original show and not that start of a brand new show as they didn't have to use the original intro that was a nice touch and it's one that fans of X-Men: The Animated Series are going to pick up on and while the new version of the theme song does lack the epic sounding bell sound at the end of the intro it does still contain that epic guitar solo with the intro even adding in spots for both Morph and Bishop and heck they even bring back the original shows ending which again was something that they didn't have to do and yet they went ahead and did it anyway which just proves that this show was made by the fans for the fans of the original X-Men: The Animated Series TV show.
While this show does have alot of really good things going for it there are some issues to be found in both of the episodes tho like the fact that they do Storm dirty as by the end of episode they strip her of her god like powers and have her leave the team. While this might be an adaptation of a comic book storyline which wouldn't be all that surprising as the original show was known for adapting comic book storylines as the same time tho they have it come out of nowhere and not even play a part in the plot of the episode and the other thing that I really didn't like about the first two episodes is the fact that they killed of Charles Xavier off screen when a character that's this important to not only the characters but to the show as a whole he is a character that should have been killed on screen as that is the kind of death that a character like this one should get and by doing that we would get the chance to see how his death effects all of the X-Men instead of just seeing how it effects Scott which just isn't all that interesting at least not compared to when you have the opportunity to show us how the whole team would react to the death of Charles Xavier tho.
For some reason it seems like this show is trying to redeem Magneto which just doesn't work as he's a stone cold villain. Yes he has teamed up with the X-Men before in both the movies and in animation and so having him team up with the X-Men here in this cartoon isn't out of character for his character but it just comes out of nowhere as something that's this big should be built up as it is something that really change the status quo as we know the X-Men to be and while having he team up with the X-Men isn't a bad idea what is a bad idea is trying to redeem him as he is a character that shouldn't be redeemed as he's tried to take over the world countless times in the original show something which they do bring up and while he did it for the right reasons it's how he went about it that makes him the bad guy and will always make him the bad guy but with that being said tho it is interesting seeing how this version of the character acts when he's trying to do good and it's fun and interesting to see the rest of the X-Men come to terms with this change and learn to try and trust him as there essential leader.
Now then episode one for this show has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly thirty minuets ad thirty seconds with episode two having a grand total running time of exactly thirty minuets and thirty nine seconds. Which this new thirty minuet running time pretty much being the bogstanderd running for this new show and to this shows credit both of the episodes really do have alot of running time there to really cover there respective amount of running time and while episode two has the weaker of the two plots it's also the one that really does make the best use of it's running as it really delves into how Magneto has been dealing with the death of Charles Xavier and how he's been doing good not because it's the right thing to do but because that's his own personal way of honoring his late friend but at the same time tho it's episode one that really had the more fitting running time as while the subplot with Roberto Da Costa goes nowhere with the character really being dropped just a few minuets after really setting him up which makes him really feel alot like a really useless character but episode does use alot of the it's main cast really well during it's running time tho with both episodes having some really good pacing to them both tho.
So now then as this 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 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 something that's not all that new as the original show had some really good action in it as well with episode one having the best action out of the two episodes as while the action in the episode two was indeed really good the action that we got given to us in episode one was also more fun to watch on top of it being really creative and while the action in episode two did a really good job of advancing Magneto's character arc of that episode it didn't really show of the main team all that well where as in episode one it's the opposite that's true as we get to really see each and every member of the team in that episodes final fight sequence and that really that makes the action at the end of that episode alot fun and cool to watch in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!
Overall if these first two episodes are anything to go by then we finally another good if not great X-Men animated show to look forward each and every week but that is something that only time will tell but so far we are off to a really good start with this show feeling like it was a show that really was made for the fans and by the fans of the original X-Men: The Animated Series as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. ow 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 post as this is only my first impressions I won't give this show a rating as any show really can have a good or bad first few episodes but if this post does well then I really will look into covering more episodes of this show as a review tho.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very post 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 post from 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 great the official Disney fandom wiki page simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from these very episodes and are really of course on the official Disney fandom wiki page are really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.