DVD REVIEW:
X-MEN VOLUME ONE
04/25/09
Finally! After almost 20
years since its debut on TV in 1992 X-Men the Animated
Series is being released in its DVD format. I was really
surprised to see that one of the most accurate and
successful adaptations of a comic book series was being left
out from the home entertaining market. In X-men we might not
see an outstanding high tech animation or audio like in
today‘s Saturday morning cartoons, however it is full of
great and deep stories, the best and most accurate designs,
action, social issues (like in all X-Men Comic Books), and
much more. I don’t know if Disney and Marvel were waiting
for a perfect moment for these released (which I considered
that the first X-Men movie would have been more appropriate
time), but with the upcoming movie X- Men Origins: Wolverine
which had created a lot of hype, I think there has not been
a better moment to catch up, refresh or relived the stories
that entertained us for almost 5 years.
X-Men Volume one begins with one of my favorite stories from
the X-Men Universe “Night of the Sentinels Part 1 and 2.”
With these episodes the mood is set, and through out the
series, we realized that this are not the average Saturday
morning cartoons, yes it has all the aspects and
characteristics of those kind of cartoons but it adds more
to it. We see that these episodes touch many deep issues and
problems faced in America every day, also that the series is
willing to go where no other cartoon series had the courage
to go before: it kills characters. After that the series
begin to flow with episodes linked one another with
incredible adventures featuring great, powerful and popular
villains like Magneto, MR Sinister and Apocalypse. These
series setting is also one of the best I ever seen, like in
the comic books, the series takes place in the whole Marvel
Universe, which makes them more exciting since we get to see
reference from other marvel heroes and villains, like Ms
Marvel, Dead Shot Dr Strange, or future X-men like Cable and
Bishop. This adds great excitement since we realize that
each story could go anywhere from different cities,
countries, to a distant future, or space.
Technically I have to say it looks just like in 1992. I do
not know how could that be interpreted. To me it was good
enough since I knew what I was getting, I knew that these
series did not have fast pace animation like today’s series.
It is more intuitive and suggesting, besides for the time it
was created the episodes looks as best as they can. Voice
acting wise this is the best ever, I think these character
had set the standard of how the X Men should sound, anytime
Wolverine is mentioned Cal Dodd’s voice performance should
come to mind. He is Wolverine, same goes to Gambit and Chris
Potter. The other character are also well interpreted.
Last week I referred to Wolverine and the X-men as a Fresh
take on the already known story. Well if you do not know the
story this is the set you Should start with. This Set will
give you the most accurate version of the mutant story
beside the books. It tells the origin of the characters and
their struggle the best way possible. The volume has a total
of 16 episodes in two disks, and what is to admire is that
each volume close each main saga, it does not let us in the
middle of the story waiting for the conclusion, however it
leave us wanting for more. I recommend this DVD to all the
X-Men fans, it is a most have. You could relate this series
to the movies, the new animated series and way not the
upcoming X-Men movies. Also to any person who enjoys
animated series like batman and Spiderman will find in X-Men
a great time. Another great thing about this Volume is that
after watching it you could follow the story almost
immediately since the second volume is also released on the
same day.
VIDEO:
Full screen 1.33:1
AUDIO:
English, French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles -
English, French and
Spanish
SPECIAL FEATURES: Well this DVD collection do not
have any special features but some sneak peeks of upcoming
Disney movies. However I have to say that this do not change
my perspective on the DVD , since its value is more in the
series than the features. The DVD looks however is great the
cover is very colorful and persuasive and the menu is easy
to navigate. One complain is that it has like eight minutes
previews before it gets to the main menu.
Review
By Milo
milo@smartcine.com
RATING BREAK DOWN:
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VIDEO |
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AUDIO |
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BONUS
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