Pryde of the X-Men

Considering how old this is, Pryde of the X-men is not too bad. Particularly, the animation and artwork are at least as good, if not better, than the 90s animated series. The style of the art is actually quite faithful to the comic books. The voice acting was okay though the voice casting was a bit liberal; many of us have simply grown so used to the voice acting of the 90s cartoon that anything different seems odd, and even more recently we've been spoiled by fantastic actors like Patrick Stewart in the movies. The only bizarre (and arguably wrong) voice was Wolverine, who for some odd reason has an Australian accent.

Otherwise, the biggest weakness is the relatively weak plot and script. The plot seems rushed and a bit ambitious(the show is only 20 minutes), though it's hard to say what the creators' intentions were since this was the only episode made. All in all, Pryde of the X-men is a good watch for X-men fans, especially fans of the 70s and 80s rosters.

This forgotten late-eighties pilot showed promise but was never picked up as a series. Although the characterizations are annoyingly overwrought (in typical Saturday morning fashion), the adaptation was very faithful to the source material. The producers chose a mid-eighties line-up (Cyclops, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Storm, Dazzler, Kitty Pryde) and concisely setup the struggle between the two mutant factions while briefly outlining the comic book's continuity at that time. The only misfire was Wolverine's inexplicable Cockney accent (the character is supposed to be Canadian, not British). They even managed to include Lockheed, Kitty's ridiculous pet dragon. Not a bad job, and it proves that you *don't* have to extensively reinvent the comic (as was done with "X-Men: Evolution") in order to make it work on the small screen.

Why does everyone seem to hate this? Sure, the story was 100% generic, but it was definitely watchable. While the Saban cartoon that followed it around four years later was much more complex story-wise, its animation couldn't hold a candle to this one. If they were somehow able to combine this cartoon's animation with the stories of the show that came after this, we would have had a GREAT series.

"Pryde of the X-Men" was obviously an attempt to stay within the spirit of 1980s cartoons rather than bring the X-Men to life.

When considering the cartoons of the 80s, you have to think of the following things that EVERY hero cartoon (G.I. Joe, He-Man, She-Ra, early Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Superfriends, Transformers, etc.) did. The word "hordes" was used at least 400 times in each episode of each cartoon to describe the villain's army (even if the "army' only consisted of 5 people). "You'll regret this!" was shouted by each villain once or more in each episode. Every battle started with exactly ONE (1) corny line of dialogue, uninterrupted, from each participant, and the battle would continue with no further voicings except screaming when hit, or sound effects.

"Pryde of the X-Men" is the story of Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat and how she comes to join the X-Men. There's no real complaints with any of the X-Men's portrayals in the show, except for Wolverine... why, why, WHY did they have to make him Australian? Colossus sounds like a Russian stereotype, Nightcrawler is German (and seems to be rather "interested" in Kitty), Cyclops is the boy scout leader type, and Storm doesn't talk. Oh yeah, and Dazzler. "Leave this to the Dazzler!" Classic. The powers aren't consistent with the comics, at least, not entirely. White Queen throws glowing spears of some sort, Magneto seems to have super-strength, and Dazzler seems to fire a conventional laser gun.

If you like 80s cartoons, watch this, but don't expect a solid book to screen translation. Stan Lee could've done better (and did, in the 1993 cartoon on Fox.)

This one shot X-men pilot episode had the best animation quality of any other Marvel cartoon then or since. Yes, the quality even rivals X-men Evolution. I prefer the mature look of Pryde's animation over Evolution's Disney look any day.

The Voice-Overs (Wolverine's Australian accent) have been panned quite a bit on this board. Wolverine's austrailian accent didn't bother me much at all and I collected the X-men comic for a while during the eighties. Even though Wolvie's accent was wrong, his temperment and intensity were captured perfectly by the Voice-Over. I'd Prefer Pryde's Austrailian Wolverine over Evolution's MUCH SOFTER Wolverine any day. Evolution's Wolvie just doesn't have the intensity or temperment; C'mon Wolverine as a teacher? Gimme a break. The other characters in Pryde were well portrayed.

The story line isn't that complex but it's not supposed to be. It's a pilot episode and therefore is meant to be more of an showcase of the format and characters of the cartoon than anything else. The plots surely would have gotten more complex had the series been picked up.

I can't help but think that Marvel missed an opportunity by not producing more episodes. Hmmmm... maybe the animation was too expensive because it was damn near movie quality. If the 90's series had Pryde's animation quality, we would have had a near perfect series. I've seen Pryde of the X-men several times and always wondered about what could have been. If you haven't seen Pryde of the X-men yet, don't listen to negative reviews and go check it out. It's definitely worth it.