Nostalgia. It is a disease that infects our senses to perceive products through rose coloured glasses just because of some fleeting connection to good memories of our younger days. In reviewing the much loved X-MEN THE ANIMATED SERIES it is only right that nostalgia is removed from the equation and we can review those show as objectively as possible to the standards of that era. The end result is really a mixed bag with its ups and downs when it comes to technical quality, writing, artwork and voice acting. It is not a bad show but not the epitome of perfection that many may choose to believe.An roaring action packed opening sequence, beautifully detailed art and amazing animation, kicks off each episode to the electronic fanfare of the now iconic X-men theme. As we segue into the episodes proper the drop in quality is very noticeable. There has always been a trade off between the level of art detail and the smoothness of the animation motions. Here, they tried to mimic the detailed art of the era's comics. The designs are straight out of the 1990s comics particularly those drawn by artist Jim Lee, maintaining lots of shadows and contrast with lighting effects, clothing folds and skin creases painstakingly drawn frame by frame. The level of detail is almost on par with direct to video Japanese Anime of that era, no simple feat coming from Korean studies AKOM. Unfortunately the quality of the animation leaves much to be desired. There is a stilted look to many scenes particularly in the more crowded action sequences. Backgrounds seem unfinished at times and the occasion animation error can be quite jarring. Close up shot fare better only because there is less to animate and the detailed art more than makes up for the mediocre animation. The stories are very close adaptations of tales straight out of the comic books, particularly the best works by Chris Claremont and Fabian Niceza. Overarching story lines spanning multiple episodes give each season a grander more epic feel. Stand outs include the Phoenix Saga, the Cable and Apocalypse conflict, and of course Magneto's Insurgency. There is a good mixed of "event" episodes and more intimate character Centred ones where there is less emphasis on action, more on drama and development. Initially both scripts and actors fell into the trappings of typical Saturday morning cartoon fluff: overacting, juvenile dialogue. Come season two and the script took on a more mature tone (again a result of adapting lines directly from the comics). Characters die and relationships get broken then healed as the episodes tackle themes of discrimination, extremism, illegal experimentation, and even some existential philosophy. The status quo continually changes unlike many other cartoons which always revert to status quo by the end of the episode.Slowly but surely the voice actors eased into their roles and by season 3 they were emoting like experts; subtle, nuanced, perfect. Many of the voices like Iona Morris' extra dramatic Storm, Norm Spencer's heroic leader Cyclops and Cathal Dodd's scowling Wolverine have gone down in history as being THE iconic voices of the characters that comic readers hear in their heads whenever they flip through their Favourite books. It is easy to see why the series garnered such a wide appeal, pleasing both casual viewers and Long time comic readers alike. It's faithfulness to the source material and visual aesthetics of the comics are tampered with necessary tweaks to make the continuity less convoluted. Having read the comic, I dare say that some of the changes are actually an improvement over the original stories. The cartoon's biggest asset is its willingness to show the more mature subject matter of the comics without dumbing stuff down for kids. The artwork is beautiful in all its rich detail, a cut above other cartoons of that era but sadly let down by sub par animation. Though it takes it's time to find good footing, X-MEN THE ANIMATED SERIES is right up there among the best of 1990s cartoons. Not perfect, and definitely not aged well when compared to shows of today, but excellent nonetheless.

...I have to be honest. I only have seen about 10 episodes of this show. I enjoyed the show based on that and I do want to see more than the ones I found when I was 12. I watched everything Marvel had to offer at the time and I think that this is actually the best cartoon Marvel has to offer.Now instead of analysing the cartoon itself I am going to go through the other cartoon incarnations of X-Men. Wolverine and The X-Men was brilliant, I enjoyed the show immensely and at the time sat down every time it was on (I was a kid!). X-Men Evolution on the other hand, I liked that it created some really good characters who will later be in their own comic book series (but given better back-stories such as X-23) but on the whole the show wasn't that great.I like the characters of this show. Everything is balanced out perfectly in terms of that area (unlike other incarnations) and all of them (except maybe Jubilee) are very likable and all of them have their distinctive personalities and traits and none of them differ from the comic books.I have seen very little episodes as I said above but based on what I have seen it is a solid 9/10. The only real faults is that the writing does become cheesy in some places, but it's a children's cartoon made in the 90's and considering some of the other cartoons I used to watch (such as the 1960's incarnations of marvel Superheroes) that can be overlooked.

This was a quite good series, as far I remember. The animation wasn't very good, actually it was the worst aspect of it, but the plot and the characters were excellent: Even as a child, I admired this series for the interesting plots and the rich complexity of the characters, dealing with themes as intolerance, racism, war and divorce. Also, it was pretty funny to watch, mostly because I always was a huge fan of the "X-Men" comics (Which are my favorite comic book characters) and this series made justice to the original source material. This was the best of the animated adaptations of the X-Men comics into an animated form (Compare this with the short "Pryde of the X-Men", "X-men: Evolution" and "Wolverine and the X-Men") I highly recommend it to anyone.

Growing up in the 1990's I loved this show and watched it with great enthusiasm on Saturday mornings; it had everything a great children's show lacks today...Action, great dialogue, brilliant story lines and more importantly the most accurate interpretation of the comics.Some sort cuts were taken during the running of this show by the writers but only the things that weren't necessary or...confused people...Like Lady Deathstrike being Wolveirne ex-lover and her dad being the 'professor' who infused Wolverines bones with adamantium.I fell in love with Wolverine and the gang right here...And still today consider X-Men the greatest superheroes in Marvel...This show explored all the characters and their own worlds, making the audience empathise with them, cheer them on. The show also had a 'sex' factor..hidden as it was...But c'mon...some of the characters were hot...Lady Deathstrike was....Hot...The show also had one of the most memorable and amazing theme songs ever composed....The song just made you jump up with adrenaline...If only they used it on the movies.All in all one of the best X-Men interpretations ever established..Probably better then the movies..