X-Mansion is exempt from the admonition that “you can’t go home again.” Nearly thirty years after X-Men: The Animated Series concluded, fans of the Saturday morning cartoon series found solace in the opulent boarding school and training center for brilliant mutants. It remains a hub for rivalry, competitive basketball, and camaraderie. The adorable, retro-styled X-Men ’97 knows exactly what mature fans of the original animation want—a little amount of modification.
Yes, nostalgia makes for easy viewing bait, but when it gives us precisely what we want, it’s adorable. With its numerous references to the storylines, character conflicts, and eerie music of the original series, X-Men ’97 succeeds in doing that.
Glide Down The Memory Lane With These Moments From X-Men ’97
The show is set a year after X-Men: The Animated Series concluded with Professor Charles Xavier’s killing. The narratives are hurried through, the conversation is clunky, and the metaphor about how bigoted and exclusive humans are is more accurate than ever. It is X-Men: The Animated Series precisely as you remember it, and it is fantastic. These scenes from “To Me, My X-Men” and “Mutant Liberation Begins,” the first two episodes of the season, will make your nostalgia seem justified. That riff on the guitar! Those electronic music instruments! The arrogance! Here, Ron Wasserman’s classic Animated Series theme is utilized again to great success (although it is now attributed to Haim Saban and Shuki Levy due to a recent litigation). Without Logan and Scott wanting to destroy each other over their love for Jean, their divergent leadership philosophies, and their opposing personalities, the movie wouldn’t be an X-Men production. The hate these men have for one another is what makes X-Men ’97 feel so appropriate. Greetings from home!
