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Reviews
X-Men: Reunion - Part Two (1994)
Season 2 review. Amazing.
X-men thrive here.
There's no question what the writers and directors of the show want to do: make meaningful stories. All the episodes point to it. Except for Mojo, there is a clear line and direction: Developing the characters they have.
A little thing I can appreciate about this is that going for season 1 to season 2, there aren't any more new X-men. The show runners know who they have, they know there is so much more to be done. And so they do it. They give Beast, Storm, Rouge, Wolverine, Cable, and Gambit all very interesting and well thought out episodes and moments. Cyclops is a staple and exemplary leader.
From watching other X-men shows growing up, it was a refreshing thing for season 1 not to hide away and separate Professor X from the X-Men. Looking at season 2, they did it. And I'll be honest, this time isn't exactly perfect. But pairing Magneto with him helps. But the whole savage land thing wasn't particularly interesting. We never learn why or how Magneto made the thing, even though a big plot point every time was how all the creatures there hate his guts. I'm sure they will develop that a bit, but it's a big question and leaves the whole season ender feeling a bit dry.
Mr. Sinister is menacing and scary, but we don't really learn his power set. It's very clear that he has special power but with beams and phasing, it's not nearly clear enough what kind of inspiration it has. Is a telepath? Is he a ghost kind of thing? He's got all these minions that are on his side, but with an under explored characteristic of power ability and authority, I don't see why they follow him over magneto.
Overall, though, the season does a great job and is very consistent. I love the characters, I'm impressed with the animation, and I think there is a still a lot more room to work with. But with a shallow understanding of this seasons "big bad" I'm a little disappointed.
X-Men: Mojovision (1994)
Charming, in a way.
The X-men get zapped into the digi-verse.
The villain is totally evil, the action is off the walls, the characters are true to form. Not a single complaint, really.
Mojo is just the right amount of "villain of the week".
An archetype not too often explored. Most times it's organized groups, re-accruing baddies, or a specific tale centered around a specific mutant and their nemesis. This is just Saturday morning fun.
Which isn't completely true, it's a little annoying, it's campy, it's loud, it's a little bit pointless.
But with this being the exception, and the whole premise of the episode being "stuck inside the TV", you have to think that this is all an excellent point: You can have superhero shows with actual characters, plots, and stories. It doesn't have to be "the villain of the week" every episode. Children can handle more.
And they proved it this episode, it's the lowest rated so far.
But with stuff like this you have to give grace and look for one thing: does it sacrifice the characters we know, just for the sake of entertainment, story, or the episode? If not, I don't see if there is an issue, and it's just as entertaining and fun as it can be. I don't see that it did any of that, so I give up, it was a fun episode.
And the magneto professor x part was super interesting.
That's a point that shows how they still know what they are doing.
X-Men: Whatever It Takes (1993)
Storm episode, everybody! Hoot woot!
First of all, hats off to the people who write and direct this show. Every episode develops something interesting (even if Mr. Sinister was kind of a miss). Big moment here: Storm, one of the most powerful X-men finds herself in conflict with an old foe.
I love how rich and powerful Storm is in this series. She's obviously a battle tested, educated, freed woman of color. Fighting for those not strong enough to stand up for themselves. But plagued with many problems of the past.
The little stuff too, with the village being filled with African culture, the emergency-point-spot on the map aligning with Tanzania, and then they travel to Tanzania. No detail is too small for these writers and animators. Really impressive how much effort is put into the show as a whole. Dating back 30 years, I thought there would be short cuts, bad characters, and poor animation, lots of errors, but that couldn't be farther from the truth.
The morph/wolverine side plot here is interesting too. Wolverine is so loyal to this guy who we barely know, it's almost a scapegoat to maybe a bad-writing situation. Where we kind of trust Wolverine's judgement over our own experience. Which with so many character and one season deep, I don't really hate the idea.
But this episode rocks. It's scary, it's flashy, it's a super interesting dive into a super interesting character. I could have asked for more. Loved it.
X-Men: The Final Decision (1993)
Total Season Review
This is super impressive all and all.
With X-Men there is so many characters. Wolverine, a lone solder whose biggest enemy is himself. He has to learn how solitude his brothers in arms are there to support him, he has to learn the threats of the world are fought together, even the small battles fought to defend Canadian villages. There is Beast, the scariest and hairiest, but an intellect and wisdom far greater and more vast than many people. Storm an Egyptian weapon, used and abused and damaged, but loving, wise, and brave. Rouge, Gambit, Cyclops, Colossus, Jubilee, Professor X all with well realized character strength and weaknesses and traits. Only Jean Grey is kind of lacking. But with a list of 8 other solidly developed characters, and a season run time of 13, 20 minutes episodes, one character lacking is a massive win. Plus Jean has her own super iconic story, she'll undoubtedly have her time to shine.
On top of the great character work, there are some very rich stories told. It doesn't hold back with some of the stuff either. Characters are enslaved, manipulated, traitorous, killed, morally challenged. Villains and antagonists like Sabertooth, Magneto, Apocalypse, Senator Kelly, Mystique, Sentinels, Juggernaut. It's just jam packed with awesome portrayals of every thing.
Even the direction and the action is amazing. Super dated, but this is probably the first time visualizing Telekinesis and magnetos magnetism. For a children to easily understand, and little to no other examples, what we have is super understandable and serviceable. But out side of those two shaky power set visuals, there's cyclops' beams, storms powers, wolverines claws, jubilee's... sparks, gambit's powers. Some fight scenes are super creative too. The last episode Wolverine is fighting a sentinel in a cave, and they visualize that really well.
The is super creative, well written, heartfelt, interesting, fun, and polished, even down to the voice work something also probably never done before, but judging by how all other iterations of these characters in even modern day resemble the characters we see here in the first season, it all points to what a fantastic job was done.
Dragons: Riders of Berk: Bing! Bam! Boom! (2014)
Baby Dragons don't listen to instructions
Writers win again, small audience loss.
We start off with some fine plot. Hiccup is testing a new thing out and the new thing leads to a big discovery of a baby Thunderdrome dragons. This episode is one of the last before the theatrical release of the second movie. And in the second movie we have ideas that baby dragons don't listen to instructions.
This episode quite intelligently parallels and follows that thinking. Coincidentally enough, it also is a stoik centric episode. Both of these plot points are quite vital to the second movie.
But it's a drag to get through, for the most part.
A lot of heart here in this episode and super well realized writing and never contradicts itself which is super impressive. The episode is 20 minutes long and it feels long. Typical episode stuff and filler, but for whatever reason this seems less funny, childish, and a little more passable than any of the other episodes. If the episode had a lot of it's more typical strong episodetime-filler-writing, I'd be rating this a lot higher.
Adventure Time: Death in Bloom (2011)
Best fart joke ever.
"I thought it would be funny"
Jake, you were very much right. Very amazingly paced, very fast and lots of heart, so much mystery as well. Lots of things to like and nothing to hate.