One of the potential gems of the Disney Plus service was the chance to rewatch the classic Animated X-men series that aired when I was younger and though I had seen, didn't religiously watch all the way through.
Through the eyes of a young mutant named Jubilee (Alyson Court) we're introduced to the X-Men. A team of mutants with special powers that fight for good and to try and earn the acceptance of regular humans, who see them as dangerous. This idea is reinforced by a number of evil mutants, who exploit their powers for criminal ends. However, the humans are just as capable of cruelty and prejudice and amongst other exploitations create giant robots known as sentinels, who mercilessly detect and hunt the mutants.
The reputation for this series is high and that theme song certainly kicks off each episode in high gear. That said, I couldn't help but feel that the first season was . . . . passable, but that's about it. Animation wise, it's very much of its time. It's not bad, exactly, but there are a great number of corners cut to make things faster and cheaper. Supporting character in a scene, for example, can all look the same or be wearing the same clothes. There are some wild inconsistencies in the size of the Sentinels and occasionally the X-men change clothes in between scenes even when it wouldn't make sense to do so. The trivia section for the show does make mention of the fact that there were issues with the animation team in Korea, so some of these mistakes might be less prevalent in later seasons (I'll let you know).
Storyline wise it's pretty good though. The occasional one offs can be a bit meh, but the show works as an overall narrative too, with these smaller arcs inside it. So this first season introduces Trask and the Sentinals, Magneto (but not the brotherhood yet), Apocalypse and then the Days of Future Past storyline.
It's decent, don't get me wrong - but based on this first run, at the moment I'd say that there's some rosey tints to the reviews.
