"Pryde of the X-Men" Classic Talkback (Spoilers)

"Pryde of the X-Men" - Rate & Comment

  • *****

    Votes: 11 32.4%
  • ****1/2

    Votes: 7 20.6%
  • ****

    Votes: 6 17.6%
  • ***1/2

    Votes: 6 17.6%
  • ***

    Votes: 2 5.9%
  • **1/2

    Votes: 1 2.9%
  • **

    Votes: 1 2.9%
  • *1/2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • *

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1/2

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    34

Spider-Man

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Toon Capone said:
I saw this a long time ago and I actually enjoyed it and wish it would have become a series.
Would it have been possible to keep the high quality level from the pilot throughout the entire series? If they did make a series I hope there would have been some changes and probably some recasting. Fixing the show's theme and giving Wolverine a new voice are two things I would loved to have seen fixed if this did become a series.

I do need to track down a new VHS soon. My copy has been just worn right out and there seems to be little chance of this show making it to DVD.
 

FightingDreamer

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Just saw this for the first time, and it was pretty cool.

The Good
  • Darn good animation, and it's aged a lot better than a number of 80s shows I could mention.
  • Good voices for the most part. Michael Bell makes an excellent Cyclops, and John Stephenson is perfect as Professor X. I also liked Pat Fraley's Pyro and Ronald Gans's Magneto. Frank Welker made a cool Nightcrawler (he's also Toad and Lockheed), while Earl Boen was (heh) solid as Colossus, and Kath Soucie, thank the merciful heavens, is not totally annoying as Kitty Pryde. The only voice who doesn't work is Neil Ross's Wolverine; while Ross is not bad in the role, the Australian accent is utterly inappropriate.
The Bad
  • Um, who the heck is Dazzler? And why does she have such a lame power? Sure, it has its' uses, but if I had to take Wolverine and the choice of Kitty Pryde or Dazzler on a mission, I'd take Kitty.
  • Script is kinda lame at times, although there are some good lines like the first exchange between Juggernaut and Xavier.
Overall, I'd give this **** out of *****.
 

Michael24

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I've had the VHS since it was first released. I practically had it memorized at one point, and I still like to put it on every so often when I've got 20 minutes to kill. There's not much to it storywise, but it would have made a fine pilot as it introduces everybody and sets up the basic premise nicely. The animation is great and still looks good, and the voice cast is pretty top notch. I love Michael Bell (Duke himself!) as Cyclops, and the Australian Wolverine doesn't bother me. And it's cool to see Wolverine's brown costume, as that was how he looked when I first started reading the comics, and I kinda prefer it to the more well-known yellow one.

Anybody know why the soundtrack is full of songs (not a one in the show itself!!) and even comes with a "Parental Advisory" sticker!? :eek: :confused:
 

Ultra8

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I remember watching this on ch.5 back when they used to show cartoons on Sun. Unfortunetly I accidently erased the tape we taped it on, but lucky days Marvel released it on video a few years later.
It was a cool show to bad it never made it to a full fledged series, I would have loved to see a fight between the X-men and the Wendigo, just like the arcade game.:D
 

Hypestyle

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Anybody know why the soundtrack is full of songs (not a one in the show itself!!) and even comes with a "Parental Advisory" sticker!? :eek: :confused:

uh.. there was a soundtrack? is this just a trade-show compilation or "official"? got photos?

FightingDreamer: Dazzler was a disco-era (late 70's) Marvel creation who had her own solo series for several years in the early 80's.. she became an X-Men member circa '86.. she was dumped into comics limbo shortly after the start of the Claremont/Jim Lee X-Men comics relaunch in '91 (joining Longshot and his other-dimensional war against Mojo), and thus wasn't used except for maybe one episode of the 90's animated show..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzler_(comics)
 

Michael24

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Michael24

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My VHS also starts with that "Best Film & Video Corp." logo, but Pryde of the X-Men is the only thing on the tape aside from a PSA of some kind with Spider-Man at the beginning.
 

Spider-Man

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I remember buying this VHS ages ago and really enjoying it. Sure the writing is a bit hokey and Wolverine's Australian accent is wrong in so many ways but the animation really is excellent here. It's really better than the 1990s Animated X-Men show but I don't think it can touch X-Men: Evolution in terms of animation quality. I wonder that if this cartoon was a big hit if they would have retconned Wolverine's Canadian background to make him Australian. It was great seeing Wolverine in his classic orange and brown costume.
 

Kazuya Prower

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uh.. there was a soundtrack? is this just a trade-show compilation or "official"? got photos?

FightingDreamer: Dazzler was a disco-era (late 70's) Marvel creation who had her own solo series for several years in the early 80's.. she became an X-Men member circa '86.. she was dumped into comics limbo shortly after the start of the Claremont/Jim Lee X-Men comics relaunch in '91 (joining Longshot and his other-dimensional war against Mojo), and thus wasn't used except for maybe one episode of the 90's animated show..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzler_(comics)

She's currently a member of the new Excalibur and dyed her hair pink.
 

sdp

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I wanted to make a new thread on how would a Pryde of X-men series if it had been picked up but I saw a similar thread was merged a few years ago... I still think it can warrant a new topic anyone agree?



Anyways, I just watched Pryde of X-men for the first time ever along with the two parter X-men tas pilot. And its amazing how only three years made such a huge difference in terms of mood. I mean pryde came out in 89 while its technically still the 80s it was the end of it...while TAS even though its the 90s it was still the early 90s and could have suffered from more 80s style..

I know people praise the animation and I'm no expert but I still felt that the TAS had better animation than Pryde..not to mentione Voice acting and background music..


Overall while neat I didn't like the pilot, the X-men are just not as good to me, I mean besides Nightcrawler I didn't care for all the other team members not in the 90s team. Kitty Pryde was awful, Jubilee was a much better newbie to the team. Also the Jim Lee designs for the X-men are so much better, Wolverine and cyclops, even Professor X look MUCH better and more modern. The plot for the pilot is lame with the taking over not to mention none of the villains came off as that interesting.. One thing I did prefer was Storms costume, not because it showed more skin and I'm a pervert but I just never liked her white costume.


I did grow up with the TAS and it was my introduction to the X-men mythos so I won't deny nostalgia might be involved however anyone that defends this is also likely only because of nostalgia.


It would indeed have been neat to see a Pryde animated series with the different cast probably telling way different stories than the 90s series did, however counting the pilot came out in 89 its probably for the best it didn't come out since if it had the 90s show would never have existed.
 
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Wonderwall

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It's been awhile since I've seen it but I can safely say the animation in Pryde of the X Men was superior to X Men. There's no contest there. Jim Lee's designs are great...when they aren't moving. Unfortunately they are far too complicated to translate well into animation without stripping it down to the point where it doesn't look anything like Jim Lee.

As for the plot, I don't really remember much about it, so that's probably not a good thing. The acting was pretty corny and hokey, more so than the 90s show.

I don't understand your argument about nostalgia. I never saw Pryde until a few years ago so I can safely say the things I just said and feel confident about it. TAS was my first exposure too, but looking back on it there are a lot of things that hinder it. It also does a lot of things well too. Stuff that I complain the new show doesn't do this one did 17 years ago.
 

Rick Jones

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I don't think it's really fair to judge Pryde against Night of the Sentinels, which in my humble opinion is one of the best pilot episodes of any animated series, animation notwithstanding. For a late 80's pilot, I thought some of the story elements were kind of strong (the brief depictions of anti-mutant prejudice, characters' reaction to a "death", a villain trying to resort to mass murder instead of just brainwashing or some other typical cartoon plot). I like to think that if a series was OKed, it would have developed into something stronger than most of the cartoons from that period that I love and remember, mostly due to nostalgia. Outside of Aussie Wolverine, one of the only reasons I'd be glad the series wasn't greenlit, I don't see much wrong with the voice casting. I can see why a lot of people would be annoyed with Kitty though. Heck, I thought Cyclops, Professor X, Magneto and some others were flat out great casting. Sure, there were some hammy or cheesy performances in the mix too but this is something I was used to in X-Men TAS as well. While it's fun to think of what might have been, I'm still really thankful that we eventually got the 1992 series. It's a real shame that they didn't use the japanese animation houses but instead outsourced to the korean ones though.
 

Arjun

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There is a video that I bought within the last few years at Best Buy (it was well hidden) showcasing various Marvel toons from the seventies and eighties. It's called Marvel Matinee: Three Super Hero Adventures. On it is The Original X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, Spider-Man (1980's): Bubble, Bubble, Oil and Trouble, and the Fantastic Four (1970's): The Frightful Four.
I remember seeing those three episodes back to back on a local cable channel over 15 years ago. At this stage, I was surprised at how the cable operators (who ran those episodes) got this video, so now I get a hint.
 

Arjun

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Surprised at all the complaints about X-Men from the 1990s. Fair, the animation could have been better, but at that time, it was quite good, given the depth and detail of the character designs. I thought they were better than those Evo designs, which lacked depth and detail, though studios animated them well. That the animation was given to AKOM may have been the reason, but I've never been put off by bad animation from that show. That's more than I can say for Fantastic Four, Season One- it looked terrible, with bad designs, lack of shading and absolutely terrible animation, in addition to really drippy storylines.

Anyway, Pryde was a fun episode, but if the intro was anything to go by, it wouldn't be one to take seriously. After all, it's another 1960's styled theme with outlandish lyrics ("X-Men! X-Men! Is the day! Is the day!") with orchestration of the late 1980s. I thought, are we supposed to laugh at that theme?

The animation is quite good, especially since it was done in the 1980s, though character designs are a contentious issue. I thought the 1990s Cyclops was better than this one, likewise Storm, but the designs for Colossus, Nightcrawler and Magneto were quite good. I can't comment on the tan costume of Wolverine- I still prefer the Michigan University colours.

The choice of characters is quite odd. Dazzler's presence here was a jaw-dropper, especially as she's a relatively obscure (and irrelevant) mutant, in comparison to Iceman, or even Beast and Angel. I never liked the Brotherhood much, they seem to be too much the stereotypical thugs in action animation, though nowhere as annoying as they would become in Evo. Magneto and Juggernaut are developed quite well, but this whole thing has a Masters Of The Universe feel of a battle of good against evil, rather than a serious X-Men episode.

This episode was written for young viewers with little knowledge of the X-Men theme, and doesn't fit in anywhere in the comic continuity, and it wouldn't if made in a full series. They've written Kitty Pryde as a total annoyance who would have been useless unless you watch the whole episode, such as that sequence of events. Wolverine put it aptly- she was a whiny brat. What I didn't like about the casting or script was Colossus talking like Captain Caveman, which was very annoying.

Voice acting has been famous, because it was quite out of place. Michael Bell as Cyclops was quite good, but Neil Ross as Wolverine (a claim still disputed) was quite a surprise, with that thick Australian accent. Nightcrawler and Colossus had good voices, but the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants had some forgettable voice acting. Then there was Kitty Pryde, whose voice was painful to listen to. For a show done in the 1980s, they used sounds very different from the Typical 1980s Action Animation Sound Bank.

Technically, this was the best X-Men episode ever made. It had good character designs, and good animation, and even the effects were ahead of their time. The script and voice acting weigh it down. And of course, that weird theme song, which plays back, thankfully without lyrics, when the show ends, and sounds a lot better.
 

W.C.Reaf

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Surprised at all the complaints about X-Men from the 1990s. Fair, the animation could have been better, but at that time, it was quite good, given the depth and detail of the character designs. I thought they were better than those Evo designs, which lacked depth and detail, though studios animated them well. That the animation was given to AKOM may have been the reason, but I've never been put off by bad animation from that show. That's more than I can say for Fantastic Four, Season One- it looked terrible, with bad designs, lack of shading and absolutely terrible animation, in addition to really drippy storylines.

The reason why TAS had more detailed designs yet bad animation and Evo having les detailed designs yet really good animation is simple. Less detail equals better to animate.

The team line-up is because that's what it was at the time, same with the costumes. Same thing happened with TAS, based off of Jim Lee's designs and the line-up at the time.
 

Manhunter

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Neil Ross as Wolverine (a claim still disputed)

I dispute a great many things about how the cast for "Pryde of the X-Men" is listed. For one, I'm pretty sure it's Patrick Pinney doing Wolverine, not Neil Ross. Neil Ross voices Nightcrawler, not Frank Welker. Dan Gilvezan voices Colossus, not Earl Boen. Earl Boen voices Magneto, not Ronald Gans. Ronald Gans is most likely voicing Juggernaut.
 

Rick Jones

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I recently got my hands on a couple of copies of Pryde, the original New World release and the Best Film & Video release, and it's been pretty interesting to see some varying details between the two, most notably a scene with Professor X and Cyclops discussing the mansion's security just before the team leaves to confront Blob and Pyro.

I dispute a great many things about how the cast for "Pryde of the X-Men" is listed. For one, I'm pretty sure it's Patrick Pinney doing Wolverine, not Neil Ross. Neil Ross voices Nightcrawler, not Frank Welker. Dan Gilvezan voices Colossus, not Earl Boen. Earl Boen voices Magneto, not Ronald Gans. Ronald Gans is most likely voicing Juggernaut.

Cool. I wonder where that IMDB castlisting came from ? After reading what you've mentioned, I think I do recognise Boen and Gilvezan in those roles. John Stephenson, Michael Bell, and Kath Soucie were the only ones that I could spot clearly before.
 

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