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STUDIO: Lionsgate
MSRP: $9.99
RATED: Not rated (Both)
RUNNING TIME: 110 minutes,
SPECIAL FEATURES: Commentaries
The Pitch
Wolverine’s in charge of the X-Men in these new animated adventures.
The Humans
Wolverine, the X-Men, Senator Kelly, Magneto, the Brotherhood of Mutants, et al.
The Nutshell
Wolverine is now leading the X-Men
after a mysterious attack destroyed the mansion and temporarily
scattered the team. Jean Grey is missing and Professor X is in a coma, but in contact with Wolverine from a dystopian future and trying to guide him while surviving on his own.
Under Logan’s leadership, the X-Men continue to struggle with their
rogues gallery of villains and also against mutant registration,
spurred on by the fearful Senator Kelly.
Hey, kudos to the animators here. The most realistic cartoon animation ever…
The Lowdown
Check out my previous review here. This is the third major adaptation of the X-Men in the last 15 years, along with X-Men and X-Men: Evolution. Wolverine & the X-Men is much more in line tonally with the latter of those two, and a bit more liberal with the mythology than the former, which was pretty canonical. So again, the cartoon itself is pretty good, and kids will certainly enjoy it as it has plenty of action and a variety of storytelling, drawing upon the vast X-Men mythology. A few changes in comic canon are at play, like Mystique having been a member of Team X, and Wolverine’s lover. But every new adaptation needs to make its own way, so that’s not a big deal.
There are five episodes here, where Wolverine and the team deal with everyone from the Weapon X gang, to Mojo and Spiral, to Silver Samurai and Senator Kelly’s Mutant response Division (MRDs), Master Mold and the Sentinels. The animation style and character designs are very similar to Evolution. But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, these three, four or five-episode nuggets are a waste of time and hardly (or just plain not) worth the money. Get full season sets. Even the kids you’re buying these for won’t be placated long by the small amount of episodes offered here. Although, this set is certainly better than the Spectacular Spider-Man DVDs currently out there. This is five episodes for $10, while those are three for $17.
Apparently Joker found his way into the Marvel universe, got hold of some alien tech and, well…
The Package
Animation transfer and sound are both fine. Nice thing about this offering over the Spidey discs, though, is that these have commentaries by writer / producers Craig Kyle, Greg Johnson and Christopher Yost for all five episodes.