X-Men: Evolution Review

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

imagination! Hello and welcome to episode 25

of Tooncast Beyond, brought to you by the GeekCast

Radio Network. I'm your host, Dave Jones -Mike,

and joining me once again is Sketch1984, hello.

Hey. How's it going? Doing pretty good. That's

good, that's good. Today we're going to be continuing

the season of superheroes with that emo show,

X -Men Evolution. I think this should have been

called X -Men Emolution. Yeah, well, it works

just fine. People usually call it X -Men Evo,

so you can just call it X -Men Emo. Yeah, essentially,

yes. Yeah. They came out with this around the

time that the first movies came to theaters,

and it's kind of a follow -up to that, even though

it was not at all related. I was like, yeah,

let's take the X -Men back to high school and

have them deal with high school problems. Yeah,

that'll be a great show. Yeah. As he just said,

Evolution is an animated television series by

Marvel Comics. Superhero team's the X -Men. In

this iteration, many of the characters are teenagers

rather than adults. The series ran for a total

of four seasons, 52 episodes from November 2000

to October 2003 on Kids WB, which has made the

third longest running Marvel Comics animated

series behind only X -Men the animated series

and Spider -Man the animated series. The series

began running on Disney XD on June 15, 2009.

Alright, as far as the first impressions... In

2000, it was awesome to be an X -Men fan simply

because the X -Men came to life on the big screen

with the James Marsden and Hugh Jackman. uh...

sir patrick stewart as you know cyclops wolverine

and and professor x it was two thousand was the

year the x -men movie and that was just badass

and awesome and everything else and then i go

channel surfing one one day and all of a sudden

i see a very email scott summers on the screen

like oh he has such an email haircut too Dude's

haircut look it looked like a Marvel version

of a Superman design. Swear to fucking God. It

was so I Hated it. I hated it the whole season.

Yeah, so Back in 2000. I was not impressed with

this show whatsoever Just wasn't I see I've seen

at that time in the year 2000 I had seen maybe

an episode and a half and I was just like fuck

this anyone that says this is a extension or

could not not i really can say continuation anyone

that says that this is an extension of the film

of the two thousand live -action film is fucking

knots because there's no fucking way they're

just the only thing it has in common is it uses

some of the same characters right and what is

so you know look at the x -men throughout animation

you know they've used Majority of the same characters

in every cartoon Wolverine Cyclops Jean Grey.

There's a love triangle Professor X Iceman Jubilee

Magneto Sinister all that stuff, but this one

was just like When I first saw it I was like,

oh my god a few months ago and I'm actually gonna

I'm gonna link this to the I'm gonna link this

in the in the episode post a Few months ago.

Was it last year? I forget when the hell it was

A while ago, I was a guest on Animation Aficionados

with TV's Mr. Neil and Ben the Host. And they

do side -by -sides sometimes where they'll pit

cartoons against each other. They decided to

pit X -Men 92 against Evo. And their opinion

is, or at least Ben's opinion is, because I don't

remember what Neil's opinion is, but Ben is very

strongly opinionated and he essentially, you

know, it's like he has a jackhammer to your brain

when he wants to get his opinion across and he

will never let up on it. He is of the opinion

that evolution was better than 92. simply for

a couple of reasons. The whole Four Horsemen

thing at the end of Evo. Scott Summers doing

that giant beam blast. I don't even remember.

So I went through and I finally sat down and

watched this entire series. And there are moments

in it that I thought it was really, really good

and it was okay and everything else, but I just

can't get past the emo. I just can't get past

the emo for me. I don't know. What about you

on First Impressions? First Impressions of the

shows, it was okay. It was a decent interpretation,

but the first season in particular is very focused

on the high school life and it's kind of dull.

At the point of rewatching it recently, I basically

glossed over the first season, just watched a

few episodes that I thought would be significant.

Then this kind of continued on to the seasons

beyond that because I remember I Didn't catch

a whole lot of this as it aired on kids WB. I

saw more of it in reruns on Cartoon Network.

Yeah, and There were points which apparently

were not in the order that I thought they were

Yeah, the show got really interesting and have

some good storylines but it had a pretty weak

start, all things considered. And earlier this

week when you were saying it was emo, I was like,

I don't really remember it being that emo. And

then I re -watched the last season and went,

oh my gosh, this is so melodramatic, I can't

stand it. The episode ends on like this somber

force or... like rogue just Essentially made

it so Theoretically her mother would never live

again Yeah, and night pro is all like no Yeah,

and and Scott is like most of the time really

just Emotional and Not the same kind of emotion

as in like the other X -Men series we're going

to be talking about, but more straight up. Why

doesn't Jean like me? Oh, well, that's what I

mean, yeah. Scott is super emo. It's like, why

doesn't Jean like me? Why won't she date me?

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm going to go

cry in my basket now. I'm going to shed tears

of ruby quartz. Blah, blah, blah. And here it

could just seal it. And this also has the most

unlikable version of Nightcrawler ever. Yeah,

you know They got the whole sympathetic like

they they make it very clear that he's a very

sensitive soul in this series But he's a bit

of a goofball and ends up being sort of the Michelangelo

of the team until They add a bunch of the newer

mutants. Oh damn almost always screwing off Yeah

Was gonna make a he's so fabulous reference,

but no let's not go there I'm not even what you're

talking about. Yeah, not that there's anything

wrong with that Let's just say I was really glad

when beast came into the scenario that okay now

that is That along with a couple of the other

moments that is one thing that I think this series

did very well was how they actually showed the

Beast transformation. Whereas I think in the

92 series... He was already Beast. He was already

Beast. Was there like a flashback that showed

him before he was Beast? Yeah, there was a couple

of flashbacks before he became Beast, and I think

there might have been a flashback kind of showing

how he became Beast, but I don't remember. It's

been so long since I've seen 92. That's the one

thing to show... did pretty well is it built

character arcs. Yeah, it did. Characters that

were good, they were good character arcs. Wolverine's

character arc was pretty good. Even though Scott

started out really intolerable, he got to be

a competent leader and grew up through the series.

Gene grew up through the series. Beast had his

character arc. They kind of glossed over a lot

of other characters, and I guess Mike just disappears.

That's the thing, it was like, I think, and again,

both times, both when it was on air, because

like I said, I saw maybe an episode and a half

of it, and when I went back and I watched every

single episode for that other podcast that I

did at the time, it was back then and a few months

ago, I was like, Both times. I think that's really

besides the evenness of Scott Summers in this

That's really what threw me off. I was like who

the fuck is this spike character? I've never

heard of him. He wasn't in the old show based

on marrow And see that's the other thing when

we get to that show we when we get to Wolverine

in the X -Men in a couple weeks I never know

who the fuck she was so Basically for me, if

a character shows up in a new X -Men series that

I haven't seen before, it's because I started

getting into Marvel and the X -Men with the 1992

cartoon. I wasn't reading comics before then

and... Holy shit, who the hell died? What the?

Okay. Who the hell died? Jesus Christ, fucking

fire trucks and ambulances. Anyway, so... Wow.

My genesis into Marvel and the X -Men was the

1992 animated series. So anything that I've seen

since then, I'm going to base opinions off what

I saw in that as far as what characters show

up where. And I had never heard of fucking Spike.

I'd never heard of fucking Maro, Maro, whatever

the fuck her name is. You know. Yeah, because

that series basically centered around the comics

of the time. As far as I understand, it was basically

the same stories as the comics. Right. And that's

what a lot of people like about it. It was the

comic animated. Right. This show is like, if

anything, it's like ultimate X -Men animated.

Yes, yes, yeah. Kind of an amalgamation of things.

And since this is also asking about character

designs, there's some designs in this show that

I like, and then there's others that I... Like,

rogue's design. Really? Really? So bad. So bad.

Can't stand looking at it. Yeah, she's... Some

of the other characters looked alright. I get

kind of frustrated with these shows, and I know

it's just a matter of, like, budgets and stuff

like that, but why are they always wearing the

same clothes? You'll wear the same clothes 52

days in a row. Well, that can be said for any

animated show. I know. I mean, look at TFG1.

Those construction workers in Spike and Spark

Plug wore that same white life beater in blue

jeans and yellow hard hat every single day. Well,

you could argue that that was a uniform. You

could argue that but you could also argue that

they only had one uniform Well, they just have

One style of uniform and they have multiple copies.

I mean it could be like when you open up Doug's

closet and he just That's the case with really

every cartoon character you like you open up

the closet and it's like 20 sets of the same

wardrobe Like I really like this outfit. So I'm

gonna wear it's the rest of my life until I get

older. Yes. So that's the first impressions.

Were there any, well I guess we'll go ahead and

get into the characters and the voice actors.

This is essentially a Beast Wars cast. Yes. You

have David Kaye voicing multiple characters.

You have Scott McNeil voicing multiple characters.

Well, let me see... And then, yeah, I think those

are... Yeah, those are pretty much the only two

out of the Beast Wars show. Wasn't just Trezzo

in Beast Wars? Venus Terzo, yeah, she was. She

was Storm, wasn't she, in this? Yeah. No, she

wasn't. Who the hell was she? She was Gene. She

was Gene? Really? Oh yeah, that is right. Yeah,

yeah, yeah. Yeah, she was in Beast Wars as well.

Sure, pretty much everybody was in Beast Wars

at some point. Yep. Oh my god. I did not know

this at the time when I first watched the series,

but holy hell, Teal 'c is Magneto. Yep. Teal

from SG -1, Christopher Judge is Magneto, which

I don't mind that. I think he did a decent job

as a Magneto voice. I thought it was very different,

very unique. I have an issue with Apocalypse

in this one. It's nothing against David Kay at

all, but essentially Apocalypse in this is David

Kay's Beast Machine's Megatron voice. They're

very similar to each other. I'm surprised that

they had him voice both Charles and Xavier. But

I guess they were dramatically different voices.

Did you have any characters or performances that

you liked in this one? I really liked David Kaye

as Charles. I think that's great casting. Though

I beat on the character of Cyclops in this, I

do like Kirby Moro as a young Cyclops. I think

he's good in that role. Venus Trezzo is great

as Gene. Michael Kapsa as Beast. That was really

good. Oh yeah, yeah. And Kristen Williamson as

Storm was also good. And he doesn't show up that

often, but I liked Colossus in this. Michael

Adam Waite. I liked, just coming from purely

what happened before this series, which was 92,

I like McNeil's Wolverine. It has its moments.

I thought it was, you know... I don't like the

snarl, personally. I find that to be a little

over the top. It doesn't have the same resonance

as the snarl from, obviously, I can't remember

his name, from 92. Kelp Dodd. Yeah, Kelp, Cathal

J Dodd, yeah. I actually tried looking him up

on IMDb to see if I could find out any information

to get an interview with him and He has no information

listed. So I don't know I I after 92 I Don't

think I've seen him in any other voice acting

thing I would have to look him up here on beyond

the voice actors calm, but I Think x92 was the

last thing the dude ever voiced because I've

never heard his name from name again since that

series but no McNeil's Wolverine is good it's

not my top favorite but it's not the worst Wolverine

ever I mean there are some pretty bad Wolverines

out there yeah it was fine for the 52 episodes

Let me see here. What else? If you had to pick

one favorite hero and one favorite villain, who

would it be? One favorite hero, one favorite

villain. Beast is probably my favorite hero,

or... or Charles and favorite villain oh I feel

like the villain selection in this show is lacking

so I'm definitely gonna have to go with Gambit

Gambit? I mean he's not technically a villain

but he was always the most interesting to see

I mean Magneto obviously yeah always yeah I wish

that they would have done more with it. I mean

I wish you know now going back looking at specifically

the final season Or the fourth season or whatever

you I don't I don't think they actually call

it the final season, but Another However many

times the final season of the show I wish that

they would have gotten picked up for something

else whether that was a directed DVD movie or

something to kind of flush out that that that

apocalypse story and I Even though I did mention

earlier that it's essentially just David Kay's

Beast Machines Megatron voice I do love that

Megatron voice so I would have to go with apocalypse

because apocalypse did some really fucked up

things in this show Oh, yeah, that's true. Because

I so did not see that four horsemen thing coming.

Because I was expecting the same thing that we

got in 92 with, you know, the four whatever,

you know, I forget how he said it in 92. But

I was not expecting, I thought Magneto, Charles,

Storm, and I forget who the fourth guy was. Mystique.

Mystique, yeah. I thought they were dead. You

know, I didn't think they were disintegrated.

I thought they were just disintegrated, not just

disappeared. So, um, I did like that as a, as

a story aspect. I found it a little too shocking.

Like really? He's going to the four most powerful

mutants against everything. Oh my god, really?

Here you're thinking like Angel would end up

being one of his. Yeah, well see that's what

I was thinking. I was thinking it was going to

be like the same thing as what happened in 92.

What do we think of the finale here because I

don't want to have to go through the entire four

seasons of storyline because it's it's just way

Watch the show people it's on Netflix But you

don't even need Netflix. It's it's all up legally

for free on YouTube. That's how I've been watching

it Yeah, and the ads don't even pop up for me

for some reason it might be my ad blocker But

usually ads still pop up despite that thing so

Might be after a time they just stop having the

odds. Don't really know. I feel like the ending

was rushed and it's kind of frustrating to me

that they basically set it up at the end of Season

3, though apparently when it first aired they

kind of tacked the end of Season 3 onto the beginning

of Season 4. kind of makes sense because it's

all kind of the overarching apocalypse storyline

but they have a couple of episodes where they

introduce apocalypse the concept and then is

like oh he's been unleashed and now we wait like

really you're not gonna do anything you're just

gonna go on with your normal lives more or less

and just wait until he makes his move. Not necessarily

the best idea. Yeah, not at all. It feels like

they wanted to tell more stories in that final

season, but wanted to finish the apocalypse storyline

too. So it was a rush, honestly kind of contrived

ending because it seems like there's no way that

they can win! And then, oh. Okay, apparently

they have a deus ex machina. Of course they do.

It's a Saturday morning kids cartoon from 2000,

early 2000s. There's always a deus ex machina.

Yeah, see, this is what really put me off, and

I blame Netflix for this because in Netflix the

episodes are... Out of order? Are out of order.

and that's what really fucked me up because you

have under lock and key you had x23 and then

you had dark horizon part 1 and part 2 and then

cruise control where cruise control it was originally

aired out of order so the actual order is, uh,

under lock and key, then cruise control, then

X -23, then the Dark Horizons, two -parter, because

I'm like, wait a second, why are they gonna end

a fucking season on fucking cruise control? Are

you serious? They're gonna ruin all that continuity

they just had by airing this last? What the fuck

is going on here? I mean, that's like a book

out of the 80s cartoons where they'll just...

error and a method just air random episode is

like holy fuck that's what i really want a better

attention these kinds of things i think they

were all in order on you too but they were often

listed as the wrong description right yeah i

just i think that's one of the reasons why i

found the series so off -putting because you

had you know i said in netflix they are listed

out of their out of order And, you know, I was

like, oh, okay, Dark Horizons, so this must be

the season finale. And then it was, instead of

saying go back to browsing, it said, oh, play

next episode. Like, okay, what? They just had

Dark Horizons and now they're going on vacation,

what the fuck? Oh, I just, but yeah, I don't

know. I just kinda, um. So, let's see here. As

far as the production notes go, obviously, starting

with the first episode of Season 4 Impact, the

episode title was no longer aired on screen at

the beginning of the show. The X -Men Evolution

became the third longest -running Marvel cartoon

behind Spider -Man and XTSS before. The monthly

budget for X -Men Evolution was $350 ,000. Citation

needed. I don't know. What was the show that

we were talking about that we got the budget

for? There was the Superman show that we got

the budget for. Yeah. I thought there was another

show that we got to see the budget for. No, I

feel what I remember is the Superman shorts.

Okay. Yeah. Yes, it seems like a pretty good

budget. I usually film Roman does good work.

Yeah Depending on what they're working with.

I mean their animations usually good is what

I mean. Yeah Apparently this has awards and nominations,

which I did not know Evolution won the award

for outstanding achievement in sound mixing You

do in sound mixing special class at the 28th

annual daytime Emmy Awards on May 18th 2001 and

won the award for outstanding achievement in

sound editing live action and animation at 30th

annual daytime Emmy Awards on May 16 2003 Oh

good Lord It won it won the cover of the year

award in 2004 for best animated figure for beast

I can see that Nominated for several golden real

awards as well as other Emmys Steven E Gordon

the director of this show was nominated for the

production design on an animated television production

Category for excellent evolution of the 2001

Annie award, so that's that's cool. I don't know

um I Can understand why it won some awards at

the time? It's a pretty yeah well -rounded show

That got increasingly better last season where

it kind of sputtered out. I don't know why. I

don't know why Boyd Kirkland and Frank Parr even

worked on this series. They were doing so much

good stuff with DC heroes and villains and BTAS

and STAS and Batman Beyond and all that stuff

and they they went to Marvel and they produced

this. I just. I guess, you know, if BTIS is the

top of your fame, there's only one way the hill

goes after that once you reach the top, because

it goes down. It's all downhill from here. Okay.

The series revealed a detailed knowledge of canon

history in a number of small ways. Examples include

the evolution of Cerebro from a console device,

ShadowCat's initial uneasiness around Nightcrawler,

and Forge's scientific arrogance along with his

devices causing unintended consequences. That

was the other thing I did not like about this

show, was how they portrayed Forge. That was

fucking stupid. At least you only showed up twice

That's two times too many as I Mean dudes essentially

an income poop. I mean essentially he is he is

a guy who creates flubber You know, it's just

Let's see what else okay, let's see the music

for the series I Like this theme song was okay.

It was it was kind of cool. It was kind of catchy

Yeah Apparently it had several songs that were

produced exclusively for the show only a girl

the Bayville sirens theme and walk in the wild

side Yeah. About female empowerment. That's why

we're going to have them walk around in skanky

looking clothes. That's right. I mean, I'm not

really complaining, but the whole dance bit in

the middle of that episode, what was that? And

why were two girls grinding? For kids. Yeah.

It's for the kids. Several characters had distinct

musical cues, including avalanche, heavy guitar

riffs, and storm orchestral piece. Others had

special sound effects. These included Jean Grey,

Lightning, Chime, Noise, Rogue had a unique black

and white special effect, Magneto, Gambit, Shadowcat,

and Nightcrawler. The main theme song was recorded

by William Anderson. Oh, wow. I so did not do

my research on this, because I have nothing listed

for how does the show stack up. Lovely. Alright,

so... Wait, wait. Uh, there's some interesting

stuff on what might have happened in the fifth

season had it occurred. Sure, go ahead. Uh, let's

see. What did he write here? Uh, okay. My comments...

Uh, where is it? If the show had not been cancelled,

the foreshadowing of Gene becoming Dark Phoenix

as a possible arrival of Corsair, Magneto officially

aligning himself with Xavier, David Haller, and

Apocalypse returning The arrival of Shiar Madeline

Prior, Mr. Sinister, Bishop Cable, and Rachel

Summers from the present and future. Although

in the current timeline, Nathan and Rachel are

twins, whereas the others are not. And Scott's

marriage with Jean. There would be anti -mutant

sentiment continuing. The sentinels will come

back with the super sentinel, which was hinted.

to be Nimrod, a reformed Magneto teaches the

new mutants, and Wolfsbane and Jubilee want to

come back, Gene becomes possessed by the Phoenix

Force and turns into the Phoenix, and they weren't

sure if it was going to be a cosmic entity or

just part of Gene's powers. They were essentially

going to rip off the old... You know once they

Pretty much every x -men cartoons got a sneak

the phoenix in there now, so of course they would

go to do And there's a flash forward to future

x -men in the last scene Yeah Which you know

just what just watch the episode and you'll see

because there's some interesting. Yeah Yeah,

that was very interesting, I will say. As far

as how the show stacks up amongst others within

the same franchise, X -Men 92 is so much better

than this show. Simply because X -Men 92 was

adult stories. Wolverine and the X -Men, for

me, I enjoyed that more than I did watching this.

I mean, watching this was like torture for me.

It just was. like like there was maybe out of

52 episodes i really thoroughly enjoyed five

out of 52 episodes wow yeah only five was that

bad yes i like to enjoy more than that but i

can't quite put a number on it i'm not i i barely

remember what i've liked about 92 but um that's

I'm gonna say I like Wolverine and the X -Men

more mm -hmm I I think it did better with its

26 episodes than this show necessarily did in

its 52 yeah which is you know to credit of Wolverine

and the X -Men yeah I don't this is a bad show

I can understand why a lot of people would say

it's not as good as 92 because 92 it's at the

very least is like the comics and This took some

interesting Gambles and some of it worked out

and others Just just didn't Yeah, I mean, you

know as far as like the reason why I say 92 is

better than than evolution Has nothing to do

with the animation, has nothing to do with the

style of 92 versus the style of this show. It

has to do with the writing and the storytelling.

Yes, there are bits and pieces of 92 that are

just totally off the wall and out there. Yeah,

it was the 90s. Well, yeah, but I would much

prefer seeing a four part or three, however many

parts the Phoenix and Dark Phoenix saga were.

I would much rather see those and I would much

rather see Beyond Good and Evil four -parter

than an episode about Scott being emo because

Gene doesn't like him, which is essentially every

episode between season one and season three.

a little too much teenage problems, and it doesn't

balance it out well like most Spider -Man cartoons

do. It's like for the first whole season, it's

just high school problems, high school problems.

We have to avoid showing that we have powers,

but we're using our powers in the high school

all the time. Kinda so -so writing. But it got

better. But it's... I don't see how anybody would

rank this higher than 92 or Wolverine and the

X -Men. I don't. Some people do. Alright, so

within the same genre, that being the superhero

genre, I don't know, stuff like STAS, Justice

League, X -92, Wolverine and the X -Men. I remember

there was a time when Cartoon Network played

this back -to -back with Justice League reruns.

Yup. That was a nice block. all things considered,

though I heavily question playing this after

Justice League right before Adult Swim should

have been the other way around. Yeah. I just

don't think this show stacks up with any of the

other superhero cartoons. Well, I wouldn't go

that far. It didn't really stack up to any of

the other ones that lasted that long, though.

Yeah. show that lasts 52 episodes I Don't it's

not gonna stand the test of time like Justice

League like Right 92 X -Men certainly not Superman

Batman right so Yeah Where would I rank that

I would probably rank it below the DC, DCAU,

below, um, below 92 X -Men, 93 Spider -Man, but

probably above all the other 90s Marvel cartoons.

Oh God, don't remind me. I've started watching

Incredible Hulk. Whoa. Yeah. So, it's kind of

middle -of -the -roadish. No, actually, I take

that back. I just finished watching Incredible

Hulk because that's what last week's episode

was. It was like, oh, God, why am I watching

this? Thank God I did not. Thank God I had the

smarts not to put the Silver Surfer cartoon in

this season. Oh, yeah, that was wise. Yeah, I'd

say this is middle -of -the -roadish. This is

like... the Batman area where it's good on its

own merits but it's not as good as like the best

of the newer stuff and the best of the old stuff

yeah I would say this ranks up along there with

the other shit teen show in the aughts that being

Teen Titans they're they're about even like Titans

more than this No, I like this more than Titans,

sadly. Finally we have something we disagreed

with here. I was waiting! I enjoy Team Titans

more because even though it gets kind of melodramatic

a lot, it also knows how to have fun. And this

show, when it tried to have fun, was just almost

intolerable. It had its good serious moments,

and that's what I liked about it. Right, yeah.

As far as a show from a previous decade, I honestly

don't know. I don't... Maybe Pride of the X -Men,

and that show sucks. That one episode? Yes, yes.

yes ranking fifty two episodes against one of

the one episode of the series that never actually

happened i i i honestly don't know i mean it

you know hell even challenge of the super friends

is better than this shit i wouldn't necessarily

go that far but i'm not very i'm not a very good

judge it's both of those goes uh... most comparable

to Not really, but I guess Teen Titans. Yeah.

And that's even in its own decade, though. That's

the thing. It's like there's nothing in the previous

decades that really... I guess that's what makes

this show kind of special is that it was different

enough that it's not like many other shows. Right.

Yeah. Oh one thing I gotta get off my chest because

I didn't bring it up earlier I I realize you

have to have Wolverine in every X -Men thing

now But I don't like that he's in this show in

the capacity that he is I I think it's a decent

version of the character that I enjoyed watching

from time to time But it just doesn't feel right

to have him there in this capacity when they're

teenagers still and in like authoritative role

whereas so you don't like him as a teacher and

he's amusing as a teacher but I just don't like

it when they mess with the timeline that much

it just it just kind of irks me it's it's not

bad and I think they did a good enough job with

having him there earlier than he should have

been right because he You know, he's like super

duper old, so. Oh, that is one thing that I did

really, really like was the fact that he and

Steve Rogers saved Magneto's life. Yeah. That

was kind of interesting. And I did like that

they brought in Captain America for that one

episode. Yeah, that was kind of cool. That was

one of the Probably one of the better episodes

of the show, but I don't know how I feel about

the whole super serum thing being like cell degenerative

that I Don't they throw some weird concepts in

this show. Yes don't really mesh with Comics

history so well though like like I've always

said I'm not a comic book guy so somebody probably

Gonna say no, no, there was a version of Captain

America was so degenerative. It's like I don't

care That's not that's not the story that I've

heard of Captain America, right? Yeah, I just

know what I know and Like I may know art, but

I know what I like as it goes Yeah As far as

ranking the show zero to four I would give it

a two It's it's worth a watch at least you know

if if you're an x -men fan if you've seen other

x -men series This is worth a watch just to be

able to see it and say you see it And say that

you've seen it, but this is not a show that I

personally can watch or like like I can watch

x -men 92 over and over and over again I can

watch Wolverine and the x -men Again, and again,

and again, and again. This one, not at all. But

I mean, it's worth seeing at least once. Yeah,

it's worth seeing once. I'd give it a two. It's

real easy to see it. It's on YouTube, it's on

Netflix. It's on iTunes, it's on DVD. Not the

whole thing. Well, the first three seasons have

been released on DVD. But but yeah, you know,

it's got comic books it got some reason toy biz

was still creating action figures for it Of course

they were making action pictures Taco Bell ran

the first x -men evolution themed promotion with

its kids meals. Oh my god Who the hell would

buy a Taco Bell kids meal? I did that once Once

and you're still here. Wow. I forget even when

It was a long, long time ago. I remember the

kids' meals. They came with the cinnamon twisters.

That was them. They came with the chips and a

taco or a burrito and cinnamon twisters. Which

is you! It's a little better than you get with

some kids meals. Burger King also ran kids meal

promotion, which included X -Men Evolution toys.

Each toy included a mini disc with games, screen

savers, and a mini comic related to the character.

The lineup included Rogue, Mystique, Cyclops,

Wolverine, Magneto, Quicksilver, Nightcrawler,

and Toad. I'm sorry, I would not even want a...

Happy meat, you know kids meal happy meal, whatever

toy of toad. Oh Yeah Why would anybody why would

they do that that was that was just dumb? What's

Burger King for you? I guess he was more visually

interesting than some characters, but his design

was just why would a kid want a toy? I guess

maybe if they want to beat him up Pretty much

everybody got their lips hit on toad in this

show Ew, that's so wrong. Just go back and think

about what you just said, dude. Got their licks

in, yeah. Yes, that's so, so wrong. Alright,

we are gonna go to a commercial break and we'll

come back to close the show. Is this thing on?

Oh goody! Why hello there! It's your deviled

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promo code KEYCASTRADIO when you register. Hey

guys, JT from Saskatoon here. I'm calling in

with my thoughts on X -Men Evolution. And I'm

gonna say it right off, I love this series. I

have a lot of love for the 1990s X -Men series

on Fox, but I love this series even more from

three main reasons. The characters, the art design,

and the writing. And the writing is probably

something that I love more than the other two,

just for the fact that this is the very early

days of the X -Men. Mutants haven't been outed

yet. Which is one of my favorite things, because

like in the first episode where, you know, Scott

gets into it with the football players and he

accidentally blows up this propane tank, and

Professor X rolls up in his Rolls Royce and he

mind wipes everybody. And you see what the lengths

he went to originally to protect mutants because

it just wasn't time for them to be exposed to

the world like this, which was great. And just

from then on, just the slow introduction of all

the various members, the new members of the X

-Men, the Brotherhood, Magneto, eventually we

get characters which were like the new mutants,

which really just look up the Wiki, it'll save

me time. And the other thing that I loved about

series was the art design. Now, the 1990 series,

to compare the two, 1990 series had like this

really heavy use of shadow, and a lot of the

art just seemed to have this shine to it. It

seemed very shiny at times. Now, with X -Men

Evolution, this isn't there. It's a very smooth,

smoothly animated, well done production. I mean,

you got the nice thick lines, solid colors, nothing

really mucks about with anything else, and it

kind of interferes visually. Basically, and like

I said, one of the other things I loved was the

characters. I love the characterization of almost

everybody in this series And I'm gonna say right

off, one of my favorite characters in the series

was Toad, because in the comic books, Toad was

this very hunchback -esque, you know, sanctuary

type of mongoloid, basically. And in the cartoon,

you know, it's okay, he's a loser still, but

he doesn't look like a complete freak, and I

like the way they tweaked him. I like the fact

that they made Cyclops, you know, he's still

gonna stick up his backside, but he's not nearly...

as inflexible as he seemed in the 1990 series

to draw another comparison. I love the Professor

X in this series, you know, he seemed much more

of a loving uncle than, you know, this control

freak that he was shown to be in the comic books.

Just read the wiki on Professor X, you'll learn

everything. And I think my favorite character

in this series was Wolverine. big shock, because

the way they presented Wolverine here, you know,

he's an associative Professor X, you know, from

back in the day. He's very much the rough and

tumble Wolverine that we all know and love, but

he's not this complete berserker, because it

was almost a literal translation of Wolverine

in the 90s series. Overall, I love this series,

I love everything about it. I really wish I could

have been there today to discuss this more in

depth with you guys, but for right now, I'm JT

from Saskatoon, signing off. before we before

we get back to the actual show we're gonna break

in here and respond to JT dude you're more positive

about this series than we are I gotta say well

um you know that's a good point about the visual

style of the 90s show though I never really found

that off -putting from what I saw but I only

dabbled in that show I do think the animation

quality in X -Men Evolution is really quite good.

Film Roman did great, great work there. But I

don't like that many of the designs. They're

a little too moody for me. We've talked about

Rogue and Cyclops's hair. Just not big fans of

that. But I did like interpretations of some

of these characters. I don't know why he would

like Toad. I mean, I kind of like him out of

amusement factor. But JT is from Canada, so he

likes weird stuff. He's from Canada, so he likes

weird stuff. That's right. You know, the one

thing that, you know, he was mentioning the character

designs, the one thing I had yet to bring up

in this show was I know it's more so the classic

uniform. I hated Jean Grey's uniform in this

series. Really? Yeah, I much preferred the, you

know, almost, you know, skin tight, scantily

clad Phoenix outfits from the old 92 series.

Oh, well, the Phoenix outfit. How can you not

like the Phoenix outfit? I know, I know. So,

thank you, JT, for sending in your feedback.

Yes, we wish you were here, too, but, you know,

you getting to work at your comic book shop for

actual money that... that takes precedence over

podcasting, so. Yeah, that's true. Oh, one thing

that I forgot to mention in any other segment,

this is like the only version of the relationship

of Wolverine and Scott when he's not vying for

Gene, which is very different than usual. He's

like, he's even rooting for Scott in at least

one episode. So that's a very big contrast from.

pretty much every other X -Men interpretation

ever. So we are back here on Tooncast Beyond

in the season of superheroes. My final thoughts

on evolution. It's tolerable if you're deaf and

blind. I don't know. I just I. After I after

I kiss what I did was when I did the research

for the show to be able to watch it I Marathoned

it on Netflix. I marathoned it in one weekend

all 52 episodes. I watched like 10 episodes from

like a Thursday night to a Monday morning and

I would watch 10 episodes a day and I just The

show like I said has some good points has some

really awesome moments but Overall, it's not

that great of an X -Men show for me. Yeah. It's

really middle of the roadish. I watch it because

you can and maybe to have educational comparison

to other superhero cartoons before and after.

Right. But it's nothing particularly special.

It's... Nope. It's... watchable but honestly

I wouldn't recommend marathoning it because it

gets mundane if you do that it gets mundane and

monotonous trust me it does I know yeah you know

if they found a way to honestly I don't know

how this show got four seasons I honestly have

no clue because would think that the Pete that

the people running the show or the people that

were in should like the people at kids WV but

would be like after the first season like Yeah,

this really isn't cuz that first see I'm really

surprised they got past the emo. I really am

Yeah, I think They were probably a little iffy

on it at the first season, but I believe they

already had ordered 26 episodes That's usually

the case with a new show It's not that common

for them to only order one season right away.

I mean, they can always cancel within that time

period, but I think it really helped out this

show to be able to make it into the second season.

And the second season is really where it started

to shine. And the third season had a lot of really

good episodes. Yeah. Yeah, it did. I will agree

to that. By then, they're like, well, I think

even by then, They had stopped re -airing it

on Cartoon Network, and they were just finishing

off the final nine on Kids WB, and then it just

disappeared until it's re -ran on Disney XD because

Marvel got the rights back. Yeah. Yeah. I don't

know. So have you got anything you want to promote?

Interest kind of petered out. Well, yeah. You

got anything you want to promote? No, I think

I'm good I haven't been up to much other than

watching lots of cartoons go see Avengers Yes,

go see Avengers everyone needs to go see Avengers

That is superhero dumb done, right? Take a note

DC Yeah, please take enough you see watching

that movie is like this would be going so much

better if they had Superman Now they'd probably

fuck it up like they fucked up Green Lantern

anyway Thank you for joining us here in Tooncast

Beyond. There's always getting in contact with

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enjoyed this episode of Tooncast Beyond. We wish

you'll join us next time when we'll be continuing

the season of superheroes with Wolverine and

the X -Men. For now, I am TF2 Unmiked with Sketch

1984. Thank you for listening. Until next time.