Pryde of the X-Men

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X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men

The intro for the pilot.
Genre Adventure / Sci-Fi / Short / Animation / Drama
Developed by Marvel Productions
National Broadcasting Company (NBC)
Sunbow Productions
Baker and Taylor Entertainment
Written by John Byrne
Chris Claremont
Dave Cockrum
Jack Kirby
Stan Lee
Larry Parr
Directed by Ray Lee
Voices of Michael Bell
Earl Boen
Andi Chapman
Pat Fraley
Ron Gans
Dan Gilvezan
Alan Oppenheimer
Patrick Pinney
Neil Ross
Susan Silo
Kath Soucie
John Stephenson
Alexandra Stoddart
Frank Welker
Narrated by Stan Lee
Composer(s) Robert J. Walsh
Country of origin Flag of the United States United States
Language(s) English
No. of episodes 1
Production
Co-executive
producer(s)		 Jim Graziano
Producer(s) Rick Hoberg
Larry Houston
Will Meugniot
Story editor(s) Rick Hoberg
Larry Houston
Will Meugniot
Larry Parr
Editor(s) Stu Rosen
Marc Van Der Nagel
Running time 30 min (including commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel First-run syndication
Original airing 1989
Chronology
Related shows Marvel Action Universe
X-Men (arcade game)
External links
Official website
IMDb profile

X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men (commonly known as Pryde of the X-Men) is an animated television pilot originally broadcast in 1989 on the Marvel Action Universe television block, featuring Marvel Comics’ mutant superheroes the X-Men. As of 2007, as with the majority of the other Disney-acquired Marvel Comics animated shows, it was once released on VHS but there are no plans to release this pilot to DVD.

Contents

[edit] Overview

[edit] As a failed television pilot

The title is a pun on the name of Kitty Pryde, the youngest X-Man. The series for which this episode was intended to launch never materialized; Marvel Productions would have to go back to the drawing board for 1992’s X-Men. The pilot aired infrequently in syndication, and was later released on video. It served the basis for the classic X-Men arcade game[1].

[edit] Main characters

Narrated by X-Men co-creator Stan Lee, Pryde of the X-Men stars Professor X and the X-Men (Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Wolverine (who speaks with an Australian accent, despite being Canadian in the comics), Kitty Pryde, and Dazzler) saving the world from Magneto and his “Brotherhood of Mutant Terrorists” (Toad, the Blob, Pyro, Juggernaut, and the White Queen). The X-Mansion, Danger Room, Cerebro, Blackbird, Asteroid M, and Lockheed the dragon are also featured.

[edit] Plot

The story begins with the voice of Stan Lee: “Look around you...you never know who could be a mutant, a person born with strange and wondrous powers...” It is the desert. The X-Men’s archenemy Magneto is being transported by a military convoy; Magneto is unable to use his powers, trapped in a force field. That is, until the White Queen appears. A member of his “Brotherhood of Mutant Terrorists,” she scatters the escort and dismantles the field restricting Magneto, allowing him to use his magnetic powers to tear apart his portable prison.

Elsewhere, a taxi pulls up to a mansion; inside is young Kitty Pryde. Professor Xavier has invited her to the his school because she is a mutant, and here he can train her in her power, the ability of phasing that allows her to pass through solid matter. He then takes her to the Danger Room, where the other students are training. They are the X-Men: Cyclops, Colossus, Dazzler, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Wolverine. The team is friendly when they are introduced, but Kitty is frightened by Nightcrawler’s demon-like appearance, and Wolverine insists that “the X-Men don’t have room for whiny brats.”

An alarm sounds: evil mutants have been detected, and the X-Men are off. Magneto and the Juggernaut watch as their Blackbird jet takes off: the Brotherhood’s diversion has worked. They invade the X-Mansion, Juggernaut operating similar to a wrecking ball. The Professor learns from Magneto’s thoughts that they have come for the main chip of Cerebro (the powerful, mutant-tracking computer), which he gives to Kitty and orders to flee. She is chased and ran down by Magneto, who electrocutes her and takes the computer chip.

The X-Men meanwhile confront Magneto’s henchmen Pyro and the Blob at an observatory. The X-Men easily free the hostages that have been taken, but the evil mutants escape, claiming they got what they came for: information on the “Scorpio comet.” The X-Men return to find the mansion in ruins and the Professor and Kitty unconscious. Xavier once again reads Magneto’s thoughts, this time learning the full details of his plan. Magneto plans to redirect the passing Scorpio comet onto a collision course with Earth. The X-Men must leave at once for Magneto’s orbiting sanctuary Asteroid M, but he instructs Kitty to stay as the mission is far too dangerous. Kitty however, wanting to help, phases aboard the Blackbird and hides.

Once they reach Asteroid M, each X-Man quickly becomes enganged on the way to Magneto: Storm must stay behind to maintain the air lock, Dazzler becomes embroiled with Pyro, Wolverine and Toad chop it up, Colossus and the Juggernaut come to blows, and Cyclops and the White Queen exchange optic and mental bolts. Only Nightcrawler continues, and when he is stopped by the Blob, “the immovable object,” the acrobatic mutant simply teleports past him.

Nightcrawler finally confronts a gloating Magneto as the Scorpio comet is approaching Earth. Raising his hand to blast Nightcrawler, Kitty suddenly emerges from the floor, causing Magneto to accidentally blast the wiring of his device. There is now an opportunity to save Earth, but Nightcrawler must risk sacrificing himself to complete the circuit and conduct the comet away from the planet, towards Asteroid M.

With Scorpio’s course being redirected, both parties must evacuate. The X-Men watch from the Blackbird as the comet approaches Asteroid M, waiting for Nightcrawler to teleport at the last minute. The comet and asteroid collide, and Nightcrawler is gone. The X-Men mourn their fallen team-mate, especially Kitty, who cries over how badly she had treated him earlier. To everyone’s surprise, a familiar voice emerges from the back of the jet—Nightcrawler is alive! The X-Men are reunited and the Earth is saved. Wolverine insists that Kitty isn’t a member of the X-Men—at least “not yet.”

[edit] Credits

[edit] Cast

Stan Lee Himself/narrator
Michael Bell Cyclops/additional voices
Earl Boen Colossus
Andi Chapman[2] Storm/additional voices
Neil Ross Wolverine
Kath Soucie Kitty Pryde
John Stephenson Professor Charles Xavier
Alexandra Stoddart[3] Dazzler/additional voices
Frank Welker Nightcrawler[4]/Toad/Lockheed
Ronald Gans Magneto/additional voices
Pat Fraley Pyro
Alan Oppenheimer The Blob/additional voices
Patrick Pinney The Juggernaut/additional voices
Susan Silo The White Queen
Dan Gilvezan Additional voices

Frank Welker, who provided the voices of Nightcrawler, Toad, and Lockheed in Pryde of the X-Men previously provided the voice of Iceman on Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.

[edit] Crew

Ray Lee director
C.J. Kettler executive producer
Will Meugniot producer
Robert J. Walsh original music
Stu Rosen voice director
Writing credits
Larry Parr original story
Stan Lee characters
Jack Kirby characters
Chris Claremont characters
John Byrne characters
Dave Cockrum characters (uncredited)

[edit] Critical response

The reaction from fans to the pilot is generally mixed. Although praised for its high quality animation[5][6][7][8][9][10] (provided by Sunbow Productions[11], who also produced G.I. Joe and Transformers), fans simply felt that the pilot for the most part, came across as too campy[12] [13][14] for a comic (especially under the guidence of John Byrne and Chris Claremont[15]) with often dark and adult oriented themes like X-Men.

Furthermore, purists were not fond of the way certain characters where portrayed in the pilot. For instance, Kitty Pryde was seen in their eyes as coming across as too much of a whiny[16][17][18], damsel-in-distress[19]. Fans also found it awfully quizzical to see the White Queen be portrayed as a member of the Brotherhood of Mutants[20][21][22] even though she was never associated with them in the comic books up until that point[23]. Most importantly, fans were upset at the sound of the traditionally Canadian Wolverine, speaking with an Australia accent[24][25][26][27].

[edit] Tie-ins

In 1990, Marvel published a graphic novel titled X-Men Animation Special,[28][29] an adaptation of Pryde of the X-Men that featured cell animation from the cartoon rather than original art.

In 1992, Konami produced an X-Men arcade game that served as an expansion of the Pryde of the X-Men pilot.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Digital Monkey Box Brings You: X-Men Arcade
  2. ^ Andi Chapman
  3. ^ Alexandra Stoddart
  4. ^ Unknown Voices
  5. ^ The best thing about the special is the animation. It is immaculate. The character designs are dead-on. (Australian Wolverine is tolerable because he is wearing the brown and tan costume.) It trumps anything in X-Men: TAS, and I'm a fan of the series.
  6. ^ The episode itself is enjoyable, and I certainly wouldn’t have minded if it were to lead to a series, but the main standout here is the pilot’s animation. It is stunning. Obviously, Marvel spent a little more on the feature’s animation in hopes to lure the networks, but as it stands, it looks better than any of the other shows Marvel produced in the 80’s, and completely obliterates the visuals of the 1990’s X-Men show by comparison.
  7. ^ The pilot is typical 80’s cheese despite it’s breathtaking animation, and the less said about this version of Wolverine, the better.
  8. ^ It’s always worth noting though – the animation in this pilot is far better than anything that was ever found in X-Men: The Animated Series, and even tops the animation found in the second season of Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends.
  9. ^ The pilot is best known for its dazzling animation, which is still the best animation I’ve ever seen come from the 1980’s.
  10. ^ You’ve heard this millions of times before if you’ve looked through any of the previous retrospectives – the animation here is superb, far better than even the best of Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends offered, and as such Nightcrawler looked great.
  11. ^ The animation is courtesy of Sunbow Animation Studios and is really quite beautiful. If the animation looks kind of familiar to you, it should. It's the same high-gloss style you saw on the early G.I. Joe and The Transformers cartoons. Sunbow was the king of 1980's animation and teamed up with Marvel Comics and Hasbro toys for several half hour adventures, or depending on your point of view, half hour long toy commercials. Sunbow also did the animations for the late and lamented Tick cartoon. In fact, I wish the later X-Men cartoon would have adopted the same style.
  12. ^ The plot is campy fun. Magneto uses a stolen Cerebro to throw the Scorpio comet at Earth. This leads to a showdown on Asteroid M. The X-folk square off against Brotherhood members: Juggernaut v. Colossus, Pyro v. Dazzler, Wolverine v. Toad... By the end, good triumphs, and the comet gets tossed at Asteroid M instead. Oh, and Kitty gets a purple dragon pet.
  13. ^ The campy narration by Stan Lee is found throughout the episode. Now, no offense to Stan, but if you've seen the 80s Hulk show, you'd know that it's really, really difficult to take a single word he says seriously. I guess the narration is supposed to give you feelings of 'awe' and 'inspiration', but two much better terms would be 'worthless' and 'parasitic'. Again, the show was animated, and created for kids. Kids usually have a much deeper appreciation for awful dialog. But it's fun rating this as if it's a legit drama series, so let's just say it sucks.
  14. ^ For its time, it was great, though today's viewers will find it a bit "cheesy."
  15. ^ The comic, under the guidance of Chris Claremont, dealt with very dark issues and some adult themes that simply would not float in the Saturday morning cartoon genre. So, rather than mind the happy medium, this cartoon went in the exact polar opposite direction and dove into the dangerous territory of overly childish camp.
  16. ^ Our POV character is Kitty Pryde, a 14-year-old who recently discovered she was a mutant. She whines more than Jubilee did in X-Men: TAS, and her character design screams "Breakfast Club." She meets the X-Men, and in the span of a half hour, becomes one of the team.
  17. ^ Kitty's too whiny, Wolverine gargles on some phlegm before spewing every line, and the villains were just lame.
  18. ^ Kitty Pryde. Kitty Pryde's the big problem here. You might know her as 'Shadowcat', but in the cartoon, she's just a whiny idiot. The show is about 20 minutes long. 15 of them consist of Kitty crying. What's worse - she doesn't get punched...not even once. She's the star of our story, so she talks a lot. And her voice - my GOD her voice - will send you down a spiral of insanity faster than you could ever imagine.
  19. ^ Why is Kitty reduced to a damsel in distress rather than the slightly wary but still wise and squirrelly waif we know and love?
  20. ^ Now, Juggernaut had some namebrand recognition of his own and may have been included for that reason; but Emma is a bit of a head-scratcher, especially because she never does anything that is remotely telepathic. Instead, she just flings the occasional "mental" lightning bolt. If the creative team wanted a female villain, why not the Scarlet Witch who actually used hex bolts? I would suggest (but can in no way prove) perhaps the White Queen character started as the Scarlet Witch but was later changed because Wanda was currently a hero in the pages of Avengers. Either that or the creators really wanted to use a woman in a corset.
  21. ^ With help from the White Queen, (yes!)
  22. ^ The White Queen was part of Sebastian Shaw's Hellfire Club; it consisted of evil mutants who took their titles from chess pieces.
  23. ^ Many other elements made the true purists cringe, like why is the White Queen with the Brotherhood and not her true affiliation of the Hellfire Club, but the real death of this series before it even began is due to the pure camp that ensued from the creators' disregard for their far superior source material.
  24. ^ And it's also time to address the character of Wolverine. Ten years before the movie Fargo made talking like a Yooper in vogue der, eh, some genius TV exec obviously decided to make Wolverine's character an Australian instead of a hosehead from the Great White North. Was it really a good idea to take the teams most popular member and have him talk like Jack-O on speed? (To be fair, I didn't care for the constipated approach the voice actor used in the later series either.)
  25. ^ * Weird voices. Wolverine talks like the guy from Crocodile Dundee on helium.
  26. ^ The next big set of problems came from the audacity of the creators in thinking that they would know what would be better for the characters than the creators themselves. For example, why in the name of God does Wolverine sport an accent that hails not from Canada, but from Australia?
  27. ^ Unfortunately, Wolverine didn’t come off so great. Whilst I liked his design, his voice was baffling. Why Canadian Wolverine was given an Australian remains a mystery, but it was simply odd to hear. The fact he did nothing but moan about Kitty’s annoyance didn’t really help matters. In short, they really dropped the ball on his version of Logan.
  28. ^ X-MEN Animation Special Graphic Novel PRYDE OF THE 1990
  29. ^ Mile High Comics - X-MEN: ANIMATION SPECIAL GN

[edit] External links

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