Cartoon Pick of the Day: X-Men The Animated Series “Night of the Sentinels”

Title: X-Men: The Animated Series Season 1 Episode 1 “The Night of the Sentinels”

screenshot from X-Men The Animated Series

I’ve realized now it’s sometimes best not to revisit cherished childhood memories. I can still remember rushing home from school to plop down on the couch and watch X-Men: The Animated Series. This was back in 1992 when the show debuted.

I must have watched every episode of X-Men The Animated Series. Earlier today, I sat down and watched the first episode again and, well, it didn’t stand up to the test of time. Now I have a hard time fathoming what made me think the series was so cool when I was a kid. The main problem is, even for the early 90s, the animation is cheap–unbelievably cheap. You’d think a popular franchise like the X-Men would be able to splurge and hire top of the line animators. It seems like their M.O. was to make the characters look as much like the action figures as possible.

If you can get past the low-grade visuals, X-Men: The Animated Series is fun in a goofy, campy kind of way. “The Night of The Sentinels” focuses on the character Jubilee as she slowly gains awareness of her mutant abilities. Eventually, as she is shunned from society, she is taken in by the X-Men. One of the episode’s goofiest moments comes when Jubilee is running home and–somehow–a sentinel sneaks up on her. How can a sentinel be sneaky? At one point, it hides in the shadow of a building, and later it gets the drop on her popping out from behind a small tree. It’s kind of like Jubilee deserves to be caught.

Why is she surprised?

Taken out of context, screenshots from X-Men: The Animated Series can be quite ridiculous. To keep this site PG, I won’t add any captions, but if you look at the pics below and use your imagination, I’m sure you’ll come up with some pretty crude humor on your own.