The X-Men Animated Series that first aired in 1992 played a big part in my superhero, power fantasy fixation. That, along with the Spider-Man and Batman animated series as well as Dragon Ball Z made me believe I could be capable of great things. I imagine the same is true for many millennials, that’s why X-Men 97 is such a big deal. It’s a reunion with our childhood heroes and a chance to introduce them to the next generation.

From the Studio that brought you Korra, Voltron

Animation and art style will always be big talking points with any animated series. Bringing to life X-Men 97 is the exact studio I had hoped would do so, which is Studio Mir.

Studio Mir is a South Korean animation studio based in Seoul and you might be familiar with some of their work. Most famously, they are the studio behind The Legend of Korra which is the sequel series to Avatar: The Last Airbender.

They also brought to life the brilliant Netflix animated series Voltron: Legendary Defender. But it was in another Netflix project that really got me hoping they would work on an X-Men animated series. That project is the animated film The Witcher: Night of the Wolf.

Here’s what I wrote about it back in 2021: “The animation is super high quality reminiscent of Nickelodeon’s Avatar: Legend of Korra and DreamWorks’ Voltron: Legendary Defender. It had me daydreaming about an X-Men Animated Series reboot in this specific art style.”

Classic style, modern look

Fast forward to now and my hope has come to fruition. Studio Mir has a pretty distinct art style which isn’t exactly present in X-Men 97. Instead, they stayed as faithful as possible to the art style of the 90s animated series while making sure it fit their animation style.

The result is the characters look exactly like you thought they would when translated into the visuals fit for 2024 standards. The studio was also thankfully spared from the weird rules of 90s animations like no punches should be thrown during fights. This was evident in the first episode where X-Men team leader Cyclops is seen throwing fists at enemies. Previously, he was relegated to just his optical blasts.

The animation, art style, and action in the first three episodes were a feast for the eyes. The movements are fluid especially in key fight scenes. The one on the third episode especially stood out to me with the amount of crazy visuals and elements that had to be on screen.

[Omitted] 

X-Men 97 is astonishing and we can’t wait to see all the episodes with the rest of the world. The series is now streaming on Disney+.

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