X-Men: The Legend of Wolverine

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X-Men: The Legend of Wolverine Review
X-Men: The Legend of Wolverine Movie and DVD details

Directors: Frank Squillace and Larry Houston
Voice Cast: Cal Dodd (Wolverine/James “Logan” Howlett), Norm Spencer (Cyclops/ Scott Summers), Cedric Smith (Professor X, Charles Xavier), Catherine Disher (Jean Grey/ Phoenix), Alison Sealy-Smith (Storm/ Ororo Monroe), Lenore Zann ( Rouge), Christ Potter (Gambit/ Remy Le Beau), George Buza (Beast/ Henry “Hank” McCoy), and Alyson Court (Jubilee/ Jubilation Lee)

Running Time: 79 minutes/ Rating: NR
1.33:1 4x3 Fullscreen
Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitle: English; Closed Captioned

DVD Release Date: April 29, 2003
Single-sided Disc (DVD);
Suggested Retail Price $29.99

When X-Men 2: X-Men United came out at the theaters in summer of 2003 Buena Vista Home Video release X-Men: The Legend of Wolverine. This DVD has five episodes from the X-Men: The Animated Series which all features history about Wolverine and his past. When FOX first launched FOX Kids on Saturday mornings and weekdays afternoon X-Men: The Animated Series was a hit for the network beating the other Saturday Network champion “Saved by the Bell” on NBC. Later FOX Kids had success with other shows such as Batman: The Animated Series, Tiny Toons Adventures, Animaniacs, Bobby’s World, Spider-Man: The Animated Series and Power Rangers. X-Men main story for the series was that humans fear mutants because they were different and were dangerous with powers. The X-Men is a group of good mutants that want to protect both humans and mutants from evil Mutants that want to take over the world.

The main reason why X-Men: The Animated Series was a hit because X-Men was already popular in the comic books from Marvel Comics and some video games at that time. The main video game system at that time was Nintendo and Genesis. The main character in the animated series were Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Beast, Gambit, Rouge Jean Grey, Jubilee and Professor X. But also included some guest stars in some episodes such as Iceman, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Havok, Forge, Angel, Bishop, Cable, Polaris, Longshot, Psylocke, Morph, Dazzler and X-Factor. The series did very well for FOX lasting five seasons on the network before going to syndication.

X-Men: The Animated Series was seen on Fox, UPN, KCAL, FOX Family, ABC Family, USA Network and Toon Disney.

X-Men: The Animated Series was taken from Disney after Disney bought Fox Family with only the rights to show the series on their sister networks. FOX family change it’s name to ABC Family.
Also in 1999 Kids WB release a new X-Men series called X-Men Evolution, which was about teenage X-Men members except for Wolverine, Storm and Professor X who were adults in that series. It had a very different twist from X-Men: The Animated Series and from the X-Men comic books. But X-Men: Evolution is owned by Warner Brothers and Cartoon Network. But Buena Vista Home Video should release X-Men: The Animated Series as a season box set. It was the only X-Men: The Animated Series episodes that were release on DVD so far as a volume.

Out of the Past (Part 1)

Mariko Vashida is Wolverine’s ex-girlfriend and now she became Lady Deathstrike to have revenge on Wolverine. She thinks that Wolverine killed her father. But her fater who was a doctor did an experiment on Wolverine, which drove Wolverine mad. Wolverine broke out of the experiment lab causing it to explode long with Dr. Vashida. Now Wolverine sees Mariko for the first time. But Mariko is now Lady Deathstrike. Lady Deathstrike and the Reavers lead Wolverine to a trap to unlock the secrets of a long buried alien spacecraft. But Wolverine is not alone he has help from two other X-Men members Gambit and Jubilee.

Out of the Past (Part 2)

After being release from the spacecraft the Sprit Drinker was release and now is searching for souls. Sprit Drinker drains the souls of Jubilee and the Reavers. Now Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike must remain allies in order to survive from the Spirit Drinker.

Nightcrawler

Three X-Men Wolverine, Gambit and Rouge take a vacation in Europe. But they also find Nightcrawler a mutant that someone wants dead. All the village people think that Nightcrawler is a monster not a mutant. One of the monks at the church thinks that Nightcrawler is a demon not a mutant and wants him dead then finds out that he had sinned. This is the first time Wolverine went to a church in the animated series.

The Lotus and the Steel

Wolverine wants to quit the X-Men because he cant’ control his rage so he goes to Japan to clear his mind. Jubilee follows Wolverine to Japan thinking that he quit because of her. Silver Samurai and a gang are bulling a Japan village and it’s up to Wolverine to stop them. Then at the end Wolverine decides to say with the X-Men because they are family to him.

The Final Decision

The X-Men must show their dream that mutants and humans could live together. But Magneto has other plans to gain mutant superiority. Now both Magneto and the X-Men must team up to stop the Sentinels and Master Mode from controlling the world.

Video and Audio

X-Men: The Legend of Wolverine is presented in a 1.33:1, which is 4x3 Fullscreen that should have been release in widescreen. Also is release in Dolby Digital 2.0.

This DVD should have been treated with the right features and audio. It’s sad that the audio for the DVD has poor quality and poor sound.

Bonus Features

The DVD includes a bonus episode “The Final Decision” from season one of the animated series. Interview with “X-Men” writer Chris Claremont. Chris Claremont tells how he wrote the comic book series from 1975 to 1988. Also tells how he had to give life to each character especially Wolverine. Talked about how he did the Phoenix Saga and death of Jean Grey.

Includes an interview with Stan Lee how he created the X-Men comic book. How he got the title “X-Men” instead of “Mutants”. How he produced the animated series and how much he had fun with every character.

This disc didn’t have so much bonus features. Chris Claremont also did audio commentaries with the four main episodes.

Menus and Packaging

The menu starts by showing each character in a X-letter starting with Wolverine. Once you select an option you could see Wolverine claws ripe on the screen. But the sad part is it’s in 1.33:1 4x3 Fullscreen.

Closing Thoughts

The positive is at least some X-Men episode got release on DVD. The negative is there not the best episodes.

I predict Buena Vista Home Video to release “Enter the Phoenix” and “Dark Phoenix” Sagas since X-Men 3 will probably be about the Dark Phoenix.

Also X-Men 2: X-Men United is mainly about Wolverine’s origin so that’s why the DVD was mainly about him.

Hopefully in the future releases X-Men: The Animated Series will be release as a box set instead of volumes or episodes.

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