A brilliant film that helped define a genre

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I remember loving the X-Men television show as a kid, this though not technically part of it certainly seems to have been made by the same people.A 1989 short film about the origins of Kitty Pryde it features all your favourite X-Men and villains but made me feel a little silly actually watching it.Part of me questions whether I'm remembering the old television series with ruby glasses or if this was just part of the shows evolution and not on the same level.Wolverine stands out as a particularly bad character, they clearly hadn't read the comics as he is by far the least likable and most annoying part of this short.In establishing Kitty Pryde (Who was never part of the television series) they don't do the character any favours but how possibly could you with a character so limited.I'd suggest even fans of the original series give this one a pass.The Good: Nostalgia The Bad: Wolverines voice is hilariously bad A lot of changes from the comics Things I Learnt From This Short: The original X-Men series might not have been as good as I remember I don't remember a dragon Wolverine is a deeply annoying Australian

It perterbs me everyone online assumes this was some kind of pilot for the 90s x-men show but how can they believe that if this aired in 1989 and the x-men series didn't start until 1992??? This was actually one of many single shot episodes marvel stuffed in its Marvel Action Hour without planning at all to continue the show in its own series. It is an excellent watch if you can find it. What's better than Wolverine, who was Canadian don't forget, speaking with the most horrible Australian accent?!?! And like the other comment on this show, it has an excellent story with good characters for a single shot show. I wasn't old enough to have seen this in its original air date along with its other Action Hour companions so it may have even been better with a taste of spiderman before and some hulk afterwards but i'll never know.

I saw this one not long after the 1992 series started. My husband and I were as caught up in the series as my 3 year old son was! This pilot (or whatever) was a good start and the series just made it better. It was a much better series than what is on now. I think the 1992 series was a faithful adaptation of the comics. The only thing I saw that was off with this film was that Wolverine had an Aussie accent, when any X-Men fan knows that he's Canadian...LOL!

Pryde of the X-Men is an interesting failure. On one hand, the animation is outstanding for its time. On the other hand, unless you already read the comic you wouldn't know what the heck was going on. And it's pretty gosh-darn stupid.The animation, particularly the use of shadows and the particle effects, are impressive. I suspect Marvel had this animated in Japan, the style shows through. If not, the animators did a good job of emulating the efforts of most anime studios at the time. The characters all look cool and Wolvie has his brown costume (my favorite).Unfortunately, nobody put much effort into cohering all those awesome battle scenes into a story. I mean, they didn't even try. There isn't a plot, things happen. Magneto escapes from the back of a tanker truck. Professor X introduces Kitty Pryde to the X-Men. Magneto and Juggernaut attack the X-Mansion. Not an X-Men fan? What I've typed got you a bit confused? Don't know who these people are or their relationships to one another? The cartoon won't help.The script of a children's cartoon needn't be outstanding literature but it should at least put forth a minimum of effort into expounding on who everyone is, what they're doing, and why they're doing it. Take the more recent Fox X-Men series as an example. In the first episode, the X-Men save a little girl from the robots trying to capture her. You get to know everyone's name, their respective powers, and that they're the good guys. You get good action scenes and good exposition. Here, in Pryde of the X-Men, you get the X-Men yelling at a little girl and some other guys knocking over stuff while particle effects flash and swirl about the screen. Sure, it'll pique a kid's attention but after two or three episodes he's going to quit watching because he won't know what's going on. Yes, that does matter to children.Perhaps the biggest failure of Pryde of the X-Men is the "subplot" (I wince at using any form of the word 'plot' in reference to this show) regarding Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler is one ugly dude, he looks about like a cathedral gargoyle. Kitty is scared of him but later comes to realize that just because he's ugly doesn't mean he's evil. That's all fine and good IF HE WASN'T A TOTAL PERV! When he meets Kitty he reaches out to her (and I really hope this was unintentional on the animator's part) like he's going to grab at her breasts. He practically drools on her. Later, when he rescues a little girl from a fiery inferno (more particle effects!) he, well, puts his hands about her bum and her crotch. I remember that from when I was a kid, too. I wasn't scared of how he looked, I was afraid he grab me and talk soothingly to me while fondling my private parts. The way he acts, he's the last person you'd want your kids watching on a weekly basis. And his costume is apparently a red, v-shaped vest with nothing underneath. Brrrr.All in all, good eye candy for its time but it lacks enough direction and coherence to keep even small children watching. That's probably why no one picked it up as a series. That and Wolverine's Aussie accent was really bad.