"UneXpected Changes"
Episodes Included: "Strategy X"; "The X Impulse"; "Rogue Recruit"
Month Released: September 2003
Average Price: $10 (U.S.)
DVD Extras: Episode Introductions with Boyd Kirkland; The Evolution of the X-Men; and an X-Men: Evolution Trailer
Packaging: The packaging is pretty cool, and probably the most eye-catching out of all the Season One DVDs. It has a nice blue, computerized background, with the main six teenage X-Men in a pretty cool pose on the front. Very well-drawn and colored. The back provides us with the basic setup behind Evolution (not TOO corny this time...) and a description of the episodes inside and the extras. (Although... why is the phrase "Super Heroes" trademarked..?) The DVD itself has a picture of good ol' Nightcrawler on it.
Episode Introductions with Boyd Kirkland: These little intros to the selected episodes on this DVD are actually really nice, and much-improved over the "Mutants Rising" episode intros for one main reason: they're quite a bit longer. They each average about two minutes in length, in fact. The episode intro for "Strategy X" involves the producers and directors telling us the basic setup behind the initial episode, as well as how Toad was put in to lighten up the otherwise somewhat dreary episode. The intro for "The X Impulse" is two-pronged; the first part deals with Kitty and the pressure she has to go through in this episode. An interesting note given is that the writers did mention that Kitty Pryde underwent a slight personality change after Season One, when the decided to de-emphasize her "valley girl" way of talking. So yes, folks, that WAS intentional. The second part deals mostly with Wolverine's fight scene, and how cool it is. Yessss. The intro for "Rogue Recruit", as expected, deals mostly with how they came up with Rogue's goth-y character, and some of the drama that goes on in this ep. Another interesting bit was how originally, Mystique had adopted Rogue when she was little and raised her "to be evil", but the writers didn't want to make it quite that dark, so they just made it seem like Mystique was manipulating Rogue in this ep. They also talked about Magneto's background dealings in this ep as well.
The Evolution of the X-Men: The main extra for this DVD is a six-minute bit where how the show as brought about is discussed. It's pretty intriguing, with some great visuals- we get to see many of the concept designs for the X-Men. (Spyke looked like a freakin' monster at the beginning!) They also talk about the main choices that went into which X-Men they picked for the inital six- their diverse personalities, how their powers would look on the show, etc. They also discussed how some of the things they just had to change because you can't do everything on a kids' show that they did in the comics. All in all, it's very interesting.
X-Men: Evolution Trailer: This "trailer", which is on all the Season One DVDs, isn't really a trailer at all- it's just a commercial that was aired on TV that advertised the Season One DVDs, which is pretty pointless, since you already HAVE the DVD anyways. Lame.
Last Words: This DVD has some pretty nice extras (with the exclusion of the X-Men: Evolution Trailer), and some pretty nice episodes, as well. Even though there's only three episodes on it, it IS only about $10, which adds up to about $2.50 an ep and $2.50 for the extras, which isn't TOO bad. If you're an X-Men: Evolution maniac like I am, I'd definitely recommend picking it up- if you're just a casual viewer, though, it's probably not worth your money.
Overall Rating: 8/10 Great