X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men video cover
Pryde of the X-Men was an animated pilot that first aired in 1989, featuring Marvel's mutant superheroes the X-Men. The story was told from teenager Kitty Pryde's point-of-view, as Professor X guided her through the mansion and school.
The voice cast from Pryde of the X-Men reprised their roles in the X-Men: Madness in Murderworld video game. The Konami arcade game is also said to be based on how characters appear in the pilot.
Plot[]
Kitty Pryde and Professor Xavier; as portrayed in the pilot
The X-Men’s archenemy Magneto is being transported by a military convoy. Magneto is unable to use his powers, trapped in a force field - that is, until the White Queen appears. A member of his "The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants", she scatters the escort and dismantles the field restricting Magneto, allowing him to use his magnetic powers to tear apart his portable prison and escape. Elsewhere, Kitty Pryde arrives at Professor Xavier's to be trained to use her power of phasing, passing through solid matter. The Professor leads her to the Danger Room and introduces her to the X-Men: Cyclops, Colossus, Dazzler, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Wolverine. Kitty is frightened by Nightcrawler’s demonic appearance and almost causes the Danger Room to go haywire, making Wolverine insist that the X-Men don’t have room for children. Magneto sends Pyro and Blob to retrieve the tracking coordinates for the Scorpio comet approaching Earth. This has the secondary goal of diverting the X-Men while Magneto and Juggernaut invade the X-Mansion. The Professor learns from Magneto’s thoughts that they have come for the "mutant power circuit" of Cerebro (the mutant-tracking computer). He gives it to Kitty and orders her to flee, but Magneto captures it. The X-Men return from their confrontation with Blob and Pyro to find the mansion in ruins and the Professor and Kitty unconscious. Xavier once again reads Magneto’s thoughts, this time learning the full details of his plan. Magneto plans to redirect the passing Scorpio comet onto a collision course with Earth. This would send up a cloud of dust and debris, blocking out the sun for years, plunging the planet into another Ice Age which would leave normal humans weakened, allowing the mutants to take over. The X-Men leave at once for Magneto’s orbiting sanctuary Asteroid M, but the X-Men instruct Kitty to stay, as the mission is far too dangerous. Kitty, however, wanting to prove her worth and make amends for her previous failure, phases aboard the Blackbird and hides, with the Professor's blessing. Upon reaching the asteroid, each X-Man quickly becomes enganged with an objective on the way to Magneto. Only Nightcrawler finally confronts a gloating Magneto as the Scorpio comet is approaching Earth. As Magneto is about to blast Nightcrawler, Kitty emerges from the floor, causing Magneto to accidentally blast the wiring of his device. Nightcrawler teleports up and uses his body as a conduct, while Kitty knocks Magneto onto the platform, using his power to redirect the comet's course towards Asteroid M. Nightcrawler must risk sacrificing himself to complete the machine's circuit, or the comet changes course back to Earth. The X-Men watch from the Blackbird for Nightcrawler to teleport at the last minute. The comet and asteroid collide, but Nightcrawler rematerializes out in space. The team attempts to retrieve him with the Blackbird's grappler arms before he burns up entering the atmosphere. They miss and Nightcrawler disintegrates. The X-Men mourn their fallen teammate, and Kitty cries over how badly she had treated him earlier. But then coughing from one of the storage lockers revels that Nightcrawler has just managed to teleport himself into the plane before the atmospheric friction totally burned up his suit. While the X-Men give Kitty open credit for her efforts, Wolverine insists that Kitty isn’t a member of the X-Men - at least, not yet.
Production[]
I ended up being the voice director on the show, and I was forced to use the Australian version of Wolverine (which coincidentally, foreshadowed the casting of Australian actor Hugh Jackman in the live-action X-Men film), because all of this Australian stuff was popular at the time - the Mad Max films, "Crocodile" Dundee, and so on - it was going to turn out (in the comics) that Wolverine was an expatriated Australian. The direction of the character however never got beyond the plotting stages and Wolverine remained Canadian in the comics.
The title is a pun on the name of Kitty Pryde, the youngest X-Man. The series for which this episode was intended to launch never materialized; Marvel Productions would have to go back to the drawing board for 1992’s X-Men Animated Series. The pilot aired infrequently in syndication, and was later released on video.
Credits[]
Cast[]
| Stan Lee | Himself/narrator |
| Michael Bell | Cyclops/additional voices |
| Earl Boen | Magneto |
| Andi Chapman[3] | Storm/additional voices |
| Neil Ross | Nightcrawler |
| Kath Soucie | Kitty Pryde |
| John Stephenson | Professor Charles Xavier |
| Alexandra Stoddart[4] | Dazzler/additional voices |
| Frank Welker | Toad/Lockheed |
| Ronald Gans | The Juggernaut |
| Pat Fraley | Pyro |
| Alan Oppenheimer | The Blob/additional voices |
| Patrick Pinney | Wolverine/additional voices |
| Susan Silo | The White Queen |
| Dan Gilvezan | Colossus |
Frank Welker, who provided the voices of Toad and Lockheed in Pryde of the X-Men previously provided the voice of Iceman on Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.
Crew[]
| Ray Lee | director |
| Margaret Loesch (billed as Margaret Loesch Stimpson) | executive producer |
| Will Meugniot | producer |
| Robert J. Walsh | original music |
| Stu Rosen | voice director |
| Writing credits | |
|---|---|
| Larry Parr | original story |
| Stan Lee | characters (uncredited); though billed as Supervising Producer |
| Jack Kirby | characters (uncredited) |
| Chris Claremont | characters (uncredited) |
| John Byrne | characters (uncredited) |
| Dave Cockrum | characters (uncredited) |
Gallery[]
