X-Men: Evolution "Growing Pains" Talkback (Spoilers)

[James Harvey]

Discuss this episode of the fan-favorite X-Men: Evolution animated series!

Episode #14 - Growing Pains
Original Airdate - September 29, 2001

The Brotherhood gatecrash a soccer match of Jean's team and threaten to expose mutantkind to the world.

Comments?

[Mattashell]

That guy Lance can be a real jerk. I f he thinks this is the way to get Kitty's attention he's going to grow up to be a lonely fellow. I like getting to see some more familiar faces from the comics like "Boom Boom", "Iceman", "Multiple Man", "Wolfsbane", and "Canonball". I don't know if I recognized the other newbe's. But Wolverine is right. I think they're going to have thier hand's full.

[Sandoz]

This is one of the Best episodes of Evo's second season. This ep, together with Day of Reckoning, cleverly bookend the season with the revelations to the public about the existance of mutants. I liked Scott's inner turmoil about his powers, Lance's pathetic attempts to impress Kitty, the B'Hood's tauntings, the introduction of Kelly, Risty, and all the New Mutants, the final fight scene, and the ambiguous ending. I have a big gripe though--three scenes were cut from the Kid's WB version of Growing Pains. They included Jean destroying Kelley's cell phone, Rogue nearly being crushed by bleachers, and, most importantly, the scene where Lance abandons the fight with Scott to push Kitty out of the way of the falling Hawk statue. He's crushed instead, and Kitty phases through the rubble to pull him out. THAT'S why she's holding him at the end. I thought that was a foolish cut, since it explains just why Kitty starts to return Lance's feelings. >_< Curse the WB!

[Anthonynotes]

Originally posted by Sandoz
This is one of the Best episodes of Evo's second season. This ep, together with Day of Reckoning, cleverly bookend the season with the revelations to the public about the existance of mutants. I liked Scott's inner turmoil about his powers, Lance's pathetic attempts to impress Kitty, the B'Hood's tauntings, the introduction of Kelly, Risty, and all the New Mutants, the final fight scene, and the ambiguous ending. I have a big gripe though--three scenes were cut from the Kid's WB version of Growing Pains. They included Jean destroying Kelley's cell phone, Rogue nearly being crushed by bleachers, and, most importantly, the scene where Lance abandons the fight with Scott to push Kitty out of the way of the falling Hawk statue. He's crushed instead, and Kitty phases through the rubble to pull him out. THAT'S why she's holding him at the end. I thought that was a foolish cut, since it explains just why Kitty starts to return Lance's feelings. >_< Curse the WB!

Saw part of this episode (while flipping around the dial....outdated expression, I know :-) , and thought about such hesitation to use one's powers without revealing oneself being one reason why Superman (and some other heroes) has a secret identity, so he can go public with his powers without endangering his personal life/privacy as Clark Kent. Of course, secret IDs are probably more of a DC thing than Marvel...and of course has faults of its own.... :-)


-B.

[R Chocolate]

Can't really say much about this episode except....well done
It's still not on the level of my old beloved super-hero animated shows but it's nice work that knows how to build it up and then watch what happens and bring it all together. Wish there was more than had been done here and there, though.

[Kolbar]

Tonight, Cartoon Network airs the second season premiere of X-Men: Evolution at 9:30pm ET.

Episode #14 - Growing Pains

Original Airdate - September 29, 2001

Cyclops thinks it's time for the world to know who the X-Men really are. However, when the brotherhood takes it upon themselves to go public, Scott gets a glimpse of public reaction. Will the X-Men be able to survive such a 'revealing?'

Comments?

[Ian]

A good episode, plotwise, but I dislike it for being very subpar, visually. I find the animation of the first two acts jarring, especially when compared to Power Surge, the next episode. Also, this episode stars my least favorite Lance scene: when he brings down the scoreboard. Lance, I love you my man, but sometimes you can be such a idiot.

[Lyranfan]

Likes

1) The school bus scene - Scott is trying to stay true to the no powers in public thing but has to act at the last minute. I really like that Kurt only needed to have his name called to know what to do - not have Scott spell it out for him.

2) Brotherhood busting Lance's chops at the assembly very in character as far as I'm concerned. I thought Pietro letting Todd take Lance's punch was really funny

3) Paul - Scott's human friend bumping him when Jean walks into the gym. Too bad we don't see much of him after the Sentinel battle in later seasons.

4) Newbies! Really good intro of the new students. Ray is da man moving in on the ladies.

5) Our introduction to Risty - oh boy...... Anyway it shows the way Rogue is once you get passed the sarcasm - a helpful and caring person.

6) Alex and Scott talking via laptops - that was pretty cool


Dislikes

1) I have to agree with the Big Bad - Lance can be a real knucklehead with that dropping the scoreboard thing on Kelly.

2) I also have to second the butchering of the episode by both the WB and Cartoon Network mentioned by Sandoz - there is really well done footage of the bleachers collapsing and Lance saving Kitty. You just have to get the DVD to see it or check out descriptions on sites like Beyond Evolution.

3) I understand the Brotherhood calling out Scott and Jean as mutants, but to start tearing up the stadium - what's the point of that? I could see causing some vandalism to get attention like graffitti or something (not that I condone that - mind you). Did they want to be expelled and possibly arrested?


One last thought - I totally missed this before - Scott blasts the eagle out of Blob's grip and the eagle lands on the gym starting the building fire. The fact that Scott is responsible in part for the gym burning down must not have made a great impression on me before last night.

[Sandman]

I almost missed this while watching a South Park rerun. A good start to season 2. Seeing Scott have conflicted emotions is always nice. Too bad Risty was Mystique. She was such a cool character. The Brotherhood’s interaction and their attempt to look tough at the school assembly was the highlight for me. Kitty should learn to never giggle at Lance since it only encourages his stupidity. But I guess you could say that with every guy. Lance is Stifler from American Pie, only with dangerous mutant powers.

The new recruits looked cute and used their powers in fun and amusing ways. That’s pretty much what they would do for the next three seasons as they blended into the background. Tabitha from the start never looked like she fit in with them.

The big fight scene is almost unwatchable in this version because of the jumpy editing. I don’t know why they never put back in the Lance saving Kitty scene. The unedited version airs in other countries. It’s odd seeing Kitty holding Lance when you had no idea what happened. Jean destroying Kelly’s cell phone was also edited out. At least we can see the unedited version with the DVD.

Likes
3) I understand the Brotherhood calling out Scott and Jean as mutants, but to start tearing up the stadium - what's the point of that? I could see causing some vandalism to get attention like graffitti or something (not that I condone that - mind you). Did they want to be expelled and possibly arrested?


One last thought - I totally missed this before - Scott blasts the eagle out of Blob's grip and the eagle lands on the gym starting the building fire. The fact that Scott is responsible in part for the gym burning down must not have made a great impression on me before last night.

I think the Brotherhood destroying everything was just to add some action to this episode. It probably would have been more in character for them to stick a banana in Kelly’s tailpipe or engage in petty "mutant" vandalism before exposing the Xavier kids as mutants. But that wouldn’t have been as interesting to watch. And it was interesting that Scott was really the one that caused the gym fire. I think that was to show that when even trying to do good, mutants can end up causing more harm. Kelly(who kept his memory) blamed both sides for the destruction.

[pip25]

I think the Brotherhood destroying everything was just to add some action to this episode. It probably would have been more in character for them to stick a banana in Kelly’s tailpipe or engage in petty "mutant" vandalism before exposing the Xavier kids as mutants. But that wouldn’t have been as interesting to watch. And it was interesting that Scott was really the one that caused the gym fire. I think that was to show that when even trying to do good, mutants can end up causing more harm. Kelly(who kept his memory) blamed both sides for the destruction.

Yep, Scott blasted the statue from Blob's hands. But the question about Kelly's possible memory rewrital-failure was never actually anwsered in the show. I think Xavier succeded, because in Bada Bing Bada Boom Kelly himself mentions "last months' fire" and he doesn't mind when Jean gets the soccer-award in Power Surge. However, this experience still remained in him subconciously, which multiplied his fear and hatred of mutants after DoR.
About the epi: A really nice start for the longest, most real-life-like season. It gives the whole season a nice frame: Starting and ending with the exposure-problem. The plot was nice, doing a good job with introducing new characters and new character realtionship dynamics. The Bhood boys still retained a fraction of their "pointless villain-quality" from S1 here (Lance's stupid power-demonstrations), but thankfully that faded away later and didn't affect this too much, the fighting scene was pretty enjoyable. (I have the luck of seeing the uncut version here in Hungary. ) If there would've been a poll in this thread I would've given it 4.5 stars.

[Rurouni Kenshin]

[QUOTE=pip25]Yep, Scott blasted the statue from Blob's hands. But the question about Kelly's possible memory rewrital-failure was never actually anwsered in the show. I think Xavier succeded, because in Bada Bing Bada Boom Kelly himself mentions "last months' fire" and he doesn't mind when Jean gets the soccer-award in Power Surge. However, this experience still remained in him subconciously, which multiplied his fear and hatred of mutants after DoR.
About the epi: A really nice start for the longest, most real-life-like season. It gives the whole season a nice frame: Starting and ending with the exposure-problem. The plot was nice, doing a good job with introducing new characters and new character realtionship dynamics. The Bhood boys still retained a fraction of their "pointless villain-quality" from S1 here (Lance's stupid power-demonstrations), but thankfully that faded away later and didn't affect this too much, the fighting scene was pretty enjoyable. (I have the luck of seeing the uncut version here in Hungary. ) If there would've been a poll in this thread I would've given it 4.5 stars.[/QUO

What do you mean uncut, I did not know they edited X-men?

[Ian]

It means that some parts from the episodes-less than a minute in each case were not shown on the WB because of time considerations. These scenes are shown intact on the DVDs.

[Spider-Man]

YTV is rerunning the second season premiere of X-Men: Evolution tonight. If anyone is interested in discussing this episode please leave some comments!

[addismad]

it deffinatly felt like a new season when watching this for some reason, and did set the overall arc for season 2

i agree with what someone else said earlier, the first bit of animation seems, well slightly odd

what i do like about this episode is the CG used in it, it worked really well, and i really liked the fight scenes at the end and the Magnetic interference

overall a good episode

[Stu]

A vast improvement over all the episodes which became before it. You could already see the show was setting some up it's stories which would come into play later in the season, with Kelly becoming Principal of Bayville High, and the danger of the world knowing that mutants exist.

The Cyclops/Avalanche fight was pretty cool but the highlight was Xavier mind-wiping the whole town and the sense of doom when he wasn't sure if he got to Kelly or not. A great cliffhanger!

[Obsidian]

I watched it on DVD as I'm too far south for YTV. Good episode, it needs to be seen in all its uneditted glory to be fully appreciated.

I thought it was awfully careless of Scott to just blast the statue out of Blob's hands, even if his intentions were good. For all the X-Men are supposed to be the good guys, he wound up causing as much damage, if not more than what the Bhood boys caused.

I wish we could have seen some kind of recovery period for Lance. Getting crushed under that statue had to have caused some injuries. I mean it made a huge metallic thud when it hit him. But no, by the next episode he's up and walking around just fine(and judging from Kelly's comment about "last month's fire" not that much time had passed...).

Scott's comment about how the public "wasn't ready" for the knowledge of mutants made me roll my eyes. Well, duh, seeing as the Bhood made sure their outing was as negative as possible! How could he gauge the public's reactions honestly after that show of force?

I'd give it a four out of five stars anyway. Definitely a step up from the previous season's shows and a sign of better eps to come.

[Movie06]

Great episode, it's one of my favorites. In fact, I think when this episode aired, it kicked the show into high gear.

[Obsidian]

Like I said back in 2005, this needs to be seen in all it's uncensored glory.

I found it funny that they editted out the part with Lance getting hit on the grounds that "it was too reminiscent" of 9/11, yet they left the scene in with the burning statue crashing into the side of the building(which I would say would be far more "reminiscent" of 9/11... silly censors!)

And I completely agree with previous statements(and stand by mine) that Scott was careless for just blasting it out of Blob's hands like that. The Brotherhood may have started that incident, but Scott caused that fire. And never took any kind of responsibility for it, either. (and he thinks he's better than Lance)

[Movie06]

Like I said back in 2005, this needs to be seen in all it's uncensored glory.

I found it funny that they editted out the part with Lance getting hit on the grounds that "it was too reminiscent" of 9/11, yet they left the scene in with the burning statue crashing into the side of the building(which I would say would be far more "reminiscent" of 9/11... silly censors!)

And I completely agree with previous statements(and stand by mine) that Scott was careless for just blasting it out of Blob's hands like that. The Brotherhood may have started that incident, but Scott caused that fire. And never took any kind of responsibility for it, either. (and he thinks he's better than Lance)

It's all about hypocrisy for both the censors and Scott.

[W.C.Reaf]

I find it weird that they aired the uncensored version here in the UK but on the UK DVD it's the censored one.

Anyway fantastic episode. Great start to season 2.

The only problem with this episode is that Risty has the "standard American British accent" that just doesn't sound like anything from the UK. Then again I'm surprised she's "from" Manchester considering over here there's problems were the North doesn't get as much exposure as the south does. So it was cool but weird.