This Cello Cover Of The ‘X-Men: Animated Series’ Theme Will Change Your Life

There is perhaps no cartoon theme tune better than the one that opened each episode of X-Men: The Animated Series.

Sure, the show itself was great too, a surprisingly humane and empathetic look at outsiders overcoming intolerance and difference. But for sheer, pound-for-pound extremity, nothing beat those thirty short seconds of music. The Street Sharks intro? Horseshit, compared to X-Men. The Mona Lisa? A mere scribble in the dirt.

If you have somehow forgotten how the intro goes, or just want an opportunity to revisit it, then listen to it in all its glory right here:

Anyway, because the intro is so bloody iconic, it will occasionally resurface in the collective imagination. But never as thrillingly as now, thanks to cellist Samara Ginsberg, who has dropped her own cover of the theme.

I know the idea that something on the internet can “give you chills” is a bit old hat these days. But I simply do not know how else to describe what this minute-long blast of pure joy does to me.

Watch it in full here:

I had A LOT of requests for this one! X-Men: The Animated Series pic.twitter.com/D1W5TAAs0I

— Samara Ginsberg (@samaracello) August 18, 2020

If you want more of Ginsberg’s work, her YouTube channel also features covers of the Duck Tales and Inspector Gadget theme songs, two other all-time great opening tunes.