Alright! Today is the first in what will be several DCAU reviews - Batman: The Animated Series. I started watching it after I finished Friends, so... February? March? And now it's... July... it has, like, 80 episodes, okay?. It takes time to watch these things! Jeez.
And, for the purpose of this review, this is a review of both Batman: The Animated Series, The Adventures of Batman & Robin, and The New Batman Adventures. They're all the same show, technically, and listed under Batman: The Animated Series on HBOMax, so...
And, like most 90s cartoons, the episode order is wack. A 60 episode first season? Shoot. And, by the way, the reason it went through three names is because it was rebranded for the last twenty episodes to include Robin (And also introduced an absolutely terrible new theme song) and then revived to help boost Superman: The Animated Series' ratings.
And I also question HBOMax's episode order. On the site, some of it is out of whack, and I don't know if it's the correct airdates or not. I do know that the actual production would have some characters be introduced before the origin story (Which, for the record, confused the actual crap out of me when I watched it).
But aside from those minor technical issues, Batman: The Animated Series is often listed as one of, if not the, best-animated television show of all time. I knew that going in (This was my first watch), and I also knew how great the rest of the DCAU was. So I had high expectations.
And it delivered. Oh my goodness, it delivered. So much of the series is absolutely incredible. There are so many defining characterizations and beautiful stylistic choices and other tiny details that make the series incredible. I mean, Avatar: The Last Airbender is still #1, but this is an excellent second.
The absolute first thing I have to comment on is the animation. The animation is absolutely gorgeous. They actually drew the series on black paper to maximize darkness! That is some commitment to the darkness! Another thing I loved was when the show would zoom out or blur the background. That looks so good in animation.
Now, when the show was rebranded alongside Superman: The Animated Series, they did change the animation. It became a bit less lush, a bit more flat, and changed the character designs (Regrettably).
Aside from the incredible animation, Batman: The Animated Series also boasts the most definitive versions of... basically everyone. The best Batman, the best Robin, the best Joker, Killer Croc, Mad Hatter, Batgirl, Two-Face, Penguin, Riddler, Mr. Freeze, and Clayface. And for a lot of them, they restructured the backstories.
For fun, these are the only characters who I think have actually been improved upon in new Batman media:
- Lucius Fox, Scarecrow, Bane, Jim Gordon, Ra's al Ghul, and Alfred in The Dark Knight
- Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy in Harley Quinn
- Catwoman in... I don't know. I don't like any versions of Catwoman. Anne Hathaway by default?
- Fingers crossed, the Riddler in The Batman
 |
| Okay, full disclosure? I'll bring up Gary Oldman's Jim Gordon as many times as I can. I love it. |
Something I'll fault though was the uneven quality. Like any TV show, some episodes are better than others. But some of these episodes were actually straight trash (Anything with Catwoman or Ra's was boring). What's listed on HBOMax as Season 2, is, for the most part, terrible. And the character redesigns for "Season 3" were awful, save Scarecrow.
 |
| Peak Scarecrow right here... this is horrifying. |
Batman also became increasingly mean as the series went on. He started becoming mean, acting like he would completely abandon Robin. It reminded me of The Dark Knight Returns where you have an absolutely iconic Batman, but there are one or two lines that make the entire thing... unnerving... like talking about firing Carrie Kelley...
Another thing I wasn't too keen on was how the series underused Riddler and Scarecrow. We only got, like, four episodes for the two of them! C'mon, you could've done the best versions of every Batman villain! And how do you pronounce Ra's al Ghul? Most people say it like "Ra," the Egyptian sun god, but this one said it like "Raysh."
 |
| I loved Robin in this. |
But for some absolutely amazing villains, you had Killer Croc, Mad Hatter, Mr. Freeze, and Two-Face. Mad Hatter was completely revamped and made into a sympathetic villain. Mr. Freeze was given an amazing new backstory, and Killer Croc was given some absolutely incredible stories.
Two-Face though... Two-Face was amazing. Here he's a personal friend of Bruce Wayne, and constantly in agony over his appearance and mental state. And the voice acting... he always sounds so sad, like he wishes he was dead at all times. Incredible voice acting for Two-Face.
 |
| Amazing Two-Face. |
And some rather random stuff about the Batman: The Animated Series I liked included:
- The adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns
- The team-up with Superman: The Animated Series
- The following line:
- "I chose this life. I use the night. I became the night. Sooner or later I'll g down. It might be the Joker or Two-Face or just some punk who gets lucky. My decision, no regrets. But I can't let anyone else pay for my mistakes."
- Man-Bat
- Joker nonchalantly pushing Creeper into the vat of toxic chemicals was terrifying
- The Creeper
- Etrigan
- Anything with Clayface
- The emotional complexity the series had
 |
| The Dark Knight Returns bit was dope. |
 |
| The ball's in your court, J.J. Don't disappoint us. |
Comments
Post a Comment