Batman: The Animated Series - Page 2

Remembered another one-shot villain, The Sewer King, who had a team of orphan kids who pick-pocketed people and then brought the goods down to the sewers for him.

Nothing beats The Jazzman for me though. He was by far the worst.

I'm fairly certain that Paul McCartney just made that episode up. Or got the details wrong.

If there were "boring" episodes--I didn't find them so, though I was in my early teens at the time and had a better attention span--they were only so in comparison to the way-out episodes featuring the rogue's gallery. There's one episode called "Paging the Crime Doctor", involving the mob doctor working for Rupert Thorne--I think he was actually his brother, but I can't remember--that flirts with mid-70s style TV storytelling in terms of the plot. But it also features a scene with the bad guys going after Batman with a stolen surgical laser. A fucking laser. And it was a more or less scientifically accurate portrayal of a laser, too, from what I remember--no dodging Star Wars-esque coloured bolts of light.

The great thing about this show was that it captured the "serious" "realistic" "grim and gritty" Batman--which, as much as we may groan at the terms, does fit nicely with the character when handled properly--but it blended it perfectly with the wild Silver Age weirdness of his rogue's gallery. This was embodied in the Joker, who they pretty much nailed in a way I don't think anyone had done before--he could be funny and over-the-top and imaginative and even campy, and still be fucking scary. You saw hints of this in the Bronze Age comics and Jack Nicholson's performance, but TAS was the first to get it exactly right. I like a lot of other versions of Batman, but usually they lean too far into camp (Adam West, Schumacher, the entire Silver Age) or into being "realistic" (The Dark Knight Returns, Nolan's movies).

Ironically, the only other one to avoid this was Burton, who put an emphasis on stylization to which TAS owes a big debt. This may be one of the reasons I still enjoy the Burton movies a lot, but it was key to the success of TAS--the fact that, despite the lack of truly wild SF shit, at least at first, this clearly was taking place in some heightened reality. So they could do relatively realistic stories about gang wars, or they could bring in the Riddler, and neither felt out of place. And as a budding artist, the stunning designs and compositions always made it worth rewatching, even the supposedly "boring" episodes Paul hates so much.

I will say, though, that by the time they revamped all the character designs and brought in Nightwing and Tim Drake, the show was pretty clearly losing steam. "Over the Edge" is great, but the rest of the shows from that era felt kind of rote, and it was too cluttered with supporting characters. And I hated some of the new designs, like the new Joker, who was way too simplified. (I notice they changed him back for his appearance in the Batman Beyond movie.) Of course, even some earlier episodes felt a bit like they didn't really know how to keep the pace going--both the Riddler and Mr. Freeze kick ass in their first appearances, but none of their subsequent appearances are particularly good. (Well, OK, the one with the Riddler drawing Batman into virtual reality was kinda neat, but even there you could feel a bit of flop sweat.)

Damn, I really did love that show. Gotta revisit it.

Personal favourite episode: The Man Who Killed Batman. Another episode where Batman's offscreen for most of it, but it's brilliantly done. The Joker's eulogy is classic. "Well that was fun. Who's for Chinese?"

I was going to mention The Man Who Killed Batman, I recently sang its praises in B-Action. The Joker shines in that one, congratulating Sid the Squid one minute and then changing stance completely and damning the man for eliminating his foe. His depression over the death of 'Batsy' was fantastic.

Loved that he just stuck Sid in a coffin and sent him into a vat of acid.

There are a handful of Good 'revamp' episodes. Joker's Millions, Mad Love, The Demon Within, Over the Edge and Legends of the Dark Knight. I liked the Batman redesign, but I didn't think any of the other updated looks were an improvement. Nightwing and his ponytail were especially ugly.

There's one scene where Sid the Squid starts making a "squid" shadow-puppet on the wall with a flashlight as he dreams of conquering the underworld. They give this utterly pathetic Z-list thug a logo of his own (and a "cool gang name"). Then Batman fires his grappling hook square into the middle of it and breaks up the drug run. Just great visual storytelling.

Almost every episode had at least one iconic moment like that, which is what made it feel so fresh even when they were telling fairly simple plots.

Mad Love I don't count, because it was already done as a comic before they turned it into an episode (and something felt weird about the pacing when they did adapt it.) I need to see Joker's Millions gain, but I was actually sort of "meh" on Legends of the Dark Knight, as cool as it was in concept. I should note that I never saw that last season as it aired--I caught it on DVD much later, as an adult, so that might have tainted my view of it a little.

Maybe I'm weird but that was always my favorite as a kid. I drove myself crazy trying to find that specific episode on the DVDs because I didn't know what the title was.

I grow more and more resentful of my ample comic collection every day but I cherish the DVDs of this show.

I really liked the Scarecrow re-design, not to mention they got Jeffery Combs to voice him.

I gotta say - any superhero who's cartoon generates this much discussion MUST be good regardless of whch episode people like most. The only decent batman comics from the last coupla years were the Paul Dini issues - that guy knows his batman. Fuck Grant Morrison - put Paul Dini in charge of Batman and you've got my subscription!

Tell that to genius comics maestro Grant Morrison!

I would have killed to see to an animated series episode where Bruce Wayne gets shot up with crystal meth and starts running around with a BAT-RADIA (aka a broken radio he found in a shopping cart).

Maybe now people will start appreciate the subtle layers and hours of research that go into Paul's sigs.
BRAVO SIR 10/10

I have seen a handful of episodes and been bored with them, so I don't know enough about the show... but tell me this! It could be the driving force in my revisiting the series...

Did they ever adapt the 10/10 masterful Batman: Abduction story?

I'm never going to dig any version of Nightwing, but I loved every single character redesign, and especially loved the reworked background plates. Batman Beyond's look left me a little cold.

Jesus, Paul. I have all signatures hidden so I had to view it through your profile. Why do you hate all of us?

Absolutely not.

The animated series will always be my favorite iteration of Batman.

*MASK OF THE PHANTASM, and BATMAN RETURNS are better than TDK.

I'm pretty sure this is the best Batmobile ever. The episode where Batman trashes it trying to stop a runaway streetcar gives me nerd apoplexy.

Oh lord I remember the first time I saw Joker in The Batman..... Now THAT took some getting used to, but I grew to like the new design.

I can totally understand how an episode without a big shiny villain could be a bummer when you're a kid, but as an adult those are part of the fun! The priest/mobster one that gets mentioned in this thread is basically Angels With Dirty Faces with Batman in it, how is that not awesome?

I agree. Actually, episodes like "It's never too late", "P.O.V." and "The Man Who Killed Batman" were always favorites of mine, precisely because Batman and the Rogues Gallery villains aren't at the center of attention. Not that I didn't love those eps too, but with the more "realistic" stories, Gotham became more of a real place to me, not just a backdrop for the more extravagant adventures. Also, it's like they say in The Incredibles: If everyone's super, no one is.

I didn't know that could be done and now it's fixed. God bless you Phil.

One of, if not THE defining shows of my childhood. Still love it to death, need to pick up the DVDs.

Another good episode that didn't feature any of Batman's Rogues Gallery was "See No Evil". That one involved a small time criminal who gets his hands on an experimental invisibility suit. He uses it to not only steal, but to also kidnap his daughter from his ex-wife. Of course, Batman will have none of that going on. I have to give the people in charge of voice casting credit for hiring Michael Gross, the father from Family Ties, to play the invisible baddie.

That's precisely the episode I was trying to remember the title of. Liked it a lot.

Also I wish I could remember the episode that featured Batman saying "microfiche", me and my friend must have watched that scene 10 times in a row. Unless he does it in more than one episode?

One of my favorite things to say from Batman the Animated series is KyodaiKen!

He's not a classic rogue's gallery member, but I think he counts as a supervillain--he even had a supervillain name, "Mojo".

I liked the one with Maximillian Zeus, the millionaire with a (Greek) god complex. That episode had one of the lamer copouts when it came to killing a thug, though: Zeus blasts him with his thunderbolt and we're told he survives because the alley was filled with rubber tires. LAME.

There were a few moments like that throughout the series, where it was clear that the censors had insisted they find a way to get around killing characters. My favourite was the first Scarecrow episode, where he's throwing thugs out of a zeppelin right and left, and they keep landing in convenient trees and rooftop pools. But then I distinctly remember them cacking a few thugs in other episodes, as well. I'm not sure what the rules were.

Love the show. It's still "Batman" to me. Any other portrayal of the characters is run through my TAS filter and ultimately comes out a little worse for wear.

And bar none, my favorite episode will always be Almost Got 'Im, the episode that has Ivy, Two Face, Croc, Penguin and Joker playing poker in a bar, talking about that one time they almost killed Batman. Love it so much. "It was a big rock..."

It's quite surprising all the sly sex stuff the TAS and later Justice League guys got away with. I'm pretty sure the Ivy and Harley episode with them traipsing around in nothing but long t-shirts is one of the subtle defining moments in my heterosexuality. Real guns, mature themes, death (at least in Phantasm, but pretty sure off screen quite a bit in the series), ninjas, and Roxy Rocket almost coming as her rocket flies to her death...goddamn, this show was great.

JLU still has one of my favorite innuendos in a children's cartoon:

"Superman tossed us like a salad!"

The "World's Finest" crossover with Superman is better than all of them.

That scene where Superman, wearing his glasses and pajamas, notices the bat-tracer on his cape, uses his supersight to look into the distance and sees Batman looking right back at him with a pair of binoculars is awesome. Yes I said it: awesome.

In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker the end of the movie has the Joker commandeering a giant satellite laser and using it to try to blow up the batmobile (this is a laser that can blow up city blocks). The commentary track on the DVD is hilarious. When the Joker takes out the freeway behind Batman and destroys hundreds of cars the guys on the track say "oh, yeah, those were all, um, ROBOT cars" and then in the very next scene where you see the laser plowing a series of skyscrapers they say "um, it's ... night so ... everyone is at home. No one died."

And yes I did just admit to watching the commentary track on Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker.

This show only had one bad episode and no one has talked about it. In fact I only saw it twice once on tv and the other on dvd and it delt with Joe. Batman's person mechanic whoes daughter is kidnaped by the Penuin and has to spill the beans on who is Batman

One of the great, unheralded strokes of genius New Batman Adventures brought to the table was making The Penguin an underworld nightclub owner instead of a top tier villain. He's way more interesting in that final season than in just about every episode of his prior.

Did that get written into the comic's continuity as well? I seem to remember it did...

Reading about the musical episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold just put me in the mind of this little gem, which is actually one of my favorite memories of the Animated Series/Justice League Batman.

I love the idea of a Batman who is not only a master of escape, disguise, combat, etc. but also secretly a killer blues singer. The kind of Batman who might be caught arguing with Alfred about Fritz Lang or Finnegans Wake or the best rendition of "Pirate Jenny."

Skills that aren't requisite for "doing comic book things in this issue" but might show personal interests or at least be part of any "master detective's repertoire" (Sherlock's violin? Landa's languages? Even Rupert Giles playing "Behind Blue Eyes" comes to mind.). It's a shame that none of the modern films could support that dimension of Batman (maybe Kilmer and Clooney's came closest? I cannot stretch my mind around Bale needing to solve a problem with a song, which is a shame), because that Batman would be something awesome to behold. I haven't read the most recent bit of Grant Morrison's bit on the comic (waiting for the next collection), but that versatility in his vision of the "composite Batman" is most of what has made his recent work so enjoyable for me.

Man, beer talks.

ETA: Of course the second I clicked "post" I remembered this bit of dancing Adam West-era Batman, which rivals "Am I Blue?"-singing Batman in genuine awesomeness.

I also like the Batman musical from Batman Beyond.
Stunning boots!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebI8H5nq5L4

oops.

double oops

Fuck this guy

The thing I wished that they had gotten to in the series was Terry's mom actually figuring out that her son was Batman. There was a lot more drama to be mined from the fact that Batman has a family.

On the subject of Terry's family, I wish they could have had him beat up his younger brother.
What a little bastard!

I'm just glad that they didn't make him find out and become Robin.

Did Roxy ever cross over to the comics? If not, why the hell not?

That reminds me. Anyone know the title of the episode where a normal dude cuts off Joker on the highway and is then stalked by him for the rest of the episode. I remember loving that episode.

I also remember loving that 2-part episode where Batman has to fight a ninja he trained with in Japan. Bit Snake-eyeish, but they did a good spin on it and it ended with intense lava-fighting.

"Joker's Favor"

The first time I watched that I sort of assumed Circe had cast a spell to get him to sing, so it was a bit of a surprise to rewatch it and discover that Batman appears to be singing of his own free will. Which is kind of out of character, even if he is saving Wonder Woman, but it's still awesome. I love how obvious it is that Paul Dini wasn't taking any of this shit seriously at that point.

I assume that's not Kevin Conroy's voice...?

"Growing Pains"-- Robin + amnesiac girl vs. Clayface. Most upsetting/disturbing episode of the series? Discuss.

Lately I'm falling more and more in this camp. Mask of The Phantasm is definitely the greatest screen iteration of the Dark Knight, and Returns is a hell of a better move than a lot of people give it credit for. It's certainly more stylistically and thematically coherent and consistent than either of Nolan's movies.

No, that was Conroy singing.

Which only further cements that Conroy had the best Batman voice.

Mindblowingly awesome fact.

Speaking of which, im still amazed by the standar in voice acting the series set; hell, Jeffrey Combs as the Scarecrow (in his redesigned look)? Genius.
Speaking of that...After JLU, I would watch and own an animated "The Question" series without a doubt.

Favorite guest voices: David Warner as Ra's al-Ghul, the aforementioned Michael Ironside as Frank Miller Batman, and Stockard Channing as Old Barbara Gordon on Batman Beyond.

Special mention for Ed Asner as Granny Goodness on Superman TAS.