Plot Details: This opinion reveals everything about the movie's plot.

It seems like a “no-brainer” that the best version of a comic book character would be an animated version…after all, they’re just a moving comic book, right? Well, not entirely. Transitioning a comic book character into another medium, incorporating decades (in the case of Batman, more than fifty years) of history, dozens of characters, and making it appropriate for children but still appealing to adult fans—all of these have to be taken into consideration when making a superhero cartoon. I’ve seen many cartoon series of both DC Comics heroes (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc.) and Marvel Comics (Spider-Man, X-Men, Hulk, etc.). And although I enjoyed a lot of them as a pup, especially SuperFriends and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. But there’s one that stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of solid story-telling, groundbreaking animation and design, and development that transformed comic book characters into three-dimensional personalities, with real motivations and real emotions. That series is simply titled “Batman: The Animated Series.”

“BTAS” debuted in 1992, after two successful but dark Tim Burton films. Some of that darkness carries over into the series, both in terms of darker, more psychological themes than we usually see in cartoons, and in terms of the visual style of the series. The darker look combines elements of art deco, film noir, and Batman’s own heritage of being a dark anti-hero to give us a delightfully stylish Gotham City. In several interviews on the DVD, series creators Bruce Timm, Eric Rodomski, and Paul Dini pay tribute to Max and Dave Fleischer, who pioneered the superhero cartoon with their Superman shorts in the 1940’s. They wanted to capture that same feel, and although in 1992 they felt they had come up short, by 2004 the same selection of Batman cartoons is very much in the spirit and style of the 1940’s series.

The look is a big part of the appeal of the series. As designed by Bruce Timm, it’s described by producers as “the 1930’s design sensibility never went away” so by the 1990’s, Batman still has all those amazing gadgets, but vehicles are still streamlined, the buildings have art deco touches, and people dress like they did 60 years ago. Because Batman himself first hit comic book pages in 1939, it doesn’t feel out of place, and the creators of the animated series include intriguing touches like black and white television screens and “police blimps” just to give Gotham an otherworldly feel. The backgrounds are painted on black, and the skies over Gotham are often red. I’ve criticized Timm before for making all the women’s bodies exactly the same, but that’s not quite true. They’re all wasp-waisted and are very similar, but there’s more to his design aesthetic than I’ve given him credit for in the past.

Another part of this equation that produced such a groundbreaking series is the writing. This was the most consistent series as far as the writing was concerned, continually taking Batman, his allies, and most especially his rogues gallery, and transforming them into complex, motivated, “deep” characters. Batman’s list of enemies is unparalleled in comics—the most famous villains include the Joker, Catwoman, Penguin and Riddler…all of whom were already household names thanks to the 1966 Batman live-action television series. The Animated Series expanded this roster to include many villains which had been formidable threats to Batman in the comic books for decades, but many of whom had never been seen on television before. These rogues include Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Man-Bat, Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, Mad Hatter…the list goes on and on. The genius behind including these previous “B-List” characters was that the producers and writers were able to take characters who existed in one form, and give them new histories, new motivations, and new life. This usually meant taking a villain formerly seen as silly or one-dimensional, and making them an outright threat to Batman and to Gotham City. The best example of this is seen in the episode “Heart of Ice,” which introduces Mr. Freeze. Mr. Freeze was previously a gimmicky villain, a real “D-Lister,” and we didn’t know or care about him. Paul Dini’s amazing script brought this character to life, painting a portrait of loss and revenge that was truly heart-breaking. It’s fitting that this is one of only two episodes on the DVD set to include creator commentary, because it was truly a turning point in the season and in the series as a whole. There were relatively few characters created wholecloth for the series, one of whom was the unforgettable Harley Quinn, the Joker’s moll, who has since her debut in the series become a fan favorite, and has even made it “upstream” from the Animated Series onto the comic book pages.

The third element I want to address with this amazing series is the voice work and the music. The voice work, cast by Andrea Romano, is extraordinary, and hearing Kevin Conroy’s gravelly Batman is THE way Batman should sound. He still plays the role on the current “Justice League” cartoon, making him the most long-lived version of the Dark Knight. The producer’s mandate was unique at that time—the actors shouldn’t be “doing” cartoon voices, they should instead be casting actors with distinctive voices. The list of actors who contributed to this first set of episodes is impressive: Mark Hamill, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Richard Moll, Kate Mulgrew, Bob Hoskins, Paul Williams, Arleen Sorkin, Roddy McDowall, Michael Ansara, and others flesh out Batman’s allies and enemies with rich layers that remind me of radio programs…you wouldn’t even need to see the animation to hear the expressions of the characters and the events unfolding on screen. The other piece of that is of course the music—the producers opted for a full orchestra, and based their score on Danny Elfman’s beautiful themes from the first two Batman movies. This elevated each episode to the status of a “mini movie,” in a way rarely seen in television animation.

This DVD set covers the first half of the first season, and my only criticism is that they gave us the episodes in production order, instead of the order in which they aired. After watching all 28 episodes over the last few weeks, I can say that it doesn’t affect the viewing that much. The few larger arcs (like the excellent one introducing Two-Face) are intact, and the flow of the episodes still works in a skiwampus order. Here are the episodes included, and a few thoughts on some of them:

On Leather Wings (First appearance of Man-Bat)
Christmas With the Joker
Nothing to Fear (First appearance of Scarecrow)
The Last Laugh
Pretty Poison (First Appearance of Poison Ivy)
The Underdwellers (Weak episode with sewer people…my least favorite)
P.O.V. (focuses on Gotham’s police department)
The Forgotten
Be a Clown
Two-Face (1) (Debut of Two-Face)(Duh)
Two-Face (2)
It’s Never Too Late
I’ve Got Batman In My Basement (First Appearance of Penguin)
Heart of Ice (Mr. Freeze’s Debut—my favorite episode ever? Maybe)
Cat and the Claw (1) Catwoman’s debut
Cat and the Claw (2)
See No Evil
Beware the Gray Ghost (Guest starring Adam West!)
Prophecy of Doom
Feat of Clay (1) (Clayface’s debut)
Feat of Clay (2)
Joker’s Favor (Harley Quinn’s debut)
Vendetta (Killer Croc’s debut)
Fear of Victory (Robin’s debut)
The Clock King
Appointment in Crime Alley
Mad as a Hatter (Mad Hatter’s debut)
Dreams in Darkness

There are some standard comic book romps here, including some that are downright funny, and some that are just adventure stories without much depth. There are also several that address serious issues, including homelessness, drug addiction, kidnapping, and genuine psychosis. Batman himself is portrayed as a man in perpetual mourning for his parents, lost when he was just a pup. His surrogate father and right-hand man, Alfred, seems to be the only one who can find the chink in Bruce Wayne’s armor. This relationship is one of the most gratifying in the series, and is often the heart of each episode.

I’ve written far too much. Again. This is the best version of Batman ever to hit the air, and probably always will be. This Saturday (September 11th,) there’s a new Batman series debuting on WB, but from what I’ve seen of it, it seems pretty standard fare. The animation looks poor, the designs uninspired…and we’ll see what the writing is like. I’ll give it a chance, because I love Batman. But I fear the Dark Knight’s greatest hour came twelve years ago when Batman: The Animated Series first flickered across my tv screen. This DVD set is absolutely worth the wait and the price—there will be subsequent volumes released every six months or so. If you’ve ever been a fan of Batman, seize this opportunity and pick up this set of DVDs today.

*** RELATED REVIEWS ***

Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman http://www.epinions.com/content_131483995780
The Batman / Superman Movie http://www.epinions.com/content_6688116356
Batman: Return of the Joker http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-21EC-3693C0F7-3A491C9A-prod5
Superman (1940’s Cartoons) http://www.epinions.com/content_6505729668




Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD