Saturday, January 21, 2023

BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES



You will get weary of the opening. 

I am watching Batman: The Animated Series (BTAS) — the one that Bruce Timm and Mark Hammil cut their teeth on. 

You say you only recognize one of those names? I know Bruce Timm has been around but Mark Hammil is, in fact, an accomplished actor (and director and producer). 

BTAS is family-friendly, so the bad guys never die but land on bushes or in the water. But BTAS is also grown-up entertainment. There is a lot of punching — most of it off-screen, but still. And the animation is reminiscent of WW2-era Disney or Tom and Jerry which adults will, uh, remember.

I found and ripped the Complete BTAS DVDs when the set was a screaming deal and I actually started watching the video files before I got sick and disappeared. But I started over again, and now I am almost done Season 2. I fully expect I will watch the whole show, including the two movies, which I had to get (but the movies were cheap. Maybe Blu-Ray and the current scene are different — I don't know). 

Other links: over at the Roger Ebert website Matt Sigur remembers when the animated Batman was the only Batman that mattered. And I am a big fan of The LEGO Batman Movie — I shilled for Spider-Verse, I should have squawked about LEGO Batman. too. Hey, better late than never!

3 comments:

Joel Swagman said...

I don't believe I've seen a full episode of this show since it was on TV way back in the 90s, but... I also consider myself a fan. I was in High School when it came out, so I felt like I should be growing out of cartoons, but, it was just so fun to watch. Lots of great action scenes. Great music. And, as you say, great aesthetics. I agree, this is the only version of Batman that's actually done right.

Whisky Prajer said...

BTAS should not be difficult to finish -- I will miss the anticipation!

Whisky Prajer said...

The stories are actually much better than the comic books deserve. The comic books were usually drawn well, but the stories were almost always a mess. Besides, Ra's al Ghul is pronounced the way it oughtta be. And the animators did not forget Talia.