Batman the Animated Series

[Mycroft]

This rendition of Batman, though in cartoon form is amazing, in my opinion. It has art deco cars, buildings, and others. Also, it has a good storyline. FInally, it shows Gotham City in a way that Batman's creater Bob Kane, might have seen it Gotham City, due to the 1930s and 1940s refeneces (world fairs etc.). I recomend this to anyone who likes Batman, Comic Books or Art Deco.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Best Batman adaptation ever!

Even before it began airing, when word leaked that its major inspiration were the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons (which I always loved and had collected on film years earlier), I was excited. Then the series continually exceeded my expectations. Apart from a few weak episodes, it's just utter brilliance. It was way too good for a "kids show"!

(The brilliance continued in the Superman:TAS series, the later episodes of both Batman and Superman in The New Batman/Superman Adventures [though I much prefer the original designs of B:TAS to the heavily streamlined, more graphic approach of the later batch]... and is still around, in mutated and reduced form, in today's Justice League series. Kevin Conroy's vocal performance remains the gold standard of Batman.)

Oh, and for people who just can't take half-hour stories seriously, try the animated Batman feature "Mask of the Phantasm", which was made by the same crew during the B:TAS run. It blows all the live action Batman films out of the water!

 

[Mycroft]

I totally agree. The new Justice League (JSA) is not even compariable. The voices are good, but the period cars etc. are not the same. I also like the Mask 0f Phantasim (forgive the spelling). I also recomend "The Grey Ghost" episode, which references 1930's and 1940's pulp heros.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I know we've discussed B:TAS a lot more in other threads, but I found this one first...

In honor of Batman's 75th anniversary, Bruce Timm and cohorts have just made a little three-minute Batman short... in black and white(!) featuring 1939 Batman fighting Dr. Hugo Strange and a Frankenstein-ish brute. There's not much to it, but it's simply gorgeous. Besides the beautiful b/w, the style is very similar to B:TAS, though even more elegant, rounded, and Fleischer-Superman-like!

http://www.batman-on-film.com/animated-batman_BruceTimm_Batman-Strange-Days_video_4-10-14.html

Let's hope this is a pilot for retro animated Bat film!

=============

Addendum: Interesting interview with Bruce Timm:

http://comicsalliance.com/bruce-tim...w-animation-dc-nation-75th-anniversary-short/

 

[Benzadmiral]

I remember this series being in syndication locally in the mid-'90s -- I used to catch the odd episode when I came home from work. It impressed me tremendously: I was a big Batman fan during the early Sixties, when he was characterized as a Sherlock Holmes in a cape and mask instead of the "obsessed avenger" trope they've done in the recent films.

Kevin Conroy is a grand Batman. I spotted him years before, when he was a regular on the old "Search for Tomorrow" soap in 1984 or so.

One question: during one of the seasons of B:TAS, I recall their opening sequence featured a superb nighttime shot of the Joker firing a machine gun, the flashes illuminating his white/red/green face like a strobe. I can't find that sequence on YouTube. Anybody else remember that -- or is my imagination going into overdrive again?

 

[Edward]

I've found something to enjoy in most variations of Batman, though I didn't particularly care for the most recent animated version - the one where all the characters looked like a slightly Anime version of themselves, with the proportions of orangutans.... And that Adam West travesty..... I'd quite happily go Goebbels on every single remaining shred of a copy of that. I wouldn't hate it quite so much but for the fact that, thinking that was Batman, it made me avoid the whole thing for years.

Batman: TAS, however, is just my perfect Batman. A perfect dieselpunk aesthetic, and the fact that they did the stories so well. It was ostensibly sold as a children's cartoon here in the UK (as animation typically is), and went out on Saturday mornings, during one of the main kids' magazine programmes of the day. I was an undergraduate at the time, and I adored it. I have some of the episodes on DVD, but I must buy the complete box set sometime (does it include the feature-length episodes? I think there were two or three). Beautiful. Mark Hamill's joker is by far the best run at the character imo; arguably, the closest we've seen on screen to the psychopath depicted in The Killing Joke. When next the character comes around for big screen adaptation (I'd say these days, and given he's about DC's hottest property for that market, on top of the current success of the superhero genre, we're looking at about another five years' time), I'd love to see a live action version of this. It would be the perfect flipside of the Nolan "reality based" version (which I very much enjoyed too). Burton came very, very close to the aesthetic of TAS with his second film (Batman Returns), but there were some touches that were still very Eighties (even if it was made in the early Nineties), especially the vehicles. If they'd gotten the cars "right", it would have been just about perfect...

I'm not necessarily looking for a Batman picture set in the Thirties specifically, but I'd love to see something that just had that alternative, timeless look to it. A bit like The Hudsucker Proxy - though nominally set in 1959, it looks far more like the mid Forties, and has a very timeless feel to it that doesn't necessarily ground it as a specific period piece, to my eye at least.

 

[Greyryder]

It is the perfect take on batman. It was continued (sans the art deco stylings) into Batman Beyond, which featured a young new batman in the future under the guidance of an aging Bruce Wayne.

TAS gave us the line that, to me, defines Batman's mindset: "Bruce Wayne is expendable."

Unless you're in it for the vintage look, check out Young Justice. It's another well written cartoon. It focuses on the younger members of the Justice League, basically, the Teen Titans, but they're never referred to as such. It had story lines that lasted entire seasons, including some things that carried over from the first season. Sadly, it only lasted two seasons, which is a crime.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Love Bruce Timm's work on Batman. I have some original art work from the series on my office walls. Know some of the artist's that worked on the series.

 

[Doctor Damage]

Thanks for the vid link Doctor Strange, and good comments from everyone. I once had a big glossy book which contained selections of the artwork and screenshots from BTAS but I lent it to a friend and never got it back - the swine!

 

[Worf]

Swine indeed!!!! BTAS is what got me into Batman. I was/am a Marvel Man through and through! But that series was so good, so engaging that I've tried to catch EVERY animated feature he's been in. I gave up on the movies till the latest reboot... Don't know what I'll do when "Worlds Finest" comes out.

Worf

 

[Gregg Axley]

I watched an episode last night.
Where a friend of Bruce's gets turned into a werewolf hybrid.
Season 2 I believe.
Great story, as always.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I watched an episode last night.
Where a friend of Bruce's gets turned into a werewolf hybrid.
Season 2 I believe.
Great story, as always.

http://dcanimated.wikia.com/wiki/Tyger,_Tyger

 

[Doctor Strange]

That episode is also loaded with great references to thirties horror movies, like Island of Lost Souls and Bride of Frankenstein!

http://anbat.toonzone.net/galleries/tt/index.htm

 

[Son_of_Atropos]

http://dcanimated.wikia.com/wiki/Tyger,_Tyger

Tyger, Tyger is the episode where Selina Kyle is turned into a cat human hybrid. I think the episode "Moon of the Wolf" is what he was referring to.

Agree with many of the posters, great show and the best Batman.

 

[Doctor Strange]

But the werewolf character in Moon of the Wolf isn't Bruce's friend, and Selina is.

Either way, Tyger, Tyger is a MUCH better episode IMHO.

http://anbat.toonzone.net/galleries/motw/index.html

 

[Gregg Axley]

Tyger, Tyger is the episode where Selina Kyle is turned into a cat human hybrid. I think the episode "Moon of the Wolf" is what he was referring to.

Agree with many of the posters, great show and the best Batman.

MOTW, that's the one.

 

[Son_of_Atropos]

But the werewolf character in Moon of the Wolf isn't Bruce's friend, and Selina is.

Either way, Tyger, Tyger is a MUCH better episode IMHO.

http://anbat.toonzone.net/galleries/motw/index.html

No argument here.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

[video=youtube;z65aq1EVGhs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z65aq1EVGhs&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[Edward]

[video=youtube;z65aq1EVGhs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z65aq1EVGhs&feature=youtu.be[/video]

Ha! I love the robots - really cute touch that they each look like a different Batman (especially the Adam West one, that's a nice gag). Is the rest of that one as good? Last Batman cartoon I saw was the weird monkey one, and it really didn't live up...

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Ha! I love the robots - really cute touch that they each look like a different Batman (especially the Adam West one, that's a nice gag). Is the rest of that one as good? Last Batman cartoon I saw was the weird monkey one, and it really didn't live up...

Batman Beyond is an excelent series. I highy recommend it.