When I was a kid in the '90s I couldn't wait to get home from school, grab a snack and get ready for Batman: The Animated Series at 4 o'clock. Not only is this an amazing TV show, but one of the best incarnations of Batman ever. This isn't your mommy and daddy's Batman/Super Friends. I have always loved this show and when it came out on DVD I bought every volume and the animated movies it spawned. I love owning these sets and as I write this I'm watching an episode.
While this show was aimed at kids on the surface it was truly written for adults. It deals with many adult themes and situations. Mobsters, murder, schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, earning the love and respect of ones friends and family, Bruce Wayne/Batman fighting his inner demons and the need for avenging his parents by fighting all the evil-doers of the world, etc.
While the campy-ness of Adam West's Batman/Super Friends worked perfectly for that show and era, the darkness of this show makes it a masterpiece. Thanks to Tim Burton's Batman this show's dark and sometimes scary themes were accepted by the networks but that is the only thing the two have in common. The action sequences are unbeatable, story lines are fantastic, this is the Dark Knight the way he was meant to be seen. If you are new to the Batman lore than this is a great place to start...here or with Batman Begins.
The voice-acting is immaculate, Kevin Conroy - Batman, Mark Hamill - Joker, Efram Zimblast - Alfred, Bob Hastings - Gordon, and all the others are wonderful as each character, couldn't ask for a better cast. The structuring of every episode was so well executed you couldn't wait to see what would happen in the next minute or by next week's episode. Shirley Walker's scoring is unbelievably perfect for this show, she took Danny Elman's theme and made it her own, while writing a lot more original music for the show.
This show even CREATED one of the most famous and beloved Batman characters ever, Harley Quinn, love and confidant to the Joker.
Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Alan Burnett, Kevin Altieri, and Shirley Walker along with every other writer, animator, creator worked together flawlessly to make this an amazing show and it always will be.
There aren't enough good things I could say about this show, so I will just stop here.
I AM VENGEANCE, I AM THE NIGHT, I...AM...BATMAN!
While this show was aimed at kids on the surface it was truly written for adults. It deals with many adult themes and situations. Mobsters, murder, schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, earning the love and respect of ones friends and family, Bruce Wayne/Batman fighting his inner demons and the need for avenging his parents by fighting all the evil-doers of the world, etc.
While the campy-ness of Adam West's Batman/Super Friends worked perfectly for that show and era, the darkness of this show makes it a masterpiece. Thanks to Tim Burton's Batman this show's dark and sometimes scary themes were accepted by the networks but that is the only thing the two have in common. The action sequences are unbeatable, story lines are fantastic, this is the Dark Knight the way he was meant to be seen. If you are new to the Batman lore than this is a great place to start...here or with Batman Begins.
The voice-acting is immaculate, Kevin Conroy - Batman, Mark Hamill - Joker, Efram Zimblast - Alfred, Bob Hastings - Gordon, and all the others are wonderful as each character, couldn't ask for a better cast. The structuring of every episode was so well executed you couldn't wait to see what would happen in the next minute or by next week's episode. Shirley Walker's scoring is unbelievably perfect for this show, she took Danny Elman's theme and made it her own, while writing a lot more original music for the show.
This show even CREATED one of the most famous and beloved Batman characters ever, Harley Quinn, love and confidant to the Joker.
Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Alan Burnett, Kevin Altieri, and Shirley Walker along with every other writer, animator, creator worked together flawlessly to make this an amazing show and it always will be.
There aren't enough good things I could say about this show, so I will just stop here.
I AM VENGEANCE, I AM THE NIGHT, I...AM...BATMAN!