Why Batman: The Animated Series Is The Greatest Saturday Morning Cartoon In TV History

Despite it's linkage to the Fox Network, (the most evil of all TV networks) Batman The Animated Series (BTAS) took kid's cartoon shows to new heights.  Amongst all the other cartoons with a "dark decor" that I watched growing up, like X-Men, Captain Planet, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, BTAS was the beginning of my journey into a much more mature and "adult" way of looking at comics.

Before Joe Lieberman came in and toned down the violent nature of kid's cartoon shows in the mid 90's, networks carrying animated TV series' targeted towards younger viewers began creating cartoons that fit the "young adult" label; delving into broader, more mature concepts and ideas that were typically saved for shows our parents watched after 9:00 PM.  BTAS and X-Men is where it all started.

Even though X-Men rocked my world, I was always much more partial to the Dark Knight's time slot and made sure I was awake with my batwings on every Saturday.  While many of the other shows relied on flashy effects and booms and explosions to  keep the kid's attention, BTAS stayed much simpler and less complex visually. And to this day, the show remains a cult classic with Batman fans, old and young alike.

Why?  Because it was fresh, new, and different from all the other shows.  When Batman first hit comic book stands, the art was far from being worthy of of the title.  Then Warner Bros. took something that was bad and turned into something artistic; giving it that "Film Noir" motif and keeping it classy, reminding us of the great detective comics like Dick Tracy and the Green Hornet.  The most defining feature of Batman?  That incredibly square chin that stuck out of that pointy-eared cowl like a sore thumb.  And what did Dick Tracy's face look like back in the day?  I'll let you do the math.

The show took major risks by tackling ideas that most parents probably wanted to keep their kids away from.  Examples: Poison Ivy making plant-like copies of her husband because she never wanted her new found love to end, Robin dealing with the discovery of his parent's murderer, Batman confronting his father's legacy, and the list goes on.  I was lucky enough to have a mother who relished the fact that I was thinking critically about comics and cartoons where all the rest of my friends were wondering what that thing dangling between their two legs was.

But let's look even further into that dark and well-written kid's shows and find out the work that went into each individual episode.  The scripts took the show to incredible bounds, allowing for even more dark and twisted cartoon shows to emerge.  But the most impressive aspect of the show was it's musical setting.  How many of you knew that each episode had it's own specific theme song?  I'm not talking about the Danny Elfman musical score that would start the show off weekly, I'm talking about after the fact, when the episode's title screen came up with it's painted still...THAT music was unique to it's specific episode.  Great care was taken when it came to the music of the show, because that's where the heart of BTAS lay.

Of course we can't forget the amazing voice talents of Mark Hamil (The Joker), Kevin Conroy (Batman), Ron Perlman (Clayface), Helen Slater (Talia), John Glover (The Riddler), which helped boost the show's already awesome standard of quality.  I wish I could spend as much time as I would like and praise this show's almost perfect execution in creating a new wave of kid's cartoon shows, (There's a disertation somewhere in this right?) but I can just simply ask you to get Netflix or buy one of the box sets and see it for yourself.  In the meantime, check out this incredibly awesome Theme song opener, because I know we all love it!

Movie Review: Superman/Batman: Apocalypse

So Here’s What The Film Is About…

So here we are, yet again in the midst of another DC animated movie release.  This one once again brings the caped crusader and the Man of steel back together for a showdown with one of DC’s most powerful villains, Darkseid.  (Does anyone else think that name is corny and stupid?)  However, an additional player in thrown into the mix, Kara Zor-El, otherwise known as Supergirl, who finds herself unable to speak English and unable to remember who she is.

With the help of Superman, Wonder Woman and the rest of her Amazonian sisters, Kara learns the native language (because English is the native tongue in the world of comics right?) and begins her journey to discover what it means to be an Earth Girl.  While Kara ventures out on this journey of self-discovery and reuniting with her cousin Kal, Darkseid watches over this Kara Zor-El very closely and decides that she is the perfect leader for his furies on Apocalypse. 

A few punches and brawls later, Kara is kidnapped and manipulated into thinking Darkseid is her only chance at a normal life, pitting her against Superman and the rest of his gang.  Now the challenge begins of bringing Kara back and defeating Darkseid, throwing him back in the fiery pit of a planet he calls home. What will happen?  I’m sure you can figure it out.

And Here’s What I Thought About It…

You know, I DID like the film, but it has a lot of minor problems which pop up numerous times that gave me an inconsistent feeling as a viewer.  I wasn’t expecting much anyway as I wasn’t a huge fan of the arc in the comics to begin with, but it felt even MORE contrived than it did a few years ago when I read it the first time.  The choices made to push this story forward were very poor and hurt the story more than it should. 

The Doomsday fight between superman and the rest of the trinity pack felt very unnecessary, even if it did lead to a diversion in kidnapping Kara.  But having clones that don’t bleed but aren’t robots came off more comical than dramatic to me.  Likewise, Kara and her shopping spree felt very late 80’s/early 90’s; it felt as if I was watching an episode of that horrid show, Jem and the Holograms.  You remember it don’t ya?...

It was very out of place and made me look around to see if anyone else was thinking the same thing I was. 

Casting, overall, was very well done.  Having Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy return as the voices of both Superman and Batman was a great choice.  Even after 15 years of voicing these heroes, they still seem to enjoy it.  And bringing in Edward Asner to once again voice Granny Goodness was a stroke of genius; it gives us a strange sense of awkwardness resulting in a sexual identity crisis.  But Summer Glau was disappointing as Supergirl.  I expected her to be a little more riveting being a huge fan of her performance in Firefly.  But then again she didn’t really say a whole lot in that series huh?  She played the character off as a girl with little emotional attachments and even less livelihood.  Now that could be what the director was going for, but I would imagine Kara to show a little more excitement in the new world she’s become apart of.  There seemed to be a huge disconnect from what Summer was verbalizing vs. what was being displayed on Kara’s face.

The animation was an incredible, a lot better than I thought it was going to be.  I am glad it moved past the clumsy and unappealing style that was portrayed in Public Enemies and gave each hero a proportional body structure.  The fight scenes were quite detailed, even with the incredibly dull Doomsday battle.  Wonder Woman and Barda is probably the best animated battle scene I’ve seen from DC thus far.  I did find Superman to be a little odd to look at as he resembled a combination of an American boy, a Chinese male, and a feminine man all in one.  And as far as Batman is concerned, I wondered how often I was going to have scenes where his entire body was covered by his massively black cape and cowl, only showing his chin and mouth.

That final battle between Supergirl and Superman was pretty epic and kept my attention the whole way through.  The usage of different camera angles, light and detail in that ten minutes was intense and the best part of the entire film from an action standpoint.

While the story in and of itself isn’t particularly great, it still presents an interesting viewpoint to consider.  Sure, Superman was born on Krypton but raised as a regular human being who later discovered his destiny.  But here, we have Kara Zor-El who was raised as an alien knowing full well what her potential was coming to Earth.  What does one do when they are born as a superhero?  Kara must now face something that Clark never did, embrace a society 100% different from that of her now deceased planet of Krypton.  And while the choices made to make this sentiment happen in the film wasn’t as good as it could have been, it’s still an interesting and creative idea.

This film is worth the purchase from my end of things.  However, it may not be a worthy purchase for everyone.  I would recommend Under the Red Hood to anyone, comic book fan or not.  But with this film, you might want to rent it…or no wait, Blockbusters going down under…you might want to Netflix it and see what you think first.

And for your consideration, the official trailer for Superman/Batman: Apocalypse