dencol willei hannell
Gualtar Pennington
26 years later, it is easy enough to note that Batman: The Animated Series is the best Batman toon, or maybe even the best superhero television show of all time (all due respect to your favorite Netflix MCU shows or the CW's DCTV). But the reason it stood out in 1992 and the reason it stands out today is one and the same. It stands out because of its scale. It may have been a superhero show, but it was rarely larger than life. And it is that adherence to the human-sized drama that has allowed it to age so well.
It is not the most narratively ambitious kids cartoon (Gargoyles and Young Justice come to mind), the most explicitly violent (the seemingly cheerful Batman: The Brave and the Bold has far more onscreen violence and sometimes shocking carnage), the most relentlessly action packed (The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes), or the most cynical (Wolverine and the X-Men). But it paved the way for everything that has followed in its hollowed footsteps.
It proved that kids cartoons could take themselves seriously, play for keeps, and exist as real character dramas. But what makes it stand out then is still what makes it stand out now. I speak of its pure realism and it's life-size storytelling. While other cartoons that came before and many that came after deal with world-changing stakes, Batman: The Animated Series almost always kept its stories explicitly to-scale.
The world or even the city was rarely at stake, merely the lives of a few innocent Gothamites or the reputation of those who would attempt to protect the city. More importantly, the show made a point to focus not just on Batman and his circle of fellow crime fighters but on all of the citizens of Gotham. It wasn't just about Batman and the villains he encountered, but as much about the everyday normal people who crossed paths with these colorful figures.
There are eight million stories in this city, and the show did its best to tell every one of them. Be it the random low-level criminal who thinks he accidentally killed Batman, the typecast former television star on the verge of homelessness, the disgraced physician who illegally practices medicine for his brother's mobster cohorts, the former model who was tossed aside after she had to gall to turn 30, or an Olympic athlete who cursed himself by experimenting with an untested steroid, the various heroes and villains were normal people with normal problems.
The writers and directors made a point to ground even the flashiest costumed villain with plausible and sympathetic motivations. Its version of The Riddler was merely a computer game designer cheated out of royalties. The Mad Hatter was a heart-sick scientist using his newest invention to trick the object of his affections into loving him. Baby Doll went mad trying to recapture her former child-star glory. And let's not forget The Clock King, an OCD fanatic driving to his own brand of anal-retentive vengeance over a chance deviation that ruined his career.
These weren't cardboard comic book villains but three-dimensional human beings driven to madness and/or crime by tragedy or random bad luck. The world of Batman: The Animated Series was a dark and foreboding one, full of real danger and genuine menace, but its Gotham City was never so battered down by crime and misery that Batman couldn't make a real difference. Perhaps due to the fact that it was a kids show, the violence was aggressive and omnipresent without being overwhelming. Yes, Gotham was a dangerous city and yes the criminals occasionally shed blood in pursuit of their goals, but said murderous escapades usually didn't take place in front of us.
First, by not allowing Timm and company to fill the screen with violence and carnage, they actually made the show more realistic. Unlike the comics (or shows like Gotham), which often present a level of violence so extreme that it would probably cause martial law and/or mass exodus in real life, the Gotham City of Batman: The Animated Series was dangerous and somewhat corrupt, but still inhabitable with the potential to be even greater than it was. This was a city where Kevin Conroy's empathetic Bruce Wayne/Batman could make a real difference.
Also, by not allowing the show to be too violent or too action-packed, network censors forced the writers and producers to craft real stories and three-dimensional characters in lieu of non-stop fisticuffs or vehicle chases. The show never descended into 'Batman meets up with a super villain of the day and they beat the crap out of each other for 20 minutes'. Even the goofiest Harley Quinn comedy was rooted in character and contained worthwhile emotional payoffs.
The show never forgot to treat its most absurd plots as real-life drama for the characters who were living through them. It never forgot to be *about something* no matter how fast the fists were flying or how big the explosions happened to be. What that 'something' happened to be is what made the show truly 'adult'.
The series wasn't "adult" because it was the darkest, most serious, and most violent afternoon animated show of its time. No Batman: The Animated Series was adult in nature by virtue of its intelligence and its frank dealing with genuinely adult subject matter. The show's plots concerned divorce, patent law, insurance fraud, homelessness, class prejudice, age discrimination, typecasting, prison abuse, animal testing, and all manners of mental illness.
Its stories revolved not around alien invasions or doomsday scenarios, but around the stuff that real life is made of. And it was not the last kids cartoon to be dark, brooding, dramatic in nature, and sometimes violent. But it still stands outside of the pack by virtue of not only its quality but its life-size and small-scale storytelling. It is the best American action cartoon ever developed, and it still remains the best interpretation of Batman that has existed in any medium.
It shows Batman at his best while never turning away from the inherent darkness of the character. It is that rarest of things, optimistic film noir, a Batman who we can respect and admire. It is a cartoon to be passed down from generation to generation, as defining a piece on the character as the 1960s television series. For a generation lucky enough to grow up watching it, it remains 'our Batman'.
Batman: The Animated Series (often shortened as Batman TAS or BTAS)[1] is an American animated superhero television series based on the DC Comics superhero Batman. Developed by Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski, and produced by Warner Bros. Animation, it originally aired on Fox Kids from September 5, 1992, to September 15, 1995, with a total of 85 episodes.[2][3][4]
Batman: The Animated Series was hailed as a groundbreaking superhero show receiving praise for its writing, art design, voice acting, orchestrated soundtrack, and modernization of its title character's source material.[5][6] The acclaim led to multiple Daytime Emmy Awards,[7] as well as the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Programming.[8]
After the series ended its original run, a follow-up titled The New Batman Adventures began airing on Kids' WB in 1997 as a continuation of the series, featuring a revamped animation style. Lasting 24 episodes, it has often been included in the same syndicated re-run packages and home media releases as the final season. Batman: The Animated Series also became the first in the continuity of the shared DC Animated Universe, which spawned further animated TV series, feature films, comic books and video games with much of the same creative talent, including the 1993 theatrical release Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.
During the series' production, producer Alan Burnett wrote an episode without dialogue entitled "Silent Night" to explore more of Batman's sexual life, but this was never produced. Burnett also intended to make an episode featuring a female vampire that would bite Batman to suck his blood, but plans never materialized.[9]
The series is also notable for its supporting cast. Numerous known actors provided voices for a variety of recognizable villains. Most notable was Mark Hamill, previously famous for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy, whose prominence as a voice actor was heightened through his "cheerfully deranged" portrayal of the Joker.[10] The role was originally given to Tim Curry, but he developed bronchitis during the initial recording sessions.[11] John Glover, who later voiced the Riddler, also auditioned for the Joker role. Hamill, who found himself to be the biggest fan of the Batman comics among the cast, credited the laughs he had honed on stage in Amadeus with landing him the role. The recording sessions, under the supervision of voice director Andrea Romano, were recorded with the actors together in one studio instead of taking separate recordings, as is typical. This method would later be employed for all subsequent series in the DC Animated Universe. Al Pacino was considered to voice Two-Face in the series, but he declined the offer;[12] Richard Moll was instead cast in the role. Other actors included Ron Perlman as Clayface, Roddy McDowall as the Mad Hatter, David Warner as Ra's al Ghul, Michael York as Count Vertigo, Kate Mulgrew as Red Claw, George Murdock as Boss Biggis, Ed Asner as Roland Daggett and George Dzundza as the Ventriloquist.
One of the series' best-known inventions is the Joker's assistant, Harley Quinn, who became so popular that DC Comics later added her to mainstream comic book continuity. The Penguin underwent change for the series; his appearance was remodeled after the version seen in Batman Returns, which was in production simultaneously with the series' first season. New life was also given to lesser-known characters for the series, such as the Clock King. In addition, dramatic changes were made to other villains such as Clayface and Mr. Freeze, the latter of whom was changed from a gimmicky mad scientist to a tragic figure whose "frigid exterior [hid] a doomed love and vindictive fury".
90f70e40cf