batman
Timothy C Webb
>
> The "sneak preview" premiere episode just aired yesterday as I type
> this, and it's quite interesting. It's definitely a step in the right
> direction for "action/adventure" TV animation, and it's far, far
> superior to the Hanna-Barbera "Super Friends" TV series.
Whoa! Hold it right there! :)
> The "Batman" animated series was made to cash in on the popularity of
> the phenomenally popular "Batman" movies, and the cartoon tries for
> the "dark" look-and-feel of the movies. It's smart enough to base the
> characters of Batman and Commisioner Gordon on the comic books and not
> the movie characters, though the design of Gotham City tries to
> imitate the wild, eye-catching scenery and art direction Tim Burton
> brought to the movies.
It kind of annoys me that this _was_ made to cash in on the films (very few
current cartoons don't try to promote something), but I'm hoping they can get
away from this as the series continues. One difference will be the appearance
of Robin, of course. I don't know when he'll be introduced in the series, but
he'll be there. Hopefully they'll use other villains aside from The Joker, The
Penguin, and Catwoman who were in the two movies (how about the Riddler?).
> The quality of the animation is quite good, for a TV cartoon. Fans of
> "realistic" animation who enjoy the lush, crisp animation of the
> Disney Afternoon may be disappointed with the style of "Batman's"
> animation, but I think it's an interesting move. As has been
> mentioned already, it tries for an "Art Deco" look, in which
> Batman/Bruce Wayne is a square-jawed muscleman whose head is flatter
> than Boris Karloff's Frankenstein, but it works. Wild, angular
> drawing is prevalent throughout the whole cartoon, and that adds to
> the "Burton-esque" feel of the show.
I enjoy the animation very much myself, and am impressed with the way it
stands out from other shows at this point in time, when every cartoon looks
the same.
> Less successful is Batman's characterization. There's not much you
> can do with a cartoon/comic book character, but the voice actor's
> attempt to imitate Michael Keaton's attempt to do a "deep throat"
> vocalization of Batman tends to lessen his character. He can only
> talk in two tones of voice: monotone and monotone. Perhaps this will
> improve as the series progresses.
I think the voice they chose for Batman is horrible!
> The dialogue has been written so that actions speak louder than words
> for once: the entire plot is not summarized every five seconds to
> "explain" the story to the little kiddies. We see Catwoman cutting a
> window with her claws to steal a diamond necklace. She uses her
> trained cat to get the necklace, and all she says is "Now, Isis!"
> It's a lot better than the usual cartoony dialogue we would hear on
> other TV shows: "Now, Isis, walk through the security beams and bring
> me the lovely necklace!" Talk is cheap, especially on TV cartoons,
> and the emphasis on action over talk shows us that Warner Bros. put a
> lot of care into the creation of this show.
Excellent point. Nothing pisses me off more than hearing every move
explained to me like a play-by-play sports report. I have two eyes and believe
I have the capacity to understand what's going on without useless words
describing it to me.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Tim Webb | t...@kepler.unh.edu |
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| "I wouldn't worry about it, Mrs. Brady. With the songs the way they are |
| nowadays you can't hear the words well enough to understand that what |
| you would have heard is something you wouldn't have understood anyway" |
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Scott Streeter
tcw> Hopefully they'll use other villains aside from The Joker,
tcw> The Penguin, and Catwoman who were in the two movies (how about
tcw> the Riddler?).
Well they just had the Man-Bat episode, and the previews for tomorrow
showed Doctor Freeze. Also Havey Dent made a small apprerance in the
Man-Bat episode, flipping a coin. Looks like Two-Face will be around
soon too.
--
Scott Streeter
s...@wpi.wpi.edu
eric walker
going to be flooded with messages talking about the new "Batman"
series.
The "sneak preview" premiere episode just aired yesterday as I type
this, and it's quite interesting. It's definitely a step in the right
direction for "action/adventure" TV animation, and it's far, far
superior to the Hanna-Barbera "Super Friends" TV series.
The "Batman" animated series was made to cash in on the popularity of
the phenomenally popular "Batman" movies, and the cartoon tries for
the "dark" look-and-feel of the movies. It's smart enough to base the
characters of Batman and Commisioner Gordon on the comic books and not
the movie characters, though the design of Gotham City tries to
imitate the wild, eye-catching scenery and art direction Tim Burton
brought to the movies.
The quality of the animation is quite good, for a TV cartoon. Fans of
"realistic" animation who enjoy the lush, crisp animation of the
Disney Afternoon may be disappointed with the style of "Batman's"
animation, but I think it's an interesting move. As has been
mentioned already, it tries for an "Art Deco" look, in which
Batman/Bruce Wayne is a square-jawed muscleman whose head is flatter
than Boris Karloff's Frankenstein, but it works. Wild, angular
drawing is prevalent throughout the whole cartoon, and that adds to
the "Burton-esque" feel of the show.
More interesting than the actual animation is the way the camera
tries to make Batman "dark." They show him in shadow a lot, and
black, inky shadows and stylistic "lighting" is used to make him seem
more like a figure of the night. Again, the style works. The
animation of this show is very imaginative, and just by watching the
cartoon one can see that care was taken in its development - at least
for this pilot episode.
Less successful is Batman's characterization. There's not much you
can do with a cartoon/comic book character, but the voice actor's
attempt to imitate Michael Keaton's attempt to do a "deep throat"
vocalization of Batman tends to lessen his character. He can only
talk in two tones of voice: monotone and monotone. Perhaps this will
improve as the series progresses.
The story itself is an interesting comic-book type of story: Batman
meets Catwoman for the first time ("Batman Returns" wouldn't have
anything to do with this being the choice for the pilot episode, would
it?), and the two of them become mixed up in a plot by terrorists to
steal a plague virus. This is the type of storyline that we SHOULD be
seeing on an "adventure" cartoon: although simplistic, it's far better
than G.I. Joe or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The entire
storyline can't be guessed during the first five minutes of the show.
The dialogue has been written so that actions speak louder than words
for once: the entire plot is not summarized every five seconds to
"explain" the story to the little kiddies. We see Catwoman cutting a
window with her claws to steal a diamond necklace. She uses her
trained cat to get the necklace, and all she says is "Now, Isis!"
It's a lot better than the usual cartoony dialogue we would hear on
other TV shows: "Now, Isis, walk through the security beams and bring
me the lovely necklace!" Talk is cheap, especially on TV cartoons,
and the emphasis on action over talk shows us that Warner Bros. put a
lot of care into the creation of this show.
It's not a bad show. Judging from the pilot episode, "Batman" looks
as though it's going to be an enormous hit because it doesn't talk
down to its audience. It will probably be one of the best "dramatic
adventure" cartoons ever made - and while that's not saying much, it's
certainly a show I would take over "James Bond Jr." any day of the
week.
---
ţ SLMR 2.1a ţ Forget Bush/Quayle - Buster & Babs Bunny in '92!
--
Channel 1 (R) Cambridge, MA
Lee Melvin
->tcw> Hopefully they'll use other villains aside from The Joker,
->tcw> The Penguin, and Catwoman who were in the two movies (how about
->tcw> the Riddler?).
I just picked up a set of Batman cards from the local comics store for
my girlfriend (they _are_ well done, except the copyright on the back
of each and every card...). The cards depict Mr. Freeze, The Joker
(of course), Penguin, The Riddler, Robin, Catwoman, some woman named
'Summer' that I don't recognize, Batman (duh), Two-Face, Alfred, Commissioner
Gordon, and two others I forget at the moment. The Man-Bat and Red
Claw are _not_ depicted...
As for my feelings towards the show, I was stunned. I will be taping
every episode of this that comes out. If it came on at the same time
as ST:TNG I would buy another VCR (I'm not kidding). Please note that
I'm not an analyst, and I'm not making any attempt to objectively
judge the show. I was just impressed by the clean art style of the
animation, and the (relative) maturity of the two storylines I've
seen so far. My only (very minor) complaint so far is that some of
Batman/Bruce Wayne's dialog has been a bit trite (although I don't
share the opinion that the voice is bad).
Not everyone will like it, but you should watch it at least once.
No doubt the producers will make a lot of money of this; lets hope they
don't forget to keep the quality in.
--
"I would gladly risk feeling bad at times, if it also meant that I could
taste my dessert." -- Lt. Commander Data, ST:TNG
\ Lee Melvin CGD/NCAR (Weather freaks on the Flatirons) /
\ EMAIL: mel...@ncar.ucar.edu not to be confused with l...@ncar.ucar.edu /
David VanDomelen
tonight. The feature villain was a fairly obscure member of the Batrogues
Gallery, Man-Bat (or a reasonable facsimile). The animation was impressive,
but I was left a little cold by the chara design. Having one's chin take up
half of one's face gets old fast, and Gordon's hairdo looks like a DQ cone top.
However, the Man-Bat character looked stunning. I didn't really have much of a
problem with Bruce/Batman's voice, maybe it got better with this episode. I
wouldn't know.
Dave Van Domelen, was really impressed by the flying "chase" scene
David VanDomelen
local station scheduled a Baseball game instead of Batman. If the game ends
early, they *might* show it. Pisses me off, lemme tell ya.
Dave Van Domelen, lousy stinkin great American pasttime....
Ron Dippold
>Gallery, Man-Bat (or a reasonable facsimile). The animation was impressive,
>but I was left a little cold by the chara design. Having one's chin take up
>half of one's face gets old fast, and Gordon's hairdo looks like a DQ cone top.
>However, the Man-Bat character looked stunning. I didn't really have much of a
I took a look through my old Kane Batman reprints, and he really does
have quite an impressive chin. Maybe not quite the Jay Len version of
the current one, but... maybe they're trying to contrast with Keaton's
lack of chin.
--
Why bother building any more nuclear warheads until we use the ones we have?