Poll of the Day > Never seen the Batman animated series from the 90's

(+) Yeah! (+)

So, just how good was this show in its four season run that it had? Its currently on my backlog of shows Ive been wanting to watch and
it obviously comes highly recommended so as Ive heard. I just want to hear some peoples opinions on the show who've already seen it.

It's the definitive version of Batman

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Very, very good for the first three, less so for the last, but still pretty good.

There's a reason why most people say it's the best version of Batman Warner Bros. has ever managed to produce. And why people keep demanding that Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill voice Batman and the Joker in basically every video game ever made.
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For its time it's top notch, but it definitely hasn't aged well in some respects. By modern standards the good episodes are still really good, but it's not something I would recommend binge watching as it will drag at points. That said, if you've never seen it before and are curious the high points make it worth checking out.

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Like a lot of other people, when I read Batman comics I hear Kevin Conroys voice as the character. Probably always will.

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they did all the animation on black canvas instead of white which was fucking amazing for the atmosphere

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TheOkHornedRat posted...

they did all the animation on black canvas instead of white which was fucking amazing for the atmosphere

So much this. I seriously love the look of it also. And btw, how are the two movies as well? I got the entire collection that came with the four seasons and the two movies. Mask of the phantasm. And Subzero.

i remember liking mask of the phantasm, but i dont remember anything about subzero.

been a long time since i saw the movies

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90% sure Sub Zero is non canon

Phantasm is a classic though.

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Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy both perform so well opposite each other as batman and the joker. getting them reunited in the Arkham game series was also wonderful

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It was a great time to be a Batman fan as kids in the early 90s. The Tim Burton films made Batman cool again and the animated series was the perfect followup because the show became groundbreaking animated television that only served to enhance Batman as a brand. Great memories.

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Technically it has two seasons... the "first three" are actually one huge season, with the fourth coming later to pair with Superman for a one-hour programming block, hence the art-style change. The "first" season, aside from a couple of episodes like The Underdwellers, is amazing, and some of the best TV available. The "second" (fourth) season has almost a totally different vibe to it and it's fine, but it's no masterpiece. The Batman animated series episodes in the darker, better-quality visual style and Batman Beyond are my favourite things in the DCAU. I can watch them on loop and never get bored. I binge them somewhat regularly. The others I've seen through twice-ish, and they're still pretty solid, but I don't really have much interest in watching them again.

Snake posted...

It was a great time to be a Batman fan as kids in the early 90s. The Tim Burton films made Batman cool again and the animated series was the perfect followup because the show became groundbreaking animated television that only served to enhance Batman as a brand. Great memories.

it trips me out that danny elfman is responsible for the batman theme we all know (not the nanananana one)

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They came up with Harley Quinn

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don't listen to these guys, it sucks like a 5 dollar lillipopper hooker

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Kotenks posted...

I think this is the single greatest television cartoon ever made and I've seen hundreds from multiple decades.

I think I may just have to start watching it now, lol. Seriously. I bought this blu raybox set and it's just been sitting there with a whole bunch of other movies I've been buying and backlogging. I could use a new tv show to keep me interested in I haven't seen before anyways. The other thing is though, I know that there was other expanded shows based on this one. But is this one just fine as a stand alone compared to say, Batman beyond? Eventually I'll get around to the others someday..

It works just fine as a standalone.

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TheOkHornedRat posted...

it trips me out that danny elfman is responsible for the batman theme we all know (not the nanananana one)

Considering one year he was responsible for the Batman theme and the very next year for The Simpsons theme, both iconic works in pop culture, it's pretty nuts especially since they're the polar opposite of each other musically.

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Snake posted...

Considering one year he was responsible for the Batman theme and the very next year for The Simpsons theme, both iconic works in pop culture, it's pretty nuts especially since they're the polar opposite of each other musically.

I hadn't considered the Simpson's too. That is nuts. And then 3 years after that he did nightmare before christmas with a ton of other iconic songs. Dude has had quite the career, and the late 80s early 90s were him in his prime.

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TaKun782 posted...

I think I may just have to start watching it now, lol.

Dude, do it. If you've never seen it I would say it is absolutely worth a watch for the art alone.

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It was good for its time, but a lot of it didn't age terribly well. Even comparing it to Superman TAS -- let alone JL/U -- the animation doesn't always look great, the storytelling can have pacing problems, and the acting sometimes falls flat (although it has a really great cast). The one thing it kinda has going for it is that it didn't get into the silliness you'd see in something like The Batman (although that was often a pretty good take, except for the fucking JL cross-over season where I'm still not 100% sure what they were trying to do, whether it was re-launch a Justice League cartoon or something)

Ultimately Batman TAS had a handful of great episodes and it did some great things for the franchise as a whole, but people tend to remember it as being a lot better than it actually was. The show had a few revamps with some style changes which didn't always work, a lot of the stories were a little lackluster, and it had a lot of awkward transitions. However, BTAS was the first series in the DCAU so at least some of that was to be expected. (Shows like Static Shock had less of an excuse for when the quality was poor, although Static was still a pretty fun show.)

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Snake posted...

It was a great time to be a Batman fan as kids in the early 90s. The Tim Burton films made Batman cool again and the animated series was the perfect followup because the show became groundbreaking animated television that only served to enhance Batman as a brand. Great memories.

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funkyfritter posted...

it's not something I would recommend binge watching as it will drag at points.

I'd argue that this isn't really a failing of the show as much as a failing of the audience. People today have the attention spans of hyperactive gnats hopped up on meth, and if something doesn't explode at least once every 30 seconds they start to get twitchy. Most of the greatest films of all time would bore the shit out of modern audiences if they were made before 2000 or so.

The show is very much trying to imitate the style of film noir in a lot of ways, and deliberate pacing and building suspense is part of that. It can be slow, but it's less meandering slow and more slow-burn rising action.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

I'd argue that this isn't really a failing of the show as much as a failing of the audience. People today have the attention spans of hyperactive gnats hopped up on meth, and if something doesn't explode at least once every 30 seconds they start to get twitchy. Most of the greatest films of all time would bore the shit out of modern audiences if they were made before 2000 or so.

The show is very much trying to imitate the style of film noir in a lot of ways, and deliberate pacing and building suspense is part of that. It can be slow, but it's less meandering slow and more slow-burn rising action.

Definitely. I love that type of style though so it's no issue to me if I sort of binge watch it.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I'd argue that this isn't really a failing of the show as much as a failing of the audience. People today have the attention spans of hyperactive gnats hopped up on meth, and if something doesn't explode at least once every 30 seconds they start to get twitchy. Most of the greatest films of all time would bore the shit out of modern audiences if they were made before 2000 or so.

The show is very much trying to imitate the style of film noir in a lot of ways, and deliberate pacing and building suspense is part of that. It can be slow, but it's less meandering slow and more slow-burn rising action.

The other issue making it harder to binge is that the series is a lot more episodic than the cartoons that followed it. When something has a running storyline, it's easier to sit through longer spans of the show. You bring up attention spans, but keep in mind that almost every episode of B:TAS was an almost-completely self-contained 30 minute (minus commercials) story. There were only a handful of two parters and very few running story elements. Which makes it great for syndication (and children for that matter), but kinda rubbish for storytelling at times.

You can directly compare that to the more polished DCAU series. JLU had entire seasons devoted to overarching story arcs with a lot of 2-3 parters, but even the kinda self-contained episodes ("Task Force X") continued that running story. And even Superman: TAS managed to keep what felt like a running narrative just because so much of the show focused around Lex Luthor as an antagonist (the same approach would be tried with the Spectacular Spiderman, where Tombstone had an overarching role)

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Zeus posted...

The other issue making it harder to binge is that the series is a lot more episodic than the cartoons that followed it. When something has a running storyline, it's easier to sit through longer spans of the show. You bring up attention spans, but keep in mind that almost every episode of B:TAS was an almost-completely self-contained 30 minute (minus commercials) story. There were only a handful of two parters and very few running story elements. Which makes it great for syndication (and children for that matter), but kinda rubbish for storytelling at times.

You can directly compare that to the more polished DCAU series. JLU had entire seasons devoted to overarching story arcs with a lot of 2-3 parters, but even the kinda self-contained episodes ("Task Force X") continued that running story. And even Superman: TAS managed to keep what felt like a running narrative just because so much of the show focused around Lex Luthor as an antagonist (the same approach would be tried with the Spectacular Spiderman, where Tombstone had an overarching role)

And I can say the very same for Young Justice too. Im so glad that after all these years it finally got a third season after it was cancelled. I still need to catch up on that one.