Way before the DCEU, before the Arrowverse, and before the MCU, we had the DC Animated Universe. It just started with Batman: The Animated Series, but eventually branched out into a full universe with Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, and Justice League, as well as spinoffs like Static Shock and Gotham Girls. That ambition alone was enough to peak my interest, to think we had an actual television DC universe with a Justice League crossover all the way back in the early 2000s was impressive enough. But that's not really why I want to marathon the DCAU, it's more personal than that, and it's all because of one of my favorite superheroes, Batman.
I have an interesting history with Batman. Like many series such as Indiana Jones, Lord Of The Rings, and Pirates Of The Caribbean, I discovered Batman through the LEGO video game series. LEGO Batman: The Videogame was my entry point into the Batman mythos, and having shaped my perception of the characters, it's honestly still my favorite depiction of Gotham and its cast. Despite lacking in dialogue, it effectively introduced the majority of his iconic rogue's gallery to a six-year-old me, and its uniquely gothic and atmospheric take on Gotham remains striking and memorable. At the time, I thought it was entirely original since it didn't seem to be based on any movies, but that wasn't entirely the case. LEGO Batman's central inspirations were the Tim Burton Batman films, particularly their gothic depiction of Gotham and the Danny Elfman score of the first film, as well as Batman: The Animated Series. Once I discovered that, I immediately rushed to watch the Burton movies as well as Mask Of The Phantasm, and I adored all of it. But now, it's time I watched the series that inspired the game that got me into Batman in the first place. This was a long time coming, and I hope it lives up to my lofty expectations...
Batman: The Animated Series is an episodic Saturday Morning Cartoon about Batman fighting crime in Gotham. There are some bits of continuity like Harvey Dent eventually becoming Two-Face, Barbara Gordan eventually becoming Batgirl, and a brief build-up to a fight with Ra's Al Ghul, but that's really it. Most episodes involve Batman trying to stop a villain from going ahead with their evil plan, meaning that what has to make a show are the characters. Thankfully, that's probably BTAS's greatest strength, it nails Batman and his rogue's gallery to a tee. Batman is more multi-faceted and interesting than I've seen in pretty much any of his movies. He's as brooding as you'd expect from the character, but never unwilling to have a bit of fun even as he takes every situation seriously. He's not perfect either, several episodes give Batman an arc about trusting people, and several others focus on him continuing to reckon with his parent's death. BTAS even manages to give him a Bat Family without using it as an excuse to lighten the tone like in the Schumacher films. But even better are the villains, who are usually pretty well-developed and almost always a ton of fun to watch, with Joker, Mr Freeze, Poison Ivy, and of course the original Harley Quinn being the highlights. BTAS even manages to takes villains I had previously thought little of like The Clock King and Ra's Al Ghul and make them way more interesting.
However, it does take the show some time to find its footing at first. Going by production order, some of the weakest entries in the season are within the first ten-or-so episodes, whether it's due to inconsistent animation by weaker companies like Akon, or bad scripts that showed the writers just didn't really know what they wanted the show to be. It wasn't until the episode Two-Face where I feel BTAS truly came into its own, and it did so by deciding to really start exploring the humanity behind its villains. Characters like Mr Freeze, Lloyd Ventrix, Man Bat, and Clayface proceeded to get really tragic backstories that make them a lot more sympathetic and interesting, and one episode in particular has a villain consider quitting crime to see how things turn out. This ended up making me really excited for each new episode, to see what villain the writers would introduce and what they would do with them. However, by the end of the over 60-episode-long season, I was starting to hope we'd begin to get more crossovers between the villains. There were a few like Almost Got 'Em and Harley And Ivy, two of my favorite episodes for that matter, but at this point, the writers had created this really detailed playground of Gotham with loads of colorful and interesting characters, but just weren't truly utilizing it to its fullest potential.
For a weekly Saturday Morning Cartoon that aired over 60 episodes in a single season, BTAS's presentation is remarkably polished. The animation itself can be inconsistent, usually depending on the animation studio that worked on a given episode (once again, looking at you Akon), but the art direction is top-notch. The character designs do so much with so little, prioritizing capturing the essence of the characters over being realistic. Similarly, the backgrounds are often dark and lacking in detail, with buildings being dark rectangles, and rooms often only being illuminated in small areas. You could argue that this is to make animating easier, but you rarely notice the limitations to begin with because it fits with the dark gothic look of Gotham perfectly. The voice acting is stellar too. From Kevin Conroy as Batman to Mark Hamill as Joker to Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn, the voice cast is giving out consistently energetic and fun performances in pretty much every episode. The music is also fantastic, not just because it borrows leitmotifs from Danny Elfman's perfect Batman 1989 soundtrack but because each episode has its own unique orchestral musical score. There were no reused tracks here, every single episode had a movie-quality soundtrack. All 65 of them.
Highlights:
Two-Face: As mentioned above, this episode is where BTAS really finds its voice. Getting to know Harvey Dent for even a few episodes did a lot to make his transformation into Two-Face all the more tragic, especially since the writers worked to mine it for all of the dramatic potential it could possible offer. I especially loved the ending of the first part, probably the most shamelessly gothic moment in the series.
Heart Of Ice: Yeah, this shouldn't be a surprise. Heart Of Ice is a very well-crafted story, efficiently turning Mr Freeze from a goofy villain to tragic and sympathetic figure with two perfectly-written monologues that bookend the episode.
Joker's Favor: This was just such a neat concept for an episode. Joker's Favor focuses around the titular character making a citizen do a favor for him in exchange for his life, and it uses this premise to really explore how the fear of Joker affects regular-day citizens. It also introduces Harley Quinn.
The Clock King: Yeah, this episode was just plain fun. The Clock King may be a bit of a cartoonish villain, but I love how mundane and kinda relatable his tragic backstory is, and he really manages to put Batman through his paces throughout the episode. Not to mention the top-notch Lupin-esque battle atop a clock tower.
Robin's Reckoning: Similarly to Two Face, this is a two-parter that feels big, not only tackling Robin's backstory and his attempt at getting revenge on those who killed his family. It doesn't add anything particularly novel to the story, Batman Forever would basically use this take on the Robin mythos verbatim, but it's well-told and very cinematic.
Almost Got 'Im: This is another one of the more iconic episodes from what I can tell. It's really nice to see the villains actually interact with each other, and their individual stories of the closest they came to defeating Batman feel like they could be episodes in themselves.
Birds Of A Feather: The Penguin kinda got the short end of the stick this season. I love his design and voice, but he ended up getting a bunch of the show's weaker episodes, with the exception of Birds Of A Feather. This is a hard and uncomfortable episode to watch, with Penguin trying to turn a new leaf and join high society, unaware that they were never going to accept him. Poor thing.
The Man Who Killed Batman: From the title, I was expecting this to be a super sad alternate universe episode about everyone mourning Batman's supposed death. Instead, it's one of the funniest episodes in the series, about some random guy thinking he killed Batman and Joker and Harley Quinn being the only ones we actually see having a funeral.
Harley And Ivy: Harley And Ivy is one of the most influential episodes of the series. At the time, Harley and Ivy were just a random pairing of two female Batman villains, but now? Harley Quinn's relationship with Poison Ivy has become a fundamental element of her character, as is her eventual and likely inevitable decision to break off from Joker. She ends up running back to him by the end of the episode, but it's clearer than ever that those two really aren't that great for each other.
His Silicon Soul: This was a pretty sad episode. We spend the entire episode with a robot version of Bruce, who despite being the last piece of HARDAC meant to complete his plan of destroying the world, ends up piecing together his identity and ultimately sacrifices himself because, like Batman, he can't kill.
Mask Of The Phantasm: I had to include this movie somewhere. To put it simply, MotP is one of the best pieces of Batman media ever made. It's short but efficient, giving Batman one of his most compelling and unique character arcs, introducing a gripping new antagonist, providing one of the freshest takes on a Batman origin story, and giving the Joker some of his best moments in the series all in less than 90 minutes. The production values are also way higher, with action that far surpasses anything the series has done so far.
Overall, Batman: The Animated Series is a pretty great Batman show, especially on a fundamental level. It gets the mythos right, from the heroes like Batman and Robin, to the grimy gothic city of Gotham, to the varied developed lineup of villains. This is Batman to me. But even more, while not the most consistent in quality and I wish the series would let its villains cross over a bit more, BTAS's high production values and willlingness to tackle mature themes and moral ambiguities with its antagonist make for one of best Saturday Morning Cartoons of the time.
4/5 Stars
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