By Jonathan Bilski
Woah, Batman: The Animated Series is back just like X-Men '92; I can have a full hour of Saturday morning cartoons for 10 weeks! Gotham looks like exactly like it did from the 90's...wait, oh that man's being brutality murdered. Batman: Caped Crusader continues it's antics of Bruce Timm's original series with adding a revised rendition of Batman, his friends and allies and off-course all his costumed villains. Just like Timm's time revising DC heroes in various straight-to-video movies over at WB's animation, it's hard to understand the man's vision of making the show unapproachable to kids. Also, suffering from a delayed release and sadly, the worst crime for Batman, some poorly animated scenes, makes the show nothing more than a fun, unneeded treat.
Still a treat, I can't fault Timm, for what he's been doing for decades. Making great Batman cartoons. On the surface, that's what you have, an amazing retelling of Batman in almost the same style as the show you grew up with, now set more in the 1940's. Timm and Co. redesigning so many fav favorite villains and other aspects from the comics to fit the shows extra violent style.
That same violence has it's problems though. Having the same problem of early super hero movies, Batman's background cast is slaughtered in a number of inventive and horrific ways as though Timm knows the show is limited and doesn't need any returning cast. This new version is made for the adults who liked the original show. Forget new fans, seems to be the mentality.
There's such an old man vibe even though much of the writing and a lot of direction I believe is from women. In this, it's like the show is playing catch-up with themes on sexuality and race that TV has dealt with on screen for decades. A new gender-swapped villain for seemingly no reason other than Bruce Timm thought it was cool; like the first season with The Penguin. There's a lesbian kiss this season that feels like Timm and Co. were patting themselves on the back going, "Yeah, we're totally hip and know what the kids are into, we're making history." Meanwhile, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn hooked up already in another animated series and in the comics.
Delayed by two years since it came out in 2024...oy. It somehow suffers from poor animation in certain scenes. I noticed walk cycles and other scenes around episode 5 seem less fluid than the show made in the 90's. Every so often characters seem to jitter or move on less frames. Not sure what happened with almost three years to make sure it all was done right, but it just makes the show seem lesser than it's original.
It's just a treat for fans of Batman:TAS. A project from the best Batman animator, from the show you loved many years ago. A violent, violent version of it, you can't show your kids.
format(webp).webp)
