The Batman

Argh, It's like so many people had done so much work for nothing.

Since the "Batman" TV show in the 60's, there has been an ongoing effort with comic book artists and even a couple of filmmakers to return the Dark Knight to his roots, rather than the "Pow!, Bam!" stereotype Howie Horwitz gave him and pretty much all comics. In such efforts, these people had brought up some of the finest pieces in fiction, the extraordinary stories by Dennis O Neal and Neal Adams, "The Dark Knight Returns" by Frank Miller, the first two Batman films by Tim Burton, and of course the fantastic "Batman: the Animated Series".

So now I look at the new "The Batman" on WB, with Adam West and Frank Gorshin as regular voices, all of the old voices and character designs thrown out in favor of the stylization from "The Jackie Chan Adventures" and ostentatious gadgets and vehicles that scream "Toys Toys Toys".

The methodical pace of "TAS"(The Animated Series) has been replaced by a rapid-fire quick change motif, suiting ever increasing attention spans, I'm sure. While in TAS, physical action might sometimes take a back seat to the stories,"The Batman" overflows with Kung Fu, Slow Motion, and Dramatic rapid-Fire Jump Cuts.

The Characters have been "Updated', Batman is no longer square jawed, but has a triangle for a head, Comissioner Gordon is gone. The Batcave has gone back in time about 35 years and is complete with Batpoles and the Apple-red support beams that were prevalent in the old Adam West TV show. The Joker now sports a colorful straight jacket and hair the size of Beachball rather than his stylish purple suit of years past.

While the 'Extreme' approach may appease those with no exposure to engaging storytelling, I prefer TAS, which had strong, character driven stories, a cinematic style complete with orchestrated music, references to the best of all the batman representations, not just Adam West, and most importantly, looked like an actual movie, not a toy commercial.

'The Batman' has flashy animation, color keys that don't variate, CGI, and a ton of flashy camera techniques. But I say that it's all frosting and no cake.

Ever since the 1992 animated series of Batman, I've watched every single appearance he's made on the TV since then. From the Animated Series to The Adventures of Batman & Robin, to The New Batman Adventures, and yes even Batman Beyond and the two incarnations of Justice League. I can safely say that The Batman is nowhere near the level any of those shows.

The problem is, even judged on its own merits, The Batman falls incredibly short. But I tried to put all that aside and remain objective about the show. I mean, it's Batman right? Nope, it's not Batman. Rather than follow in the footsteps of its predecessors, The Batman ignores all the Batman cartoons that came before it, which is well over a decade's worth of animation.

The series starts off with the third anniversary of Batman's birth and we are introduced to a much younger Bruce Wayne, this also marks the first confrontation between the Joker and Batman. Unfortunately, everything that should've made this a memorable first encounter is lost in favor of silly action sequences, lame dialogue, and one of the worst artistic revisions of a villain I have ever seen.

Another problem is that's pretty much the summary for most of the episodes, even though the series is around its third season. While the episodes have improved slightly, it's a very small evolution and a good 90% of the episodes boil down to Batman versus the villain of the day.

The sad part is the show actually has a bit of promise, such as a decent revisioning of the Clayface character. But otherwise, every other part of the show is weak. I'll start with the character designs. Now we can all say we'd like some new and improved designs for the characters, something we haven't seen before...but there are some things that are just sacred, for instance, the Joker.

There are so many ways I can describe how awful the design is, but I think I'll go with this: he looks like a rejected Street Fighter 2 design for Blanka. The first time you see the Joker your eyes will immediately hurt. Not only that, his puns are horrible, for some reason he knows kung fu (along with every other villain, even the Penguin), and his plans are pointless and silly along with a voice that doesn't fit at all.

The rest of the designs are just as awful including a bizarre-looking Bane and a Marilyn Manson style Riddler. Yeah, I'm still trying to figure that one out too. And Batman resembles some weird looking bird more than a bat as well as having an unsuitable voice. The characterizations are off as well, showing both Bruce Wayne and alter ego Batman as boring individuals.

The animation just doesn't suit the show and never gives off any kind of a dark atmosphere. And the funny thing is, there are twice as many fight scenes in The Batman versus all the other animated Batman shows, but they come off as pointless, hollow, and inexplicably boring.

Batman relies much less on his detective skills and more on stupid gadgets that only serve a purpose for only one or two episodes.

Batman: The Animated Series was the highest point of Batman's animated career, and while it's arguable which of the spin-offs will be ranked below it, I think we can all agree that The Batman will be at the very bottom. A low point for the Dark Knight that years from now when the series is over will be spoken only in hushed whispers.

"Oh, THAT Batman cartoon" they will say with a disgusted tone.

From the animation, to the characterization, to the story lines, and even the action--The Batman fails in every regard. The series stands as a testament to the creative genius and hard work, along with superb voice acting by the likes of Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy, that went into the creation of Batman: The Animated Series and its subsequent follow-ups. The Batman merely serves as a brief footnote in the bat's history that dishonors all those that have come before it.

I fought this show for a long time. I would have been like all the others complaining about what they did wrong and this looks like jackie chan yada yada yada and hey I loved batman TAS as much if not more than everyone else bashing this series. I'm not going to write a book here but just consider the DC comics "elseworld" series. It take a different look at batman, superman etc. no one complains about that. Try reading dark joker the wild, batman red rain, gotham by gaslight all these show batman and the joker in a different light so why the harsh words here. Can't we just enjoy the show? If you can just get past TAS this cartoon really is not that bad.

John

One of the biggest disappointments to people is this show's animation and the radical looks of some villains (mostly Joker).

The animation was done very slick in a Japanese anime style to catch new audiences that are used to it these days. Let's be honest and remember that old DCAU shows changed their animation from "The New Adventures of Batman" to "Justice League" for the same reason.

The reason for more action is because of that stupid 65 episode rule. This gives limited time for story which I find disappointing, you can tell they were going for a story that would lead to a Dark Knight Returns kind of arc. The show seems campy at times(because of those damn rules child broadcasting has), but has more dark moments like it should. You can easily tell from the first two episodes that they had planned for a mob story-arc similar to Batman:Year One. Each season pretty much starts with a story that grows to a nice climax at the end(the same technique is done in Marvel's new series "The Spectacular Spiderman"). If you continue to watch the show, you can see how his detective skills grow over time. Remember we're watching a young Bruce growing into the Dark Knight the city needs him to be.

In BTAS he's been at it as Batman for a couple of years already, he's known as a detective, and is accepted by the police. This show has him on the vigilante side and Gordon doesn't come in until later. I love how we get to see more of Bruce having a social life and protecting his alter-ego, where in BTAS how do you not know he's Batman!? Kevin Conroy's awesome but his voice doesn't seem to change in and out of the cowl. The creators of the show took their own liberties to pay respect to BTAS and the shadow it will forever cast. The use of villains is good too, I like how they use the lesser known ones.

The visuals are stunning in the fight and chase scenes(you can tell they were pulled right out of Batman comics), sound quality is top of the line for an animated show too. You have a sense of life from Gotham too. Where in previous DCAU shows there would be so many fights in the city you'd ask yourself "where are the people?". I personally think Clayface was done well, but nothing beats how Dr. Hugo Strange is portrayed. I personally think this incarnation of him is used best (even better than BTAS portrayal). The fact that the villains can stand a fighting chance to Batman was always cool to me, I like how each one has their own fighting style. As a Bat-fan I disliked how the villains would do nothing but plot and you knew in the back of your head that in the end of the episode all it's gonna take is one punch from Batman to end it. Joker is always a subject of debate among people who see this show. To me not liking this Joker is like hating Heath Ledger's portrayal(his Joker was so radical that his skin wasn't even bleached), they both do a great job nonetheless. Personally I think Mark Hamill forever nailed the role.

Everything else was because of legal issues really. Robin appearing after Batgirl(because of Teen Titans ending), Batman not having a square chin and Kevin Conroy not doing the voice(because Justice League was still on at the time, Rino Ramano did a good job as a young Batman though), Scarecrow, Two-Face, and Ra's Al Ghul not appearing(because of them being in the new movies).

In a time where good cartoons are hard to find these days the creators of this show worked with what they had and did a great job at it.

In 92 WB produced Batman the animated series. In terms of style, content and storyline it was revolutionary as far as (american) cartoons were concerned. Kevin Conroy WAS and IS the voice of Batman. It was deep, commanding and capable of great range and he has continued being the voice of Batman through all the animated incarnations of the character until this one; from the sub-par Batman Beyond (I still count Bruce as Batman even in that series) to the superb Justice League. Indeed, so strong was the style of TAS that it dictated the tone of all DCs animated heroes, again, up until this show.

The problem with this show from the start is their decision not to use Conroy as Batman. It speaks volumes that they did not. It says, "we don't want this to be just like the other Batman cartoons". And it isn't, that's the problem.

While I don't deny people the chance to reinvent or reimagine, there is a simple truth to storytelling which is this: the further away you stray from the core concepts of the original story and character, the less attractive and watchable that character is and the poorer the result. This show proves that.

A younger Batman fighting crime and meeting his signature enemies is fine, but its been done and with considerably more style. The artwork is bizarre, not necessarily a problem in and of itself, but this Batman doesn't carry the gravity he requires- he's a guy who actively tries to terrorise criminals and you don't do that with neon-glowing gadgets as the dire Schumacher Batman movies proved eloquently.

The biggest problem I have is the characterisation, and that grates on me severely. The actual scripts are terrible, with cheesy, unfunny quips being made at every turn. Every character except Batman, Alfred and (possibly) Catwoman has been taken away from their roots, mostly so they can add some pointless fight sequences. The Joker is the biggest example, and he's been singled out many times for just this reason. The Joker is not good in a fight. He relies on henchmen and insanely well-prepared plans to achieve his ends, he does not leap around like something out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The Penguin, while he sometimes fences with umbrellas is also not a hand to hand combatant. He relies on henchmen and his wits to try to stay ahead.

All in all, this reminds me less of Jackie Chan as others have mentioned, mostly because that looked so awful I avoided it, but of another terrible show, the new He-Man cartoon *shudder* Lots of gimmicky cuts to other scenes, a lot of empty space and bright colours and all the characters seems to spend half their time in mid-air with speed lines zooming past them. And the same three bad guys behind every single event.

I agree totally with others who have marked this as disappointing. It is the weakest thing to come out of the Batman franchise since the execrable Batman & Robin, and while not quite on that level of crappiness, it does count against the good work that was done in Batman Begins, a film I would expect this to try and stay as close to as possible given the proximity of their release and the inherent similarity in concept.