Baby-Doll

Animation has changed so much in the last few years, it is hard to even define the borders that distinguish it from live action today. Yes, there was a "dead zone" from the 60s to the 90s, when quality actually declined because no one wanted to spend the bucks for hand-drawn cells, and computers had not yet come along to fill the gap. And now we are back in a Golden Age of sorts, where, astonishingly, some of the product coming out of the US is as good as the stuff from Japan. Or better. Against this backdrop we have the Baby Doll episode from the Emmy winning multi-year series. While just a tad more satirical then the usual episodes (which are almost all GREAT) an astonishing script and an UNFORGETTABLE ending take this single episode to the status of legend.

Except for the gratuitous violence and gunfire, I found this episode touching but disturbing. A woman has a condition that doesn't allow her to age. She is to remain a little girl for her whole life. She started as a child actor but never progressed. There is a pathetic scene where she plays Lady Macbeth and it laughed off the stage. She blames her former cast members and kidnaps them with the intent of killing them. Batman intervenes, of course, but he has a touching sympathy for her plight. She is certainly a formidable villain (if we can call her that) and again we see the gentle side of Batman. It works pretty well with an homage to "The Lady from Shanghai."