Editorial Review:Amazon.com:Warner Brothers'
Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995) remains a striking, stylized program that helped to revitalize the familiar comic book hero. Drawing on such diverse influences as Frank Miller's graphic novel
The Dark Knight Returns, the Fleischers'
Superman cartoons of the early '40s, and contemporary Japanese animation, the filmmakers stress interesting designs and cinematography. The Caped Crusader prowls a sinister, Art Deco-styled world of tall verticals, sharp angles, silhouettes, searchlights, and grid-like shadows cast by window frames. Its visual pizzazz eclipses Filmation's pallid kidvid,
The Batman/Superman Hour (CBS, 1968), which ran off and on in various incarnations through 1981. Many of the same artists worked on the Batman animated features (e.g.,
Mask of the Phantasm (1993),
Batman Beyond--The Movie (1999)), which display similar strengths and weaknesses.
Ironically,
Batman: The Animated Series looks better in stills than it does in motion. The artists fail to stylize the movements of the characters to match the dramatic settings, as Genndy Tartakovsky and his crew did in
Samurai Jack. Batman uses sophisticated computers to combat the well-known villains--the Joker, the Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Catwoman--as well as some less celebrated baddies: Manbat, Clayface, The Mad Hatter. The bad guys cram a lot of plotting and scheming into each 22-minute episode, but the violence is kept to a broadcast standards minimum.
The Dark Knight's First Knight easily ranks as the most interesting of the extras. Producers Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski recount the genesis of the series, and show their mini-pilot, which is more violent and more fully animated. If the complete episodes had matched the pilot, the series would have been much more exciting. (Unrated, suitable for ages 8 and older: violence, mild grotesque imagery)
--Charles Solomon
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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bang for your buck
i have to say this was so good. my little brother and i watched the whole season the day we got it, i am a major justice league, batman, superman fan and if you love any of the 3 then you should watch this.
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Top notch entertainment!
Batman-The animated Series Volume one is a great example of what a well throughout quality action series can be. The animation, writing, and overall appearance is fantastic. I highly recommend this series to anyone who appreciates great action and quality animation.
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Good episodes thrown slopperly together
It would have been better if Batman Animated Series was released in seasons rather than volumes. Mostly because episodes have been put on each Volume in a sloppy way where they are out of order. I just recommend this volume because it's not like the seasons are available and there's at least a lot of good episodes here. We get a lot of good episodes with top villains such as the Joker, Two Face, Catwoman, Scare Crow, Poison Ivy, ManBat, Croc, Clay Face and the Riddler.
The Two Face episodes I think are the best since it has the one where Harvey Dent becomes Two Face. He's a Two Face that you can take seriously like the one in Dark Knight and unlike the one of Batman Forever. I also think the transformation from Dent to Two Face is handled better here than it was even in the Dark Knight. While the show is also worth checking out for Mark Hamil's voice over work as the Joker. He does such a ingenious job that it's pretty impossible to tell that Luke Skywalker talks for the Joker lol. This Batman show from the 90's is superior to the more recent show called The Batman as well. The show is about the only Batman adaption to come close to being as good as Batman Begins or the Dark Knight.
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Great Batman substitute for kids too young to watch The Dark Knight movie
I have a 5-year old and a 4-year old who both love all things Batman.
There's no way I'm going to let them watch a PG-13 rated movie. So, "The Dark Knight" is going to have to wait.
This DVD collection is my solution. While there still are some scares among these episodes, this collection is overall easy on young kids while still providing the action and excitement they crave.
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Great DVD, But Out of Order Episodes
To every fan of this series, Kevin Conroy is Batman. It is very easy to become a fan of the series. The complaint I have with this DVD is what some others have said, the episodes are out of order! Why? For people like me that like watching the seriesin order, it's annoying. One minute, Robin is there and you don't see him again for a few more episodes after that. For people that don't know any better, they'll be asking "Where did Robin go?" It really does hurt the viewing experience, not a whole lot, but enough to disrupt the flow of the show.
