Batman: The Animated Series

Does this show still hold? Can it be enjoyed by an adult?

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It's overall fine but you can't marathon it because at least 40% of the episodes are dogshit.

It's good but Batman Beyond and Justice League are waaay better.

yeah. It's still good on the whole

>Batman Beyond
Hell god baby damn no.
>Justice League
It's really different. Hard to compare.

Terry was a badass, he was swimming in pussy throughout the entire show, he got an entirely original rouges gallery all to his own, all of which were awesome, the show had wonderful continuity with BTAS while having better animation and design work, and the show was WAY more violent and lethal than any other WB cartoon show.

By the time they got to Justice League all of the crew were in top form as story tellers, especially by season three, the whole Cadmus arc.

BTAS will always be more recognized for basically revolutionizing western animation, but the shows they did after just kept getting better.

The Batman is better in so many ways it's ridiculous.

Can you just stop? It's embarrassing

It's massively underrated because it followed directly after B:TAS, but better? Please.

>at least 40% of the episodes are dogshit
Maybe, but the episodes that were good were god-tier.

>badass
Really? Bruce always had more charisma.
> he was swimming in pussy throughout the entire show
How is that an argument? Also the romance with ten is a fucking waste.
>an entirely original rouges gallery all to his own
No way near BTAS level. And it's usually some copy paste of BATS ones.
>better animation
i agree
>design work
Thats your taste.

Just because not every episode was Heart Of Ice doesn't mean they were also Batman In My Basement-tier

Short Answer: Yes.
Long Answer: The artwork aged spectacularly and the voice actors were top notch. The stories tend to drop from time to time, but the better stories are excellent.

Superman is better, though.

It's good, has some really great episodes. If you can deal with some silly episodes throw into the midst, give it a go. Watch the movies, and Beyond afterwards too.

>at least 40% of the episodes are dogshit.
>The stories tend to drop from time to time

Is there a guide or something about what the most essential to watch episodes are?

>superman is better
Fuck off, the show was as good as the N64 Game

Just watch like 2-5 minutes of an episode and you can generally tell how it's going to go.

Every villains origin episode is pretty well done.
The ninja one.
Mask of the Phantasm

I have had the desire to marathon the entire thing
How do I go about doing so?
Any site that actually has the entire series?

its good until season 3

the episodes where all the major villains meet is my fav

I watched a few early episodes recently and I still liked it. Dunno how much of that is the nostalgia though. I loved this so much as a kid when it was airing on Fox 11.

When they play cards and Batman is undercover? yea it's one of the best.

Soooo (and this is from memory) Almost Got Him, The Trial aaaand...the one with Hugo Strange?

Is it true that each episode were cut by commercials?

was*

was thinking the first one, but The Trial was great too

Superman feels more contemporary,and the characters are written/acted far more naturally. BTAS is by no means dated or immature, but there is so growing pains that come from jumping out of the era of cheesy 80's action cartoons to something more nuanced. The acting is a bit more melodramatic and stilted. I think thats why the post STAS shows resonate a lot more with Sup Forums's younger audience.

The sow as a whole is pretty great but I think a lot of it is more enjoyable from an aesthetic standpoint than just storywise, like the Fleischer Superman cartoons. While theres great episodes, the standalone quality somewhat hurts it from feeling like a whole, and you don't get the satisfaction of seeing things build up over arcs, and the few arcs there are aren't particularly notable. Still, one of the best Batman adaptations, and one of the few "pure" ones since they were drawing mainly from the comics, not mixing in the movies(besides superficial things like Penguin/Catwoman's designs) or other animation or video games.

It’s not even the most underrated, that’s Beware the Batman. TB is just...there.

it's SUPER hit and miss.

The good episodes(baby doll, heart of ice, mad love, etc) are fucking incredible, but a huge portion of episodes are 'just okay' or godawful shit like 'batman in my basement'.

I feel that batman beyond, while never getting AS good as BTAS, maintains a far more consistent quality.

What do you mean, exactly?

Yeah, there are tons of lists out there on BTAS, but honestly I think most of it is worth watching.

There are some "BEST OF" lists that put some really lame episodes in there, and then some "WORST OF" lists that write out some great episodes (I remember seeing Baby Doll on a couple of "worst episodes" lists, and that's just a crime). So really, you're better off just watching it yourself. Some episodes are great all the way through, some start great and end on a weird note, some start out slow but get really good near the end, etc. There's no real way to know how much you'll like it until you give it a go.

Watch the first 15 episodes or so, at least, without skipping.

If you like what you're seeing, you'll enjoy the rest. If not, you can drop the show.

>the artwork aged spectacularly
it really didn't. the hand-drawn nature is especially evident if you ever look in the backgrounds and see just how many still images there are.

>I feel that batman beyond, while never getting AS good as BTAS, maintains a far more consistent quality.

Definitely. I actually honestly think beyond goes above and beyond BTAS, but that's just my personal preference. It's undeniable that the quality is consistently good, and never dips into silly territory like BTAS usually did. It has a much more consistent tone.

Also Return of the Joker is on par if not better than Mask of the Phantasm, two 10/10 films.

See, I watched both but I liked B:TAS more, but I'm honestly not sure if it's a matter of personal taste, actual quality or just me nostalgia-fagging for B:TAS.

I think the worst villain portrayed on the show was Penguin. Chalk that up with writers not knowing what to do with him.

What about 'Heart of Steel' and 'His Silicon Soul'?
And, frankly, I loved any episode that had Clayface in it.

I honestly think that series made Clayface and Riddler my favorite Batman villains.

eeeh...the good parts of return are the death of the joker and the climax. mask is consistently good and made me actually LIKE bruce wayne.

Justice league:
"OH GOD MY HEADACHE"
"Raaaaa I'm gonna ignore you because fuckin angry"

>seeing Baby Doll on a couple of "worst episodes" lists
No fucking way. I refuse to believe it.

BTAS was great. Yea, you have shit episodes, but the series were great. batman, Alfred, and a few villains that were less "criminally insane" and more "utterly broken people". Mad Hatter, Baby Doll, Mr. Freeze... they were like walking ebmbodiments of "shit happens" and life had trounced them. And fuck that contrarian stuff, it was great. Not everybody must be jokertime.

That seems fair, actually. Its high notes were never quite as high as BTAS, but its low notes were also never as low. Plus, I liked the Hunter.

I'd like to remind everyone that BTAS had the only good Mad Hatter, sadly. I'm tired of Jervis getting shit on by writers, he can be both a legitimate threat and a heartbreaking metaphor for escapism. But no, he's often written as a weird pedophile with a serious hat fetish

Yeah, it's called 'don't listen to nitpicking neckbeards on Sup Forums, just watch every episode and enjoy yourself'.

jervis seemed to age horribly during BTAS

in his first ep he's like late 20s/early 30s

when we see him in the episode he's hiding out as a clown he looks like an old man

I'd say so but I find it weaker than JLU and BB. Hell a lot better than STAS though. Also Dick in this is a complete waste of time and space
>New Adventures of Batman and Robin
>just shows Robin on his motorcycle since he had no cools scenes
>never does anything
>whiny and bitchy

Was that in season 4? Because a lot of characters got a horrible makeover during that final season. Jervis became a damn gremlin

yeah the clown one was after the redesign

Absolutely not.
The worst handled character was objectively Catwoman and you can chalk that up to Sean Derek's mishandling of the character. They also butchered Hugo Strange.
While Oswald did have an abysmal introduction episode and conceptual complications, TAS Penguin is still one of the best versions. They quickly redeemed themselves with Birds Of A Feather (one of the best episodes) and he still made great appearences in episodes like Almost Got Im and Second Chance.

The "dogshit" episodes that people generally agree to be terrible in TAS are: Batman In My Basement, The Underdwellers, Cape and Cowl Conspiracy, any episode Sean Derek was involved in (POV, The Forgotten, Prophecy of Doom, and the 4 Catwoman episodes she wrote), Lock-Up, Tyger Tyger, The Terrible Trio and Moon of the Wolf. And let's add The Mechanic and Christmas With The Joker while we are at it because people don't seem to like those episodes either.

That's 16 "dogshit" episodes. In a series of 85 episodes. That isn't even enough to reach 20% of the total series.

I'm not saying TAS was perfect (no one is) but it seems like you and plenty others in this thread are overblowing the amount of bad episodes to make the series seem worse than it really was. Not surprising because every mention of TAS in Sup Forums is immediately followed by autists like coming out of the woodwork to complain about [insert any other Batman or DC cartoon] is better and how TAS was overrated dogshit that clubbed their dog to death with the Heart of Ice Emmy, usually using this same argument.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=u5Cdguyut8s

Personal list:

Essentials:

Two Face, Part 1 and 2
Heart of Ice
Beware the Gray Ghost
Feat of Clay, Part 1 and 2
Joker's Favor
Vendetta
The Clock King
Perchance to Dream
Robin's Reckoning, Part 1 and 2
Night of the Ninja
If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?
Almost Got 'Im
Birds of a Feather
The Man Who Killed Batman
The Demon's Quest, part 1 and 2
His Silicon Soul
Baby Doll
Showdown
Harley's Holiday
Mask of the Phantasm

Recommended:

On Leather Wings
Nothing to Fear
The Last Laugh
Pretty Poison
P.O.V.
Be a Clown
It's Never Too Late
Fear of Victory
Appointment at Crime Alley
Mad As a Hatter
Dreams in Darkness
The Laughing Fish
Heart of Steel, part 1 and 2
Joker's Wild
Day of the Samurai
Terror in the Sky
I am the Night
Mudslide
Paging the Crime Doctor
Zatanna
Harley and Ivy
Shadow of the Bat, part 1 and 2
Read My Lips
Sideshow
A Bullet for Bullock
Trial
Harleyquinade
Time Out of Joint
Bane
Riddler's Return
Second Chance
Deep Freeze
Batgirl Returns
Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero

Mixed bag but worth watching:

Christmas with the Joker
The Forgotten
Eternal Youth
What is Reality?
The Mechanic
Avatar
Time Out of Joint
Lock Up
Make 'Em Laugh

Ehhh...

The Cat and Claw, Part 1 and 2
See No Evil
The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy
The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
Moon of the Wolf
Off Balance
Blind as a Bat
Fire from Olympus
House & Garden
Catwalk
The Lion and the Unicorn

Completionists only:

The Underdwellers
I've Got Batman in My Basement
Prophecy of Doom
Cat Scratch Fever
Tyger Tyger
The Worry Men
The Terrible Trio

Reread your post and please tell me if you can see whats wrong woth it.

the art is hand drawn and the backgrounds are stilted and shitty.

Good list, though I really like Fire from Olympus.

It's still good. I still view this characterization as THE Batman.

There you go, theres an actual complaint instead of "the backgrounds are still images" like in literally every fucking thing ever.
Now tell us why they feel stilted and shitty other than "they are".

they're incredibly jarring compared to the generally smooth foreground animations.

You can also notice just how inactive most scenes are, with only one or two details actually moving.

It's still good, but the animation is definitely dated.

I agree with most of these but I think Blind As A Bat is a great episode.

One thing I really enjoy about TAS is that it was made before Kevin Conroy started phoning it in. You wouldn't know it from the way he does Batman in his later work, where he uses the same monotone voice for everything, but back in TAS, he played Bruce Wayne and Batman as two entirely distinct characters. Bruce actually came off like the wealthy, carefree socialite he's trying to appear to be, and Batman came off like the gritty, frightening living shadow he wanted criminals to think he was (without going into full Christian Bale territory). I guess you could chalk that up to TAS being comparatively early in his career, though- maybe by the time JLU rolls around, he's pretty much given up on maintaining two identities.

Also, one thing you're going to notice about TAS is that the action is much, much slower. It's not just that TAS is a show with less conflict- the more detailed nature of the show's art direction and the stricter Standards & Practices meant that for a show ostensibly about a crimefighting superhero, there just wasn't much actual fighting compared to the shows you see today. No long, drawn out fight scenes, no choreography- just a couple of simple punches, maybe he throws a Batarang, and it's all over. It's not bad, per se, but it's definitely different.

Batman TAS and Mask of the Phantasm are simply fantastic. They still hold up. They are brilliant.
The music too, is brilliant.

To me, the batman and robin theme is THE batman theme.
It captures the heroism and tragedy of the character best.

For me, it is the standard setter.

If you haven't watched it already, I'd strongly suggest watching it.
It might be worth asking people to name the best episodes and watching that and then branching out from there, some are more "tv" than others.

This show had a massive impact on me growing up and I feel that maybe todays youth are at a disadvantage because they don't have a show like this to introduce them to such serious and mature themes.

p.s

Another important thing to remember about this series is that "boy wonder" was actually depicted as a serious and interesting character. He was actually pretty cool. He was his own man, with his own problems, who eventually went his own way.

Not to be that guy but they just are. You're asking why blue is blue, and why blue is different from red. It just is. The backgrounds are a different artistic style than the foreground. I like the contrast, some don't, but to pretend it doesn't exist is idiotic.

I think it's possible to be dated while also being timeless. They have a very clear and strong art-deco style in the show, but their consistency with that actually helps to make it more timeless.

no Mad Love?

>he's pretty much given up on maintaining two identities.
I think it's more of a problem with the scripts themselves and not Conroy.
He's not being allowed to make the distinction anymore because the scripts call for a constant serious Batman and they forget Bruce Wayne is supposed to be an act.
TAS had moments of levity that allowed the Bruce Wayne persona to come through naturally, and it made for some pretty great moments like at the end of Second Chance or in the "I didn't plan on being happy" scene from Phantasm where he just talks normally, neither as phony socialite Wayne or grim and tough Batman.

Compare it to Arkham where his job is to basically mumble and grunt his way across levels and you see how restricted he's become.

Pretty much brilliant assessment of the series, but, even the "ehh" category contains some brilliant stuff.

Really shows you how powerful this series was.

I watched it for the first time as an adult and I did so "yes"

I didn't binge it though. It's a show that I enjoyed one or two episodes of before going to bed.

I see it more as a less is more style of being bruce wayne. Bruce wayne isn't a bad guy, just kind of reserved and a bit of a stiff. Maybe a little goofy and too polite. He won't have an answer for everything etc.

Batman has an answer for everything. Even if he doesn't know what's going on. He's got a level of self confidence and cynicism that Bruce doesn't really express.

I just did the BTAS episodes and not the TNBA; partly because I haven't seen those as much as the earlier ones and partly because of the massive shift in art and tone.

>Does this show still hold? Can it be enjoyed by an adult?
Only the first season. Seasons two and three are downhill, and season four is a very mixed bag.

>Only the first season. Seasons two and three are downhill

A lot of 90s cartoons, even the best ones, had the problem of having great 1st seasons but going downhill afterwards. I suppose the constant threat of cancellation made them put in all their A-game early.

BtB is massively underrated too. I wish there had been more.

The New Adventures hasn't aged too good for me, feels pretty bleh after a few episodes in but Nightwing is still cool to see.

Yes to both.

I don't mean the animation style, but the animation itself.

>The Forgotten
>bad
What?
I thought it was pretty decent. youtube.com/watch?v=zjFRF6Li_Wo

Yes. It had a lot of really polished gems like "Perchance to Dream," "Almost Got 'im" and "Joker's Favor."

t. Child

>this show was good because the hero was a mary sue i could self-insert as and feel cool

Batman beyond sucks, though. And so does JL season 1.

I enjoyed the fuck out of Beyond...but let’s face it. He had Spider-Man’s rogues gallery for the most part.

Stalker = Kraven
Spellbinder = Mysterio
Shriek = Shocker

Sure he has some stand out originals, but he Terry was a bit Spider-Bat

The comic version came first and was superior.

The only Beyond villains worth a shit were Blight and Inque, the former dead after Season 1 and the latter appearing too little to matter.

I liked "Off Balance". The final fight with Count Vertigo was interesting.

I think it's perfect, every episode is awesome. You guys are just little bitches.

*except batman in my basement
FTFY

After google no it, I've realized I've never seen that one. I was thinking of the one where the black guy is talking to Batman and says something about the basement, and it tips Batman off that he's in trouble.

I may have seen it when i was really young, because I vaguely remember Batman being out of commission in someone's house, but it's mostly a blank.

You notice how most of the poorer episodes were Penguin-centric?

IMO, yes. This Series was Harley's debut. The episodes with Mad Hatter, Mr Freeze & Two Face are the best. Very few episodes were bad. I picked up all 4 seasons of TAS at costco a while back. You won't regret it.

Going by the production book, Fox hit the staff with a lot of requirements for Penguin that they actively resented more some of the other network meddling.

TNBA Penguin was much closer to what they actually wanted to do with the character from the start but weren't allowed to.

Not that I think they deliberately set out to make bad episodes with the Penguin, just that they weren't really comfortable with using him.

Him and Catwoman. You could tell they weren't too thrilled about using them.

>don't listen to neckbeards
>advocates binge watching television

>Does this show still hold? Can it be enjoyed by an adult?

My dad hates all cartoons, but one of the few he could enjoy were Batman TAS (because it was significantly more serious than everything else at the time) and Swat Kats (he loved the high-tech jet and the gadgets).

Well, Batman Returns was still very recent and putting them at the center of attention. FOX wanted that cross-marketing from Penguin and Catwoman, even going so far as to have them look like their movie selves.

To be fair, though, Not-Michelle Catwoman looked a hell of a lot better than the drowned zombie she became in TNBA.

I liked the new royal flush gang.

It's frustrating, because it was the closest to get to B:TAS in terms of tone. I liked the gloomyness of it and the minimalism of the flashy gadgets, in favor of focusing more on detective cases and character arcs.

The things that really fucked it over (besides CN shitting on DC cartoons that aren't TTGo) are WBA's insistence on CGI, which killed a lot of the atmosphere, and the unrealistic guns, which again, killed a lot of the immersion in a show that was otherwise pretty grounded show.

I asked myself the same thing, so I picked the episode 'jokers favor' and dove right in.
Damned fine choice, the episode was brilliant. I'd watch it OP

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Why am I the only one that has love for Underdwellers.
This one and heart of Ice are the ONLY episodes that stuck in my mind. I was sad to find the shitty underlord dude or whatever was just a one off little nobody, his shtick was great to me as a kid.

But it had the worst rogue gallery ever created for Batman. Mr. Toad, Cypher, Junkyard Dog, are you fucking kidding me? And even when they actually picked an interesting enemy they found a way to make them boring, like turning Pyg into an eco-terrorist. League of Assassins were the only enemy worth a damn, and I guess I kind of liked Magpie but only for 34 reasons.