Batman- The Animated Series

For starters, it's retarded for this series not to have a thread dedicated to it.

Apart from that, rewatched a few episodes. The general consensus is that this is the king of all Batman media (animated, live action or whatever else) and it's easy to see why a lot of people feel that way. It's easy at least for me to forget what high quality animated things like On Leather Wings really have. That kind of production value that was almost completely foreign to children's television programming of the time.

Not sure if I'm quite ready to call this thing definitive but it's easily the best as far as adaptations go.

'Batman: Mask of the Phantasm' is the best Batman movie ever made.

Apologist Puncher wrote:'Batman: Mask of the Phantasm' is the best Batman movie ever made.

A few things.

01- That little remark just earned you a "Thanks".

02- Six months ago, I wouldn't necessarily have agreed with you. I would've said "I dunno, dude, B89 is tough to beat." But now I'm starting to think that Burton isn't perfect, it's just the best that live action has to offer... and that perhaps live action isn't where Batman really flourishes. Maybe animation is a better vehicle for him.

03- Of course, that thought process inevitably leads you back to the central thesis of my post up there (ie, BTAS leaks Awesome Juice all over the place).

'Batman: TAS' didn't do what cartoons these days LOVE to do:

Pander to kids with ADD.

It told VERY mature stories. It had VERY impressive visuals. It showed Batman being BATMAN. Hell, it was so good my FATHER used to watch TAS!

Unfortunately, the days of cartoons reaching beyond the "Kids are smarter and cooler than adults!!" mantra are almost, if not already, over.

Apologist Puncher wrote:'Batman: TAS' didn't do what cartoons these days LOVE to do:

Pander to kids with ADD.

It told VERY mature stories. It had VERY impressive visuals. It showed Batman being BATMAN. Hell, it was so good my FATHER used to watch TAS!

Unfortunately, the days of cartoons reaching beyond the "Kids are smarter and cooler than adults!!" mantra are almost, if not already, over.

No doubt. The other thing is that a lot animation these days is either CG shit or else really cheap hand drawn cell stuff. You just don't see the same level of TLC anymore. But even if you do, it's usually with stuff that would only make sense if you dropped a shitload of LSD.

thecolorsblend wrote:No doubt. The other thing is that a lot animation these days is either CG shit or else really cheap hand drawn cell stuff. You just don't see the same level of TLC anymore. But even if you do, it's usually with stuff that would only make sense if you dropped a shitload of LSD.

The only one I see bucking this trend is 'Young Justice'.

There's also the comic book called The Batman Adventures to consider in this. It was based on BTAS. At the time, and rightfully so, I had a prejudice about comics based on external media. It felt weird to me to read a comic based about a show or movie that was based on a comic. I felt like it was like choosing a picture of a photograph of Woodstock when you have a time machine and can go there in person.

But Batman Adventures? Bucked the trend. It was an early lesson for me that comics can do some things better than animation, live action, prose or other media. TBA had a zany tone that never quite went over the top. It could be as dark as anything you saw on BTAS but it could also be just plain ol FUN too. And it was specific to that creative team too. Kelley Puckett (writer) and Mike Parobeck (penciller). Not saying the subsequent stuff sucked, just that Batman Adventures became something else when they left (or passed away in Parobeck's case).

Put another way, the show had so much potential that it even carried it's own comic book to some amazing heights that won a ton of industry awards. How many "as seen on TV/based on the hit series" comic books can make that claim?

God loved the show as a kid and this plus the 90s xmen and spidey toon was a great time. I haven't watched the show fully in a long time. But timmverse stuff was great. And they knew what they where doing. The simple animation was good and stories where great, I do know the hub plays this and batman beyond weekly but I haven't had the chance to view much of either. And loved the dtv films for it besides the shit batwoman one.