The Batman - new cartoon (1 Viewer)

[Will Cunningham]

I just watched the new Batman cartoon that premiered on the WB Sat morning. It is nice to have a new batman fix, but I think it will take a few episodes for me to really judge it.

It is really hard not to compare it to Batman:The Animated Serries, which was sooo good there is little chance of any new batman show (with a different creative team) doing a better job. I love batman so there is a certain amount of new batman is new batman, but I think this serries has a shot at being pretty good.

They seem to be focusing on batman's earlier years and have Bruce and Alfred apearing younger than I am used too. That is good because it helps seperate it from Batman:TAS and provides a fresh take on things. I am definately going to continue watching and see how future episodes turn out.

One thing that did stick out was the female cop who was wearing almost the exact same outfit that Elise Maza from the Gargoyles serries was wearing. I had to do a double take to make sure it was not her, especially since they are both cops. It is so coincidental that I wonder if it is a homage of some sort. Small thing really, but it definately caught my eye.

 

[Scott L]

I personally prefer the early 90's version but this anime-esque series looks like it will entertain a newer generation of fans.

Here's a clip:

http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol...ane_qt_300.mov

 

[David Williams]

One word capsule review: ick!

I couldn't even finish watching it, it was so bad. I started cringing during the credits when they showed off their redesigns of the Rogue's Gallery (not to mention what they did to Rupert Thorne in the pre-credit sequence). The only character design that looked vaguely palatable was Catwoman's (Freeze and Joker were just plain scary, and not in the good way).

BTW, What's the deal with "The Batman", are they jumping on the whole The bandwagon (The Passion of *the* Christ, The Passion of *the* Jew, The Passion of *the* Clerks, etc)?

 

[Will Cunningham]

I don't think the "The Batman" thing is a bandwagon issue. I remember discussions about that from 12+ years ago when I was a comic book collector. The part that annoys me is I can't remember what context it was in, quite frustrating really. lol.

I have to agree that seeing rupert thorn as a disco reject was something of a letdown. It almost ranks up there with Batman 4 when they turned Bane into a muscle bound lackey who couldn't even talk. I don't feel so badly about Joker though. I don't hate the new version of the Joker, but that is somewhat easy for me as I never really liked the Joker that much. He never seemed smart or strong enough to give batman a run for his money.

 

[Ray H]

Damn. I was interesed in seeing this but missed it. Oh well. I haven't been keeping up with the news of cartoons in a while. I'm still actually trying to watch a new episode of that Justice League Unlimited show on Cartoon Network.

 

[Dewitte]

JLU repeats at 5 p.m. Eastern today, Ray. It was a good one too.

De

 

[James T]

He was always either called The Batman or just Batman. Either way, it's a name that's been used for decades. It just so happened they used the title "The" for the new show.

I thought it was okay. I'm a huge Batman fan, so I'll probably watch it either way, but I don't lose sleep if it gets cancelled.

And since this is a year three show, I guess we'll be seeing Robin before the season finale.

 

[Jerome Grate]

Saw and recorded it for my son, like the action but this prequel I'll call contradicts every thing about the previous series. But still entertaining.

 

[Ray H]

I missed it! I haven't seen an episode of this show in about a year! I never remember when it's on.

 

[Lance_R]

For the season opener it was pretty good. I am glad they did not rehash how he became The Batman, just jump into the action.

They can not just redoo Batman:TAS they have to change something, while a high a bar is set I think this show can do good things on it own.

I like the year 3 setting and how he is urban legend right now. Good play on how Bruce manages his personal life and Alfred really helps him.

 

[Robert Floto]

Ray, the pilot episode of The Batman being discussed here will be repeated this Friday (9/17) on The WB.

 

[Phil Florian]

Saw most of it but the ending got cut off. I liked the logo design (harkens back to the old one) and the use of cool sounds for the batarang and such. But overall, I think they tried to hard to make it more "cool" for the kids or something. Joker jumping around like Nightcrawler was kind of silly...he wasn't supposed to be a threat physically. He is a terrorist, plain and simple. He puts people in jeopardy for whatever reason and was unpredictable and that was his biggest threat. He doesn't have to be Ninjoker to be cool.

Also wasn't sure if they were trying to distance themselves from the 90's version or not. The voices sounds sorta like that shows, just not as good. Kevin Conroy...as a 20 something. Mark Hammill...needing throat losenges. Stuff like that. I will try to catch it a couple more times but I agree, I won't lose sleep. JLU is getting my geek on, so I don't need to have much more. Maybe they should have released this closer to the release of the new Batman movie next year.


Phil

 

[Rob T]

I haven't seen it yet, but I'm not too excited about it. I loved Batman: TAS and I'm eagerly awaiting January 25th.

 

[Pat Ashmore]

I was mostly pleased with this new, younger incarnation.
The voices, animation, and tone were thankfully on par with the earlier series.

However, some of the coloring was distracting(green and red skies). The style resembles The Batman-Superman Adventures, which had a more "cartoonish" look. BTAS still comes across as more mature and darker.

Regardless, I look forward to more episodes. Batman, when taken seriously, is arguably the best superhero franchise.
Plus, he has the most interesting villains.

 

[Michael_EC]

Does anyone know if a Canadian network is carrying/is going to carry the show? YTV maybe?

 

[RyanAn]

Personally, I thought the show was pretty fun. I liked how the detective knew Bruce Wayne, although he did not know that Bruce was THE Batman.


The Joker was possibly his craziest ever, it definatley shows some potential. I am not big on anime, but this was not bad at all.

Ryan