Batman: The Animated Series, Volume One (DC Comics Classic Collection)

On the heels of Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns came BatMan: The Animated Series! A unique telling of the Batman legend that hadn't been done before in cartoon form. Most of the prior Batman cartoons were done more in the vein of the 60's Adam West TV series.This one took the character back to its darker roots much like Burton's live Batman films did. What is here is most of the first season of BatMan: The Animated Series. Done in the unique "Dark Deco" style that was never done before this series and I don't think has been done since.What's interesting is that originally, Batman was going to be a solo cartoon with occassional appearances from Robin but as the series got more popular, Robin appeared in more eppys to sell toys since most kids can't picture the B-man without his "Boy Wonder." Still, this volume is mostly Batman by himself with only two episodes featuring Robin (Volume 3 has the bulk of the Batman/Robin team ups).Here is a list of what's on each Disc and my opinions of each eppy/item:DISC 1On Leather Wings - This is one of the first (if not THE first) episodes of the series to air! I am not sure but I think it aired in primetime initially on FOX! That's how big this series was at one point! This episode also has commentary by Eric Rodomski and Bruce Timm.Anyway, it features Bruce Wayne (well into his career as BatMan) being blamed for crimes committed by his alter-ego. Bruce goes into action as BatMan to find the real culprit and gets more than he bargins for when he meets MAN-BAT!Christmas With The Joker - One of the most popular episodes as Batman and Robin try to save hostages from being killed by The Joker on Christmas Eve!Nothing To Fear - The first appearance of The Scarecrow as he forces Batman to face down his greatest fear!The Last Laugh - One of the more comical but classic duels between The Dark Knight & The Clown Prince Of Crime!Pretty Poison - When D.A. Harvey Dent is poisioned at a restaurant, Bruce Wayne (as BatMan) investigates Harvey's new fiance who turns out to be more than just a pretty face.The Underdwellers - Batman stumbles across homeless children being forced to work by a cruel madman!P.O.V. - Three different tales of a police bust that has Batman's life on the line!THE DARK KNIGHT'S FIRST NIGHT - The original promo by Bruce Timm. Very different looking that what we know now but still unique to look at!DISC 2Forgotten - While investigating a case of homeless men being taken off the streets, Bruce Wayne goes missing and loses his memory while being imprisioned!Be A Clown - Being ignored by his father Mayor Hill, his son turns to a clown for attention. Unfortunately, he turns out to be The Joker!Two-Face, Pt. 1 - This begins the story of the end of Harvey Dent and the beginning of one of the most tortured enemies of Batman's career.Two-Face, Pt. 2 - In a race against time and gang lord Rupert Thorne, Batman tries to hunt down Two-Face to save him before its too late!It's Never Too Late - Gang lord Thurmond Strong is torn between his gangster power and saving his own son (and even his soul) as both Batman and Rupert Thorne are after him!I've Got Batman In My Basement - Injured by The Penguin, Batman takes refuge in a 12 year old's basement!Heart Of Ice - The first appearance of Mr. Freeze! Transformed from the cooky character he was in the Adam West BatMan, Mr. Freeze is more of a sympathetic character who wants nothing but revenge on the one who murdered his wife! This episode has alternate commentary by Paul Dini, Eric Rodomski and Bruce Timm.BATMAN: THE LEGACY CONTINUES - A retrospective featurette!DISC 3The Cat And The Claw, Pt. 1 - Here we get the first appearance of CatWoman in the series! We also get a brand new villian in Red Claw.The Cat And The Claw, Pt. 2 - Stumbling onto a plot that's in over her head, Batman tries to save Catwoman but will Batman be scratched out!?See No Evil - A deranged thug is out to steal his daughter from his ex-wife using an invisible cloak! Batman comes to shed a little light on the situation!Beware Of The Grey Ghost - Special episode because the man that brought Batman to life in the 60's, Adam West, voices the Grey Ghost himself!Prophecy Of Doom - A con artist claiming to be a prophet is swindling millions out of Gotham's influential and only Batman can put this scheme out of business!Feat Of Clay , Pt. 1 - Matt Hagan was a big time actor who's career was nearly ended by a disfiguring accident until gangster Roland Daggett offered him a solution at a price! Now, that same solution which saved his career transforms him into a grotesque figure which can take any shape or form!Feat Of Clay, Pt. 2 - Hagan, now known as Clayface, seeks revenge on Roland Daggett with only The Dark Knight to stand in his way!TOUR OF THE BATCAVE - Interactive tour of Batman's famous lair!DISC 4The Joker's Favor - A poor civilian makes the mistake of chewing out The Joker in traffic. In exchange for his life, The Joker makes him promise him to do a favor, a favor he may live to regret!Vendetta - A witness goes missing and Detective Harvey Bullock is a suspect in his disappearance but Batman discovers another who may have motive to see both the witness AND Bullock share a watery grave!Fear Of Victory - Gotham's finest pro athletes are suddenly paralized with fear! Its up to Batman and Robin (who is also striken with fear) to solve this mystery!The Clock King - Blaming Mayor Hill for losing a case years back, Temple Fugett plans a timely revenge on the public official! The only snag in his plans is The Dark Knight.Appointment In Crime Alley - On the night of his "appointment", Batman has to save the neighborhood in which his parents were murdered from arsonists!Mad As A Hatter - Tervis Jest is a lonely little genius who invents mind control cards to sweep a woman, ironically, named Alice off of her feet! His advances, however, are rejected and this mad genius is swept into a blind obssession.Dreams In Darkness - The unthinkable happens as BatMan is locked up in Arkham Asylum as The Scarecrow hatches a scheme that may put all of Gotham in Arkham!Well, this package is worth your $30 bucks or so! This cartoon is one of a kind and may never be duplicated again! Own this one and lock it on your shelf!

Indeed it has been a long wait, but it was worth it. I have seen many television shows and am a huge fan of animation, but I have never seen ANYTHING on American television that can match the sheer brilliance of Batman: The Animated Series. I come from a family with diverse interests (where often family members do not like the same kind of shows), yet I remember with great fondness how my ENTIRE family would sit down five days a week (and for a while, six!) to watch this incredible show. When I told my parents I was getting this boxed set, their first question was "Does it have my favorite episode?". It's been a long time since this show first came on TV (something like 10 years I think), but it hasn't lost any of its sparkle. First of all, the stories told in this show were adult in nature. Not adult as in loaded with sex and violence, but adult as in having a PLOT, real characters that you cared about, intelligent scripting, and some actual SUBSTANCE. Some people claim that this show was sometimes great, and sometimes not. I think they're crazy. Some people claim that this show has not aged well. I believe they are insane as well. Almost every single episode of this series is awesome. Granted, there are some standout moments, but almost ALL of the episodes are worth watching many, many times. This show is style AND substance personified. Everything is done in film-noir style with an amazing universe that combined 1920's and 1930's with futuristic technology. You have black and white TVs, Tommy guns, and early 20th century skyscrapers combined with futuristic computers, underwater breathing devices, and ultra-slick gadgetry. The wonderful music composed for this series suits the action perfectly and adds to the atmosphere tremendously. The animation is by no means flashy, but the style is perfect and the action sequences flow perfectly. The voice-acting in this show is quite simply the best in the history of television, utilizing everyone from Mark Hamill (who IS the joker), to Adam West, David Warner, Paul Williams, and Kevin Conroy (who IS batman). Perhaps the greatest reason why this show is so classic, and so PERFECT, is that it's creators took it VERY seriously, and looked for ACTORS instead of voice-actors, SCRIPT WRITERS instead of cartoon script writers. Everyone gave this show their all, and it shows. All of the episodes included in this set are good, but some are just plain AWESOME. There are moments that stick in your head, lines that you can never forget. I can repeat many, many scenes of episodes word-for-word (even though I had only seen them once before). Every episode of this show was done in a short film style. That means that every episode tells a complete story and stands on its own. But even so, later episodes subtly make references to things that happened in previous episodes, making them that much better if you've been paying attention from episode 1 (the later episodes where we see flashbacks of Bruce Wayne being trained to be an escape artist and in the martial arts are particularly good examples). Of course, this is only the beginning of the series, so people checking it out for the first time can look forward to a great, long story ahead of them. If there is anything to be criticized in this DVD set, it's two-fold. One, the picture quality leaves a little to be desired. It is WAY better than the VHS, and the colors are probably better than ever, but there is a lot of speckling and smudging from the original film that could have been cleaned up (didn't it have less of that on television?). The other flaw is the lack of chapters within episodes. Granted, 7 episodes per disc with a total of 28 episodes included total is a GREAT value, but not being able to skip the intro and ending will annoy some people undoubtedly. Of course, I love the intro and ending so much, and they are so SHORT anyway, I really don't mind at all. Words cannot describe my joy at finally being able to own Batman: The Animated Series on DVD. I can hardly wait for the rest of it...

Series One and Two...I used to loved Spider Man as a child but when I bought this to watch with my little boy, I changed my mind. Batman quickly became my hero. No special powers just a guy (a rich one!) fighting for the good of humanity. And these episodes are simply fantastic. In fact watching them for the first time a few years back I was totally bowled over at just how good they are. There are 28 episodes in each box set (56 altogether) and they are all worth watching. My favourite episodes are:The Red Box SetHeart of IceThe Clock KingBeware of the Gray GhostFeat of Clay (part 1/2)Two Face (part 1/2)The Blue Box SetPerchance to DreamNight of the NinjaAlmost Got ’ImEternal YouthWhat Is Reality?If you’re a Batman fan then you’ll love these episodes. If your not a Batman fan then, after watching these, you will be! I guarantee it! They are simply that good. I still haven’t watched the latest two box sets (volumes 3/4), which I believe are all now in one united anniversary box set. The one I’m waiting to see is Over the Edge, which is supposed to be real cracker, which I think is in volume 4. I never really got into Batman: The Brave and the Bold but I did watch Chill of the Night, and thought it was fabulous.I hope you find my review helpful.

In 1992 Warner Brothers Animation capitalised on the success of the Tim Burton Batman films with a new animated series which took its cue from those movies in terms of visual design. The result was one of the most acclaimed cartoon series of all time, Batman: The Animated Series. It ran for three years and spawned a number of spin-off films and sequel series, not to mention the entire DC Animated Universe.The series was immensely successful for three key reasons. The first is its visual design, which moves away from the traditional primary colour aesthetic of cartoons to something much darker. This was achieved by painting light colours on black backgrounds rather than vice versa and setting most of the action at night. The art style also draws heavily from the Burton movies' mixture of art deco and retro design with modern technology. Stylistically, Batman may be one of the coolest and visually engaging series ever made.The second key to success is the writing. Whilst the show occasionally fumbles with a fairly obvious cops 'n' robbers story or an episode more suited to the 1960s Batman series, for most of the time the writing is pretty smart. Whilst overt blood or scenes of death are avoided, the show also doesn't hold back on showing the psychological damage the characters have received and even manages to turn certain characters - Mr. Freeze most notably - into tragic figures. This extends to Batman himself, who suffers occasional bouts of trauma resulting from the murder of his parents. One episode imagines a fantasy world in which Bruce Wayne's parents lived and is appropriately tragic. The series also does a good job of hitting the right note of moral ambiguity, such as in Bruce Wayne's friendship with the doomed Harvey Dent and the depiction of Catwoman as both an ally and an enemy.The third element of success is the voice acting. It's a remarkable feat given competition such as Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger, but Mark Hamill's Joker is now widely considered definitive for his hitting of just the right note of demented insanity in his portrayal of the character. Kevin Conroy's Batman is also terrific, particularly his ability to adjust his performance so that Wayne and Batman have somewhat different voices and people don't recognise him immediately (an idea that carries on into the Nolan films and Christian Bale's performance). One-off guest stars are also excellent, with Adam West (who played Batman in the 1960s TV series) relishing a chance to give a serious performance as a childhood TV hero of Bruce Wayne's who helped inspire him to become Batman.Episodes are fast-paced and engaging, action-packed enough to entertain children but with enough funny lines and smart moments of character-building to keep adults engaged. However, the show does suffer from a relaxed attitude to continuity. Aside from a few elements (Harvey Dent appearing several times before turning into Two-Face), the show doesn't have much of a developing story and characters appear and disappear randomly, particularly Robin. The show also mixes in-depth origin stories for some villains with others showing up and Batman apparently having known them for years.The absence of heavy continuity means it's a lot easier to dip in and enjoy the show without having to pay too much attention to details, but it also means some of the much more complex character development of later animated series is missing.Batman: The Animated Series is a highly watchable and enjoyable show with or without kids, with some beautiful artwork and terrific writing. The absence of more serialised storytelling means some storylines and characters are not fleshed out as much as might be wished, but overall this is an animated series that has aged very well and is worth checking out.

'Batman the Animated Series' is often considered to be one of the best versions of Batman ever to be animated. This series is effectively the beginning of the DC Animated Universe that includes, among others, the two 'Justice League' series, 'Superman the Animated Series' and 'Batman Beyond'. This first four disc volume includes the first twenty-eight episodes of the show's original run.Made in the early nineties, the animation of the series has dated considerably but despite this the actual storylines and characters remain mostly good today. There isn't really any story arc for the series as a whole with the majority of the episodes being stand-alone storylines, with the addition of a handful of two part episodes. Of the episodes included in this volume my favourites have to be 'Heart of Ice' (Mr Freeze's origin), 'Beware of the Gray Ghost' (that guest stars Adam West), the two part 'Feat of Clay' (Clayface's origin) and 'The Joker's Favor' (the first episode to include Harley Quinn). There are a few episodes that I dislike, such as 'The Underdwellers' and the episodes where Robin makes an appearance, but even these are still watchable and relatively entertaining.The series is also responsible for introducing some characters who are then included in the regular DC Comics canon with the most famous of these being Harley Quinn but also including the police officer Renee Montoya. The series does do a relatively good job of portraying Batman's rogue's gallery, even making some of the more gimmicky characters such as the Clock King and the Mad Hatter into relatively interesting enemies.The voice acting for the series is very good Kevin Conroy's performance as Batman/Bruce Wayne is great and Mark Hamill's Joker is easily the definitive animated version of the character.'Batman the Animated Series' is a great show and one that any fan of Batman must watch at least once. This first volume easily deserves a full five stars.

Now if you are a batman fan like me and you haven't seen the animated series then I say give this a go. Even though it is a cartoon and aimed at the younger ages it still has that dark comic style to it. The first disc is a bit weak but still enjoyable. The second, third, fourth disc get a lot better. The episodes get more interesting and the villains get more interesting. You see villains like the Joker, Two Face, Scarecrow, Penguin, Clay Face, Killer Croc and more. There are plenty of episodes to keep you going and I will soon get volume 2 and this was a great start to the animated series. The only problem is volume 3 and 4 are not available on Region 2. It is a let down and I hope they do some day release for Region 2 but for now you would just have to get volume 1,2 and maybe try out the other cartoons. I got this because as The Dark Knight Rises was the last instalment of Christopher Nolan's trilogy I decided to go back to the cartoons and comics as I really enjoyed The Dark Knight films. The disc case came in good conditions and I am very proud of my purchase, worth every penny.

There's no mistaking it: Batman The Animated Series began a revolution in American animation. The dark tones, highly stylised design and mature stories were unheard of in American animation before this series. Any animation or Batman fan should have this cartoon.Sadly, the DVD releases are sorely lacking in the sort of extras this show deserves. This first set offers commentary, but only on the first episode ('On Leather Wings') and the awe-inspiring introduction of Mr. Freeze to the show, 'Heart of Ice.' There's a decent retrospective featurette, 'Batman: The Legacy Continues,' which explores where the show came from and the impact it has had. We're also given a rarely seen piece of animation that served as the test reel for the show, complete with a verbal intro, listed here as 'The Dark Knight's First Night'; it is basically the mini-story from the show's opening sequence, but with animation closer to the series' style. Lastly, we're given some trailers for the other 'animated DC universe' shows. Not really what one would hope for such a groundbreaking series, but better than nothing.The sound is crisp and clear, in a stereo mix that serves surround systems decently, and the score is nothing short of stunning on these DVDs (in fact, an isolated score track for every ep would've been a great extra). The picture is decent, but it doesn't look like a lot of trouble was taken to clean up any clearly messy cel reproduction.This is essential animation, but hopefully one day it'll warrant a better release.