Paul Dini comes to The Brave and the Bold to do a Bat-Mite story, and it's a hoot, with all the Dini-esque riffs you'd expect. Tons of homages. There's Ace the Bat-Hound, who's almost as vicious here as his Batman Beyond namesake. There's Bat-Mite changing Batman's look to reflect or lampoon such things as the Adam West costume, the Frank Miller Dark Knight, and the Joel Schumacher Bat-nipple costume. There's Calendar Man getting magic powers from Bat-Mite and pitting Batman against biker Santas and killer Easter bunnies. There's a Freakazoid-esque fourth-wall breaker with Bat-Mite and the show producers at a convention responding to fan complaints about how they want the dark, gritty Batman back -- after which we see caricatures of Paul Dini in a Harley costume and Bruce Timm in a Joker costume, with the latter saying "Meh." There's Bat-mite trying to emulate Batman in his mental landscape, starting with an homage to the Batman: The Animated Series main titles, but then becoming an homage to Daffy Duck's The Great Piggy Bank Robbery followed by something more like Porky in Wackyland, with Bat-Mite being overwhelmed by Silver-Age versions of Batman's entire rogues' gallery (even including Mr. Zero, the obscure villain who was reworked into Mr. Freeze by the Adam West series; ironic that Dini, who invented the modern, tragic Mr. Freeze, would revert to the pre-Freeze version of the character). It's a hoot.
The main failing of the episode is Paul Reubens as Bat-Mite. His voice characterization lacks the energy I'd expect from either the actor or the character, and comes off as kind of bland. On a show where most everything is dialed up to 11, he delivered a 7, tops.
The main failing of the episode is Paul Reubens as Bat-Mite. His voice characterization lacks the energy I'd expect from either the actor or the character, and comes off as kind of bland. On a show where most everything is dialed up to 11, he delivered a 7, tops.
