The new Batman Animated series

[Christopher]

^^Well, as long as advertisers believe that cartoons need to be aimed at kids, you won't get more sophisticated cartoons on TV. That's why Warner Bros. Animation and Bruce Timm have begun making PG-13 direct-to-DVD movies. That's where you need to look for that kind of material these days.

 

[Captain Craig]

I'll be curious to see it for two reasons.
1-original blue/gray costume is back
2-yellow oval is once again incorporated into the symbol

I liked The Batman and thought it was a fairly well done show. The problem it had was it followed Batman the Animated Series which frankly has set a high bar. I feel Brave & Bold is such a thematic departure that it can either stand or fall on its own without bearing the burden of comparison to Animated that The Batman had to endure.

 

[Capt_Piett]

"JLU was ended because the advertisers who fund CN's programming prefer cartoons that are geared toward younger viewers"

Ugh...like Pokemon, or Dragonball Z and the like. Blech. Even The Batman has a rather anime feel to it, but it's as close to The Animated Series as we're going to get.

Have they said what villains are going to be on B&TB? I'd love to see Mark Hammill come back and voice the Joker again....

 

[Christopher]

Ugh...like Pokemon, or Dragonball Z and the like. Blech. Even The Batman has a rather anime feel to it, but it's as close to The Animated Series as we're going to get.

You can't judge anime by the cheap stuff that tends to get imported preferentially like Pokemon. Anime isn't a genre, just a medium -- animation produced in Japan. And that's even more diverse overall than American animation.

That said, I don't really get what people are referring to when they say The Batman had an anime feel to it. I mean, there's a real Batman anime out there, Gotham Knight, and there's just no comparison. The Batman had its own distinct look that was just as original and just as American as the DC Animated Universe shows.

Although of course American and Japanese animation have been cross-pollinating each other for generations; some of the design elements that are considered quintessentially anime were introduced by cartoonists who were emulating Disney.

Have they said what villains are going to be on B&TB? I'd love to see Mark Hammill come back and voice the Joker again....

The emphasis is going to be on non-Batman villains and action outside of Gotham. We've seen Batman's rogues' gallery ad nauseam over the past couple of decades. The Brave and the Bold is more a sort of anthology show with Batman as the familiar anchor for stories about heroes and villains who generally haven't been featured much, or ever, on TV in the past. You can learn more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_The_Brave_and_the_Bold

 

[Dar70]

Definitely a kiddie program. Very silly. But thats what they were going for. Sad to say I kinda lost interest the first 15 minutes.

 

[nx1701g]

I watched it, not good not bad. Lost interest though.

 

[Christopher]

I loved it. It was very funny and entertaining, a great tribute to the bright, lively, wacky comics of the '50s and '60s. I laughed out loud at a lot of it, particularly the throwaway bits of slapstick with the Gibbles (and this alleged "kiddie show" was surprisingly vicious to the poor things), but there was a nice birth-of-a-hero story to it as well, some interesting characterization.

Diedrich Bader is excellent as this Batman, a Batman who's as tough and ultra-capable as Batman always is, but who has a dry, self-assured wit as well. This isn't a grim avenger but a Batman who's tempered by having friends and partners to put his faith in, and that's as valid a take on the character as any. It's a Dick Sprang-style Batman, but with modern sensibilities too; his tech is very high, with neat gadgets that seem to be based on the "memory material" technology of the Batman Begins cape, including unrolling batarangs and even a sword inside his utility belt. The depictions of the tech are effective and clever, and mesh surprisingly well with the retro look of the show.

It was amusing to hear Will Friedle, voice of the Terry McGinnis Batman from Batman Beyond, once again playing a young tech-suited hero who was a protege of Bruce Wayne. Although his voice characterization here was much closer to his Ron Stoppable voice from Kim Possible -- which is fine, because his Ron persona is a very funny character voice.

The teaser was classic '50s/'60s Batman, with the ridiculous deathtrap and the giant Sprangish props and the henchmen with goofy names printed on their shirts. And the idea of the Clock King actually having a clock for a face was charmingly wacky.

My one disappointment was that the main title sequence didn't live up to the promise of being an updated version of the Adam West show's title sequence. Andy Sturmer's theme was not as effectively retro as the episodic underscore by the Ritmanis/Carter/McCuistion trio, and the imagery was just a hodgepodge of 3D text with Batman running and driving around in it.

 

[TheArsenal]

Just watched it. Vibrant, flashy, fast paced, light, irony free, amusing - and written unembarrassingly for young children. Where the Justice League's Y7 TV rating indicated the recommended age one could start watching; the rating here is a clear indicator of the target demographic.

The Blue Beetle episode told a simple - very simple - story with an earnest lesson at its heart. And this "Bats", as they call him, has all of the acrobatic and gadgetry coolness of any version out there, and manages a hardness without a hint of dark.

It's good stuff. But it's not for me certainly.

However, as someone who feels the superhero comics/movie/television industry has lost its way by forgetting about the kids, I'm all for it.

 

[Christopher]

I didn't feel it was exclusively for children. I think we make the mistake of assuming that adult-oriented material has to be serious or deep or dark and gritty or whatever. Why can't adults just relax and have straightforward, uncomplicated fun? I mean, what do we have to prove? This was light, sure, but it was clever and well-made and quirky, and if you don't stop to worry about whether it's mature enough to suit your self-image, you can just have a good time watching it.

There's also the obvious nostalgia factor. Clearly, a show that's paying overt homage to the visual and storytelling style of a TV series from 40 years ago and comic books from 50 years ago is not being aimed exclusively at 8-year-olds. This isn't just made for children, it's made for adults who want to revisit the things they enjoyed as children.

And just on general principles, I object to the attitude that children's programming is intrinsically lower in quality, or rather to the implied attitude that it's supposed to be. I mean, these are our children we're talking about. We should expect them to be given the very best, not the shoddiest. We should expect children's programming to be made with the highest degree of quality and care and imagination, to be finely crafted enough that it's satisfying for anyone to watch. A lot of children's programming is that good. This isn't the finest children's programming I've ever seen -- that would probably be Avatar: The Last Airbender -- but it's certainly a solid, well-executed piece of work. If a show is truly good enough for our children, it should be good enough for everyone, because children deserve nothing less than the best.

 

[RobertScorpio]

As I said before, I was a big fan, still am, of PRE CRISIS DC..and Batman's team up mag, Brave and the Bold, was DC at its best..I even like how they made his emblem more like the one Jim Aparo, the artist of the comic book Brave and Bold, did...

Good fun for adults AND kids...loved it..far better, already, than the boring THE BATMAN cartoon..IMO..

Rob

 

[V4Victory]

It looks terrible. Batman with bras knuckles? Why not just give Superman a gun and get it over with.

modernization, like moving from Adam West to Michael Keaton. Anyhow I checked Smallville on tv and Supes doesn't even fly and as stupid as that sounds people still loved the series. Don't judge the new Batman until you see it

 

[RoJoHen]

He flies eventually.

 

[Professor Zoom]

I also thought it was a lot of fun. I liked the pacing, the style, and over all, the fun of it.
Yes, yes, Batman's supposed to be "dark" and "serious," but, you know...there's room in this world for this Batman too.

I'll be back for it.

 

[Mr Light]

Well unfortunately it was definitely "kiddie", but I'll keep watching. Fortunately it wasn't as bad as that teaser with the Clock King hinted it was gonna be. I'm mainly interested in seeing second tier DC characters... it was neat to see the new Blue Beetle who didn't even exist before three years ago. It's curious how they treated him though, if I wasn't familiar with the comic books I never would have known he was Hispanic outside his name.

 

[ncc71877]

I liked it. It had a very faithful current Blue Beetle and it made Kanjar Ro menacing. To bad DC just announced that Blue Beetle's book has been cancelled. And, Diedrich Bader is always good.

ncc71877

 

[ElScoob]

I enjoyed it. Lots of energy and humor, a fun visual style. Diedrich Bader did a solid job, sometimes evoking the Bat-voice to end all Bat-voices, Kevin Conroy (but without it becoming a straight imitation of KC's sound or characterization). I think as the show progresses and Bader gets comfortable in the role, he'll be great.

Didn't much care one way or the other for Blue Beetle, probably 'cos I'm not super-familiar with the comics version of this Beetle. I suspect that episodes featuring characters I know better will appeal to me more.

We'll see how things pan out, but I think this show has a lot of potential. I'll be watching it.

--g

 

[Christopher]

Yes, yes, Batman's supposed to be "dark" and "serious," but, you know...there's room in this world for this Batman too.

Absolutely. Batman doesn't have to be dark. That's just one version of Batman. There have been many different approaches to the character over his history, and there's room for all of them. We've already seen a definitive version of the grim, tragic Batman in the Bruce Timm animated series, and you can't top what they did, so why compete? Why not give the Silver Age Batman his due as a parallel creation?

Besides, this isn't really a Batman show, it's a DC Universe show with Batman as the familiar point of entry. I'm interested in seeing all these different heroes and villains that haven't been featured on TV before.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I've never read anything with Blue Beetle in it, is he the DC equivalent of The Greatest American Hero? Is the comic humorous?

I thought the cartoon worked well, the tone for something like this has to be just right to work and I think they pulled it off. I'm not sure if this is what a lot of the Batman die-hards are looking for but I think they did a decent job with what is a more retro, or at least amalagmative, take on the character.

 

[Christopher]

I've never read anything with Blue Beetle in it, is he the DC equivalent of The Greatest American Hero? Is the comic humorous?

I'm only vaguely aware of Blue Beetle, but I believe he has been a humorous character at least sometimes in the past. Of course, this entire show is clearly going for action-comedy, so all the characters will be played that way regardless of what they're like in the comics.

However, I am aware that the Blue Beetle used to be a guy named Ted Kord. So this Jaime must be a new BB, so getting used to the suit's abilities may be part of his storyline in the comics too.

Of course, it's always easy to get answers online:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Beetle

 

[Kryton]

Ted Kord was the second Blue Beetle (it was a series that originated at Charlton comics, which DC acquired the rights to in the mid-'80s) and he, like Batman, had no super-abilities beyond being rich and able to sink tons of money into toys like his flying beetle ship. Kord was killed two or three years back during one of the recent Crises and they re-launched the character with a magi-tech Beetle outfit and a scarab device that symbiotically has attached itself to the host's back.

Not the strongest co-star to launch a team-up show with, IMO.