Rebuilding Rob

What’s your favorite cartoon?

Ever?

Wow, That is a pretty loaded question. Cartoons have been such a huge part of my life. I grew up cartoons because In America, we somehow think that cartoons, just by virtue of the fact that they are animated, are AUTOMATICALLY for kids. Nothing can be further from the truth. But that, however, is another conversation for another day. My all-time favorite cartoon is Batman: The Animated Series

I’m not sure if I ever mentioned it before, but Batman is, BY FAR, my all-time favorite superhero.

The show was produced by Warner Bros Animation and initially aired in the Fox network here in America. Eventually the show would move over Warner’s fledgling, and ultimately ill-fated WB network.

From day one this show was meant to be something different. BTAS would push the proverbial envelope in weekday after-school programming. Drawing on the success of the Michael Keaton-led Batman films, the show would be dark. Literally. In fact, Gotham City itself would be drawn upon black paper.

BTAS would embrace the character’s dark roots; an approach that made the theatrical Batman films so successful. in doing so, the show wakes a tight with standards & practices. The result was a show that never talked down to its audience. In fact, BTAS could be entertaining to kids while being appreciated by adults.

Eschewing the custom of recording voice-over individually, BYAS would instead steal a page from the old radio dramas and have the entire cast present for voice recording This was almost unheard of in modern animated production.

The voice cast was stellar – in both the main cast as well as the “special guests”. I would be remiss if I did not give flowers to the late Kevin Conroy, who voiced Batman; and the voice of The Joker, Mark Hamill. The two actors would become synonymous with their respective characters; reprising them in BTAS’s successors: Superman, Justice League, Static Shock and Batman Beyond.

When DC would begin to create feature -length direct-to-video animated movies Conroy & Hamill would be called on time and again. Hamill has explained in interviews that the job offers for to a pout where all he would as is “is Kevin doing it?” Both actors would lend their voice talents to the atman: Arkham video games ; further cementing their legacy with these two iconic characters. If you have watched a Batman cartoon, or an animated movie, or played a Batman video game in the last 30 years, the chances are, you’ve probably heard Kevin Conroy perform as Batman, and or Mark Hamill perform as the joker.

For me, the wildest part about BTAS is that I was 18 when the show premiered. The show turned back time for me by about 10 years. BTAS was an event: one that I made sure not to miss!

As I mentioned earlier, BTAS would last 4 seasons; but it spawned animated series based on Superman, Justice League, and the futuristic Batman Beyond in time, these shows would be collectively referred to as the DCAU, or Bruce Timm Universe – a nod to the franchise’s executive producer, Bruce Timm.

I think that the lasting legacy of Batman: The Animated Series is that for many people, this is the definitive Batman. If someone was to ask me for a limited run of Batman material that encapsulated almost every character, every interpretation, every genre that Batman has touched, I would hand them the Blu-ray collection of Batman: The Animated Series.

For those of us who know the IP going back to the beginning, BTAS not only encapsulated everything that was great about the world of Batman; but in some cases it actually improved upon it.

Look no further than the villainous Mr. Freeze. For decades, the character languished, as a B or C villain. However, in the BTAS episode “Heart of Ice” Mr. Freeze was given a very tragic origin, making him perhaps a Batman’s most sympathetic villain. This was a far cry from the “mad scientist with a cold gun“ that people were subjected to for years prior. So successful was the updated origin for Mr. freeze, that it was incorporated both into 1997 Batman & Robin film, as well as the current comic book continuity. Another cases, Batman, the animated series had characters that were created for the show, and then later added in to the main comic book, continuity, such as Harley, Quinn, and Detective Renee Montoya.

Is Batman: The Animated Series the greatest interpretation of Batman in any medium? I don’t know, but 30 years later I feel like DC/Warner Brothers are still trying to imitate it. If you can’t consider a classic yet, then you must admit that it is well on its way to becoming one. I could go on and on about the series and post 1000 different stills from it, but you will never fully appreciate Batman: The Animated Series until you experience it for yourself.

Batman: The Animated Series is currently streaming on Max.

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The article “Batman: The Animated Series: an instant classic” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.