Starring Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Loren Lester, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Bob Hastings, Robert Costanzo, Ron Perlman and others
Written By: A bunch of people
Directed By: Bruce W. Timm, Mitch Brian, other people
Studio: Warner Brothers
Buy on Amazon.com

I vaguely remember this show back when it first aired. I saw a few episodes but never had the time to watch it since I was in high school, and I probably was in detention when it aired anyway. But thankfully the show is on DVD, now I can see the show from the beginning.

The show is about millionaire Bruce Wayne/Batman a.k.a. Caped Crusader who fights crime in Gotham City. The show is based on the Dark Knight comics, and the show itself is dark. That’s what makes this cartoon series so great, it doesn’t ponder to the little kiddies. The series focuses on Bruce Wayne and his personal struggles as well as vowing to end all crime because of the death of his parents. Along the way, Robin and Batgirl appear here and there to help out the superhero. Each episode, Batman battles another villain (well not all episodes) but some of the characters he fights in the first season are: the Joker (Mark Hamill), Two Face (Richard Moll), Penguin, Catwoman, Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze, and Clay Face (Ron Perlman).

Batman Animated Series is probably the best representation of Batman to date. It’s dark and that’s why people liked it. Other aspects of the show that make it great is the voice acting, the storylines, the scoring and of course the animation. It takes awhile to love the square jaw style animation but you get over it and come to love the style like I have. That style has gone on to other shows on Cartoon Network, but I can’t remember which cartoons. The Clone Wars maybe? Usually the voice over work in cartoons is so done over the top but not with this show. They got real actors, and didn’t make the voices so overly dramatic or cartoon-like. Well, Mark Hamill is an exception because he had to make the Joker’s voice goofy and over the top. It’s kind of surprising to hear the Joker’s voice because you don’t go, oh that’s Luke Skywalker’s voice! It’s kind of cool that they got Adam West to voice one of the villains too, the Gray Ghost. The main theme is from the Batman movie that Danny Elfman scores, and the composer(s) who worked on the show really continued his style of composing and it fits really really well.

DVD extras include commentary on 2 episodes with producers Bruce Timm, Eric Rodomski, and Paul Dini. A cool thing on here is the Dark Knight’s first pilot promo and it’s what the creators made to pitch to the network. The show’s opener is slightly similar but the animation in the promo is incomplete. There’s a cool retrospective featurette with the producers/creators, and cast members talking about the show. They said it’s still one of the coolest things they worked on and how that show opened a lot of doors to other great things afterwards. That was about an half hour or so and pretty interesting to see. There’s a tour of the batcave feature and certain sections give you a bio and clips to go along with that item you click on. Like, say you click on Batman or the bat mobile, a voice will tell you stuff about Batman or bat mobile.

This DVD is a must own for comic book fans. The animation is great, terrific storylines, excellent voice-over work and more! My only complaint is the DVD quality could have been better. For some of the dark spots, you can see the age of the show and the dust and scratches. But that’s about the only thing wrong with the set for me. Get This Now!

Features:
Audio Commentary Featuring Bruce Timm, Paul Dini and Eric Rodomski
Batman: The Legacy Continues Retrospective Featurette
The Dark Knight’s First night: Pilot Promo
Tour of the Batcave

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo CC
SPANISH: Dolby Digital Stereo
FRENCH: Dolby Digital Stereo

Video:
Standard 1.33:1 Color

Subtitles:

Favorite Scenes: Christmas with the Joker, P.O.V, Two Face Pt 1-2, Feat of Clay pt 1-2
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 625 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: