I ended up watching season 1 of The Batman yesterday and today. It's a lot more anime looking than the earlier animated series. Which I find a bit harder to watch...the whole thing strikes me as a little bit too X-Games (everything is slightly out of date, like theme music by The Edge), but the interesting spin is that it's set to start with the third anniversary of Batman's crimefighting birth. They also refer to him as "the Batman" rather than just Batman throughout the episodes.
The other characters all got new images and tweaked stories. I guess the explanations for some of them are ok (zany crazy Joker, young martial arts Penguin) but some of them just look silly (Catwoman).
I should possibly watch this season's episodes as they are apparently Justice League crossovers, according to Wikipedia.
How did I come to own the DVD of The Batman? Blame the ineptness of Blockbuster video, rapidly disappearing from everywhere they used to be. I was given a Blockbuster gift card (not as a gift, but because the recipient didn't think she'd use it). I went to a Blockbuster and to avoid the embarrassment of not wanting to buy anything unless it was free, I asked the clerk to check the balance. Which he couldn't do, because some computer thing didn't work. I then called the number on the card to check the balance, and instead of punching in the numbers to get some automated response, I was told to hold approximately 27 minutes for the next available customer service rep. I then looked on the Blockbuster web site. It wasn't possible to check the card's balance, but you could spend the card, if there was a balance. The online Blockbuster shopping experience is pretty terrible so i resolved to add the first at all possible item to my cart to see if I could get it for free. And that turned out to be The Batman: Season 1, which was free.
2 comments:
I suspect the show uses the name "The Batman" to distinguish it from the impeccable Batman: The Animated Series" of the early to mid 90's. Yep, I grew up watching B:TAS (and its later incarnations) and it's one thing from my adolescence that holds up very well (which is more than I ca say for some of the actual comics I was reading back then).
I think you're right re: the title. That early 90s Batman animated series holds up pretty well today and is kind of the standard to measure other animated series against.
Still, I find it kind of funny that the character is constantly referred to as "the Batman"...it sticks out to me every time I hear it.
I imagine this actually recalls some comics language at some point; I just can't place it. It doesn't seem recent.
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