I know Halloween was yesterday, but this is when the schedule allows. Besides, when else will I get a chance to show you The Batman beyond the intros? Not that movie that rewrote the Riddler into a totally new character, the one that gave Riddler a weird makeover but still remembered the essence of the character.
We’re talking about the 2004 animated series that aired for five seasons on Kids WB. (Five, not four, HBO Max.) It’s often forgotten because it came so soon after Batman: The Animated Series and the other DCAU follow-ups. The Batman universe gets an action makeover but with all the changes is still truer to Gotham lore than My Adventures With Superman was with Metropolis. Do I like all the changes? No. However, Kevin Michael Richardson is a great Joker and Tom Kenney does a good turn as the Penguin, even if they did go back to the Burton style mutations. Our Batman is voiced by my favorite Spider-Man, Rino Romano, and he gives Batman something we haven’t seen since. Not just Mr. Freeze’s original backstory (though now he has freezing powers instead of a freeze gun), I mean that Batman is allowed to relax, smile, crack a joke now and then. He’s not the grimdark, moody, stare-into-the-abyss Batman we’ve gotten for so long, and yet his Batman is still serious and commands a fearful presence for the superstitious, cowardly lot.
The only story currently on YouTube that I can post to the site is The Batman Vs. Dracula, a 2005 direct-to-video movie (so taking place somewhere around the first two seasons of the show) that introduces a story idea we’ve seen in the comics, Batman versus vampires. This does include the “Bruce turns into a vampire” angle, but this Bruce will work to find a cure as Dracula takes on his own Renfield in the form of a Penguin. (Again, Tom Kenny is really good in this role.) The Joker is also bit. Somehow, this still all manages to be safe for kids, though younger kids might not be as comfortable with it as they would be the TV series. I would advise parents to watch this first regardless of what you think about the show, like with the DCAU movies Mask Of The Phantasm and Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker. They really do take advantage of the reduced restrictions. In fact, the movie is age-restricted, which I wish I knew before using up my time, so you will have to go to YouTube to watch it. I’ll leave the embed here in case things change, but it does link to the actual video. Enjoy.
BW Media Spotlight 