The Batman (2004)

Now, you may have already guessed this, but I like Batman. As I said, you probably already guessed this, since my first post on this site was the ‘Top 15 Batman Villains’, followed by ‘Batman Live’, then ‘The Batman vs Dracula’. So, yeah, I like Batman.

But whilst watching ‘The Batman vs Dracula’, it served as a pretty good introduction to the animated series. It may seem odd, but watching the film made me want to watch the animated series. So I did. And what did I think?

Well, it certainly isn’t a terrible animation. It is very good. The animation style I’ve already covered in ‘The Batman vs Dracula’, but again it’s very sharp. But the design of Bruce Wayne/Batman bugs me (well, the Batman design more than the Bruce Wayne one), it’s just his physique, it doesn’t look natural. But apart from that the rest of the designs are pretty good. Okay some look weird, like Joker, Bane and Mr. Freeze, but the personalities of the characters do make up for it.

The main characters are there. Well, Batman and Alfred are. Commissioner Gordon doesn’t turn up until the end of the second series, Batgirl doesn’t show up until the third series and Robin doesn’t show up until the fourth. I found that odd. Well, not Batgirl and Robin since I prefer Batman being a lone guardian, I found it really peculiar that Gordon didn’t turn up for a majority of the first two seasons. In fact, now that I think about it, the animated design for Gordon was off as well. But instead we have Chief Rojas, who serves as a member of the police force determine to bring down the Batman and all the other “freaks”. We also have Ethan Bennett and Ellen Yin who are tasked with bringing Batman in. Ethan believes Batman is a good thing, but Yin wants to take off his mask. It’s only when Ethan becomes Clayface that Yin sees Gotham needs Batman. And then Yin subsequently disappears. Bye established character! Seriously they just drop this character which they spent the whole of seasons one and two establishing; it seems pointless to introduce a character, specifically made for the show, then drop her the second Gordon comes on the scene. You might as well have dropped her in the first place and have a rookie Gordon in place.


Then there's something that kind of annoys me. It's stated that Wayne has been the Batman for three years, but according to the police in the first episode, he doesn't exist because no-one has actually seen him. What? Are you serious? He's been around for three years man! Surely someone has seen him!

Now the villains, there was a mix batch. Some were pulled off perfectly, the origins of Ethan Bennett becoming Clayface was very well done (probably my favourite episode). Bennett was a very well established character, we cared greatly for him, but then he’s turned into Clayface by the Joker, and the stories involving him were really intense. The Joker, despite looking like (as mentioned in ‘The Batman vs Dracula’) Hitmontop, it actually suits this Joker very well. Not only that but he still keeps his persona very closely to what we’re used to. And I do love how they referenced ‘The Killing Joke’ in the ‘The Rubberface of Comedy’ episode, with the ‘all it takes is one rotten day to turn normality into insanity’ point.

Then there’s some villains which were ruined. The Penguin in his introduction episode reveals he travelled to the Orient, which enabled him to learn martial arts. Whilst this does make him a more formidable foe who can take on Batman, it just doesn’t suit his size, stature, personality, or what we’re used to. Then there’s my second favourite villain Mr. Freeze. You remember him as the complex villain who was working on a cure for his wife’s illness? He’s now a bank robber. Yeah. And during a chase with Batman, they just happen to stumble upon a cryogenics lab, where Freeze falls into a chamber and is given cryokinesis. I’m dead serious. They just made one of the best complex and tragic villains into a cliché. Meanwhile the Riddler has this...Saruman thing going on. Man-Bat was...bizarre. In this series he wants to become a bat so he could rule the night sky, whereas in the animated series he was the victim of his own experiment and was overpowered by his Man-Bat persona.

And then there’s some lesser known villains who were given some really good treatment, such as Firefly and Cluemaster, as they were brought to life very well thought out; we can take them seriously. Then there are others like Spellbinder and Ragdoll which were pulled off badly. Spellbinder in particular, since the episode he was in focused on Bruce Wayne’s time in Asia. These sorts of episodes, including the ones in the 90s animated series, were not my favourites as they focused on aspects Bruce brought to Batman, but we never actually see him use them; for example in the 90s series he uses a martial arts style we never see him use again and in this series he uses a mind meditation thing which we never see him use again.

Bizarrely neither Two-Face or Scarecrow make an appearance, that's a shame.

Anyway, moving on. The plots of the episodes, they’re okay I suppose. Some are really good, like the origin of Clayface, the teaming of Firefly and Mr. Freeze, and, of course, the Joker episodes are hilarious. But the problem with this series is they seem to focus too much on Joker. I mean, sure, I like Joker, he’s my favourite Batman villain if you remember. But the first two seasons that consist of twenty-five episodes, and at least half of those episodes consist or focus on the Joker.

That being said some of the episode plots are weird beyond relief. There’s the episode where Joker turns people into playing cards, the episode when Penguin uses the power of the Egyptian God Ra as a Goldeneye satellite, Hugo Strange turns the town into zombies, Aliens invade, a robotic clone of Joker becomes a giant, and of course there’s the Spellbinder episode which I really hated.

Bizarrely though almost every episode, if not all of them, have a mini montage of Bruce Wayne putting on the Batman suit. Whilst it may have been good for the first episode, maybe two or three, it does get tedious to see these shots over and over again. We get it, he changes his clothes! We kinda knew that already! Then there’s the ‘Batwave’, a sort of radio signal. Well, every version has one I suppose, but it was poorly executed here. It got on my nerves, especially when there were times when Bruce gets out his phone and other people should be able to see the Batwave signal pop up on his phone.

Now, you remember the into for the 90s animated series? The fact that it didn’t have a title card because the creators thought that the whole world would be able to recognise the Batman. Well, the intro for The Batman series, it’s not quite as catchy as the 90s intro, but it’s still pretty good. Right until the title pops up and a voice goes “the batmaaaaaaan”. It was actually really good, until what sounded like a pervert with a husky voice whispered his name.

So, overall? Again, it’s not a bad piece of animation, it’s far superior to most animated shows I see on television nowadays. Sure, there are bits you’ll hate and there’ll be really good bits to cancel it out, and for those who have seen the 90s series you won’t be able to help but compare the two shows. But it is definitely worth watching, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

PS. Mark Hamill is still the best Joker