Batman TAS: how well has it aged?

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Has Batman: The Animated series aged well in your personal opinions?

[The Stryker]

In my opinion? Not really.

The absolute classic episodes are still watchable but the rest of it is pretty boring. I also think the show is pretty butt-ugly until the 4th season revamp.

[MrTMNT2012]

Hell yes! I still watch it to this day. It's that amazing! :) IMO it's the definitive version of Batman.

And for newcomers, it's nice for them to see where a lot of the inspiration for modern Batman stories came from.

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

In my opinion, it has aged extremely well.

[TheBlueTurtle1]

not well tbh, I still LOVE the X-men 90s show, but the 90s Spider-man show has really not held up well. I think Batman falls in the same bracket as Spider-man

I agree with The Stryker on his comment.

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

not well tbh, I still LOVE the X-men 90s show, but the 90s Spider-man show has really not held up well. I think Batman falls in the same bracket as Spider-man

I agree with The Stryker on his comment.

I think the problem with the 90s Spider-man show is it reused far too much footage. I found it got worse as the series progressed.

[ZariusTwo]

"I've got Batman in my basement"

Yeah. When people tell me this show is untouchable...just bring up that.

Still enjoy it, but it's very pick and choose.

[Discogod]

You can't even compare the 90s Spidey & X-Men cartoons to B:TAS - they had terrible animation, awful voice acting, dumbed-down storylines aimed at very young kids. Batman ushered in the era of mature, story-driven cartoons, and is still (in my opinion) the definitive version of the Dark Knight. Even the worst episodes of B:TAS are better than anything Marvel put out at the same time.

And that's coming from a die-hard Marvel Zombie...

[plastroncafe]

The voice acting and stories are just as good as they've ever been, but the animation struggles.

[Master Splinter]

You can't even compare the 90s Spidey & X-Men cartoons to B:TAS - they had terrible animation, awful voice acting, dumbed-down storylines aimed at very young kids.

I always thought X-Men had great adult story lines... Morph presumably died in one of the first episodes, plus politics, and mutant's rights are prevalent through-out the series. I just watched the episode the other day where Storm's son is in it and they go into how it's not really Storm's son but kinda is. I'm not sure how "very young kids" can understand that. I will agree that the animation isn't the best but it's still pretty good for it's time.

-ms

[snake]

It's alright. Some episodes are pretty good. I like Brave and the Bold better due to how much fun it was. It's like the writers knew the whole show was made to sell toys, so they had fun with it and animated a lot of characters for the first time. It payed homage to so many things each episode and has the best finale i've seen for any cartoon.

[sdp]

I re-watched it as the Volume DVDs were coming out and I absolutely loved it and maybe appreciated it more than before. Oddly enough it was Mask of the Phantasm which I remembered even more fondly and it wasn'ta s good as I thought. I really need to re-watch it, because it's been almost ten years since I last watched it so who knows what I would think of it now after many more Batman shows and great shows in general

[JamieH]

Yes, good writing and acting stays good. The animation may show it's age, but it's style is uniquely Bruce Timm's and the show's.

Of course not every episode is going to be a winner. But there's far more winners than losers. As for "I've Got Batman in My Basement", "Over the Edge." Yes, "Heart of Ice" is arguably the best episode of the entire series, but it's not needed to prove how amazing the show was (and still is). Probably one of the greatest things the show did was depict Batman as human. So often he is portrayed as a near perfect human specimen that can't make mistakes or fall victim to a physical beating. But, TAS had a wonderful balance to him being a very physically fit man, yet still just human. Plus, he was still a detective in the show, he didn't just solve things by punching and gadgeting them.

Also, there will likely never be another cartoon like Batman:TAS. If for no other reason than the insane way they made the show so dark by using black paper for the background art. But on top of that, the incredible amount of talent that worked on it. Kevin Conroy didn't just do Batman's and Bruce Wayne's voices, he set the standard for them. And Mark Hamill as the Joker? Who hasn't been blown away to learn that's his voice? And that's the tip of the iceberg. You won't find many poor performances from the recurring characters/actors. That's not even mentioning the phenomenal musical score of the series.

I can go on and on about the show, as I feel it's still the best American animated series ever created. I too am a Marvel guy, but I bow down to Batman: TAS. X-Men had some great moments, but sadly it's animation, voice acting, and many episodes not being up to par means it pales in comparison. One of the biggest difference is how and why they look dated. X-Men looks dated because of it's animation quality, it's style, and the extra effects used. While Batman is only really dated by the animation, yet, not by quality, but by the fact it's hand drawn cels. Sure, X-Men dealt with some serious issues, but that doesn't make up for the show's faults, which are many. I still like and enjoy the X-Men cartoon, but I don't go back and watch it as often as I do Batman: TAS.

Batman: TAS remains as my go-to pick for when people say American cartoons can't be as good as anime (if not better). So yeah, it's aged exceptionally well.

[plastroncafe]

I've always been rather fond of "Almost Got Him" myself.

[JamieH]

I've always been rather fond of "Almost Got Him" myself.

My first thought is "It was a big rock." Which seems ridiculous but played up to Killer Croc's portrayal in TAS. And then the reveal at the end, along with the little bit of foreshadowing, great stuff. I also liked how the villains in TAS would have those sort of moments. They didn't necessarily like one another, but tolerated each other, enough that it didn't seem too unlikely that you could believe they'd play poker together (and they were all cheats!).

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

I've always been rather fond of "Almost Got Him" myself.

I think most people are.

[T-U-R-T-L-E POWA!]

You can't even compare the 90s Spidey & X-Men cartoons to B:TAS - they had terrible animation, awful voice acting, dumbed-down storylines aimed at very young kids. Batman ushered in the era of mature, story-driven cartoons, and is still (in my opinion) the definitive version of the Dark Knight. Even the worst episodes of B:TAS are better than anything Marvel put out at the same time.

And that's coming from a die-hard Marvel Zombie...

I agree with you totally. I feel like BTAS is the absolute definitive Batman and actually the ONLY cartoon I enjoy more is Ducktales and the first 2 seasons of The Real Ghostbusters are tied with it for me. I've always felt that the Spidey cartoon was really horrible actually and I am pretty much a lifelong Spidey fan. BTAS was so effective that it even reached in to the comic universe and it's effects are still felt today. Paul Dini is still writing Batman comics and Harley Quinn is still a popular character. BTAS is an absolute masterpiece from a story standpoint to a voice acting standpoint to a production standpoint. It is simply just amazing.

[CyberCubed]

Batman: TAS is still the best superhero cartoon of all time and has the most iconic version of many characters and voices.

The few bad episodes it has is nothing compared to 90% brilliance.

[LeoNerdo]

I enjoy watching it more today than I did when I was a kid. Yeah the animation is weak every now and then, but every episode has great voice acting and amazing orchestral scores. This show spoiled me in terms of quality, because nothing since has come close to touching it.

[BODYCOUNT]

Batman: TAS is still the best superhero cartoon of all time and has the most iconic version of many characters and voices.

The few bad episodes it has is nothing compared to 90% brilliance.

THIS!!!!:tgrin:

[shuriken]

Animation wise? it's held up better than X-Men, Spider-man and all the other Marvel cartoons of the time.
Story wise? Still pretty great. The one with the x-child star still trips me out.

[CyberCubed]

Are people actually complaining about the animation? The show is still incredibly enjoyable to look at with the film noir look and all the characters animate perfectly.

[ProactiveMan]

It's still a treat. Some episodes do seem really slow in retrospect, but there are plenty of great ones.

Interestingly, I find that the redesigned Adventures of Batman and Robin has dated more than BTAS. The weird, razor sharp character models seem very 90s to me now.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Fans tend to call The New Adventures of Batman, season four. What was season three?

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

Fans tend to call The New Adventures of Batman, season four. What was season three?

Depending on who you are talking to, season 3 is 'The Adventures of Batman and Robin', which is when Robin was in the series alot more.

[CyberCubed]

B:TAS didn't have, "seasons" like a real show.

The initial order was for 65 episodes. Then Fox ordered 20 more episodes which was The Adventures of Batman and Robin. Then the show was cancelled in 1995.

2 years later in 1997 they bring it back as The New Batman Adventures, which was technically a different show in the same continuity when it came out. It was only retconned into a season of B:TAS later on.

Initially TNBA was simply part of the "Batman/Superman Adventures" airing on the KidsWB block.

[FlawedCoil82]

You can't even compare the 90s Spidey & X-Men cartoons to B:TAS - they had terrible animation, awful voice acting, dumbed-down storylines aimed at very young kids.

Wow.... :teek: For me, NOTHING before nor since can compare to X-Men. That cartoon was, for me, utter perfection of exactly how a comic book should be (and what I so desperately miss from Marvel nowadays). The music, the stories, the voice cast, the awesome looking villains and their motivations, the costumes, the team line-ups, the ongoing sagas, the suspense, the personalities of the characters, the battles and how they would choose which members would face which threats, the emotions, etc. I adored every fiber of it. Sure, the animation wasn't perfect, but that is the ONLY possible complaint I can conjure up. B:TAS bored me to tears in comparison to X-Men when I would watch it. Batman as a whole never interested me because he was just a man fighting crazier men. But I watched X-Men religiously. Every Saturday morning that a new episode of X-Men would air, was some of the greatest memories of my childhood. And I'd do damn near ANYTHING to have that blissful feeling back of watching such a flawless team of superheroes and supervillains. God knows they aren't even in the same galaxy of perfection as they used to be. I haven't seen every episode of Batman, but I have seen enough to know that when someone tells me it is "better than X-Men", they are setting the bar so astronomically high that it would not stand a chance of dethroning X-Men.