The Batman Cartoon Blu Ray coming in Feb 1st 2022

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https://i.imgur.com/4sFBYr5.jpg

The Batman ran for 65 episodes debuting in Sept. 2004 and concluding in March 2008. Up until now, it has only been available on DVD, but it’s now heading to Blu-ray in a newly remastered set.

The set will also include all-new bonus material:

The Dark Dynasty Continues (New Featurette) – Explore the relationship between The Batman and his allies as he evolves from mysterious vigilante to the World’s Greatest Detective.
Joining Forces: The Batman’s Legendary Team-Ups (Featurette) – How the series’ producers adapted the DC “Team-Up-Tales” approach from the comic books to the screen.
The Batman Junior Detective Challenge (Quiz) – Alfred tests your detective skills with The Batman: The Complete Series challenge.
The Batman Junior Detective Exam: Level 2 (Quiz) – Pass The Batman test of knowledge with the level 2 exam.
Building Batman (Featurette) – Detective Ellen Yin investigates The Batman’s true identity.
Gotham PD Case Files (Featurette) – Highly confidential profiles of The Batman’s most dastardly foes.
New Look, New Direction, New Knight (Featurette) – Go behind the scenes to explore the development of The Batman television series.
The Batman: Season 3 Unmasked (Featurette) – Supervising Producer Duane Capizzi talks about the animated series.
The Batman: Season 4 Unmasked (Featurette) – A behind the scenes look into the making of Season 4.

The Batman: The Complete Series will hit Blu-ray+Digital ($69.99 SRP) in the United States, and a Blu-ray only package ($79.98 SRP) in Canada, on Feb. 1, 2022.

Batman VS Dracula is not included

https://twitter.com/SuperPRGuy/status/1460655442170765315

[AquaParade]

I'm glad they aren't trying to force us onto HBO Max to watch their series.

[Turo602]

F*cking YES!

[LeotheLateBloomer]

I think I only watched one episode of this show and I remember liking what I saw nut haven't invested in the rest of the series. I know it came out when I was late in High School so I might've just forgotten about it. Would anyone recommend it without comparing it to TAS, preferably?

[ZariusTwo]

I was on animation forums when this show premiered. The stench raised from the DCAU fans was absolutely potent. This show could do no right to them and was the reason a lot of Batman: TAS villains could not be used for Justice Leagu.

I recall the show did not really know what it wanted to be, after about two seasons in, they gave Bruce a kid Barbara and a very Tim Drake-looking Dick Grayson, then the last season was all team-ups and dealt with an alien invasion.

[IMJ]

I've never seen this show. I confuse it often with that short lived CGi Batman show. I'm not even sure where these all fall into the timeline after Batman TAS wrapped up.

I also vaguely recall a sort of 60's looking, light hearted Batman cartoon that was on for a while.

I wouldn't discount any of them though, off hand.

[Turo602]

I recall the show did not really know what it wanted to be, after about two seasons in, they gave Bruce a kid Barbara and a very Tim Drake-looking Dick Grayson, then the last season was all team-ups and dealt with an alien invasion.

I don't know if I agree with that. They wanted it to be more of a "superhero" show with an emphasis on action. That's what the show was at its core. By season 3 and 4, I think they just embraced the silliness by not taking themselves too seriously which is why the intro was more Adam West Batman, especially with the introduction of the sidekicks.

They also couldn't introduce Robin until Teen Titans was over which is why they weirdly introduced Batgirl first. The final season was their Brave and the Bold season which eventually led into the Brave and the Bold series. But it all flowed as a progression of Batman's career from loner to team player.

[CyberCubed]

The first season is really bad to the point where it literally feels like a toy commercial until the Clay-face 2-parter in the finale where it picks up. Season 2 is a mix of good and bad episodes. Season 3 was meh. Season 4 is fantastic and Season 5 is average.

Mostly the show has the reputation it's known for, it's a fairly average Batman cartoon that just didn't make any real impact because it's neither overly good nor overly bad. It's just there. And I'm saying this as someone who watched every episode when it was new in its original airing from 2003-2008.

[sdp]

I agree that it was not overtly good or bad so it's kind of forgotten. I also agree it got tons of hate when it aired because DCAU fans were being jerks, this lead to the show struggling to find a fandom online. The show wasn't a failure since it did get 5 seasons and aired on KidsWB alongside Pokemon on saturday mornings. Most shows only lasted 52 episodes and the batman was able to get an extra season after that, so a success. Hell you can argue the last season inspired Batman Brave and the Bold cartoon which also lasted 65 episodes

We had a nice discussion of the batman in the the batman live action movie thread. I find season 5 the worst since each episode is a boring plot where batman teams up with a DC hero and the finale is a rehash of the season 4 finale. Season 4 is indeed really good as people say because it feels like Batman TAS, I think the show lost a little bit of its identity because of that. Season 3 I really liked because I thought their version of batgirl was fun though it might not have the strongest episodes if you don't like young barabara. Season 2 is similar to season 1. Season 1 is definitely flawed but I think the whole season pays off at the end, you really do see Batman evolve through out the season and it feels rewarding. The focus is on Batman and not so much the villains which is why they don't usually have a very tragic origin, it's my favorite season.

The show still has the best version ever made of Clayface & the best cartoon catwoman. And all their interpretations are fresh takes so no copycats either even if you might not like said choices. Mr. Freeze gets his original comics origin and while that's not as interesting as the one in BTAS, by the end he is a ruthless killer and a cool villain. Joker really is insane here, he is in way too many episodes so some he is a lame villain while others he's just plain twisted. We got some characters for the first time like Black Mast and whatnot, great show.

Would anyone recommend it without comparing it to TAS, preferably?

yes I recommend it.

[Coola Yagami]

I liked it. It was fast paced and more action-packed, which is why almost every character knew some form of martial arts. It was different and I liked the focus on Batman and how he was starting out. The Animated Series started off with Batman at the very least knowing the Joker and Penguin already, but this version he was knew to all of that. Just the fact that Joker randomly broke into the Asylum than out of it was random. I liked the new-ness to it all, and even Alfred insisting Bruce go out and do things cause eventually people are gonna start asking exactly what DOES Bruce Wayne do all day and all night if he's not at his business so often.

One of my favorite episodes will always be when Joker pretends to be Batman while Batman is trying not to succumb to the laughing gas. Just the whole scene where the Penguin got mixed into it was worth it. I liked Joker telling the classic 'you'll die in 24 hours, oh I forgot to tell you yesterday' joke while Batman was fighting him in the last moments he had left before he would risk losing all his sanity to the Joker Toxin.

I liked the episode with the virtual Joker and how he clashed with the real Joker and just how confused Harley and the computer geek henchman was towards the both of them.

Also liked the episode that dealt with Riddler's origin. Loved any episode with Catwoman in it too. Also the Mr. Freeze and Firefly team-up, an unlikely combination if ever there was one.

I'm definitely buying this series when its out.

Also kinda liked that for whatever reason, they went with this version of the Penguin for the Batman VS TMNT movie. Not exactly the same design but seems to be the same voice actor and same overall attitude.

[CyberCubed]

Also remember, we never see Scarecrow, Two-Face or Ra's Al Ghul in The Batman at all because they had a stupid rule at the time that those were the main villains in the Nolan Batman movies so they couldn't use them in the cartoon. They made an exception for Joker obviously, but the mere fact that in 5 seasons we never get to see Two-Face, Scarecrow or Ra's Al Ghul in The Batman is so absurd.

Whatever business exec at DC made that "rule" at the time deserves to be slapped up the head. Same thing happened to Justice League Unlimited at the time where they told Bruce Timm not to include iconic Batman villains in the last few seasons since they were on The Batman.

WTF. Also remember Robin was also almost not included in The Batman either because Teen Titans was airing at the same time and they thought you couldn't have two Dick Graysons in two different cartoons at the time.

[Leo656]

I wouldn't buy it for that price, but once it's like $40-50, yeah. I've never seen most of it so that would be a good excuse to finally do so.

Absolutely hated their take on Joker, though. Some of the choices they made were just plain dumb. But I don't remember HATING it, just... massive indifference.

Sometimes, with things like this, it's not necessarily that the new thing is "bad" but that nobody would ever have preferred it over more of the "old thing" they already liked. Like would anyone truly have asked for this show instead of another season of Batman: TAS - especially if it had more in common with the pre-"New Adventures" aesthetic? Nah, I doubt it. So there's always some built-in resentment right out of the gate with things like this, it's unavoidable.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Also remember, we never see Scarecrow, Two-Face or Ra's Al Ghul in The Batman at all because they had a stupid rule at the time that those were the main villains in the Nolan Batman movies so they couldn't use them in the cartoon. They made an exception for Joker obviously, but the mere fact that in 5 seasons we never get to see Two-Face, Scarecrow or Ra's Al Ghul in The Batman is so absurd.

Whatever business exec at DC made that "rule" at the time deserves to be slapped up the head. Same thing happened to Justice League Unlimited at the time where they told Bruce Timm not to include iconic Batman villains in the last few seasons since they were on The Batman.

WTF. Also remember Robin was also almost not included in The Batman either because Teen Titans was airing at the same time and they thought you couldn't have two Dick Graysons in two different cartoons at the time.

Bat-Embargo, I believe is what it was called. It was kinda strange to me. Though in the Drak Knight trilogy's case, you would think they would want to bring in those villains as tie-ins. Shame because I'm kinda curious how they would've handled them. Especially Ra's since I hear this show was more on the action side of Batman over the detective side. The theme song kinda gives a secret agent vibe to it.

[oldmanwinters]

Hooray! And way overdue!

I own the old season sets on DVD, but I've avoided buying this series digitally because of the lack of HDX availability. I figured a BluRay release would happen eventually, and it seems to me that the original Teen Titans show should probably be next in line.

I expect this show will look great in high resolution. Very excited it's getting some bonus material too, beyond those "DVD Menu Games" from the old DVD sets.

[sdp]

I believe The Batman like Teen Titans was done in widescreen, so it was cropped when it aired in the mid 00s.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

I find it a strange choice not to include Batman vs Dracula. I heard the movie was good. There were plans for a sequel featuring Hush before it got canceled.

[sdp]

People love Batman v Dracula, I personally didn't care for it. It has blood and vampire joker/penguin in it, good action but I can't believe Dracula exists in the universe.
I forgot they tried to do a Hush movie, that would've been awesome. We also have a sketch of what Two-Face would've looked like had they been allowed to use him.