Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-07-06
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 625 minutes

Amazon.com
Warner Brothers' Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995) remains a striking, stylized program that helped to revitalize the familiar comic book hero. Drawing on such diverse influences as Frank Miller's graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, the Fleischers' Superman cartoons of the early '40s, and contemporary Japanese animation, the filmmakers stress interesting designs and cinematography. The Caped Crusader prowls a sinister, Art Deco-styled world of tall verticals, sharp angles, silhouettes, searchlights, and grid-like shadows cast by window frames. Its visual pizzazz eclipses Filmation's pallid kidvid, The Batman/Superman Hour (CBS, 1968), which ran off and on in various incarnations through 1981. Many of the same artists worked on the Batman animated features (e.g., Mask of the Phantasm (1993), Batman Beyond--The Movie (1999)), which display similar strengths and weaknesses.

Ironically, Batman: The Animated Series looks better in stills than it does in motion. The artists fail to stylize the movements of the characters to match the dramatic settings, as Genndy Tartakovsky and his crew did in Samurai Jack. Batman uses sophisticated computers to combat the well-known villains--the Joker, the Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Catwoman--as well as some less celebrated baddies: Manbat, Clayface, The Mad Hatter. The bad guys cram a lot of plotting and scheming into each 22-minute episode, but the violence is kept to a broadcast standards minimum.

The Dark Knight's First Knight easily ranks as the most interesting of the extras. Producers Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski recount the genesis of the series, and show their mini-pilot, which is more violent and more fully animated. If the complete episodes had matched the pilot, the series would have been much more exciting. (Unrated, suitable for ages 8 and older: violence, mild grotesque imagery) --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

Great DVD, But Out of Order Episodes
To every fan of this series, Kevin Conroy is Batman. It is very easy to become a fan of the series. The complaint I have with this DVD is what some others have said, the episodes are out of order! Why? For people like me that like watching the seriesin order, it's annoying. One minute, Robin is there and you don't see him again for a few more episodes after that. For people that don't know any better, they'll be asking "Where did Robin go?" It really does hurt the viewing experience, not a whole lot, but enough to disrupt the flow of the show.

BATMAN
This is the series that made Batman one of the greates heros of all time! The series that made people believe that Batman can be real. After all this years still remains the best of all animated features! A TRUE classic series that belongs to your collection!

Batman-The Animated Series, Volume One.......
Inspired by the old Fleischer Superman cartoons and Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film, Batman-The Animated Series won two Emmy Awards during the length of its' run on TV. Much more adult-oriented in it's content and whatnot, it appealed to both kids and adults & is widely considered the 'best' and closest adaptation of the original Batman series published by DC Comics. This series alone spawned many other series for DC such as Superman-the Animated series, The Batman-Superman Adventures, Batman Beyond, Static Shock, The Batman, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited and the flash animated Internet only Gotham Girls. In this collection; Batman faces off against The Joker, The Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Catwoman, and other assorted baddies. In it's extras, Bruce Timm & Eric Radomski tell how they created the series & show their pilot for the show(which isn't all that long). The pilot's content is alot more violent. I agree, if the series had took this route- the series would have been much more exciting. Still, BTAS is a great series. These first episodes are outstanding & stand the test of time.

Pick up this as well as the rest of the series, which includes Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, and the NEW Robin. You'll be glad you did.