Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9883 in DVD
• Brand: Batman
• Released on: 2006-02-07
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 30 minutes

Product description
The Batman is an action-packed animated series that chronicles the life of Bruce Wayne and his alter-ego Batman who lands him in a variety of precarious situations. The newly anointed Caped Crusader of Gotham City confronts updated versions of familiar foes such as The Joker, The Penguin, Catwoman, Mr. Freeze and The Riddler. In this series, the Dark Knight takes his war on crime to the next level utilizing brand new Bat-gadgets and a 21st Century-styled Batmobile operated by his remote-controlled invention the "Batwave." The Batman currently airs on Cartoon Network and Kids WB.

Customer Reviews

Very rough, uniquely decent
This set collects the first 13 episodes of The Batman, the newest incarnation of the Dark Knight. Warner Home Video has finally wised up, ditched the meager single discs and given fans and collectors an affordable way to get this series on dvd.

But wait...are there any fans and collectors? The general bat-fan will tell you this show sucks, while the small but vocal die-hards will pump The Batman for all its worth. This is a very difficult show to rate. Not only does it feel like Batman as envisioned by corporate focus groups, but the general writing is way below par compared to the classic Batman: Animated series.

In my opinion, these problems are mostly confined to the first season. This is definitely the show at its worst, and the newer seasons have been much more kinetic and entertaining. It's painful here to watch Bruce eat nachos and cast opera aside for bubblegum pop. It's painful to watch him resort to an endless array of bat-gadgets to take down foes. But the show has occasional moments of brilliance. When Batman slips into a coma after being thrashed by Bane, there's a very poignant look at the night of his parents' murder. The villain designs, wacky and grotesque as they may be, are fiercely original and fun if you go in with the right expectations. And the season finale, written by Gargoyles creator Greg Weisman, brings the show to a near-BTAS level with a brand new interpretation of Clayface. It's really worth checking out.

Again, this is a difficult recommendation. Season 1 is mostly weak, and I can't blame anyone for shunning it. However, the second season onwards is definitely worth looking into. I at least give kudos to WB for giving us The Batman in a season set that has more appeal to adult collectors. For those on the fence, check out season 2 when/if it is eventually released, then go back and see if you'd like season 1 for completion purposes. In the meanwhile, rent for the Clayface finale.

Just Because It's a Cartoon Doesn't Mean the Characters Need to Be Flat
Let's start with what I do like. The style of the cartoon is actually pretty good. At first I was a little turned off by the whole "X-treme" Batman, but considering this is Bruce Wayne in his younger days I think it works.

However, the characters are reduced to nothing. Batman has absolutely no edge to him. In the original series we got to know his past and saw him really struggle with the death of his parents, and lets be honest, the best thing about Batman is that he's the first superhero who's given a real motive. In this series the death of his parents are brough up a few times, but as a driving force it's generally ignored.

The villians are all one-note characters. In the original series each villian had some kind of conflict. It wasn't just good versus evil; it was about that in-between grey. The Man-Bat is just some mad scientist. Mr. Freeze is just some jewel thief. They're run of the mill pedestrian characters. The only exception is Clay Face. Lets hope this new version of Clay Face is pointing to a new direction to the series. Maybe the writers will wise up and give us some good stories. Until then I'll be watching the DVDs of the original Batman: The Animated Series.

All style and no substance does not a good show make...
In every incarnation of Batman since the first movie, Batman has always been a silent stalker of the night hunting down criminals and bringing them to justice. While the 'bringing them to justice' part might not change in this series, everything else does.

Batman is no longer the dark hero he used to be. He's turned into a young, cocky, 'style over substance' character which can only have been made up in the minds of the corporate focus groups who created this fluff. While older incarnations of batman (such as his excellent portrayal in the Animated series which ran from '92 to '99) had Batman as a character that could be enjoyed by adults and kids, this show portrays him in a way that would get a him killed in any other Gotham city.

Bruce Wayne's "reimagining" is that of a shallow guy who doesn't seem realistic at all if you post him into the world of Gotham City that all the older Batman's lived in. But Bruce Wayne as a shallow guy whose poor acting doesn't support the show is only the half of it. One thing that made all the other Batman shows so great was the portrayal of the villains as interesting people. Not here.

Joker has turned into a big demon-faced guy with no personality (a huge difference from Mark Hamill's amazing portrayal of Joker in both The Batman Antimated Series and Batman Beyond) Mr. Freeze has no reason to be doing what he's doing anymore (he looks like a demon with an icecube on his head, which Batman makes fun of with some horrible puns). And Penguin...well basically EVERY villan in the series looks like a demon. Not surprising, because this show was designed by the people who did the Jackie Chan Adventures (a show about demons). But Batman isn't about demons, it's supposed to be about the humanity of the characters. The depth, and not just the style.

This show falls through in story, acting, and is barely held together by the style. Old Batman fans will be horrified, comic book fans will be disgusted, and new fans will have their image of Batman forever tarnished. It's very obvious that this show was made for money to cash in on the new movie of Batman, and not because of any love for the characters. It's downright horrible.