Batman: The Animated Series

I, too, loved this as a kid and have been having a great time using it to introduce Batman to my son since the recent movies have been too dark for a young kid. It's shows like this that help me understand why cartoon spergs exist.

 

La-La-Land records has been releasing the soundtrack over several volumes (they just released Volume 4) over the past few years. I highly recommend it, especially since pretty much all of Shirley Walker's work is unreleased.

Clayface had the best theme.

Although I'm not fond of them having Batman find out Catwoman's identity so soon in the show, and Cat Scratch Fever is a shitty episode, Adrienne Barbeau is my favorite version of Catwoman.

 

The audio commentary for it is great because it's Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and someone else pointing out all the times they broke some censorship rule they were supposed to follow, but no one caught.

 

Always have loved this show and always will. I just wished there could have been more Riddle episodes. He was always my favorite villain as a kid. But I admit he makes a better side character than a main villain.

 

Paul Dini is a god. To put out a kids show that dark and get away with it with critical success (well at least among comic book people).

DC had some of the strongest animated shows, and still puts out something good once in a while.

 

It also completely rehabilitated and changed Mr. Freeze as a character. Originally, he was very much like the Batman and Robin version with Arnie; a pun making jokester. They took that and made a genuinely compelling character.

It's pretty much a diamond standard for shows IMO.

 

True that! Even Siskel & Ebert agree on that:

 

Not only is this the best part of the DCAU, it's the reason we have a DCAU.

 

Speaking of using actors, Bif Tannen as Tony Zucco was a great choice.

Also, Andrea Romano was the casting director for the show, and whenever I hear her name, I always think of how the background is set up for her scenes in the "I Know That Voice" documentary and laugh (1:19 in).

 

This is my favorite cartoon, hands down. Mark Hamill IS the Joker, as far as I'm concerned, and anyone else who has attempted the role simply falls short. Ditto for Kevin Conroy as Batman.

One of my favorite episodes is the one with the Gray Ghost, Batman's childhood hero, that partially inspired his own life as a crime fighter, which even got Adam West himself to play the Ghost.

I'm admittedly a big Batman fan, and I have no shame in admitting that this series is what got me started. Oh, I had seen the Tim Burton movies beforehand, but I didn't truly begin to love Batman until I started watching this series

 

Sorry for the double post, but I do want to point out now is a great time for fans of the Batman Animated Series, if you're a collector. Several companies have been bringing out merchandise paying tribute to the show, such as new action figures meant for adult collectors, statues, and minibusts.

My personal favorites are the minibusts, which despite being made of resin, are quite affordable

 

It beats those shitty funko pops or whatever where they look superdeformed. Plus they look shockingly good in 3D.

 

Oh yeah, definitely. Funko toys are garbage. They're really only a good option if you want to be a collector, but literally cannot afford something better. Or if there is no other collectible available, I guess. For example, only Funko has released a toy of Stephen King's "IT"

Yeah, amazon is selling most of them for under their market price ($59.99). Most of them go for around $40, although some are really cheap. Like Bane is like only $25 on Amazon, and he's bigger than most of the other busts