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Batman: The Animated Series

Batman, as seen in Justice League
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Batman, as seen in Justice League

Batman: The Animated Series is an acclaimed animated television series adaptation of the comic book series featuring the DC Comics superhero, Batman.

The series was partly inspired by Tim Burton's 1989 blockbuster Batman film, and initially took as its theme a variation of music written by Danny Elfman for the film. (Later episodes of the series used a new theme written in a similar style by Shirley Walker .) The series premiered in 1992, a few months after the release of the second Batman movie, Batman Returns, and the pilot episode featured the character of Catwoman (who was a major character in the blockbuster summer movie a few months prior).

The Emmy Award winning series quickly received wide acclaim for its lavish animation and compelling writing and instantly became a hit. This series also has a compelling cast which includes major actors performing the voices of the various classic villains, most notably Mark Hamill who defined a whole new career for himself in animation with his delightfully deranged portrayal of The Joker.

Key to the series' artistic success is that it managed to redefine the classic characters which paid homage to their best qualities from the comics, yet giving them new dramatic force. The best example is Mr. Freeze. The series turned him from a cliche mad scientist with a gimmick for cold to a tragic figure who professes to be coldblooded with his emotions only to be controlled by passions driven by a cold fury against life's injustice and a deathless love for his stricken wife. However, the most famous of the villains from the series would have to be the Joker's hapless assistant, Harley Quinn, who became so popular that DC added her to the Batman comic as a part of the regular Rogue's Gallery of the series.

This series became a cornerstone of Warner Brothers' animation department which became one of the top producers of television animation and sparked a large franchise of similar TV adaptations of DC Comics characters.

Batman: The Animated Series premiered on the Fox Network and aired there for its first two seasons; however, it was then switched to Warner Bros.' new WB Network in the mid-1990s. Shortly before the transition, Fox aired episodes of the series in prime-time on Sunday evenings, marking one of the few times a show created initially for Saturday morning cartoons was scheduled for prime-time broadcast. However, the TV ratings were poor (the show aired opposite the perennial favorite 60 Minutes), and the series was removed from prime time.

After the series produced its 65th episode (the minimum number necessary for a TV series to be successfully syndicated), the show's popularity encouraged Warner Bros. to produce further episodes, furthering the animated adventures of the Caped Crusader. The Batman animated series was combined with the newer Superman: The Animated Series in the late 1990s in an hour-long Batman/Superman show. In the early 2000s, a new spin-off series, Batman Beyond, was released to further critical acclaim. In 2002, the Justice League animated series was released, building on the success of both the Batman and Superman animated series, and featured Batman as one of the founders of the League. Also of note is the fact that several of the animators from Japanese animation studio Sunrise worked on the series - their work on Batman would become a great influence on one of their later series, Big O.

A feature-length animated Batman film was produced for theatrical release, based on the animated series: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. The film was well-received by fans of the series, but only generated mediocre box office revenue. There were also two direct-to-video movies based on the series: SubZero , and Mystery of the Batwoman. A made-for-TV feature-length episode of the Batman/Superman series, "World's Finest," has been released on video as The Batman/Superman Movie. Collections of episodes from the series are also readily available on video.

A lost episode of the series was made from sixteen minutes of animated segements in the video game The Adventures of Batman and Robin for the Sega CD. It can be viewed here, courtesy of the Toonami Digital Arsenal.

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Last updated: 12-17-2004 01:59:00