The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Batman: The Animated Series

 Batman: The Animated Series

Episode 64

Read My Lips

 

This episode gets a lot of love from fans and the initial shock value of the episode is exciting.  Overall it really doesn’t hold-up in rewatches.  The creator’s take on Scarface is a great deviation from the comic book but his personality is so annoying.  Scarface in the comic is the product of the The Ventriloquist who’s actually really bad at throwing his voice.  It’s a silly gag in the comic.  

 

The show took a more serious approach.  Scarface has a great mind for crime.  He exists in the mind of the timid Ventriloquist who suffers from multiple personality disorder.  He’s an old-time 1940s mobster villain.  These are all awesome nuances that make the concept work.

 

What doesn’t work is the character’s personality is that of a huge jerk.  Yes, it’s deliberate, he’s a bad guy but there’s nothing entertaining about how cruel he is.  The Joker is a psychopathically evil criminal but he’s entertaining when he does it.  His lunacy is exhilarating.  Scarface is actually grounded and almost sane except for the multiple personalities.  Scarface just talks down to everyone all the time, he’s arrogant, he knows there’s a connection between him and The Ventriloquist but is willing to kill Ventriloquist and thus himself in the process.  It’s a nice plot twist for the episode but hard to really like the character after the gimmick plays out. 

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Maxine Vandate - Creep

 Cuculi presents Live Beats music of the 90s & 00s.

 

The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Batman: The Animated Series

 Batman: The Animated Series

Episode 63 

Fire from Olympus

 

An absolutely amazing episode!  Maximillian Zeus is a shipping mogul who becomes delusional and starts thinking he’s the real Zeus.  He steals a high tech ray gun and causes problems.  Batman is hot on his trail.  Zeus thinks Batman is Hades trying to take over Mount Olympus.  

 

Batman enlist the help of Zeus’ assistant Clio to try and stop him.  She’s reluctant but realizes Zeus has totally flipped out and helps sneak Batman into the building.  Zeus catches her, holds her captive, tries to kill her, attacks a police blimp with the ray gun.  A bunch of stuff happens and Batman stops him.  What makes the episode so epic is the end when Zeus is hauled off to Olympus and describes many of Batman’s classic rogues as deities from the Greek Mythology and believes he’s truly in Olympus.  It’s a comedic twist and brilliant one.  

 

What sells the episode so well is Zeus’ henchmen aren’t blind followers.  It is a small layers to the story but they try to challenge and question his reality.  One of his henchmen doesn’t want to kill Clio and gets zapped with lightning.  The other reluctantly ties up Clio because he doesn’t want to get electrocuted too.  The henchmen try to talk Zeus out of attacking the police blimp because of the trouble it would bring down on them.  That was a layer of character development never given to other henchmen in the show.  In 22 minutes the show didn’t have time to give a backstory or personality to each bad guy.  It’s nice to know when they had the time, they added it.  A nice change from the “hired thug” trope.  

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Maxine Vandate - Happier Than Ever

Cuculi presents Live Beats music of the 90s & 00s.

 

The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Batman: The Animated Series

Batman: The Animated Series

Episode 62

His Silicon Soul

The HARDAC follow-up episode where we get to find out what happens to the Batman/Bruce Wayne robot duplicate.  It’s a million times better than the very excellent HARDAC episode and has layers of action and drama you’d never expect from a children’s animated program.   

 

The Batman robot thinks he’s a real person.  When he discovers the truth, HARDAC tries to rebuild himself.  Robot Batman struggles with conflicting thoughts which could be construed as feelings based on the different actions he’s taking.  

 

When real Batman tries to stop Robot Batman from destroying the world and bring HARDAC back to life, it doesn’t go according the plan.  Robot Batman thinks he killed real Batman and has a complete mental breakdown.  He stops the destruction of the world by sacrificing his life.  And as we’ve stated in prior posts, the DCAU creators loved killing robots in horrible gruesome ways.  They didn’t disappoint.  

 

While the standard and practices don’t have an issue with robots dying, the episode implies this robot might have had a soul. So kids got to see a fairly gruesome death of a living being.  The death of Optimus Prime in Transformers traumatized thousands of children in the 80s.  It makes one think that TV standards and practices might want to redefine their policies about living robots. 

 

The concept of machines having a soul is still in the science fiction realm but the depth at which it explains what a soul is to children is well defined in the episode.  The emotions, actions/reactions, feelings of Robot Batman cement the idea of how precious life is in a brilliant way that doesn’t preach and gets the points across. A somewhat underrated episode in BtAS.

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Broken Hearted on Prime Video

Broken Hearted on Prime Video

The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Batman: The Animated Series

 Batman: The Animated Series

Episode 60 & 61

The Demon’s Quest: Part 1 & 2

 

Robin is kidnapped along with Talhia al Ghul and Ra’s al Ghul shows up in the Batcave revealing he knows Batman’s identity and they go on a little quest all over the world to save their respective children.  Plot twist, Ra’s set the entire thing up to test Batman.  Batman figures it out and Ra’s offers his kingdom and marriage of his daughter to the Dark Knight.  He turns Ra’s down and Ra’s vows they are enemies.  

 

Batman learns that Ra’s is going to destroy most of world and then rule the remaining inhabitants.  He vows to stop him with the help of Talhia, Batman infiltrates Ra’s stronghold.  An epic battle ensues, Batman stops him.  He is presumed dead after the encounter.  As Batman leaves the stronghold he gives Talhia an epic kiss, something Catwoman never even got, and they part ways.  Plot twist, it is revealed Ra’s lives and will get his revenge. 

 

This is the payoff two-parter to the episode Off Balance where we first encounter Talhia and Ra’s al Ghul.  One could argue it’s a mini-story arc.  BtAS was never so bold as to do story arcs like its competitors Gargoyles and X-Men but it didn’t ignore it’s prior stories either.  The BtAS story telling was consistent but the show was crafted for each episode to stand-alone.  Thus a viewer could come in anywhere and know what was happening.  

 

The Ra’s episodes were always designed to be these epic showdowns, very worldly.  The show wanted to paint Ra’s as Batman’s greatest rival.  That mantle really goes to The Joker but Ra’s certainly upped Batman’s game outside Gotham and the stories did not disappoint. 

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Maxine Vandate - Dreams

Cuculi presents Live Beats music of the 90s & 00s.

  

The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Batman: The Animated Series

 Batman: The Animated Series

Episode 59

Blind as a Bat

 

Bruce Wayne gets blinded while saving an employee when the Penguin steals a military helicopter that Wayne Enterprises is developing.  Instead of resting, he uses some weird tech to get his vision back so he can stop Penguin, who’s keeping the city hostage, and get the helicopter back.  His tech goes wonky and he has to rely on his other senses to save the day.  

 

As stated in other reviews, Penguin episodes were never too exciting on the show.  This is right there with the rest.  Bruce’s apprehension to making military weapons is nicely solidified in the episode and recycled in the Superman/Batman crossover with Lex Luthor which we’ll get to later.  Bruce learns how dangerous military weapons can be and therefore opts for his company to never get into that business.  

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Maxine Vandate - Do You Believe in Life After Love

 Cuculi presents Live Beats music of the 90s & 00s.