THE BATMAN:
THE COMPLETE SERIES (2004-2008)
Label: WBHE
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 1385 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.O Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Directors:
Cast: Rino Romano, Evan Sabara, Danielle Judovits, Kevin Michael Richardson, Ming-Na Wen, Tom Kenny, Clancy Brown, Alastair Duncan, Jason Marsden, Steve Harris, Mitch Pileggi, Adam West, Louis Gossett Jr., Mark Hamill, Chris Pratt, Dana Delany, Ron Perlman, George Newbern, Brooke Shields, Robert Englund, Brandon Routh, Peter MacNicol, Frank Gorshin, Diedrich Bader, Patrick Warburton, Jerry O’Connell, Dorian Harewood, Billie Hayes, Wallace Langham, Gwendoline Yeo, Edward James Olmos, Christopher Gorham, Xander Berkeley, James Remar, John Larroquette, Patton Oswalt, Fred Willard, Robert Patrick, Dermot Mulroney, Keone Young, Ian Abercrombie, Dave Foley, Miguel Ferrer, Henry Gibson, Edie McClurg, David Faustino, Kevin Grevioux, Glenn Shadix, Louis Gossett Jr.
Synopsis: The Batman: The Complete Series follows 20-something-year-old Bruce Wayne’s early adventures as he balances his daytime persona as a bachelor billionaire with his nighttime guise as a caped crimefighter. Along the way, Batman is joined by allies Robin and Batgirl as they combat Gotham City’s Rogues’ Gallery, including updated versions of his familiar foes as well as a bevy of rarely seen villains like Killer Moth and The Everywhere Man. Join one of the most complex and intriguing character in comic book history for action-packed super heroic adventures that test the limits of this legendary character's extraordinary physical prowess and super-sleuthing skills.
I was no kid when I started watching Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995) during its initial run, I was a year out of high-school and honestly wasn't watching animated series at that point. I did however start watching the TV series with my kid brother Tommy when he came home from school, and we loved it. I'm not sure if I would have gravitated to it on my own without it being something to watch with Tommy as there weren't any toons I was actively watching at the time, though it sort of opened the doors for me to watch tons of TV toons in the coming years till currently. After that came Batman Beyond (1999-2000) at the end of the 90's by which time I had a few kiddos of my own, and Batman Beyond became a new favorite as I watched it with my adolescent stepson Nick. I would dare say we bonded quite a bit while watching it, this and Futurama were out shows of choice, never missing a new siring.
By the time The Batman came along I also had a set of four-year old twins and a five year old, and I watched the first season with them off and on but never gravitated towards it the way I did the other Batman series, which I attributed to the seemingly kiddie-friendlier animation style, despite having a pretty deep cast of rogues gallery baddies. The series features Wayne/Batman in his twenties balancing life as a super-rich playboy with his nocturnal crime-fighting activities, aided by his sidekicks Robin, Nightwing (Jerry O’Connell, Piranha 3D) and Batgirl (Danielle Judovits) at various points in the season, with Batgirl actually being his first sidekick this go around, which was cool. It's a solid core team, plus Alfred, of course, and Commissioner Gordon
(Mitch Pileggi, Shocker).
When I first watched the show back in '99 I was not a fan of illustrated style of the film, and for me, much like when I am checking out comic books if I am not into the art I find it hard to be absorbed by the story, regardless of content. I did however like a lot of the character designs of the baddies, some of which were heavily revamped and altered compared to Batman: The Animated Series stuff. I liked the revamped Bane and Mr. Freeze but was turned off by the new incarnation Joker, having been spoiled by Mark Hamill's iconic turn in the previous series. There's some stellar voice-acting talent here, we have Tom Kenny from SpongeBob SquarePants as The Penguin, and Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption) as Mr. Freeze, plus I thought Rino Romano made a solid Brice Wayne/Batman, but c'mon, he was walking in the shoes of Kevin Conroy from BTAS - those are some seriously big shoes to fill! Elsewhere we have horror icon Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street) as The Riddler, Ron Perlman (Hellboy) as Killer Croc, and Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) in a great role the obscure (to me anyway, I'm a Marvel die-hard) Everywhere Man. Watching select episodes for the review I was a bit more enamored with the series than I thought I would have been, having a bit of distance between my first watch and now has sweetened my perception of it, and I will continue to make my way through it chronologically, but the animation still sort of reminds me of the Jackie Chan Adventures style that I am not a huge fan of.
Audio/Video: The Batman: The Complete Series (2004-2008) arrives on a 6-disc Blu-ray set in full 1080p HD framed in 1.78:1 widescreen, containing all 65-episides but sadly not the The Batman VS. Dracula animated film, which would have made this a truly competent set. I believe this is the first-time we've seen this series opened up to 1.78: widescreen on home video, my season one and two DVD sets were 1.33:1 widescreen. The 1.78:1 framing seems to be the OAR as they have more image information - meaning its not cropped to fullframe. The 2D animation style translates well to Blu-ray with bold colors and deep blacks, animation lines look strong. There's a bit of compression throughout with banding being the most egregious of it, but it stands tall over my DVD sets of the series Audio comes by way of uncompressed English DTS-HA MA 2.O stereo with optional English subtitles. It does what it needs to with solid low-end and a dynamic but not overly dynamic mid and high-end.
Extras include about an hour and a half of archival featurettes exploring the shows, plus a 16-min new featurette, a retrospective with Duane Capizzi, Andrea Romano, Brandon Vietti, Rino Romano, Sam Liu, Steven Melching and Alastair Duncan that gets into the challenges of not repeating the BTAS and Nolan's Batman Begins, which is a pretty interesting conversation. The six-disc set arrives in an oversized flipper tray keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork, plus a slipcover with the same artwork. We also get a 4-page booklet listing episodes and extras, plus a redemption code for a digital copy of the series.
Special Features:
- The Dark Dynasty Continues (New Featurette) – Explore the relationship between The Batman and his allies as he evolves from mysterious vigilante to the World’s Greatest Detective (16 min)
- Joining Forces: The Batman's Legendary Team-Ups (Featurette) – How the series’ producers adapted the DC “Team-Up-Tales” approach from the comic books to the screen (25 min)
- The Batman Junior Detective Challenge (5 min) (Quiz) – Alfred tests your detective skills with The Batman: The Complete Series challenge.
- The Batman Junior Detective Exam: Level 2 (Quiz) – Pass The Batman test of knowledge with the level 2 exam (5 min)
- Building Batman (Featurette) – Detective Ellen Yin investigates The Batman's true identity (6 min)
- Gotham PD Case Files (Featurette) – Highly confidential profiles of The Batman's most dastardly foes (6 min)
- New Look, New Direction, New Knight (Featurette) – Go behind the scenes to explore the development of The Batman television series (6 min) l
- The Batman: Season 3 Unmasked (Featurette) – Supervising Producer Duane Capizzi talks about the animated series (9 min)
- The Batman: Season 4 Unmasked (Featurette) – A behind the scenes look into the making of Season 4 (9 min)
Screenshots from The WBHE Blu-ray:
