Bat-May 2020 Compilation

[Music] i am batman there are few pieces of media in the last 30 years as beloved or influential as batman the animated series still regarded by many as the definitive version of batman the word masterpiece just may apply everything from the gorgeous hand-drawn animation and designs epic orchestral music brilliant voice cast smart and emotional storytelling in addition to a mature dark tone set this show far apart from its peers i know i'm not the only one who hears kevin conroy's voice when reading a batman comic or can almost make out the haunting laugh of mark hamill's joker whenever i see a drawing of the clown prince of crime this series is embedded in my dna as a fan of the dark knight and i know a lot of you can say the same but the show is so much more than all that tales of redemption fear love loss and much more connect to us on a basic human level wrap that all up in a beautifully gothic cityscape and a cape and cowl and you get one of these seminal shows of the 1990s and beyond the recent release of batman the adventures continue carry on the continuity of the series in comic book form and exemplify just how popular it still is even all these years later using the 2018 blu-ray collection as our guide this may we're going to be reviewing the first 31 episodes that's one video per day all month long i'll even talk about some of the extras in that set as it pertains to the episodes we're going to discuss it's the deep dive i've always wanted to do so join me as we take a look back at this animation touchstone piece by piece in batman [Music] we're kicking off batman with the episode that started it all on leather wings the villain man bat was a very bold choice for the first episode and producers bruce tim and eric radomski were trying to set this show apart right away we thought that would give us a really good opportunity to explore the darker more mysterious more horror movie kind of elements of batman that had never really been explored before in any kind of film medium and he was right man bat had been a decently well-known character in the comics but seeing him on screen was a whole different experience especially with the strong quality of this animation style infamously drawn on black paper this show was unconventional from the start many decisions made by the first time producers broke the norm and ruffled some feathers behind the scenes but who could argue with the finished product the tone was set by the opening scene showcasing a police blimp that was meant to display the other worldly timeliness of this series design one of the first voices we hear is indeed kevin conroy but interestingly it's not as batman or bruce wayne there it is there what is it looked like batwings before batman is ever seen on screen we're shown a sequence that introduces us to some important players in gotham's infrastructure in that one scene we find out batman exists and detective harvey bullock is out to bring him in but commissioner gordon seems less gung-ho on that idea mayor hill and a coin flipping harvey dent also foreshadow coming events in the series when we are shown batman for the first time it's kind of surprisingly not a big deal he's just sitting at the batcave computer reading the newspaper and talking to alfred who in this episode is played by clive revel before ephraim zimballis jr replaced it my heavens you mean it wasn't you tossing guards out of windows last night since the show was going to be aired out of order anyway maybe they thought a big first reveal wasn't necessary all i know is batman talking in bruce wayne's voice is the creepiest thing in this episode hey what's up doc anyway we see some gorgeous shots of the batmobile leaving the cave and bruce eventually shows up to investigate the man bat situation this leads to some stunning visuals in the climax that starts to show off with an impressive bang this really does play out like an old-fashioned horror film as science and monsters combine to create one of the more unique episodes this show produced what came first the man or the bat revisit this one and decide for yourself i think he likes bats better than people i can't imagine christmas with the joker is the first official appearance of the clown prince of crime in batman the animated series and it's okay coming off on leather wings this one doesn't quite carry the same sense of style and quality that was established in the first episode it's not bad just a bit underwhelming when we look at the show as a whole especially when you take into account what the joker became in this series i think bruce tim summed it up best when discussing this installment i don't think we actually found the true voice of the joker until about halfway through the series again with the introduction of harley quinn character and these early joker episodes are a little bit we still hadn't quite figured his character out yet i mean it's still entertaining hearing mark hamill voice this character will never leave you bored and he shines in a few scenes personally i think relatives are a boar so batman can have them if he can find them by midnight the plot is pretty standard joker will kill a few well-known hostages unless batman gets there in time setting this during christmas gave us a few nice wintry shots of gotham and even a recurring gag surrounding it's a wonderful life you know i've never seen that i could never get past the title oh and this is robin's first episode as well i always considered this my go-to representation of dick grayson the older college age former boy wonder just about to outgrow the bird and embrace the knight as it were voiced by lauren lester robin didn't show up in every episode which worked really well for the series and felt like a natural progression leading into batgirl's inclusion and his eventual fallout with batman he often is a needed source of levity keeping bruce a little more human while some of his jokes in this episode are a little they don't call you batman for nothing that he's still a welcomed presence and seeing him with bruce and alfred brings a nice family dynamic to our main characters the atmosphere is built well by the always wonderful shirley walker musical score the christmas themes incorporated in here are great fun to listen to and a nice juxtaposition to the usual darker batman music the final set piece is also classic joker with a christmas flare i love the giant nutcracker fight it may have been a bit strange to introduce joker in such a strongly themed episode plus we don't even really see him wear his usual full purple suit but it all works well enough and we do get a few decent bits including this pretty well timed one toward the finish [Music] [Laughter] it all ends in a familiar position with batman holding joker over a vet of chemicals overall a bit of a goofy episode but it's an important one when you consider the first appearances of some pretty essential characters and of course we get to hear about how much batman smells the batmobile lost the wheel for the joker [Music] i've always thought the scarecrow was an underutilized batman villain there are some good stories in the comics about him plus he was a decently big part of batman begins making subsequent cameos in the two proceeding films however he's never been a main villain in any of the movies and i think that's a big missed opportunity the ideas shown off in nothing to fear i don't think were anything too groundbreaking with the character at the time but the template was there and his stick works well in his first appearance highlighting bruce's fear that he's letting his father down gave us a peek behind the cowl it wouldn't be the last or best time bruce quasi interacts with his parents on this show but the minimalistic execution here was fantastic bruce bruce you have failed me father i love how we get to hear second-hand accounts of who bruce's father was throughout the episode and it's two very different perspectives on how he'd feel about his son one comes from good old alfred still voiced here by clive rebel i know your father will be proud of you because i'm so proud of you and the other is a former colleague of thomas who admonishes bruce's playboy persona it's lucky your father didn't live to see what you've done to his good name he'd have died of shame say that kind of sounds familiar doesn't it the apple has fallen very far from the tree mr wayne in fact hey wait a minute what's the matter scarecrow can't handle your own medicine taste of your medicine doctor who are you working for and even take what you can then burn the rest this isn't about money it's about sending the message okay that last one is a stretch but you can see some possible inspiration in nolan's first batman film i'm sure some of these instances happened in the comics as well the plot of nothing to fear isn't much to write home about jonathan crane wants revenge on the university that fired him so he enacts that revenge as the fear-mongering scarecrow this one's more about the characters and batman's reaction to the fear toxin there's an exciting climax on a blimp because this show loves blimps and it's really well done it's a solid first episode for one of my personal favorite bat baddies what hidden terror keeps the batman awake at night i will say scarecrow's design changed a lot throughout the show bruce tim and his team admitted it was difficult to find a good design for him almost every time he saw this character he looked different so i don't think we ever really quite got the scarecrow right until when we did the the new batman episodes we came up with a with a really really frightening look for him so extreme and so creepy scarecrow does look a little unintimidating in his first episode but the bass was there for a great character to expand on this episode laid more groundwork gave us a little taste of our main character's familial background and ended on a great shot of batman's shadow following bruce away from his parents grave great stuff it's also famous for a little phrase you may have heard i am vengeance i am the knight i am batman for me the last laugh is one of the most memorable joker episodes this is another more basic plot that follows joker spreading his laughing gas all over gotham through a garbage boat add a super strong robotic clown alfred breaking furniture and april fool's day and you get a pretty fun romp it's definitely a lighter episode of batman and one that bruce tim himself wasn't too keen on making so early on in the show's run we felt it was maybe a little bit more like an old-fashioned super friends episode where the joker really didn't have a real strong motivation for what he was doing and we felt it was kind of lacking some of the more psychological character-driven elements that we wanted to see in batman i could see what he was saying this definitely doesn't have that deep thought-provoking type of storytelling that most of the series is known for but for my money this was a fun little episode it's memorable for me for several different reasons firstly shirley walker's theme for the episode and score overall is stellar it's so different and showed off that varying types of music can seamlessly blend in with the more recognizable epic stuff but it also makes installments like this one stand out from the pack a bit music is a powerful gateway to memory and the last laughs theme i can recall without even thinking about it the visual reasons this episode is so memorable have to do with a garbage boat emitting that thick green cloud of pure odor it's just such a uniquely weird design and story point that i can't forget the image of also come on captain clown is the best [Music] since they made it clear he was a robot batman got to really kick the crap out of him too and it's awesome i love the reveal of the robot head it's slightly disturbing but so cool in an almost 1950 sci-fi movie kind of way he even gets to destroy the clown in one of those garbage crushers we see the cube and everything it's great but the high moment of the episode is definitely joker's reaction to batman dismantling his good pal you kill captain clown you kill captain clown i love that additionally we did get some really well staged and animated shots of people succumbing to the joker gas i was pretty impressed by the blocking and camera movement of those sequences lastly the climax is pretty cool i really like when batman catches one of joker's throwing cards and the set piece of an incinerator made for an exciting last few minutes batman swings through fire how can that not be amazing we end on yet another final position of batman holding joker over a pit of certain dew like i said this is a fun memorable excursion among the deeper and more serious episodes with that in mind i definitely recommend a re-watch do it for captain clown man do it for captain clown now we're talking pretty poison is a classic batman episode not only does it introduce poison ivy to the series but it further establishes harvey dent and his friendship with bruce the story structure is immediately more complex than the first few episodes we get some very clever cross-cutting near the top of the narrative that shows off great action while introducing pamela eisley and establishing where bruce and harvey's friendship is currently at you probably got hung up on business [Music] bruce runs around with a high-class crowd but he still manages to get his kicks [Music] there's nothing we don't know about each other who are you it was smart to get us emotionally invested in harvey before his fall to the other side of the coin we get to know him and how chummy he is with our main character you can see how much bruce truly cares for his friend when harvey's in the hospital from ivy's kiss fight harvey the star of this episode is of course poison ivy herself without really doing too much she just comes off so intimidating it's this calm and deadly demeanor that makes this version of the character so special but she's also unpredictable just when you think you know how she'll react to something ivy will throw us a curve it's so sad [Music] that laugh is so unsettling a lot of the credit goes to diane pershing for knowing how to play up ivy's more disturbing qualities those little reminders are important because they show that while she may be calculating she's still a few leaves short of a full branch her motivations drive the plot forward and dating harvey dent to get revenge on him for building a prison over wildflowers might be the most poison ivy thing i've ever heard her deadly kiss is focused on twice and genuinely creeps me out the climax in ivy's greenhouse is what you'd expect a giant man-eating plant almost consumes batman as eisley monologues that may sound formulaic but it's very effective here as i go through my rewatch episode by episode pretty poison is without a doubt the best introduction to a villain yet and her little evil tease at the end promises more quality stuff to come we always grow back don't we baby as well as ivy was pulled off in her debut episode producer bruce tim initially had a difficult time designing her and many of the show's female characters i was having a hard time you know designing the women characters and they were coming out a little bit too masculine or too stiff and lynn naylor who uh excelled in doing real cartoony but you know cute and appealing you know women characters so we actually hired her to do a bunch of different character designs for poison ivy taking you know the best of her sketches i kind of combined them all and kind of came up with the uh the final poison ivy model ivy evolved as the series went on but i couldn't imagine a better introduction for her i mean you know this guy liked her well you know i've been talking to my broker and his recommendation wasn't but what was his broker's recommendation it's been 28 years and we still don't know in short this is a great episode and you should revisit it but if for some reason you're not a poison ivy fan you could always just watch it to hear kevin conroy voice of french waiter oh madame les cargo a permacul caesar salad thank you andre the underdwellers is weird it's just really weird the story is intriguing enough we follow an underground community of kids serving a man called the sewer king as he has them steal from above ground and even forces them to remain fully silent when batman investigates a series of robberies he's led to the sewers and meets a mute boy named frog seeing that the boy has clearly not been cared for he takes him to the bat cave and makes alfred look after him in wayne manor eventually they return to the sewers where batman discovers the community of kids and confronts the sewer king so the thing is i can see this episode actually fitting in really well with this series weird is not a bad thing with batman but the execution and writing of this idea just didn't come together very well tom ruger is given story credit for this one and he's responsible for the story and or teleplay for a few of my absolute favorite episodes jules dennis and richard mueller who are credited with the teleplay for the underdwellers also have the cat and the claw to their name and we'll get to that but i don't think you can necessarily blame one person for this one it seems like a potentially good idea that just never clicked with that said let's talk about some of the more bizarre parts of this episode like how bruce seems to think he's seen a leprechaun seriously you don't believe i saw a leprechaun or when he brings frog back to wayne manor which turns into a gun psa children and guns do not mix ever it wasn't loaded but it could have been why does batman have a room full of guns in his house anyway i guess it can make sense to keep up appearances as bruce wayne but still odd choice he's also just walking around the manor in costume which again is not implausible but such a strange thing to see in this capacity shall we talk about batman's interactions with alligators in this episode later wow he also suplexes and i'm pretty sure kills one with his bare hands kind of surprising they were able to just throw that one in there even though they were given so much crap about a fleck of blood once in a while anyway the sewer king himself may have been a good idea in theory but hurry hurry hurry hurry we are the underdwellers we follow the invisible creed but but but he's a wacky neurotic pirate i'm not sure what they were going for with this characterization but we do know he kind of enslaves kids and batman is very mad at him for it they play up the plight of these children very seriously and it would fit in perfectly with the tone of a few other episodes but when you're showing these kids weeping right next to this guy it's hard to carry over those emotions from minute to minute the best part of this episode is when alfred is watching frog in wayne manor let me just say i love alfred i'm a big fan of that character whenever we can get him involved in more of the story i'm usually for it his bits with this kid were actually pretty funny in any case if you want to see a truly peculiar episode of this show the underdwellers might be for you the light the light pov is the type of episode batman the animated series was made for it's mysterious well-written and expands the world of the show with new locations and characters you've seen this story template before we open in the middle of a big event then afterwards are told the different perspectives on it by each character that was involved in this case a bust goes wrong at a warehouse where a local gang is breaking into a safe detective harvey bullock officer rene montoya and the rookie officer wilkes all have different accounts in the night as the warehouse was burned down and most of the gangsters got away the wild card in this scenario is batman his involvement is unknown until later in the episode the trio are chewed out in true stereotypical fashion by their superior in gotham pd lieutenant hackl as commissioner gordon watches on from here we get the three varying views on the knight in question bullock's angle on the situation of course depicts him as the hero and i love his embellished narration i was closing in when this loud noise tipped them must have been batman this is an interesting take on this type of story because usually you'd see the flashback play out in the way the narrator is describing it then at the end see how it really happened but here we get to see the contradictions play out visually the first time through as the voiceover goes on wilk's overview of the situation is more batman centric this was the first time the rookie had ever seen him in person and his description of how the caped crusader took out a few of the gangsters is really entertaining it was incredible the batman threw out his hand and sparks flew from his fingertips the guy tried to bolt and the batman just pointed at it wow he drops it was unbelievable that type of almost supernatural view on batman from a bystander's perspective is always fun to listen to it was the whole premise of 2008's gotham knight all but much more exaggerated with what those people thought they saw finally we hear montoya's version of events and they're the most straightforward of the three she's cornered in the burning warehouse when batman saves her but we also see what became of him by the end of the night he was buried alive all three of them are suspended until hackle makes a decision on who's to blame for the blunder i believe this is the only appearance of that character but damn he was giving gordon some lip ease up lieutenant no you back off commissioner gordon this is my investigation so pipe down or get out the three of them turn in their badges and weapons as we follow montoya riding the train on her way home this is a small detail but i loved seeing it small things like this go a long way with setting up tone and a wider view of this version of gotham city montoya figures out a key detail to where the gangsters are going to be and she finds them holding batman captive we then get some more great action and atmosphere as the episode hurtles towards an exciting finish this is the first episode that shines a real spotlight on renee montoya and what a great character she turned out to be she has a long legacy including a recent live-action appearance and the harley quinn birds of prey movie but back in 1992's pov she took center stage in a big way an interesting note about this episode is that we never see the full face of the gang's leader they kind of play it up like he's going to be someone important but that's not the case at all also the driller character in this episode is voiced by ron perlman and actually sort of looks like him too this is his first but of course not his last appearance in the series everything about pov hits at full force absolutely beautiful animation great story interesting characters and a thrilling soundtrack how could you ask for anything more i don't hear pov talked about all that much when folks discuss the best this show has to offer so if you want to see a perhaps underrated episode in the style this show was made for make sure you check it out the investigation is closed [Music] the forgotten is one of those masterpieces this series is known for pumping out what a fascinating engaging unique emotional and heartfelt story i love this episode it's also one i can still remember clearly from back when i first saw it the settings and introspective themes attached themselves to my psyche like a smile to the joker's face it is brilliant bruce wayne is donating some supplies to the doc street rescue mission and finds out some regulars have gone missing with the police busy bruce decides to investigate but not as batman this is the first time we see him go undercover after letting a few potential captors take themselves out he's ko'd from behind and wakes up with amnesia in some type of forced labor camp located in the middle of a canyon he gets to know some of the workers who we find out are among the missing people from the rescue mission we then get intermittent flashbacks and dreams as bruce tries to remember who he is and how he got there boss biggs is shown to be the brains and stomach behind the operation forcing these abducted men to mine for gold ore as bruce hears more about his new friends backgrounds and how they were taken alfred is forced to venture out to try and find the missing wayne this episode has everything you want and more that you wouldn't necessarily expect we'll talk about the settings first we kick things off in gotham and get some great looking shots of bruce's alter ego gaff morgan strolling the streets and looking for trouble but most of the episode takes place at the labor camp which we hadn't seen anything like up to this point in the show that backdrop provides a stellar canvas for the bulk of this story to be painted on there's not much else like it throughout this whole series the music in this episode is phenomenal you're going to hear me say that a lot this month because shirley walker was a genius the forgotten soundtrack ranges from harmonicas and a deep brisk tempo to match the western setting to gorgeously emotional strings and woodwinds that make you feel sorrow sympathy and pity in just one second of audio it is magnificent beyond words let's talk about those flashbacks and dream sequences yeah if you're watching this episode for the first time the amnesia aspect to this story might not seem needed the premise is honestly strong enough without it but once you start seeing these flashes of bruce's memories trying to break through it makes everything 10 times better i mean look at this oh my god and that's not even the last one and one of the most purely emotional scenes in the entire series we see bruce outside the dock street rescue mission as he's mobbed by panhandlers first it's just one then two and soon he's overwhelmed we even see him shed a tear this says everything you need to know about bruce wayne's altruistic core in just 25 seconds one of the tragedies of this man is that despite all his family's money and resources he can't save everyone no matter how hard he tries no matter how much cash he donates he can never fully rescue his city from the decay festering in its soul what an incredible little scene tucked inside an already top-notch [Music] episode [Music] oh yeah there's that too no big deal just a flawless recap of bruce's inner pain turning into the dark knight himself my love for alfred is satisfied here as well the idea of him having to search for bruce when he turns up missing is just another part to why this episode leaps past many of its peers i said in my review of the underdwellers that i can see that type of premise working in this series despite its poor execution well this is that kind of idea brought to its full potential and wouldn't you know it jules dennis and richard mueller the pair credited with the teleplay to the underdwellers co-wrote this episode as well maybe that also had something to do with boyd kirkland's direction but in any case the forgotten feels like a one-of-a-kind installment of a one-of-a-kind series i certainly won't be forgetting it anytime soon this is the ninth installment in the production order of batman the animated series and the third joker episode be a clown is pretty good and highlighted by the creepy set piece of joker's hideout maybe i'm just a sucker for abandoned amusement parks but it looks great and is used well especially in the climax it's not surprising at all that they used joker so early on but knowing how great his appearances became a bit down the road be a clown is more of a middling story for batman's greatest foe we wouldn't see him again until episode 22 joker's favor which is the introduction of harley quinn this episode's premise surrounds gotham's mayor hill and his son jordan's birthday party we find out with more certainty here that hill is no fan of the batman do you include batman in those rotten apples mayor absolutely he and criminals like the joker are cut from the same cloth joker takes that as an insult and decides to crash the mayor's mansion during jordan's party he appears in disguise as gecko the clown and manages to get the attention of the often ignored jordan while attempting to kill the hoity-toity rich folks who show up to the house but wouldn't you know it one of those hoity-toity rich folks is bruce wayne himself after joker splits before his dynamite candles big bang we see that jordan has tagged along and reveals himself to gekko at his amusement park hideout jordan wants to become a great magician and was only following the clown's advice step one run away step two find a magician with a great act when they find out jordan is missing and jekyll the clown was actually the joker batman tracks them down and not only has to stop his enemy but convince jordan the caped crusader is not the bad guy his father thinks he is the title card for be a clown is pretty creepy and represents the best part of the episode the setup with the birthday party is okay but once we get to the amusement park things kick up joker goes on to keep fooling jordan into thinking he's gekko and even though he's dressed in joker's famous suit and hangs out all alone at an abandoned carnival the kid still buys it yeah jordan's not the brightest kid but you feel sympathy for we never see his mom and his dad seems to treat him like a political tool he's also not a bad egg when he sees batman drowning in the water tank he attempts to free him even though his father has told him batman's no good when jordan is shown the truth about jeko he runs into the carnival to get away here we get an ominous slow chase that really brings you into the eerie atmosphere [Music] that's the best thing i could say about this episode the ambiance and uneasy undertone were done really well the visuals were great and joker came off more like a threat than in his first two appearances in the climax we get an exciting roller coaster chase that brought out the full potential of the setting joker isn't captured this time and i like that kind of ending better than him dangling over something with batman holding his leg this was an improvement in some ways over the first two joker stories but i'd still place it behind the last laugh and in front of christmas with the joker if i were to rank the pre-harley appearances if for nothing else you'll recognize this episode as the origin of one of your favorite batman gifts [Music] it was probably no coincidence that the first two-parter in this show's production order is about the origin of two-face we had seen harvey dent set up in a couple episodes previously a quick cameo in the show's first installment on leather wings and a more prominent role in pretty poison honestly i wouldn't have minded another few episodes setting him up before we got to twoface but we definitely got enough to know who he is before his fall from grace harvey is running for re-election and finally closing in on taking down mob leader rupert thorne however dent has recently been losing his temper at friends enemies anyone who's gotten in his way we find out through his therapy sessions that the d.a has another personality inside him called big bad harve this dark side of dent represents all his repressed anger and aggression that wasn't properly dealt with for his entire life and he's getting stronger thorne eventually finds out about dense diagnosis and ends up calling harvey on election night he attempts to blackmail the public official for favors from the da's office if he wants his therapy sessions kept quiet an accident at the chemical plant results in harvey sustaining severe damage to his face and when he sees himself in the mirror things are never the same again this is a landmark episode for the series not only for setting up two-face but for how far the writers were willing to go to show their dedication to character harvey is definitely the star of this installment not bruce or batman it's his story while you can argue how realistic the split personality explanation is it works within the confines of the show and is a pretty interesting angle on twoface's origin the dream sequence starts this episode off on a menacing note stop it stop it it's time harvey the character has been interpreted in many different ways throughout his nearly 80 year history while i liked aaron eckhart's version in christopher nolan's the dark knight the two-face in that movie was more of an extension of the joker's master plan than a self-sufficient villain in his own right the first time i saw that film i really thought they were setting up harvey as the villain for the next movie but as we know that wasn't the plan and we only got a few minutes of two-faced depravity his motivations for going bad were well done obviously but the two-face in batman the animated series feels more like a complete character to me it's just more of a challenging and engaging origin but i mean nothing beats timely jones right [Music] dark kind of day the last time we saw harvey he was dating poison ivy and now he's engaged to a woman named grace for what it's worth i really like this character's positioning in the story her concern and pleas for harvey to get help show that dent had a lot going for him we're also again shown how close bruce and harvey are all that makes his descent even more tragic well harvey and i go way back he's a great d.a and an even better friend the animation here is top notch several scenes showcase the beautiful movement and designs that full two-face reveal says it all with no words required of course the music does a great job of setting up the tone too and twoface's theme is minimalistic but effective on different levels we have to mention richard maul and his versatile voice acting as both harvey and big bad harf his range is very impressive the emotion he put into his performance also can't be understated let go of me you rich twit harvey bruce i'm sorry i i don't know what excuse me plus he's the voice of the bat computer which has its own moments later on in the show i think we all know how great this two-parter is part one is a fantastic setup for what comes in part two and the two-faced character for the rest of the series it also features one of my favorite quotes in this whole show harvey no it's a good no it's one of the best no's i just love it the delivery is delectable anyway we'll see you right back here for two-face part two next time on batmay here we go two face part two this is the first time we get to hear these words on the show previously on batman the episode takes place quite a while after part one twoface is a well-known gangster at this point hitting several fronts owned by rupert thorne in attempt after attempt to embarrass him while twoface's small operation is running well there's a big part of him that misses harvey's fiance grace he eventually decides he wants to meet with her which could put his location and well-being at risk meanwhile bruce has been haunted by dreams of his failure to save his friend his intense guilt has been driving him to find two-face since his escape from the hospital when the former harvey dents location is revealed it becomes batman's chance to try to get his old friend to turn back to the light don't bother to adjust the picture for the next five minutes i'm in control the time jump that happens here makes sense in terms of the story pacing and where we end up by the end of the episode but i can't help but think how interesting it would have been to see harvey start up his small crime career after leaving that hospital just imagine a freshly scarred harvey dent meeting with crime bosses or other infamous gotham figures for the first time seeing the logistics of how he amassed his new reputation could have created an even more dramatic situation for the character however i know a three-parter isn't as poetic or feasible maybe there's a batman adventures comic about it out there though if you've heard of one let me know in any case what we did get here is great so great a certain movie with the same character may have borrowed a few ideas the great [Music] [Applause] [Music] equalizer not saying those scenes directly borrowed from this episode i'm sure similar visuals are in the comic somewhere but it is interesting to see the parallels anyway the two-faced persona is in full swing but his longing for grace lets us know harvey is still in there somewhere the world around this guy even seems to be taunting him about it grace is once again used very well in her screen time she's the anchor her scene with two-face is emotionally impactful you don't ever need to hide from me bruce's guilt over not saving harvey allows us to once again take a dive into his psyche the exaggerated dream sequence that bruce goes through is another stark reminder of how close he holds his true friends and remaining family [Music] and of course it all leads back to what created batman in the first place all bruce's guilt started when he was just a child [Music] why couldn't you save a son now i don't think that dream sequence was quite on the shocking level of the ones in the forgotten but it focuses less on tragedy and more on bruce's own feelings of culpability some of the series best moments are in our main character's own head all the allusions to the number two in two faces targets start to show a pattern to his attacks but for most of the episode we see bruce still struggling to track him down being the great character he is alfred provides wayne with perspective on this matter keep your guard up sir somewhere inside that monster is my old friend that may make him even more dangerous overall i think you'd agree this is a strong and memorable two-parter the animation dropped off a bit in the second episode and the first may have a few more interesting scenes but back to back they hold up very well two-face is one of the most complex villains on this show his friendship with bruce deepens all their interactions and we do get more good stuff from this character later on in the series despite dense turn to darkness this episode ends on a hopeful note where there's love there's hope but a little luck wouldn't [Music] hurt [Music] it's never too late is one of my personal favorite episodes of this whole show it's not a huge adventure and doesn't feature a one-of-a-kind standoff with any of batman's well-known villains no this is just a great story with developed characters in a tightly paced 22 minute package aging gotham kingpin arnold stromwell is being pushed out of his position as top dog by the younger rupert thorne a gang war has led to the two leaders meeting to discuss terms but stromwell is distracted by the disappearance of his only son joey the meeting doesn't end peacefully and batman goes on to show stromwell the error of his ways and the effect his career choice has had on his own family a local priest also ties into the drama in an unexpected way this episode simplicity is also what makes it complex the story isn't anything too revolutionary at its bones it's sort of your standard redemption tale but the execution is flawless and the characters become humanized and relatable very quickly that's one of the strong points of these mini movies as the producers would often refer to the episodes as they introduce characters and conflicts that are often very ambitious to properly cover in a half hour tv episode but they usually pull it off some of the main characters here are shown for the first time in this episode and we get who they are and what they're about right away batman has a heavy influence throughout but he's more of a guiding light in a supporting role he almost fits the bill of a ghost of christmas past present and future all in one the style of the show is never lost as these sequences all remain visually interesting the flashback scenes and the elements that trigger them are classic visual storytelling look at how that train busts through the cloud of steam like a bull seeing red transitioning to sepia tone with a bit of a glossy finish made these feel dreamlike and quality and the emotion attached to them shines through even establishing shots like batman standing among the gargoyles of a gothic style church make for a striking image speaking of batman his fighting style here is perfect using the shadows using deception and making sure stromwell's meeting with the priest happens without interference i also love that he just knows the priest character in this episode it's obvious from their interaction they've met at least a few times before that's one soul i wish i could give up on i don't believe you'd give up on anyone father please be there the shot of batman looking to the church at the end is also well executed mison sen representing in general that it's never too late for redemption even for someone with such a dark past as stromwell i started out here selling drugs prove it and now you manufacture them for the record i make candy seeing what's truly become of his son starts stromwell's path to the light but it's not until his interaction with father michael that he really accepts what he has to do an empire crumbling a marriage shattered a son lost sure you're doing fine through this plan batman not only saves the soul he truly helps the city by taking one of its most infamous drug lords off the streets and he did it not only without his fists but with compassion patience and understanding we don't see this version of batman all that much when it comes to his enemies once in a while he'll show some type of sympathy for a two-face or mr freeze but he rarely spends his time trying to convince aging drug lords to see their own wrongdoings it's honestly more of a superman quality that the dark knight emanates here but wrapped in gotham's bleak environment with batman acting as more of the conscience of stromwell it works check it out for yourself and see if you agree it may not be my personal number one best episode but it's in the conversation and it's never too late to change my [Music] mind i've got batman in my basement what a title right in addition to being the first appearance of the penguin in this show this episode features a giant south american vulture kids driving the batmobile and batman himself sword fighting penguin with a screwdriver there's much to discuss two of penguin's thugs steal a rare faberge egg and after batman is attacked by a large vulture they escape two kids named sherman and roberta see and follow the out-of-place bird to an abandoned birdseed factory there they witness an encounter between batman and penguin the kipped crusader is knocked out by some weaponized gas and to save him the kids hop in the batmobile and ride off with a ko'd dark knight they end up hiding him in sherman's basement until they can figure out a way to help heal him meanwhile penguin and his thugs track down their location and a battle inside the house ensues alright look i'm not gonna pretend this is one of the greatest episodes of the show it's not rich in character visually interesting or particularly well written especially when you compare it to some of the even decent episodes of this series but i like it i like it i think it's fun it's a nice break from the constant darkness of the show and it's okay to change things up once in a while we still get all those great episodes this one doesn't affect them in any significant way if they want to try something different once in a while i have no problem with that as long as it's entertaining in some way it's fine and i've got batman in my basement to me is at least entertaining in a few different ways they definitely played penguin up as a goofier villain in his first appearance here oh bourgeois tearing this place apart could only improve it even though he seems to be designed after the more grotesque danny devito version from batman returns this penguin definitely doesn't have that same dark edge he's not eating raw fish or biting anybody's nose until blood squirts out no he's commenting on his distaste for sherman's furniture these commoners have such cheap furniture that rich elitist attitude is nothing new for the character but i am a little surprised they never made an attempt to make this penguin as deep tragic or scary as some of the other big villains this creative team tackled birds of a feather is probably the closest we get to going beneath the surface but knowing this show i would have expected a little more i know a lot of people can get very angry when kids mix in with their dark shows or movies and sometimes yes they can be out of place or just generally distracting but we know what we're getting pretty quickly in this episode even from the title it seems obvious where we might be going and sherman roberta and the bullies aren't amazingly well drawn characters but they fill their purpose fine i know it's hard to think of this as a kid show but technically it was i don't really consider it one myself with all the complex writing and dark tone but it aired on fox kids and had batman in it i guess you gotta throw them a bone once in a while i enjoyed the batmobile chase with penguin and his thugs hanging on the roof it was decently amusing the kids even end up booby trapping the house in a home alone style scene that was entertaining enough and this leads to that screwdriver sword scene i mentioned earlier setting it in this kid's basement with a joker wanted poster on the wall is very surreal but i will admit this image has stuck with me since i first saw it i may be guilty of playing with a screwdriver in this fashion when i was younger as well it's just that bizarre nothing beats sherman introducing his mother to batman though uh mom i'd like you to meet batman batman this is my mom ma'am and rob paulson voices a character in this episode come on that bald buzzer gives me the willies in conclusion yes this is a goofy episode of the show but in contrast to other subpar episodes despite any highbrow influences like oliver twist it's the execution that matters and i've got batman in my basement was a fun little ride before we got to something much more chilling see you next time we've reached the big one folks right smack dab in the middle of batman is the seminal classic heart of ice when people today talk about batman the animated series this episode is almost always brought up as its very best it reinvented a villain and featured character moments throughout this story that aren't just great for animation or television they're phenomenal scenes that believably convey drama tragedy anger and even a little bit of hope across gotham a new villain has been stealing parts of high-tech weaponry and leaving a cold trail behind batman investigates and discovers the thief mr freeze is actually a presumed dead scientist named dr victor freeze after the company he worked for goth corp shut down a medical procedure he was trying to save his terminally ill wife with he's involved in a laboratory accident that leaves him physically altered and seeking revenge on the man who wronged him there's a lot to talk about here let's start with mentioning this is a daytime emmy award-winning episode that's right it won way back in 1993 for outstanding writing in an animated program now technically the whole show won that award but heart of ice was the episode they submitted this is the first one written by the great pauldini and also the first that bruce tim himself directed plus it was the first recording session of one mark hamill he voiced goth corp ceo ferris boyle and would return later to famously voice the joker when tim curry was recast when he came in for the recording he said i really want to i really i want to play one of the villains who who's left who haven't you cast yet we told him that we'd already cast a joke and he was like oh well if any anybody else comes to mind you know let me know give me a call we did decide to recast the joker and we remembered that mark was enthusiastic about him brought him back in and uh he was great and he's been our joker ever since so lots of important firsts are associated with this installment this take on mr freeze brought him from goofy obscure baddie to one of the most complex interesting characters in the batman canon in the commentary track bruce tim and paul dini discussed their influences and what they were aiming for with this version of the villain at that time mr freeze was you know you remembered him as being otto preminger from the old adam west batman show you know where he was he was kind of silly i mentioned something about um like an old boris karloff mad scientist movie the idea that you know he'd been stuck in some kind of cryogenic accident and considers himself dead dead to all emotions and i remember us also thinking about the old vincent price movie dr fibes michael ansara iconically voiced frieze for all his appearances in the dcau his work in heart of ice has become legendary but originally bruce tim was thinking about a few different actors for the role we gave her a huge long laundry list of different people we thought might play mr freeze everybody from anthony's derby to anthony hopkins like we were gonna get anywhere near anthony hopkins andre was one who mentioned michael on sarah he didn't jump to my mind immediately as as being right for mr freeze i didn't see him as being like this unemotional guy but we took a chance and he was great i can't imagine anyone else saying these beautiful poetic lines that pauldini wrote into the script the character just came together so well to never again walk on a summer's day with a hot wind in your face and a warm hand to hold i'd kill for that when batman discovers frieza's origin story and the truth behind his quest for vengeance it's a very compelling sympathetic and heartbreaking scene it's hard to believe all this character development and atmospheric tension is paced so perfectly yet crammed into a 22-minute episode but there's not much of an argument against the fact that it's executed flawlessly with precision and care the slow moments are left room to breathe the action feels exciting you quickly understand the motivations of all involved it's pretty much the perfect script for the genre i think in the half hour format it has to be in the upper echelon of screenplays that should be studied for pacing character dialogue and a consistent tone i know i would have gotten a lot more out of it if this was taught in any of my screenwriting courses in fact if you do want to learn about multiple aspects that make a good script i'd suggest finding the transcript online and reading it while watching the episode when you're able to stop and analyze why certain moments work as well as they do you can probably pick up on a few tricks just a suggestion for any aspiring screenwriters out there i haven't even mentioned the animation yet this is just about as pretty as the show looks throughout its entire run the fluidity of the movements in combination with striking designs and eye-catching frames make the look of this episode both provocative and subtle the attention to detail is beyond impressive notice mr freeze's glass bubble we had called for that just to be a simple white outline to indicate his helmet bubble they took it upon themselves to airbrush every single cell right of mr freeze's helmet if i'm not mistaken i think mr fukuda who is one of the co-owners of spectrum he personally airbrushed all those cells even the little bits in the background add a sense of lived in believability to the world around our characters the music is brought up to another level as well mr frieza's theme is so understated and melancholy there's not much evil in there it's just sorrow and a hint of something beautiful that's been lost definitely one of my favorites among the villains in 1997 batman and robin used mr frieza's backstory from this show in an attempt to deepen that character on screen while we can all look back and laugh at the film either ironically or unironically i can't help but think it damaged the character in the live-action sense such empathetic motivations were wasted on bad ice puns and a cigar chomping arnold schwarzenegger cool party i wish they'd give this character another shot in the movies take him seriously use him the right way and show us how far mr freeze could really go batman doesn't have to do much in this episode besides be batman freeze handles all the heavy lifting in terms of character but heart of ice does feature a couple funny kevin conroy moments mr boyle sent me to fill in enjoy yourself at the party with his compliments plus alfred saves the day how could this not be perfect knock knockout gas chicken soup the only way to fight a cold this episode really does speak for itself there's not a ton else i can say that will do justice to the brilliance that is heart of ice there may be episodes i personally connect with more but it's undeniable how the impact of this story affected the entire batman franchise and its fans it will always be a part of us somewhere someplace in our frozen hearts some place where a warm hand waits for [Music] mine the cat and the claw is notable for several different reasons firstly it was the debut of catwoman and selena kyle in the series but more importantly this was the very first episode ever aired of batman the animated series in the production order this two-parter was the 15th and 16th installments respectively but on september 5th 1992 the cat and the claw part 1 debuted the series on television this was followed the next day by on leather wings and part 2 wooden air until one week later allegedly they were trying to capitalize on the success of michelle pfeiffer's turn as catwoman in batman returns which had just been released three months prior but how does part one of this story hold up batman catches a new thief named catwoman in the act of stealing a very expensive looking necklace she proves to be more of a challenge than he expected as she's able to escape the dark knight's grasp catwoman is actually selena kyle a seemingly well-off animal rights activist who crosses paths with bruce wayne at a celebrity charity auction for wildlife as bruce and selena get to know each other batman and catwoman continue their encounters in costume while all this is going on the organization selena is fighting against for land rights multigon international is secretly working with a criminal named redclaw for nefarious purposes they eventually find out selena and catwoman are one in the same as they plot their next move i think this is mostly an unspectacular episode they seem to be playing a lot off the relationship bruce and selena had in batman returns but since they were likely in production simultaneously i'm not sure how much they were allowed to get a peek at before that film came out in june of 92. some of selena's looks in this episode are definitely reminiscent of michelle pfeiffer and the concurrent budding relationships of wayne slash kyle and batman catwoman sure seem to be following returns template however we know their relationship in the comics has always been this will they won't they thing so it could just be that general format they were trying to follow in terms of execution their back and forth comes off a bit unintentionally awkward sometimes hey i'll have to try and trim those claws but sometimes when they're out of costume they have their more let's call them cuter moments you bought a date and i'm honor bound and delighted to deliver selena has that similar infatuation with batman that black cat has with spider-man over at marvel he should have seen him maven he had the eyes of a lion really what kind of lions has this lady been seeing red claw i remember well from back in the day but she's not one of the best villains on the show or anything her plan is set up in a scene where they project images behind her this was actually really well animated as the projection hugged the contours of her face creating an almost 3d look her organization's big move will be intercepting a train passing through gotham it will be transporting a strain of viral plague from our eastern laboratories talk about a contemporary threat if you're watching this years later for some reason i recorded it in may of 2020. look it up in terms of other memories that stick out about this episode catwoman cutting holes in windows with her claws has always been something i associate with the character likely because of how much she does it in this show it's nice to see batman and catwoman start their budding romance here but the cat and the claw part one is kind of forgettable it's not bad but not very good either we'll see if things pick up in part two hopefully there's more of that waluigi [Music] guy okay this is way better than part one way better i honestly had mostly forgotten what happened in part two before this re-watch and it's a big improvement continuing their plan from part one red claw and her organization attacked the train carrying the deadly plague batman has been fed information about this plan and attempts to stop them but fails to do so red claw escapes with the canister of the virus and intends to threaten gotham with its release meanwhile selena and bruce become closer and wayne even discovers her identity as catwoman when batman finds out she's infiltrated their secret facility alone he rushes to help her and faces off with red claw plus her whole team setting this different tone at the beginning we see batman meet with a mob boss about rumors red claw will attack the incoming train the park is a really nice set piece and gives off an appropriately eerie tone a small detail on the grand scheme of this episode but i appreciated it this may have been one of the first times batman disappears on someone too these are outsiders huh it's good to see waluigi made it back for this episode number one for real though this train heist is great it's a thrilling scene with heavy stakes involved we even get to see bruce pull out the back glider for the first time so you know it's serious another tidbit is we also see gordon answer what might be the unofficial bat phone with bruce talking to him in the batman voice on the other end the car chase with selena and bruce is another fast-paced action sequence in an episode that gives us several effective ones it also ties into the plot and leads to bruce discovering selena's identity as catwoman i will say our leads animated chemistry here is a big leap forward from their first episode the scene with bruce sort of spilling his feelings to selena was a believable enough step forward for the characters i really care about you i haven't felt this way in a long long time the climax at the government facility caps off this episode on an exciting note the pacing is much better here and there's just more on the line to be invested in bruce and selena's budding romance ties everything together as the heart of the episode but as usual it doesn't end perfectly i'd say the cat and the claw didn't really need to be two separate episodes i understand wanting to give time to introduce the popular catwoman character but the first episode seemed to not quite have enough story to fill up the run time while part two has a lot going on in every scene including the quieter ones it still feels like a more well-rounded narrative let me know what you guys thought of catwoman's debut and i'll see you next time on go batmay this show man this show before i even get into today's episode i have to say this like a lot of you i grew up watching this series of course i have nostalgic feelings for it i am attached to it in that way and while it's great to look back on it from a good old day's perspective my main goal with batman is to look at each episode individually with a critical eye as a fan of batman sure there are certain things we come to expect from that character but as a bigger fan of good writing animation and just overall storytelling this show is truly in rarefied air one of the episodes that demonstrates those qualities in that mini movie kind of way is see no evil this could be a great story without batman and kind of has been before even recently but their spin on it here made for something special a little girl named kimberly receives nightly visits and gifts from her imaginary friend named mojo the problem is mojo isn't so imaginary when a peculiar robbery happens at the gotham jewelers association convention batman chases down the culprit who seems to be invisible we learn along the way some of an experimental invisibility material was recently stolen from wayne tech batman then has to put the pieces together to find out who this disappearing man is and what his connection might be to the young kimberly i'll give a spoiler warning for this one just in case you want to re-watch the episode yourself to follow along with the story the identity of the mojo character is not really a secret and who he is is the basis for the whole episode they tell us three minutes in but i thought i'd give you the option anyway let's get into the meat of this installment who kimberly thinks of as mojo is actually her estranged father and ex-con lloyd ventrix her mother helen has a restraining order against her ex-husband and with his family about to move lloyd's plan changes to stealing his daughter back before his ex-wife ever finds out she's gone lloyd is mostly played up as a sleazebag and creepy menace to batman in this episode but like so many of the antagonists on this show he has his reasons for doing what he's doing they don't justify his actions but they do make an attempt to show us the gray area of this particular situation lloyd's inability to legally see his daughter almost makes him sympathetic the key word there is almost come on baby if you could just let her see me she knows you're not supposed to go near her ellen please cut me some slack here will ya i'll give you anything you want his desperation is on full display in that scene you almost feel sorry for him but the problem with lloyd is he'll do anything and hurt anyone to see his daughter also his method for underhandedly doing just that is straight up creepy kimberly kimmy like i mentioned earlier this isn't exactly a new concept but the gimmick of an invisible criminal sneaking around gotham is an excellent story invention for batman to fight against it fits into the world of this show like a glove although for being invisible you'd think lloyd would try to be a little more subtle with his robberies what the devil [Music] the dark knight had to use creative means to fight this adversary it really showed us his resilience and intelligence this is also a good episode if you love a good old-fashioned stealthy batman scene however he is again not the focus of the episode it's more about building up this villain his motivations and the characters he's affecting this all leads to an outstanding climax starting at a long closed down drive-in movie theater such an appropriately spooky setting it looked great on screen just as all the animation in this episode did the tone is helped as always by a superb score that enhances everything we see and this really does feel like a movie not some cheap rush job a really atmospheric unnerving near horror story with relatable characters and emotions throw in the dark guardian presence of batman and this becomes yet another episode to put on your rewatch list it definitely stands out from the pack a bit in terms of the unique mood it creates but there are some legitimately funny bits as well hey who locked the bathroom [Music] who are you i know you're in here [Music] i didn't know he could fly too plus where that invisible car chase leads makes for an exhilarating finale this episode is also notable for featuring lucius fox in his first appearance in the production order the writer for this episode and story editor for the series martin pascoe just passed away earlier this month from this episode alone you can tell how talented he was if for nothing else make sure you see see no evil at least one more time to appreciate his work the grey ghost talk about memorable tying adam west into an episode where batman himself fanboys out over his own childhood hero and inspiration was such a stroke of genius in the writing department this one has all the elements that make it one of the best in the series great voice work beautiful animation a peek at bruce's past and the music my goodness the music to me the grey ghost theme is almost as memorable as batman's theme it really feels like it would fit in an old time serial but with a more modern cinematic twist the whole score just feels like it belongs in a movie theater it more often than not sounds like that anyway but here especially the setup for this episode is very clever a bombing in gotham mirrors an old installment of bruce's favorite childhood show the grey ghost since the perpetrator seems to be sticking to the episode's plot and bruce struggles to remember the details he ventures out to try and find a copy the problem is the original negatives were thought to have burned out of existence years ago and the only man who may have any remaining footage is simon trent the actor who played the grey ghost reluctant to get involved trent and batman don't get along at first but when the attacks continue they begin working together to find out the identity of the real life mad bomber i'm gonna be honest with you guys i'm not a fan of the 60s batman show i don't like it never did still don't it's just not my thing there are lighter interpretations of batman that i am a fan of like batman the brave and the bold but that old show i'm just not into having said that i always liked adam west his sometimes zany voice work and persona seemed to embrace his place in pop culture history years after that batman show went off the air he did have issues with typecasting for quite a while after playing the caped crusader though and they used that as another aspect of his simon trent character in the grey ghost i love how it looks like he was always proud to play the character until it basically destroyed his career the sense of resentment he has for that role is palpable and west is legit good voicing him the novelty is great but he really did pull off the more serious scenes i used to admire what the grey ghost stood for i'm not the grey ghost i can see that now the grey ghost is obviously a nod to the shadow a fantastic old pulp character the shadow was one of the inspirations for batman so you can see how layered this episode is with tributes to virgins and influences that came before it by the way that 94 shadow movie with alec baldwin and tim curry holds up you should check it out we learn more about bruce's background in this episode as well the scenes of him watching the grey ghost as a kid with his dad close by is the perfect reflection of a lot of her own experiences with this very program it doesn't even have to be this show specifically but we can all relate to seeing our heroes on screen from a young age and who we share those experiences with whether it be parents siblings friends those kinds of memories hold a special place for all of us for bruce it was where he first learned what a hero could be and he carried part of that inspiration all the way up through his days as batman bedtime right after grey ghost okay bruce that is indeed kevin conroy voicing thomas wayne bruce's father is tied to that memory of the grey ghost and batman makes sure to let simon trent know it as a kid i used to watch you with my father the great ghost was my hero as you have probably figured out this is one of my personal favorite episodes but it's not perfect trent dressing up as the grey ghost to help batman doesn't really make much sense if they gave more of an excuse for it like he was making some sort of appearance when he saw batman in trouble that would have been a little more believable it's a nitpick and it's great to have him in the suit so i don't really count that against the episode however the reveal of the mad bomber isn't one of the show's better moments i love toys it can carry a bomb it can hold a city for ransom it can earn millions millions for the little old toy collector me bruce tim voiced and was the model for ted dimer a toy shop owner and memorabilia collector who was hard pressed for cash it's great that tim was able to be involved in the series this way but considering the quality of what came before this was a lackluster payoff they could have easily slotted toyman in there but with him being a superman villain you probably didn't want to cross that line just yet of all the single episodes of the show i think where the grey ghost is perhaps the one that deserved a two-parter the most building up trent and the mad bomber in the first episode and leading to a more satisfying conclusion would have possibly made this the very best story told across the whole series but as is it's still probably in my top five do yourself a favor and take a look back at a piece of batman history this is a fun little episode i like this one prophecy of doom shows off the variance of different themes and stories we see across the series it's not particularly memorable but the execution was again handled really well seeing bruce batman take on a fraud who claims to see the future while taking rich folks money made for a kind of odd and quirky but interesting installment of the show a fortune-teller-turned-cult leader named nostramus has lured the wealthy of gotham into his orbit his accurate predictions about future events scare them into believing in what he calls the great fall an oncoming economic collapse of western civilization to make sure they're taken care of he convinces them to pool their money together in an account with over 300 million dollars in it however nostromos is actually a former actor and ex-con named carl fowler with the help of his special effects man lucas they forced nostromos's prophecies into existence but when one of those predictions involved the death of bruce wayne batman takes the case and looks deeper into nostramus's charade the idea of bruce wayne infiltrating a cult is a solid story premise this episode may have handled it in a more exaggerated way but it is another real world issue people being fooled out of their life savings to support an organization that's not on the up and up has been known to happen granted it's a little harder to be quite as invested in who's being ripped off here the rich of gotham have more than enough money to survive even if they lose all the cash nostramus had them pooled together if they focused the episode on the downtrodden of gotham as the ones being swindled i personally would have been a little more invested the vibrations are right for prophecy oh okay nostramus and the khan he's pulling off make for some fun moments with his wig off he even kind of reminds me of jafar we could have finally hit them for all their work peace to all the smoke and mirrors the voice the predictions coming true you gotta hand it to him it's a pretty solid plan but they didn't count on gotham's most famous rich guy being batman i like the look of the room where nostromo's events take place it was a good location for a climax all the planets floating around the ceiling made for some interesting visuals with the life of bruce's friend lisa hanging in the balance they directly interact with that set as things go haywire seeing the universe crash down upon nostramus was an appropriate finale speaking of bruce's friend lisa she was voiced here by heather locklear you know what my inner voice tells me nostromos you've ripped off your last victim aaron kinkade also voices lucas in this episode he returned to play a few other characters later in the show's run including most notably killer croc prophecy of doom is well animated especially the opening on the boat and a decent episode if you want to watch a more eccentric situation play out i'm sure your inner voice will guide you to the right decision yes to all feet of clay is one heavy story even on this show it goes pretty far in more than a couple ways part one does a marvelous job of setting up the characters situation and themes it also excels at world building with beautiful shots of gotham in different areas from different angles we see new locations and are introduced to new important players it just feels more like a living breathing city in this episode even more than in a lot of its high quality predecessors there are noir elements there are body horror elements and the voice acting and dialogue are fantastic at driving home the themes of addiction body image the pressures of fame and more that's all in just the first episode at the closed gotham island tramway deep into the night lucius fox is seen dropping off a briefcase to bruce wayne but things take a turn when wayne double crosses fox and a few armed goons threatened to kill him batman shows up to save the day but bruce wayne is sought for questioning by police meanwhile movie star matt hagen is shown to be hopelessly addicted to a facial cream chemical that restores good looks to his disfigured face it's revealed he's working for corrupt businessman roland daggett daggett has him impersonate others with the capabilities of the facial chemical while supplying him with the addictive substance when he discovers bruce wayne is wanted by the cops batman does all he can to track down whoever impersonated him in his faux criminal encounter with lucius fox so as i mentioned there are a lot of layers in this two-parter there's a ton of story to fit in but part one doesn't ever feel rushed it takes its time and naturally delivers the information we need to know right from the beginning the episode feels off but in a good intentional way it's like we're seeing gotham through a different set of eyes maybe that has to do with marv wolfman writing the teleplay these were the only two episodes he had a hand in collaborating on and as the creator of tim drake dick grayson's nightwing identity and much more he was a massive influential force in comics for years prior to and after this ron pearlman brings a sense of brute desperation to matt hagen that is expounded upon later when he's turned into clayface i gotta have more now see it wore off look i can't fix it anymore the old hollywood tone surrounding him provides excellent direct and indirect metaphors for what can manifest inside us with constant attention addiction paranoia resentment self-hatred we see hagen go through all of it in this first episode he's made into a very effective sympathetic character which this show routinely does very well with its main villains in his first appearance ed asner nails roland daggett's take no prisoner's attitude daggett is truly a revolting human being who doesn't care how many lives he ruins in the achievement of his own underhanded goals you needn't bother searching for him when his supplier runs out he'll come to us with bruce wayne framed for attempted murder batman is shown crossing a few lines in this episode he scoops up a car with the bat wing and flies it over the city with raymond bell one of the men who attacked lucius fox inside he even drops the car into the river and threatens him more by dangling his body from hundreds of feet up batman was trying to get out of him the name of the man who impersonated bruce wayne but it doesn't exactly go according to plan he fainted when approached by a few police helicopters really no blimps batman drops bell into a rooftop pool good thing he's so accurate with that batwing and apparently knew how deep that pool was this was one of the best times we ever saw batman off his game he doesn't have any solid idea of what's going on or who's involved and even gets himself arrested at the end of the episode feet of clay has one of the most tragic musical themes in all of this series you can feel the sadness loss and sympathy from the first note they also don't shy away from a few grotesque moments i mean they go pretty far with at least one horrific scene the sequence where hagen is held on the floor as daggett's thugs are pouring an exorbitant amount of the facial chemical down the actor's throat is pretty terrifying and showing us just the shadow made it even more disturbing we see a tease of the effects that had on hagen at the end of the episode which sets us up for an engrossing part two and we'll cover all of it next time on batmay i'm telling you what people like to talk about how dark this show is right well there aren't a lot of episodes darker than feet of clay part two this is into the depths dark it's so dense with moments lines musical cues breathtaking animation every scene is relentless in its visual and narrative significance my notes were overflowing with things i had to write down so i could remember to talk about them holy hell is it vicious in its high quality approach to the story and characters marv wolfman just walked in dropped this bombshell and left continuing from part one bruce wayne is booked at the gcpd but released soon after batman immediately goes back on the prowl for wayne's impersonator as matt hagen looks upon his new appearance the overdose daggett's minions poured into hagen's body has transformed him into something he can barely recognize as human however he does notice he can shapeshift into other people and objects with this newfound ability he goes on the hunt for daggett and crosses paths with the batman okay where do i start let's go with clayface first matt hagan is definitely a sympathetic bad guy but ron perlman is so good at being an angry jerk you almost forget to feel sorry for him a couple times you made a comeback before you can do it again come back come back from this i told you i don't need rest i don't need food and i don't need you a lot of matt's anger is unfairly directed at his stand-in and best friend teddy lupus teddy really cares about hagen but all we see is matt treat him like garbage although it is hard to blame him sometimes especially with scenes like this i'm not an actor anymore i'm not even a man we learned that after the accident that disfigured him roland daggett offered higgin to be a guinea pig for the first trial of his renew you facial chemical the problem was it turned out to be an addictive substance that causes intense pain if not taken more and more regularly it also gave hagan his initial ability to mold his face into other people daggett held the chemical over his head as he forced matt to work for him on some of his criminal schemes clay faces on a revenge-fueled mission to pay daggett back and his first interaction with batman was one of the high points of the episode [Music] what in the name of heaven even though we feel plenty bad for clay face he's a frightening adversary for batman and uses all his abilities to his advantage in their first fight creepy stuff one of the most eldritch moments in the episode comes when he finally confronts daggett during his interview on gotham insider why don't you tell them about me batman in this episode continues to go a bit further than we're used to seeing him in the series when he threatens the character germs with a jar of crimson fever in the hospital's infectious disease specimen lab it's one of his most intimidating scenes you're crazy last chance talk now they make sure to show us it was really just sea water in that jar but in these two episodes batman really stepped up his interrogation game that germ's character also turned out to be ahead of the curve all these viruses and bacteria i could be infected when he finds out who clayface really is batman thinks up a clever way to defeat him but like the hero he is the dark knight again tries to appeal to the person inside his enemy you can play those roles again hagen let me help you find a cure all that awesome dialogue is great but where's my batman janitor funko pop not discounting the heavily emotionally effective score to this episode the real star of feed of clay part 2 is the brilliant animation for clayface's transformations they stepped it up to a level rarely seen in this medium period we're talking 2d animation here look at that gorgeous twisted and a trademark of this show that's off to all who were involved with the visuals it enhances the story and gives us one of the best scenes in the series you know what i'd have given for a death scene like this too bad i won't get to read the notices tragic and horrifying at the same time which also describes the end to this episode i love a good ominous tease that there might be more to come and feed of clay ends things on a downright scary note i wouldn't be surprised if the body they took to the morgue was only a shell he called it a scene a death scene so real it fooled us all that ending narration is perfect and the image it leads to is bone chilling as a complete story feat of clay has to be one of the best told narratives in the series the writing acting and visuals worked in sync here like nothing else in the show especially in part two but boy is it dark go ahead and revisit it or check it out for the first time either way brace yourself for a nightmare that molds to fit your sympathy vanity and fear [Music] i've been looking forward to covering this one it's an important episode written by the one and only paul deeney in joker's favor we are introduced to the now extremely popular character harley quinn while it was number 22 in the production order it's the first joker episode that aired on tv back in september of 1992. compared to the three joker appearances that came before joker's favor feels much more like the clown we know in relation to batman the animated series harley is an important part to his interpretation in this show and added another layer to his character that has become a part of the joker's overall persona charlie collins is a husband and father who's tired of being kicked around by life in gotham city but the day he finally decides to stand up for himself turns out to be the worst mistake of his life when a car on the highway cuts him off charlie curses out the driver who just so happens to be the joker the clown prince of crime follows charlie off the freeway and to make up for his mistake collins offers to do anything if joker spares his life joker agrees and warns him that one day he'll come a collin to cash in on that favor two years later the day has come joker kept tabs on charlie's family who have changed their names and moved to ohio collins is called back to gotham to play a role in joker's grand plan to crash the testimonial honoring police commissioner james gordon we can talk all day long about harley quinn and the influences pauldini used to create her many people already know that arlene sorkin and her appearance on days of our lives were heavily involved in deeney's image for the character so much so that sorkin herself voiced quinn in this series in joker's favor it feels like harley was just always there she fit in so well with joker and their interactions were very natural here are the first words she ever spoke it is to laugh huh mr jay her involvement in the rest of the episode is classic harley we quickly even see her in scenes out of her usual costume and without makeup hey sugar you want to read me my rights [Music] this may have been harley's intro but she's not the focus of the story charlie's arc in this episode was actually really good his scenes with the joker work on multiple levels the scared confused attitude he spoke with highlighted mark hamill's unstable performance we can't have people cursing at each other on the freeway i'm just going to have to teach you some manners what i don't know i haven't thought of it yet sometimes his joker was intimidating sometimes he was funny sometimes laughing while simultaneously being violently angry he would flip back and forth with a ton of energy and it almost didn't matter what he was saying it was all in his inflections and tone yeah great i'll be in touch by this point hamill already had the character down pat and may have not been over dubbing the tim curry voiced episodes anymore but then again i could be wrong i don't think it's known for sure how many full episodes curry recorded before being replaced i really wish we could just hear a few lines one of these days unlikely to happen but we did hear curry's laugh for a moment back in the be a clown episode [Laughter] anyway joker bringing charlie all the way back to gotham just to open a door was a great little nonsensical payoff plus charlie sort of going full joker on joker toward the end was so good it even made batman laugh stop you you're crazy i had a good teacher hey joker gotcha oh very funny this episode also had a great goofy theme paralyzing gas joker popping up out of a cake the first use of a makeshift bat signal and i believe the first time in the production order we see batman disappear on gordon joker's favor is not the very best joker episode but the character was starting to hit his stride within the series and harley quinn had a lot to do with that a pure innocent little thing like her led astray by bad companions vendetta features the introduction of one of batman's most physically threatening villains killer croc they almost follow the jaws model in this episode teasing croc's appearance from different angles until his big reveal 13 minutes in the tone of this episode was set just right to give us the debut of another monster in batman's rogues gallery the police are bringing criminal spider conway into gotham to testify against mob boss rupert thorne when the boat he's being brought in on blows up before reaching shore conway goes missing we then find out detective harvey bullock was suspected of taking bribes from thorne two years back and this gives batman a reason to look into him as the suspected boat bomber soon another criminal named joey the snail is abducted and this eventually leads batman deep underwater to discover the person behind these attacks might not even be a person at all firstly vendetta is a beautiful looking episode from the rain outside to the heavily shadowed rooms to being above and underneath the ocean's surface the different locations make this episode feel like its own unique thing within the series even little moments like batman stepping out of the darkness or how they present killer croc in certain shots it's a moody mysterious undertone that sucks you in right away and lets you know you're in for something a little different outside of maybe pov this is the first time bullock's clean record as a cop is really brought into question the character's design and how he talks and sometimes acts can lead one to believe that he fits the description of the classic dirty cop but he's not and that's what i always liked about harvey bullock appearances can be deceiving and while he's got a rough exterior he really is one of the good guys but as one of the good guys he has more than a couple enemies this includes croc the scene where he's impersonating bullock is really well done i mean it's obviously fishy that bullock grew a whole foot and has yellow eyes but they had robert costanzo do a more gravelly version of his usual voice go eat a snail brought in last night on a 605. bullock that you yeah now let me see him small details like that make this episode really cool by the end there's our first man to batman acknowledgement of respect between the dark knight and bullock why'd you stick your neck out like that to help me we may have different ways of enforcing the law but we both believe in it batman again uses some extreme interrogation techniques this time with rupert thorne did you order spider conway blown up that that loser he gonna talk his head off no problem when batman starts to figure out what's really going on and who might be behind the kidnappings he visits the zoo to learn more about crocodiles no books or bat computer for this mission alfred there's only one place that can help me now the local zoo at first he has a tough time finding where croc is keeping the snail and conway no sign of conway anywhere detective thanks bruce tim but he eventually tracks them down to his lair where they have a great first encounter they used to call killer truck the meanest dude in the wrestling federation he's right his match with brock lesnar at wrestlemania 20 was a classic batman does some more research on croc and finds out about his background and medical condition that gives him his gruesome appearance after drawing him out they fight one more time in the sewers in a great looking finale there are plenty of great images and overall visual sequences in this battle under gotham although i was disappointed we didn't get a sewer king cameo i loved when batman pulled out the red bat shades and tried to blind croc with a solar flare this red eyes look also popped up in a few episodes a little further down the line vendetta is a solid enigmatic gloomy episode both in story and the visuals like man bat killer croc brings a monster movie quality to this installment that i think fans of the show look back on fondly fear of victory is the second scarecrow episode in the series and it's all right there were a few good looking scenes with one memorable sequence and it's nice to have a story partially focused on robin for a change also tim curry voices an uncredited character in this episode it marks the second and final time we heard him on the show after he was replaced as the joker by mark hamill but that's really just a footnote the story focuses on a pretty smart plan by the scarecrow to make a lot of money unbeknownst to batman and the public professor jonathan crane has escaped arkham asylum he's been traveling to different locations delivering telegrams to athletes and betting big money against them on the telegrams is a form of crane's fear toxin that can be absorbed through the skin however it's only activated by adrenaline so when these athletes take the court field or ice it kicks in and they experience their greatest fear crane's latest victim is a star quarterback and just so happens to be dick grayson's roommate at gsu grayson also touches the telegram which causes him to freak out later when on patrol with batman after finding out crane is missing from arkham batman and a fearful robin hunt down scarecrow to gotham stadium in the middle of a big football game scarecrow's first episode nothing to fear had some bigger ideas and better scenes but fear of victory does go a little further in establishing crane as a more intimidating villain there is something a little creepy about his disguises when delivering these telegrams too in a sort of faceless mannequin kind of way this is scarecrow's second design and i think i like it a little bit better than the first none of them are great or really even good until his redesign in the new batman adventures but i am a big fan of the character and his potential so i can look past a lame costume if the story surrounding him serves him well i'm pretty sure the robin centric episodes got better as the series progressed and if we're judging this as one of his stories let's just say it's no robin's reckoning it's cool to see him in college and living his own life but i think we all know dick grayson is a little more interesting than how he's portrayed here he gets so scared his shirt changes color batman's depiction here is pretty standard but he does end up in one of the funniest situations i've seen him in [Music] oh my [Music] there is one great scene in here where batman passes all his enemies on his way to scarecrow cell i believe this is the first time we've seen arkham in this capacity so that's pretty notable i love how little bits of each character's theme plays as he passes their cells very nice touch when batman sees that scarecrow is gone i love the joker laugh too [Music] really quickly the tim curry character in this episode is just known as leon's henchman he has a few lines hey is this some kind of joke i never would have guessed that was him maybe some of you could tell but i didn't notice until i heard about it years after first seeing this episode maybe it was scheduling conflicts or something but i'm kind of surprised they never tried to recast curry in another villain role after he lost out on the joker his voice is so distinct one would think they'd utilize him to a greater extent if they did have access to him all in all this episode is okay honestly kind of skippable except for that sequence in arkham and maybe that one other scene oh my oh my oh my the clock king has been embedded in my brain since i was a kid a lot of these episodes are but i'm kind of surprised at just how memorable this one became this isn't a main villain episode it's not really one of the best stories but there is one aspect to it that makes it significant the clock king himself you get temple fugit what a name i know it's based off the latin phrase for time flies but it's just fun to hear him say it you get temple fugit that voice combined with his time gimmick really stuck out to me for years i thought the clock king was an original villain made just for the show but that's not true he actually had a long history prior to his appearance here first as a green arrow villain then showing up in the batman 66 show and more in recent years versions of this character continue to pop up in arrow the flash and even the lego batman movie but like other previously known characters batman the animated series revamped this villain into a unique schedule obsessed man who has a bone to pick with gotham city mayor hamilton hill several years before he was mayor hamilton hill would ride the subway to his job as a lawyer temple fugit always stayed across from him on the ride and they got to know each other a little bit fugit was the head of a time and motion study company who was on the last appeal of a multi-million dollar judgment against them hill suggests that the tightly wound fugit loosen up and go into that day's hearing more relaxed in order to achieve this he tells him to move his coffee break back 15 minutes and take it easy for a little bit when fugit tries this his case documents are blown around by the wind and he ends up late to his court appearance the judge finds him in default and upholds the judgment against him ruining his career seven years later fugit targets the now mayor hill in an attempt at revenge for destroying his life by daring to suggest he go off his schedule batman looks into the crimes committed by fugit and tries to stop him before gotham's mayor is killed all of the clock king's lines are delivered in such a straightforward fashion it fits the character perfectly and alan ratkins did a flawless job voicing him toward the end when he's about to kill the mayor though his laugh turns pretty maniacal the grim reaper we get to see fugit at his lowest point when the judge rules against him and this only increases his already unhealthy fixation with time and precise scheduling so much so that it turns him into a super villain worthy of fighting batman a lot of people often point out that batman's best villains are inverses of different parts of his personality what do we always say about batman when we match him up in a fight against a superman or much more powerful character with enough prep time batman can beat anyone whether that's true or not the dark knight's smarts and meticulous preparation have been highlighted time and time again he's always at least one step ahead the clock king is the same way he managed to predict many of batman's movements and decisions outsmarting him a few different times here that makes him a reasonably dangerous and formidable foe batman does a lot of detective work in this episode and brings along alfred for most of it no batmobile required just alfred driving around with the caped crusader in the back seat to disable the locks on the vault yes the time locks fugit i love alfred those little moments are great i'm finding out more and more through re-watching this show how special these climaxes are they always take place at an interesting and or appropriate location now you can say that about comics in general but seeing them animated this way in this world makes them exceptional and this one is no different i love the clock tower and how it's used in the finale i got some back to the future safety last vibes from this and it all works very effectively the clock king is still at large by the end of this episode and it really shows how clever he was in fighting batman if you have the time this one is definitely worth a re-watch with the introduction of dr leslie tompkins a direct connection to bruce's past is explored in a way not seen up until this point in the series an annual stroll down memory lane is wrapped in an adventure that threatens some of gotham's most vulnerable and the very place where batman was born after roland daggett fails to get approval to bulldoze gotham's historic but infamous park row aka crime alley he sets in motion a plan to blow up the neighborhood and make it look like an accident with many residents still living in the area daggett's plan puts them all in mortal danger regardless the bombs are set to go off at 9 00 pm just as daggett is speaking at the gotham better business council's yearly dinner meanwhile batman travels to park row for his annual meeting with leslie tompkins an old friend of bruce's parents leslie discovers daggett's plan to destroy the whole area and is abducted at the same time batman keeps getting distracted by multiple disturbances he searches for his old friend and slowly learns more about daggett's plot with the time ticking closer to 9pm batman's efforts to save the old neighborhood may go up in smoke leslie tompkins is a character i don't think gets talked about as much as she should be excluding gotham i guess but like alfred she's always been a parenting presence in bruce's life she even knows he's batman so the trust goes deep with their relationship tompkins brings a heavy presence with her whenever she pops up in an episode of this show it's almost like a piece of bruce's parents are still alive whenever we see her you can tell by how batman treats her that she's very important to him credit to diana moldar for giving her such a warm and caring voice there's a scene where batman breaks into tompkins apartment and looks for clues to where she might be he picks up this scrapbook and flips through it we get loads of deep rich information over the next 20 seconds we see who leslie is as a community leader and how far back her relationship with bruce goes the music by stuart balcom across this whole episode is great but right there it becomes an even bigger part of the storytelling sometimes we don't need to speak to convey a feeling sometimes music like this says more than we ever could since this is our introduction to leslie in this series that short sequence tells us everything we need to know about her on the night the waynes were killed she was the one who comforted bruce that picture is worth more than a thousand words and we see it again at the end of the episode when batman and tompkins visit the very spot where bruce's parents were gunned down good people lived here once good people still live in crime alley the literal ticking time bomb that were shown throughout this episode keeps things moving at an urgent pace come to think of it there's a lot that happens in these 22 minutes batman has to put out several figurative fires while also searching for leslie and trying to get to the bottom of daggett's misdeeds those shorter segments where batman has to save the day are also very exciting in their own right with daggett again escaping justice at the end of the episode the finish here is bittersweet just like bruce's attachment to the park row neighborhood i like how they focused on batman directly helping the residents there but also getting across that crime alley is never going to be what it was back in the days of bruce's parents leslie would show up a few more times across the series and whenever she did we knew we were going to get a rare perspective on bruce i'm a big fan of appointment and crime alley and there's definitely a bunch more i could say but i think the work speaks for itself this is a must watch installment and if you want to read the comic this episode is directly based on check out detective comics number 457 from march of 1976. if you can track it down online it's a good companion piece for this story now make sure you come back and join me as we go mad next time on batman there are plenty of underutilized batman villains that were gloriously brought into the spotlight on the animated series mr freeze clayface you could go on and on because of this show people have a certain reverence for some of those characters that didn't exist before it even if they were misused or not used at all in any of the films or bigger animated projects that followed fans remember them because of how well they were portrayed in this series one villain that for whatever reason i don't see almost anyone talk about is the mad hatter in my opinion he is the most underrated of the dark knight's foes i know he popped up in gotham during that show's run but i dropped off of watching that series after season one so let me know if you liked his portrayal there regardless i really think this version of the character or one close to it could hold his own as the main villain in a live-action batman movie admittedly it would have to be super weird but personally i would love to see that one day i know there are rumors he'll show up in the matt reeves batman movie but with all the characters already confirmed to be in it as of this recording it doesn't sound like he'll be one of the main villains time will tell on that i guess but matt as a hatter and another upcoming episode made me a big fan of this guy jurvis tech is a scientist at wayne enterprises who specializes in work related to using microchips to enhance the brain's potential he even has a device that can allow him to control the brains of his lab mice tech is an eccentric man obsessed with alice in wonderland and has romantic feelings for his secretary coincidentally named alice when she breaks up with her boyfriend billy jervis decides to try and sweep her off her feet with a knight on the town to impress her he uses his microchip technology to control the people they interact with including influencing a couple muggers to jump off gotham's massive bridge the next day he finds out alice has gotten back together with billy and they've even gotten engaged furious he unleashes more of his mind control cards and sways additional innocent people under his power after saving the muggers from jumping off the bridge and discovering their mind control devices batman suspects tech is involved now he has to go through a twisted wonderland of his own to find alice and stop the mad hatter frank parr directed with paul deeney writing this one and it's yet another quality introduction for a character that can easily be dismissed as just goofy and shallow in other incarnations of course there is an obvious element of silliness with the mad hatter but they use that and twist it to fit the overall tone of the show how the character is first shown to us almost feels like how the riddler started off in batman forever except you know done much better you can place him in the tragic villain category if you want but tech isn't quite like those characters we aren't shown anything to directly correlate some tragedy to why jervis acts the way he acts we're kind of left to put the pieces together ourselves and i like that we definitely sympathize with him as this awkward outsider who can't seem to say the right things but i think a lot of his pitying character qualities are showcased in his voice what could a beautiful girl like her ever see in someone like me how could i impress her he could flip from sad to creepy on a dime and does so several times in this episode will you won't you will you won't you won't you join the dance almost got a nicholson joker vibe in that scene too with the dancing and music tech was voiced by the late roddy mcdowell who also played the bookworm in the 66 show and even read the novelization of the 89 film for the audiobook on its chest there was a yellow oval that seemed to glow with a light of its own and in the middle of that oval was the black emblem of a bat don't kill me one of the crooks pleaded what are you what the other one asked the batman his unique voice was likely the best thing about this interpretation he could read any line and give it several possible meanings curiouser and curiouser mind control is also a great storytelling element for batman to fight against feeding off your brains [Music] well yeah that doesn't count i just feel like all the components are there to make him one of the top big baddies hopefully in the future someone can come up with a story to exploit hatter's full potential the alice character in this is a little too i don't know innocent she sounds like she's eight years old but she's got to be in her 20s right i know they wanted to draw illusions to the alice character from wonderland but i just thought that was one of the weaker parts of the story this is getting too weird batman is again dropped into a strange situation and we get another awesome climax this time set in gotham storybook land there's an added wrinkle of having to fight innocent people as well tech doesn't have any henchmen he uses blameless individuals that he's controlling with his headband so getting around that was a compelling obstacle to see batman overcome the rest of the finale in the card maze was great too using the jabberwocky prop was a smart idea outside of the main story and characters shirley walker's mad hatter theme sets us in the mood for something odd and aberrant the episode ends on a poignant note from hatter and ties everything up in a nice melancholy bow we'll see you next time until then take it away batman [Music] engage now this in my opinion is the scarecrow used nearly perfectly dreams and darkness once again takes us into batman's fractured psyche it features some standout visuals and is structured in a bit of a different way from what we've seen so far scarecrow's plan may also look a little familiar batman has been locked up in arkham asylum through a flashback we see what led to his situation the dark knight was looking into a tip that something bad was going down at the health spring spa when he arrives he sees a man attaching some sort of device to the water supply pump after a scuffle he removes the device but a red gas is released into the room over the next few hours batman slowly starts experiencing hallucinations while talking to a doctor at the hospital he's given an antidote but refuses to take it since it will knock him out for two whole days with a strong hunch the scarecrow is involved and time is of the essence he heads for arkham to investigate crane's whereabouts but another hallucination causes him to crash before he can get there batman did end up at arkham but his condition worsened which caused the doctor there to commit him eventually he finds out scarecrow is attempting to poison all of gotham's water supply in the cavern below the asylum after escaping his room he walks into the depths below to find crane but as batman's delusions get more intense it won't be easy to stop the scarecrow before it's too late let's address the obvious first that whole scarecrow poisoning the water supply thing is one of the main plot points in batman begins as i've talked about when reviewing scarecrow's first appearance in this show the nolan movies seemingly borrowed a few things from these episodes again i'm sure some of these instances originated in the comics but there had to be at least a few little things they lifted from here right maybe not but it is a decently big coincidence that most of those parallels draw back to a single character starting this episode out with batman already in arkham was a really good hook hearing his narration guide us through the flashbacks of how he got there was a welcomed change of pace from the usual structure of these stories i also appreciate how they tried to explain why the doctor wanted batman's mask left on his mask is at the root of his delusional fixation to take it off might plunge him into a catatonic state that same doctor also lists off batman's villains by their real names jack napier harvey dent pamela eisley we keep them all under constant watch very interesting that he called joker jack napier there we know that was his real name in tim burton's first batman film but i never considered this show's joker to have that exact same origin we saw more of his backstory and mask of the phantasm and see at least one other example of the napier name showing up in the animated series but i think the standard mystery surrounding who the character truly is fits this interpretation better joker also pops in here through batman's hallucinations though i don't think mark hamill was voicing him give a listen to these laughs i've read that lauren lester the voice of dick grayson stepped in to provide those laughs but there's nothing official to confirm that speaking of those hallucinations they're uh pretty disturbing [Applause] on top of that we get another super intense phantasmagoria of bruce trying to stop his parents murder he's running to try and warn them not to go into this tunnel when he starts moving in slow motion then well take a look for yourself jeez talk about a nightmare this is yet another example of some of the best batman-centric stories in this show largely taking place in bruce wayne's own mind now as for the scarecrow he's not in the episode all that much really just in the end but his influence is all over the place his creep factor definitely raised with each episode he appeared in up to this point i will say a small gripe i have with the end is that we see jonathan crane's full face combining the last episode he was in with most of this one he had almost started to take on a more supernatural persona showing him fully out of costume kind of hurt the mystique he was starting to build up a small complaint but just my opinion this is technically the character's third design however there's not a dramatic difference from the last time we saw him really just small adjustments although i do love the grim reaper timepiece we see him with really nice touch dreams in darkness does a great job of showing off more of bruce's scarred emotional state while building up scarecrow as an even more imposing threat on these re-watches it is my favorite scarecrow episode thus far and with the addition of setting the majority of the story in arkham this is an installment i definitely recommend taking another look at but be prepared for some disturbing visuals isn't that why i'm here because i'm disturbed this is the one where alfred gets turned into a tree by poison ivy were any bells bruce wayne receives a videotape in the mail from the eternal youth spa inviting him to spend the weekend at the resort for a rejuvenating experience bruce of course declines but when alfred's uh friend maggie barges in and sees the tape bruce suggests that she and alfred go in his place after alfred loosens up they have a great time on their getaway however upon returning home alfred is acting a little strange he decorates the batcave with plants and faints after drinking spa water he brought home with him while bruce investigates the formula in the water alfred and maggie have an almost uncontrollable urge to return to the spa and they leave immediately upon seeing the effects the formula has on human plasma batman rushes to the spa to find poison ivy has been turning though she deems a danger to plants into humanoid trees with alfred and maggie being among them batman must put a stop to ivy's deranged plot before their metamorphosis is permanent this is definitely a bit of an oddball episode but its blend of serenity and horrific imagery made sure that i personally never forgot it the opening scene is a great tease for what's to come and gives off a frightening vibe that permeates the calm setting this is another one of those stories that could easily be a movie itself without batman now let's talk about my boy al we all know at this point how big of a mark i am for this character so an episode with him as more of the focus should be amazing right well honestly i feel like they kind of dumbed down alfred in this episode compared to how smart he is across most of the series i don't know how he didn't recognize poison ivy at the spa she was an established villain at this point her intro episode pretty poison even had alfred doing extensive research on her to help bruce so he knows her pretty darn well she was right in his face the only difference is she was wearing glasses and not even big thick ones these thin little frames that don't even cover her eyes maybe i shouldn't be complaining in the same world where clark kent hides his superman identity behind a pair of circular spectacles but even that's more believable than this alfred's kind of girlfriend maggie also appears in her only episode there's nothing really interesting about her outside of being an instigator to get the plot going but boy does she like alfred [Music] damn my man's lips must be made of pure pleasure bruce and his alter ego unravel the mystery at hand and with alfred directly involved it was nice to see him so emotionally invested in his first scene we get to see another example of him flipping from the fake bruce wayne voice to his regular deeper tone and it's always so fascinating to hear and see shut it down or you're gone one of my greedy directors made a deal with a slash and burn outfit in the amazon when batman confronts poison ivy the reveal of her people tree garden is probably the best part of the episode [Music] yikes appropriately batman has one of the angrier deliveries i've heard thus far into the series i have the patience of a redwood and the convictions of a fanatic this was a decent episode outside of alfred's sudden loss of intelligence the visuals are terrifying and striking and the overall plot is something unique enough to fill a whole feature film plus we get to hear batman yelling for alfred in the same way dave does for alvin alfred alfred alfred we're almost done with batman and we've reached my absolute favorite episode of this series things can always change as the years go on but perchance to dream in my opinion is not only the best episode of this show it's one of the best batman stories ever told i hold it in extremely high regard when i think back to some of my favorite pieces of batman media period this episode ranks high on the list pound for pound when i compare it to comics like the killing joke or the dark knight returns or live action movies like the dark knight or batman 89 it's right up there with them obviously 22 minutes isn't enough time to go nearly as deep as those other stories went but i think getting as much as we did in this limited format makes the legend of this episode even greater batman chases down a couple thugs into a warehouse when an unknown device falls on him he immediately awakens at home in wayne manor but instantly sees that everything is different his parents are alive he's engaged to selena kyle and another person is swinging around gotham as batman he seeks help from his friend dr leslie tompkins who tells him his memories as the dark knight and all the trauma he went through are simply delusions this bruce wayne has lit a charmed leisurely existence and the thought is his mind is compensating for everything being handed to him his whole life bruce does his best to accept this reality but slowly things keep popping up to suggest what he's seeing isn't all it's cracked up to be if you haven't seen this episode it's your duty as a batman fan to check it out before i go into my breakdown here that's right watch it first before viewing the rest of this video this is your spoiler warning now if you're still here you already know the big twist or just totally ignored my warning but either way we have to talk about the big reveals in this episode by the end we see this fantasy life bruce has been trapped in is a scheme of the mad hatter and his dream machine the clues were dropped throughout the whole episode from the hatter's theme being played under the title card to more subtle musical cues surrounding bruce's time in the dream world this all creates a rewarding rewatchable experience even after batman escapes and wakes up that scene with hatter is filled with emotion from both sides and another example of why he's batman's most underrated villain why you of all people have the goal to ask me that you ruined my life the vocal performances from everyone involved were outstanding but conroy just nailed bruce's confusion desperation and anger he's the best batman for a reason and it's on display in full force and perchance to dream what if you're wrong then i'll see you in your nightmares chills conroy himself has said on several occasions that this is his favorite episode and i think we can see why he even got to voice thomas wayne for a few scenes when bruce interacts with his parents son you sound upset is something the matter this story puts bruce through the ringer and in doing so creates some of the most heartbreaking moments in this series after talking with leslie tompkins bruce is convinced that what he thinks is his real life was just a delusion he actually buys into it for a bit and his reaction of relief is tragic the nightmare is over you certainly seem like your old self again bruce i've never felt better in my life sir my life is a dream alfred the best dream anyone ever had shirley walker plays this light happy version of the batman theme here and it just rips your heart out we as the audience know there's something wrong and this can't be real but seeing bruce so happy with what he believes is the perfect life hurts us because we know this simple quiet paradise is about to be shattered when bruce tries to read the newspaper the letters are all jumbled nothing makes sense he opens up a few books and the same thing happens this is the main clue that leads him to realize what's really going on it's impossible to read something in a dream we see this again at the entrance to the cemetery and there was another clue dropped earlier when a jewelry store is robbed although wayne enterprises is clearly spelled out in the company's building and those initials are allegedly on the outside as well you can pass that off as bruce being very familiar with his name or the production team cheated a little bit to try and fool the audience for a while longer either way this was a great method to show how off the world around bruce really was no you're a lie it's all a lie this may be everything he always wanted but the mere existence of batman in this world suggests that even when he wants to accept a better life for himself the dark truth of who bruce truly is will never leave him and eventually he has no choice but to confront himself that whole climactic scene in the church tower is one for the ages here i am i've been waiting for you their battle with rain and lightning setting the mood and an incredible score highlighting the emotion hits us from every angle just before the big reveal the mad hatter ah are you the dreamer or merely part of someone's dream this isn't some silly story book you have love wealth a family all you ever wanted no i won't live a lie no matter how attractive you make it the only way out is the unthinkable and airing on fox kids they couldn't show bruce's dream suicide in full instead they were very clever with what was on screen and it made for something just as effective [Music] if you want to poke a hole in any part of the episode maybe you could point out that mad hatter could have just killed batman after he was knocked out or at least unmasked him he had already ordered his drones to kill batman in mad as a hatter and there's not really an explanation given as to why he didn't just take the mask off there i was willing to give you whatever life you wanted just to keep you out of mine while the animation here is still pretty good the dong yang company's efforts aren't quite on par with some of the best looking installments of the show it's not exactly a spectrum or tms episode so i guess it's not 100 perfect but who cares the main narrative here was on another level it may be loosely based on detective comics number 633 titled identity crisis but that is unconfirmed this episode's story is credited to lauren bright and michael reeves with novelist joe r lansdale writing the teleplay transcendent work from all involved who brought this one to life it's worth noting that perchance to dream is derived from hamlets to be or not to be soliloquy by william shakespeare it's also the name of a twilight zone episode three novels a couple songs and a stage musical among other things but when i hear that phrase it always makes me think of my favorite episode of one of my favorite shows about one of my very favorite fictional characters and now to sleep perchance to dream aye there's the rub the stuff that dreams are made of the 31st episode in the production order of batman the animated series is the cape and cowl conspiracy this one features the first official appearance of the bat signal a new villain john rhys davies and an ominous tone the ambiance surrounding this installment creates an atmosphere that feels different from most other episodes it's a game of one upsmanship that gives us a few surprising turns along the way josiah wormwood aka the interrogator is a well-known criminal who just stole a collection of bearer bonds meant for humanitarian aid in eastern europe he has a signature way of getting information out of his victims and in this case he used quicksand to nearly kill the courier who knew where the bonds were located commissioner gordon gets batman on the case and this leads the dark knight to baron vaklov josek an associate of wormwood through some interrogating of his own batman embarrasses the baron which leaves yosek seeking revenge he employs wormwood to capture batman and bring him his cape and cowl locked in a battle of wits and death traps that kept crusader and the interrogator meet several times as batman's identity hangs in the balance i like the idea of this villain an almost jigsaw type with traps that outsmart his targets his design doesn't give him any distinct look which i think could have helped this character stick around beyond just one episode but he has some riddler traits leaving messages in paper and billboard form but his appearance voice and backstory don't set him apart from just being a slick gangster with a gimmick it's like they wanted to go further with him but for whatever reason kept him as a more standard thief a shame i think there was some potential there the locations in this episode are one of the best things about it a creepy mini golf course a locomotive themed amusement park called train town and a wax museum give batman interesting places to battle the interrogator it's a decently good looking episode with some really nice backgrounds and set pieces plus you can't beat the first appearance of the bat signal got a new toy i see they used john reese davies for the first and last time in the show as the baron character i want the batman's cape and cowl and i want you to get them for me he has a few scenes but i mean you couldn't think of anything else better to do with him it just kind of feels like a waste the baron gets humiliated by batman in front of a full banquet where he's the guest speaker batman just swoops in and grabs him in the middle of his speech seemed a little out of character but it doesn't negatively affect the episode this one is memorable for me because we see batman unmask kind of luckily he had on a blue iron fist bandana underneath the cowl it's a very unique moment to see him like that which is probably why the image has stuck with me for so long this story is based on detective comics number 450 from august of 1975 called the cape and cowell death trap one of the writers on that comic elliot s magen also wrote this episode i'm going to go into a pretty big spoiler here so check the episode out if you haven't already there's your warning okay ready here we go near the end we see that the baron is actually batman in disguise what will you do with the cape and cow i am going to wear them obviously it wasn't him the whole time but we do see batman use this tactic in another famous episode he was trying to get the information from wormwood on where the stolen bonds were placed not his usual way of doing this but it's a fun enough reveal the climax takes place in a gym and they made good use of the equipment for their fight at the end we see batman get one more jab in at wormwood after he's put in prison not a bad episode i liked it quite a bit despite some of its untapped potential and now my friends with may at an end i must bid you adieu you

Channel: Channel Awesome

Views: 251,199

Keywords: channel awesome, bat-may, batman the animated series, batman, batman tas, best batman series, dc comics, walter banasiak, batman the animated series review, batman review, review, batman show, joker, best comic book shows, comics, best dc comics show, explained, analysis, batman compilation, batman tv shows, animated, cartoon, batman animated, batman cartoons, robin, kevin conroy, mark hamill, batman tas review, batman cartoon, best batman

Id: 86l94GY_Ijs

Length: 136min 9sec (8169 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 25 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/SergeantPanther]

Cool to see an entire compilation of the episode reviews, I think they're probably one of the most reliably enjoyable pieces of content Channel Awesome has put out.