Batman-The Animated Series

Nope, I’ve just been watching my Amazon video version for far too long to remember that the DVDs aren’t like that. Bugs the hell out of me.

This seems incorrect to me. I specifically remember Batman: TAS premiering with “On Leather Wings” and “Heart of Ice” opposite 60 Minutes. Yes, that’s 6 P.M. (CST) on a Sunday, and even I knew what a stupid move that was since 60 Minutes was such a powerhouse in the ratings.

The two aren’t necessarily contradictory. Here’s a link to an airdate guide, and here’s a quote from the series’ Wikipedia page (which also lists the premiere as Sep 5):

Batman: The Animated Series premiered on the Fox Network’s children’s block Fox Kids on September 5, 1992 and aired in that block during weekday afternoons at 4:30pm. In December, just three months after its debut, Fox also began airing episodes of the series on prime-time Sunday evenings, marking one of the few times a show created for Saturday Morning Television was scheduled for prime-time broadcast. However, the TV ratings fell short (as the show aired opposite the perennial favorite 60 Minutes), and the series was removed from this time slot in March 1993.

The x-factor here is that the show was being aired on local affiliates, who likely had more leeway in terms of scheduling than if it were a primetime show. So even if the show officially premiered as part of the Saturday morning block, it seems possible that depending on what market you were in – especially some of the CST ones – some afilliates might have taken some liberties with scheduling that Sunday night to help kickstart interest. Mainly, with that Monday being Labor Day, they might have aired two episodes on Sunday if they weren’t premiering their afternoon block until Tuesday.

Short version: some parts of the country might not have all seen the episodes on the same schedule. :)

Winter quarter 1990 I was taking a statistical mechanics class and really didn’t have my act together. In between the classroom phase and the now I actually have to learn this phase I watched Tiny Toons and Animaniacs. On some episode of Tiny Toons I watched the older dodo bird standing in front of the class and he writes equimolar partition function on the board and starts talking about it.
I knew every thing was gonna be alright. Its almost enough make me want a Babs tattoo and put baloney in my slacks. Almost.

That must be it, because I can’t believe that I wouldn’t have known the show existed for three months before seeing “On Leather Wings” one glorious Sunday evening in the fall.

— Alan

Anybody bought this yet? I’m dying to know if it’s any good.

The guy on Topless Robot seems to haaaaaaaaate it. I’ve not gotten a copy yet my own self, waiting for a sale.

It’s not bad. They cut back on the violence slightly (Batman doesn’t kill anyone)–even in the scene with the machinegun, he shoots the Mutant in the hand. They stay mostly true to the comic, though they change the Joker up a bit and he’s a bit of a non-entity till the very end (of part one, which is the first two issues).

The convo with Harvey at the end of the first issue is not how I remember it, and they left out the whole “I see… a mirror” line which is one of my favorite lines from the entire series and the impact I felt wasn’t as profound. Voice acting is… eh. I dunno, Peter Weller is okay but I dunno if he really does it for me. Harvey is bleh. Gordon is ok.

The Mutant gang storyline in issue two is generally good. The two fights with the Mutant boss–yikes. The first doesn’t last too long, but the second is all kinds of awesome. And yes, they left in all the good parts. Considering how great they choreographed the last fight, I absolutely can’t wait to see what happens with Superman.

— Alan

Err, seems like the wrong thread for that pic, but eh, s’ok. What is that? Another DC one-shot movie, or some miniseries?

It’s the direct to video animated adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns.

It’s not really if we’re going to be talking about all of the animated stuff. I didn’t really feel like making a new thread since we’re all mostly familiar with the material.

But yeah it’s a two-part direct-to-video releases based on the comic mini-series.

— Alan

I thought it was all kinds of awesome. Looking forward to the second part. I might need to reread the comic now too.

Hmm, nice to see them move to a two-parter, the one-shots were all too abbreviated in plot and character development and tended to devolve into a couple of nice action scenes, but they often held little interest to me without any real weight behind them.

However, I’m not sure splitting it into just a two parter will be enough to fix the pacing.

Pacing seems to be okay, I mean, it’s like 75 minutes for the first part. It feels about right.

— Alan

But Batman doesn’t kill anyone. But I went back and looked at the machine gun sequence in issue 2, and I can see how it looks that way.

I had always thought he shot the mutant, but that he didn’t kill him. Despite the way that panel looks, it’s the only thing that makes sense given how much his “no killing” ethos is part of the story. Especially…

Spoilers for a 25 year old comic

when he almost kills the Joker, but stops at the last second. The Joker mocks him for lacking the guts to do it. He also talks about not crossing the line when he first confronts the Mutant Leader in the Batmobile.

Just a heads up to anyone who’s interested in the new Blu-ray collection: the digital code version is garbage.

It’s Vudu, it’s only standard definition, and it doesn’t include the Mask of the Phantasm and SubZero films the Blu-rays include.

I’m glad I own this on Blu-ray, but do not buy it expecting to own a quality digital copy of the show.

Gah. Thanks for the heads up. Mine arrives later today, and wow that’s disappointing.

Looks like I’ll be keeping my DC Universe sub a little bit longer.

Are they planning to fix that? I’ve still got my old DVD set but was considering upgrading.

I have no idea.

Also, the mini Funko figures are super lame–the Harley Quinn won’t even stand up–but I don’t care about Funko figures anyway.

The lenticular prints are actually gorgeous, but I don’t know what I’ll actually do with them.

And of course Amazon shipped it in a bubble-wrap bag so the box itself is all banged up. All around disappointing physical product, but at the end of the day I have the complete Batman: TAS in HD, so I’m still excited about it.

How’s the quality streaming? I just grabbed the trial for DC Universe and at a glance, the compression looked bad on my phone. But I didn’t check to see if there were any settings or try it out on my actual TV yet.