The new Batman cartoon premiered tonight on Cartoon Network, and well...yeah...uh...It's pretty bad.
Batman pulled a flexible batarang off of his chest insignia, wielded a lightsaber contained in his utility belt, and apparently his costume is also a space suit complete with jets (made from the tubes on his belt) powerful enough that they allow him to reach escape velocity. And that was all in the first ten minutes.
Batman teaming up with Green Arrow for the opening teaser was pretty cool as they defeated the Clock King, and then we are introduced to Jaime Hernandez, aka the Blue Beetle. This version of the Blue Beetle actually works really well in animation and could definitely hold his own in a spinoff. It's just too bad that it was announced yesterday that his comic book series is being cancelled.
I didn't have a problem with the animation and design styles at all. In fact, it's really cool seeing a Dick Sprang Batman animated on the screen. But Diedrich Bader (Oswald from the Drew Carey Show) is his voice, and it's just kind of weird because his voice is so familiar to me. I'm sure it's okay to kids who don't know him from Adam (West, that is!).
I only got a glimpse of the Batmobile in the credits, but it looks uber-cool.
I'll keep watching, but wow, I hope they pull the imagination back a little.
Update: You can see a few clips, including the credits with the Batmobile, here.
3 comments:
Jim, I tend to agree - some of that stuff like the lightsaber and the space suit and the flexi-batarang were a bit over the top for Batman, but I loved that the show had a very "sixties" feel to it. With the jazzy soundtrack and the Sprang Batman design, it felt kind of cool. Did it take some liberties on the bat-gimmicks? Sure. But I found it fun in a different sort of way from the DCU cartoons we've had over recent years. I think, in this case, different might be good. It's just another take on things and I'm cool with it. I can't wait to see some of the guest stars like Kamandi, Guy Gardner, Deadman and more.
This show was just plain weird -
.. then I let my eight year old child inside take over, and realized that this was pretty cool. Not exactly the Batman I'm familiar with, but pretty cool just the same.
Don't thinkI'm going to make any special effort to watch - it's on kind of early around here (7pm) but I'll keep my eyes open for it showing in late reruns.
KC
KC, you need a DVR to record it. Tonight's episode with Plastic Man was a hoot! My 13 year old loves the show, as do I. It is kind of fun in a goofy way Saturday morning cartoons used to be.
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