2-disc set collects the first 13 episodes from the freshman season of the new hit Kids WB! show.
I??ll go out on a limb and say that I??m one of the few Batman fans I know that actually enjoys The Dark Knight??s new foray into animation in ??The Batman?. Sure it??s a radical departure from what I was used to with ??Batman: The Animated Series? and even ??The New Batman Adventures?, but that??s what Batman is all about?transition.
A lot of people I know despise this show for one reason ??it??s not as good as TAS (the animated series).? Well, in all reality that??s pretty subjective don??t you think? I think the biggest problem people have is the overall LOOK of the show and how much of a different direction the producers decided to go.
In my opinion the show IS quite a bit different than the previous incarnations of Batman that we??ve seen before, but I don??t necessarily think that??s a bad thing. Ok, so The Joker does sort of look like a cross between a Rastafarian guy and an ape, but the essence of the character is still there. He??s crazy, he laughs hysterically, he has a white face and green hair and he??s still Batman??s #1 arch nemesis. Being an artist myself I know how hard it is to convince certain people of an idea if they can??t get passed the way it LOOKS. You may think that you??ve created a unique and completely original idea, but all it takes is person A to say ??that??s not the way he??s SUPPOSED to look!? and now you??re in for a slue of comments about how bad your idea is because people don??t like how it looks visually.
??The Batman? takes the caped crusader (haven??t heard that one in a while huh?) in a different direction in that it introduces us to him while he??s still young. Bruce Wayne is in his mid-twenties and has only been Batman for about 3 years. In fact in the premiere episode we are shown Bruce having his 3-year anniversary of when he first donned the cape and cowl. While the standard cast of characters is present (Bruce Wayne, Alfred, Joker, Penguin?etc) the show also introduces us to new characters such as Det. Ellen Yin, a Metropolis transfer new to the GCPD. Ethan Bennett, a young GCPD cop who also happens to be a close personal friend of Bruce, and Mayor Grange who is voiced by arguably the best Batman of all time (can??t tell if I??m being sarcastic huh?) Adam West.
During it??s freshman season ??The Batman? had it??s ups and downs as far as episodes went (they went from outstanding to mediocre at best), but towards the end of the season the show really stepped it up with episodes such as ??The rubberface of comedy? and ??The clayface of tragedy?.
In ??The Batman: The complete first season? all 13 episodes from you guessed it?.season one are collected in a 2-disc set. At first glance the packaging really isn??t anything impressive, in fact it??s pretty basic (see picture) but I guess it does the job of showing you that this is a whole new Batman series.
I am extremely happy that WB has decided to start releasing these shows in season format rather than just 3 episodes here and there (even though they did do that too), however I am a little disappointed in the lack of effort that was put into the special features. Call me crazy, but I??m one of those people that actually sits thru ALL of the special features (commentary too) and in ??The Batman? I was just left wanting more.
With shows like this based on one of my favorite characters, I immediately want to know everything about the thought process involved in bringing Batman back to the small screen. Now granted they did have a short featurette on the direction of the new show, but I was left with questions like ??why does Bane have red skin?? or ??what was involved with redesigning the Batmobile???sadly, my questions were left unanswered.
My biggest disappointment came in the form of the lack of ??behind-the-scenes? features, namely involving the voice cast for the show. I am a BIG fan of voice actors and how they really look as opposed to how we picture them, so naturally I was hoping for some scenes involving the actors during their recording sessions (Batman VS Dracula had this)?again I got nothing.
Aside from the lack of anything unique with the special features ??The Batman: The complete first season? is a definite must have for any fan of the show. There??s just something about having all 13 episodes in ONE set that brings everything together. The video quality is good, the sound is sharp, and the menus are nicely done. All in all I would say this set is a nice way to kick off what I hope to be a series of season collections for WB home video.