Bruce Timm returns to Gotham for a revival of Batman the Animated Series with the brand-new series Batman: Caped Crusader
Plot: After a family tragedy, socialite Bruce Wayne transforms into The Batman, where his crusade for justice spawns unforeseen ramifications.
Review: The original Batman: The Animated Series is considered by many, myself included, to be one of the best cartoon series ever. It didn’t pander, it had an iconic look, it had voice talent that included legends like Mark Hamill, Rodd McDowall, Paul Williams, Michael Ansara, and as Batman the voice of the late, great Kevin Conroy.
BTAS would be the forerunner to other iconic animated series like Justice League, Batman Beyond, and Superman The Animated Series. It would produce feature films as well, like The Mask of Phantasm. It would be the birthplace of Harley Quinn, who has become a DC live-action film staple. But she got her start here in the guise of Arleen Sorkin.
What I’m saying is that BTAS is a hard act to follow. I was excited and skeptical when I heard that we were getting a series that would see Bruce Timm returning to the Batman animated landscape along with Matt Reeves and J.J. Abrams. It would be hard to recapture what made the original great. Then I saw the trailer and was blown away by how close the style was to the original. My hopes grew.
So did my hopes get dashed with this latest animated Dark Knight when I finally watched it? No, but I also wasn’t overwhelmed either. As I said, there’s something really special about the original series that would be hard to recapture. Batman: Caped Crusader is trying really hard to do that, and there’s hope that it will eventually get there.
What I loved about this new entry is the voice cast. Hamish Linklater, who played a different kind of Batman in Midnight Mass, is doing an amazing job here, sounding a lot like Kevin Conroy. It’s actually a beautiful sort of tribute to the late actor who had cemented himself as the voice of Batman in this setting. Minnie Driver is a gender-swapped Penguin named Oswalda Cobblepot; Diedrich Bader, who has played Batman previously, is Harvey Dent/Two-Face; Jamie Chung is Harley Quinn; Christina Ricci is Catwoman; Tom Kenny, AKA Spongebob, is Firebug. The cast list keeps going and is filled with several familiar names and great actors.
For the first season we do get several familiar villains in new styles, the Penguin being one of the bigger changes. One of my favorite episodes is number 2, Be A Villian, which features Clayface and is a massive homage to classic Universal monsters in various ways. Keep your eyes out for all the easter eggs.
This new Batman isn’t afraid to go very dark and show actual murder on screen. And that’s where some of this doesn’t work for me. Being more mature in nature is fine; this is an Amazon series. But there’s a strange tone and pacing to a number of the episodes, possibly due to their time frames only being around 25 minutes. This could be because now Amazon will make you either watch commercials or pay extra to skip them. I can’t help but think the odd feeling of rushing and not getting a deeper story would be fixed by maybe an extra 5 to 10 minutes of extra time.
The animation doesn’t flow as well as I would hope. When you come from a studio like Amazon, which has a series like Invincible that can throw back to 90s-style animation but make it modern and as bloody as it is, you’d think it could be done here easily. But unfortunately, it doesn’t feel quite right. I’m hopeful that if a second season is greenlit, we’ll see this become smoother.
Batman: Caped Crusader is a good start for a re-entry into the BTAS universe. It’s got a lot going for it, and I can’t say enough how much I love Hamish Linklater’s voice here. I’m not ashamed to say I teared up a little bit. I hope he knows how much that means to fans of the OG.
Batman: Caped Crusader is worth a watch if you grew up loving the original or if you are a Batman fan in general. It nearly sticks the landing on what it is trying to do and only stumbles a little bit. It’s a fun, nostalgic trip back to Gotham. Just don’t take any dark alleys.
Batman: Caped Crusader airs on Amazon Prime Video on August 1st.
