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Batman The Animated Series - The Legend Begins
Warner Bros. // Unrated // April 23, 2002
List Price: $19.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie
Batman: The Animated Series – The Legend Begins is the first in what I hope is the continuing release of DVDs based on Batman: The Animated Series. I consider this show to be the best non-prime time American produced, but mostly Japanese animated, animation series of modern times. In fact, Batman: TAS started during a low time in Saturday morning cartoons' history. Batman: TAS brought a darker and more adult-like mood to Saturday morning cartoons. The success of Batman: TAS brought about a few spin-offs by some or all of the same creative team: Superman, Batman Beyond and Justice League. It is important to note that the sales of this specific title will dictate whether any more Batman: TAS DVDs coming out and if they will come out in a different format like a box or not.
The 5 episodes presented here are actually not in show order, but in production order. We know this because Robin shows up in the second episode in this release and is never seen again during the DVD. This is somewhat sad and I hope that if Warner Bros. decides to bring more out that they go the Friends route and release box sets, whether they be by season or certain number of episodes.
On Leather Wings: This is actually the first episode that aired on television if I remember correctly. It is not that exciting of a story and revolves around the Man-Bat. The cops believe that Batman is the one terrorizing the city, but it is actually the Man-Bat. A scientist named Langston turns out to be the Man-Bat and Batman stops him.
Christmas with the Joker: The only episode Robin is actually present in this release. His sole purpose of being here is probably so the Joker can sing the Batman version of the "Jingle Bells" song ("Jingle bells, Batman smells, ROBIN laid an egg…Batmobile lost its wheel and Joker got away"). The Joker escapes Arkham Asylum via a rocket-powered tree. He then takes Commissioner Gordon, reporter Summer Gleeson and Detective Harvey Bullock hostage and overtakes a television channel signal. He has Batman and Robin fix some damage that Joker causes around Gotham and then they hunt the Joker down in the end. Batman catches Joker and he goes back to Arkham Asylum. I would like to say that Mark Hamill does the best Joker ever. He also does other voices for other video games and animated series, but he is best at being the Joker.
Nothing to Fear: Johnathan Crane, the Scarecrow, is introduced. He uses chemicals that induce hallucinations onto his victims. They then see that which they are most afraid of. Batman is hit by a dart with the chemical in it and he sees his dad saying that he is a failure and a disgrace. This is obviously what Bruce's worst fear is. We then have a flashback of how Scarecrow was a professor at the university and he did experiments on people, but the higher-ups got wind of his experiments and called him crazy. So now the Scarecrow is paying the university back. Batman fights his fears and turns the fear gas onto the Scarecrow himself. Funny thing is that Scarecrow is afraid of bats.
The Last Laugh: Joker is back, this time on April Fools Day. One of his cronies goes down the river in a big barge. The barge has the Joker gas that makes people laugh uncontrollably and die. He gasses all of Gotham, including Bruce's butler Alfred, and starts stealing jewels from stores and valuables from the people gassed. Batman hunts the barge down but is put in a metal canister and sent to the bottom of the river. He calls his Bat Boat and uses its lasers to open up the canister and let him out. In the end the Joker is captured again.
Pretty Poison: We are introduced to the beautiful Pamela Isley (or Poison Ivy) who has control over plants and especially likes the rare kind. Pam and Harvey Dent, the district attorney and good friend of Bruce Wayne, are having dinner and Bruce is late. The funny thing is that while Dent is talking about how he knows everything about Bruce we see scenes of Batman stopping a prison breakout. The true fact is that Dent does not know much about Bruce. Bruce eventually joins them, but Pam has to go. She kisses Dent as she leaves and shortly after Dent is knocked out cold. He is sent to the hospital and we find out he has been poisoned. Bruce takes some of the poison back for inspection in the BatCave and finds out it is from a rare plant and that the antidote is also from a rare plant. Bruce also figures out it was Pam that poisoned Dent with the kiss. He hunts here down and goes toe to toe with a huge Venus Flytrap. Seems Pam, now Poison Ivy, did all this because Dent and Wayne started a "New, Better Gotham" project that destroyed some precious plant life. Batman stops her even after being kissed and she is sent to Arkham Asylum.
The DVD
Video: This is presented in Full-Frame as most television shows are on DVD. This show is 11 years old and the video holds up pretty well. There are bits of dust and some grainy scenes here and there. There are also some out-of-focus moments or fuzzy moments. Overall the presentation is very good for a series from 11 years ago. It was amazing to see how primitive the animation was then to what it is now in Batman Beyond and Justice League.
Sound: Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0. I can understand that they did not put too much effort toward this and that is the reason there is no Dolby Digital 5.1 remix. They are counting on sales of this to dictate whether or not this series continues to come out on DVD. What is presented here in sound is very good with some good directionality in the episodes. It was great to hear the opening theme by Danny Elfman again. There are also a plethora of languages to choose from: English, Spanish, French and Portugese.
Menus: Simple menus with music in the background.
Extras:
Get the Picture: Batman: A short that shows an animator building Batman from the ground up on paper. This takes under 1 minute to finish and is done at a fast speed. It was interesting, but they could have slowed it down a bit.
Life on the Edge: You can go through 5 little semi-interactive games. The first screen gives you 5 choices on Bruce's daily planner. You choose one and then you are given a situation and you have to click on the correct item on the screen at that time. Then you see a short clip from one of the episodes and another choice is brought up. These are kind of cute and gives some interactivity to the release.
Final Thoughts: I must at least recommend Batman: The Animated Series – The Legend Begins because of the fact that Warner Bros. is using this release as a litmus test of whether more episodes in the series will come to DVD or not. This series deserves to be on DVD. Hopefully they will take the Friends route and start releasing seasons or a given number of episodes per release and in show order, not production order. It is great to see one of my favorite animated series on DVD and I certainly hope they continue to come out. The first episode is a throwaway, but the others are very good with actual Rogue villians in them. Now we just need to see the others. I highly recommend this DVD both by itself and for the reason given above with the litmus test. You cannot go wrong with this series, it still stands above the rest of usual Saturday morning animated series to this day.
Batman: The Animated Series – The Legend Begins is the first in what I hope is the continuing release of DVDs based on Batman: The Animated Series. I consider this show to be the best non-prime time American produced, but mostly Japanese animated, animation series of modern times. In fact, Batman: TAS started during a low time in Saturday morning cartoons' history. Batman: TAS brought a darker and more adult-like mood to Saturday morning cartoons. The success of Batman: TAS brought about a few spin-offs by some or all of the same creative team: Superman, Batman Beyond and Justice League. It is important to note that the sales of this specific title will dictate whether any more Batman: TAS DVDs coming out and if they will come out in a different format like a box or not.
The 5 episodes presented here are actually not in show order, but in production order. We know this because Robin shows up in the second episode in this release and is never seen again during the DVD. This is somewhat sad and I hope that if Warner Bros. decides to bring more out that they go the Friends route and release box sets, whether they be by season or certain number of episodes.
On Leather Wings: This is actually the first episode that aired on television if I remember correctly. It is not that exciting of a story and revolves around the Man-Bat. The cops believe that Batman is the one terrorizing the city, but it is actually the Man-Bat. A scientist named Langston turns out to be the Man-Bat and Batman stops him.
Christmas with the Joker: The only episode Robin is actually present in this release. His sole purpose of being here is probably so the Joker can sing the Batman version of the "Jingle Bells" song ("Jingle bells, Batman smells, ROBIN laid an egg…Batmobile lost its wheel and Joker got away"). The Joker escapes Arkham Asylum via a rocket-powered tree. He then takes Commissioner Gordon, reporter Summer Gleeson and Detective Harvey Bullock hostage and overtakes a television channel signal. He has Batman and Robin fix some damage that Joker causes around Gotham and then they hunt the Joker down in the end. Batman catches Joker and he goes back to Arkham Asylum. I would like to say that Mark Hamill does the best Joker ever. He also does other voices for other video games and animated series, but he is best at being the Joker.
Nothing to Fear: Johnathan Crane, the Scarecrow, is introduced. He uses chemicals that induce hallucinations onto his victims. They then see that which they are most afraid of. Batman is hit by a dart with the chemical in it and he sees his dad saying that he is a failure and a disgrace. This is obviously what Bruce's worst fear is. We then have a flashback of how Scarecrow was a professor at the university and he did experiments on people, but the higher-ups got wind of his experiments and called him crazy. So now the Scarecrow is paying the university back. Batman fights his fears and turns the fear gas onto the Scarecrow himself. Funny thing is that Scarecrow is afraid of bats.
The Last Laugh: Joker is back, this time on April Fools Day. One of his cronies goes down the river in a big barge. The barge has the Joker gas that makes people laugh uncontrollably and die. He gasses all of Gotham, including Bruce's butler Alfred, and starts stealing jewels from stores and valuables from the people gassed. Batman hunts the barge down but is put in a metal canister and sent to the bottom of the river. He calls his Bat Boat and uses its lasers to open up the canister and let him out. In the end the Joker is captured again.
Pretty Poison: We are introduced to the beautiful Pamela Isley (or Poison Ivy) who has control over plants and especially likes the rare kind. Pam and Harvey Dent, the district attorney and good friend of Bruce Wayne, are having dinner and Bruce is late. The funny thing is that while Dent is talking about how he knows everything about Bruce we see scenes of Batman stopping a prison breakout. The true fact is that Dent does not know much about Bruce. Bruce eventually joins them, but Pam has to go. She kisses Dent as she leaves and shortly after Dent is knocked out cold. He is sent to the hospital and we find out he has been poisoned. Bruce takes some of the poison back for inspection in the BatCave and finds out it is from a rare plant and that the antidote is also from a rare plant. Bruce also figures out it was Pam that poisoned Dent with the kiss. He hunts here down and goes toe to toe with a huge Venus Flytrap. Seems Pam, now Poison Ivy, did all this because Dent and Wayne started a "New, Better Gotham" project that destroyed some precious plant life. Batman stops her even after being kissed and she is sent to Arkham Asylum.
The DVD
Video: This is presented in Full-Frame as most television shows are on DVD. This show is 11 years old and the video holds up pretty well. There are bits of dust and some grainy scenes here and there. There are also some out-of-focus moments or fuzzy moments. Overall the presentation is very good for a series from 11 years ago. It was amazing to see how primitive the animation was then to what it is now in Batman Beyond and Justice League.
Sound: Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0. I can understand that they did not put too much effort toward this and that is the reason there is no Dolby Digital 5.1 remix. They are counting on sales of this to dictate whether or not this series continues to come out on DVD. What is presented here in sound is very good with some good directionality in the episodes. It was great to hear the opening theme by Danny Elfman again. There are also a plethora of languages to choose from: English, Spanish, French and Portugese.
Menus: Simple menus with music in the background.
Extras:
Get the Picture: Batman: A short that shows an animator building Batman from the ground up on paper. This takes under 1 minute to finish and is done at a fast speed. It was interesting, but they could have slowed it down a bit.
Life on the Edge: You can go through 5 little semi-interactive games. The first screen gives you 5 choices on Bruce's daily planner. You choose one and then you are given a situation and you have to click on the correct item on the screen at that time. Then you see a short clip from one of the episodes and another choice is brought up. These are kind of cute and gives some interactivity to the release.
Final Thoughts: I must at least recommend Batman: The Animated Series – The Legend Begins because of the fact that Warner Bros. is using this release as a litmus test of whether more episodes in the series will come to DVD or not. This series deserves to be on DVD. Hopefully they will take the Friends route and start releasing seasons or a given number of episodes per release and in show order, not production order. It is great to see one of my favorite animated series on DVD and I certainly hope they continue to come out. The first episode is a throwaway, but the others are very good with actual Rogue villians in them. Now we just need to see the others. I highly recommend this DVD both by itself and for the reason given above with the litmus test. You cannot go wrong with this series, it still stands above the rest of usual Saturday morning animated series to this day.
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