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Batman: The Animated Series - Volume 3
Warner Bros. // Unrated // May 24, 2005
List Price: $44.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
It's been less than a year since the release of the first four-disc volume of Batman: The Animated Series. Before that box set hit stores, these episodes were being released at a glacial pace, with as few as four episodes per disc and a sticker price hovering between $15 and $20 a piece. Warner changed that strategy last year, and fans can finally breathe a sigh of relief -- in less than eleven months, all 85 episodes of Batman: The Animated Series and The Adventures of Batman and Robin have been issued on DVD. This third collection contains those final 29 episodes, more than ten straight hours of material. I've already written at length why I think this series is so remarkable, so to avoid repeating myself, I'll point anyone looking for background information or some sort of overview to my review of the first collection. (DVD Talk also has a review of volume two, written by John Sinnott, for anyone looking for a second but equally enthusiastic opinion.) The episodes on this set include:
| Disc One 1. Shadow of the Bat: Part One 2. Shadow of the Bat: Part Two 3. Blind as a Bat 4. The Demon's Quest: Part One 5. The Demon's Quest: Part Two 6. His Silicon Soul 7. Fire from Olympus Disc Two 8. Read My Lips 9. The Worry Men 10. Sideshow 11. A Bullet for Bullock 12. Trial 13. Avatar 14. House and Garden | Disc Three 15. The Terrible Trio 16. Harlequinade 17. Time Out of Joint 18. Catwalk 19. Bane 20. Baby-Doll 21. The Lion and the Unicorn Disc Four 22. Showdown 23. Riddler's Reform 24. Second Chance 25. Harley's Holiday 26. Lock-Up 27. Make 'Em Laugh 28. Deep Freeze 29. Batgirl Returns |
One of the things Batman: The Animated Series does particularly well is infuse its villains with personality. They're not a rotation of thugs with a different gimmick and costume each week -- the writers go to great lengths to humanize these characters, and although they're still unambiguously the bad guys, they still manage to be sympathetic at times. "His Silicon Soul", following up on the two-part "Heart of Steel" from the previous collection, features a robotic duplicate of Batman unable to come to grips with the realization that he's a machine. It's surprisingly moving, and even though it had been years since I'd last seen this episode, I could still quote Carl Rossum's "do you remember...?" dialogue to HARDAC's cybernetic creation almost word-for-word.
The title character of "Baby-Doll" was created especially for the series. Think Webster with the race and gender reversed; Mary Louise Dahl was in her twenties but looked like a three-year-old, and she cashed in on that rare disability with a successful and hopelessly bland sitcom. An ill-advised career move derailed her as an actress, and a decade later, she's systematically kidnapped all of her former co-stars in an attempt to reclaim those happy years. Again, as outlandish as the premise might sound, it really does work.
You might smirk at reading about a teary-eyed Baby Doll attempting to fire an already-emptied doll-shaped pistol into a funhouse mirror, but the immeasurably talented writers are gifted enough to eke more pathos than I ever would have thought possible out of that. Redemption, whether seized or tossed aside, is also frequently touched upon. "Sideshow" opens with a grueling chase between Batman and an escaped Killer Croc, who manages to stumble upon a remote farm that's home to a group of former sideshow acts. They offer Croc a chance at an honest life, but old habits die hard. Another example is "House and Garden". When a poisonous plant-creature starts a reign of terror in Gotham, Batman naturally turns his sights towards the recently-released Poison Ivy. She insists that she's rehabilitated, and by all accounts, Ivy is happily married and living the mundane suburban life. The investigation continues to point back to her, and the final revelation involves some of the creepiest imagery ever seen in the series.
Harley Quinn is also featured in a couple of episodes centered around her attempts to stick with the straight 'n narrow.
She's a fan favorite for a reason, and these appearances are some of the most memorable episodes in this collection. "Harlequinade" is a chaotic team-up with Batman in an attempt to track down The Joker, who's managed to get his hands on a bomb that'll turn Gotham into a smoldering mushroom cloud. "Harley's Holiday" documents her release from Arkham Asylum, and even though she's determined to leave that life of crime behind her, an attempt to legitimately buy a pretty pink dress at a store spirals into a bad day...a really, really bad day, culminating in being chased by Batman, an underground gambling kingpin, Detective Bullock, and...gulp!...the military. It's particularly great to see the villains interact with one another. That's part of the fun of "Trial", which has a reluctant prosecutor attempting to defend Batman in an insane trial when the inmates take over the asylum. The flipside of that coin is seen in "Lock-Up", when a cruel jailer's overzealousness gets him fired from Arkham and compels him to hunt down the left-leaning scum he blames for the state of the world. Another stand-out is "A Bullet for Bullock", an episode in which the slovenly detective is rattled by death threats and reluctantly teams with Batman, and the ending is just one example of how clever the show's writers can be. "Clever" is also the first word that instantly springs to mind for "Make 'Em Laugh", an episode where The Joker co-opts a fellow criminal's technology to create a small army of fumbling costumed criminals with inane gimmicks.
These episodes introduce a couple of recurring villains ripped from the pages of the comics. Most notable among them is Ra's al Ghul, who makes his first appearance in a two-parter penned by Len Wein and Denny O'Neil, familiar names to longtime readers of Batman's four-color incarnation. The centuries-old Ra's has virtually unlimited resources at his disposal, equally intrigued by Batman's boundless skills as a detective as he is frustrated by his foe's determination to disrupt his machinations. Ra's often lends a Saturday morning serial flavor to the show, from the globe-trotting in his first few appearances to the flared pants of "Avatar". The charismatic character has such a presence that he's able to carry "Showdown" largely by himself in an episode that barely features Batman or Robin in any capacity.
"Showdown" is set during the westward expansion of the mid-1800's as Ra's' opposition to the sprawling railroads is pitted against scarred bounty hunter Jonah Hex (one of the few DC characters not connected with the Batman mythos to appear on the show). The other noteworthy recurring villain is The Ventriloquist, a fairly timid-looking middle-aged man who seems more likely to be a CPA than a ruthless crimelord. Taken by himself, that seems to be the right impression, but when he has his puppet Scarface on the end of his arm... The Ventriloquist's first appearance, "Read My Lips", is one of my favorites of the season, and he returns twice after that. Several other characters from the comics briefly appear, including Maxie Zeus, the back-breaking, Venom-fueled Bane, and the fairly obscure masked criminals of The Terrible Trio. The majority of Batman's rogue's gallery is present and accounted for, with The Penguin, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, The Mad Hatter, The Joker, Harley Quinn, The Clock King, Catwoman, The Riddler, The Scarecrow (though only as a supporting character; no "fear!" episodes this time around), Two-Face, and Mr. Freeze all wreaking havoc throughout Gotham City at some point or another.
Even with the opening titles shifting on disc three from Batman: The Animated Series to The Adventures of Batman and Robin, there's no discernable drop in quality.
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| "Drop your forks and prepare to cower before the uncanny Condiment King!" |
Batman: The Animated Series does everything right. It doesn't dumb itself down or resort to hyperkinetic editing to try to appeal to a younger crowd. The retro-styled art design and dark visuals contribute immeasurably to the overall tone of the show, as does the award-winning music. The writing's consistently impressive, avoiding falling into some formulaic "villain of the week" trap, and the casting choices for its voice actors is incredibly inspired. Henry Silva, LeVar Burton, Dick Miller, Megan Mullally, Brad Garrett, Bill Mumy, David Warner, Elizabeth Montgomery, Jeffrey Jones, Adam Ant, William Katt, and Robert Pastorelli are just a few of the familiar voices contributing to the series for the first time, joining the usual favorites like Paul Williams, Mark Hamill, and Roddy McDowall. These three collections are required viewing for anyone with an interest in Batman, and fans who have picked up the first two collections should certainly consider buying this third set as well.
Video: The quality of the full-frame video is comparable to the previous releases, appearing fairly soft and peppered with some minor authoring hiccups. Although the image isn't as razor-sharp as some of Batman's more recent animated exploits, that's just the way the series was produced, and fans who have picked up the previous Batman: The Animated Series collections should know what to expect.
Audio: The Dolby Digital stereo surround audio (192Kbps) sounds great.
The orchestral score, the voice acting, and bombastic sound effects all come through extremely well, especially considering the weekday afternoon origins of the show. The sound effects in particular -- gunfire, explosions, car crashes, and the meaty thud of colliding fists are a given in almost every episode -- are first-rate and often take advantage of every speaker on-hand. The firefight on the airship in "Showdown", just to name one random example, really isn't that far removed from what you might hope to hear in an overpriced Hollywood blockbuster. Very well-done. Each episode includes soundtracks in French and Spanish. Subtitles are offered in all three languages, and these episodes are also closed captioned
Supplements: The lone featurette on this four-disc set is "Gotham's New Knight", which spends seven and a half minutes covering the introduction of Batgirl to the series. Some of the main creative talent, along with fans like artist Alex Ross, comment on how Barbara Gordon was gradually brought into the series and how both the look and the character evolved over time.
Disc two serves up a pair of commentaries.
The first is an audio commentary on "Read My Lips", featuring producer Bruce Timm, writers Paul Dini and Michael Reaves, director Boyd Kirkland, and composer Shirley Walker. The commentary's played a little more straight than the other two on this box set, not that that's necessarily a bad thing. They comment on the vastly different pace of this show versus any animated series being produced these days as well as the liberties taken with this incarnation of The Ventriloquist character. Steering away from the traditional audio commentary, "House and Garden" includes a video commentary, again teaming Timm, Dini, and Kirkland together in a discussion moderated by Jason Hillhouse. It's light, chatty, and quippy, and the four of them talk about everything from the design of the creature to the tone of the episode to how cutting together a show has changed over time. The "video" aspect usually involves a little box in the lower-right side of the screen showing the recording of the commentary, although some other visual tricks are tossed around in there as well.
The last of the commentaries is for "Harlequinade", featuring Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Shirley Walker, and producer Eric Radomski. This is my favorite of the three commentaries, featuring observations as random as the white "mole" on Batman's lip in the opening titles and an appearance by a legless pianist, but also delving into discussion about a Harley spinoff, some of the material cut from the excessively long original treatment, the origin of Harley's musical number, and the proper definition of "Mr. Wobbly".
These commentaries are a blast to listen to, and I wish more of them could have been piled onto this set. Disc three also has a slew of short plugs for other DC-related releases. The packaging is similar to the previous two box sets, featuring another fold-out listing the episodes on these four discs along with an embossed slipcase. Each DVD also includes a set of animated 16x9 menus. All of the episodes on a disc can be viewed at once or selected individually, and each episode gets its own chapter stop. I still would've liked to have seen a chapter stop come immediately after the opening credits so I could more easily skip past them, but that's obviously a pretty minor gripe.
Conclusion: Since this is a review of the third Batman: The Animated Series box set, it's a safe bet that most readers knew in advance if they were going to fork over their credit cards or not. Owners of the previous two collections know how amazing this series can be, and they can expect more of that same exceptional writing, acting, action, and animation with this set. Not surprisingly, I'd suggest picking up the first two volumes before grabbing the third, but otherwise, this collection of episodes from Batman: The Animated Series is very highly recommended.
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