Nostalgia isn’t all it’s cracked as much as be. This month’s Batman: The Caped Crusader was billed because the grownup model of beloved and groundbreaking ’90s present Batman: The Animated Sequence, made by B:TAS co-creator Bruce Timm, producers Matt Reeves and J.J. Abrams, liberated from Saturday morning cartoon censors, and backed by the expertise of some all-time Batman comics writers.
And whereas the present definitely had the Animated Sequence look, it was neither a direct continuation nor a powerful relaunch. Timm’s crew had been free to say no matter they wished, however didn’t have a lot to say ultimately. Typically you simply can’t go residence once more.
However what if I advised you there’s already a extra mature model of Batman: The Animated Sequence, with hour-long episodes like a live-action drama, multi-season plotting, and more energizing animation than Caped Crusader. It’s episodic, however its characters hold a stable emotional continuity, and whereas its acceptable for teenagers, it’s acquired a number of layers and references for grownup audiences to chew on.
In the event you’re searching for a greater Batman: The Caped Crusader, it’s best to watch Justice League and Justice League Limitless, which can be found proper now on Netflix to your marathon pleasure.
Picture: Warner Bros. Animation
Premiering in 2001, Justice League was a direct continuation of the DC Animated Universe setting, which started with 1992’s Batman: The Animated Sequence and continued in Superman: The Animated Sequence, The New Batman Adventures, and Batman Past — and largely, it had all the identical expertise working behind the scenes. Artist Bruce Timm, author Paul Dini, producers Wealthy Fogel and Glen Murakami, voice actors Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Clancy Brown, Ron Perlman, Arleen Sorkin, Michael Ironside, and Michael Dorn, all returned to reprise their numerous roles and duties.
However Justice League wasn’t a half hour, one-and-done episodic sequence hitting the waves at 9am on Saturday mornings. Airing in prime-time slots on Cartoon Community, each episode of the sequence was a part of a two-part story — hacking the half-hour animated customary into an hour-long journey sequence. The core solid started with Batman, Superman, Marvel Girl, Hawkgirl, the Martian Manhunter, Wally West’s Flash, and John Stewart’s Inexperienced Lantern, however two seasons into the present, Cartoon Community requested for a rebrand and expanded the mandate.
In Justice League Limitless, the complete breadth of DC Comics’ superhero roster was welcome on the Justice League, not simply the founding seven. Episodes had been knocked right down to half hour slots once more, however the present’s crew discovered a brand new approach to assume large. For the primary and solely time within the setting’s historical past, a DC Animated Universe present began delivering season-long story arcs; putting dominoes, foreshadowing reveals, and paying off setups from weeks earlier than.
And whereas every episode was nonetheless acceptable for teenagers, the present writers weren’t resistant to the joys of together with references that solely adults would actually choose up on — like Fifties gender and racial prejudice, a time-lost Martian Manhunter being introduced earlier than Nazi doctor Josef Mengele for experimentation, or canonically establishing that the Flash is a extra attentive lover than Lex Luthor.
Picture: Warner Bros. Animation
So if you’d like a Batman repair this weekend, queue up Justice League (2001) on Netflix. Now, you might need to offer it just a few episodes to get going, however for those who can stick round via the early middle-weight stuff, the present can pay out dividends. Aquaman chopping his personal hand off to avoid wasting his toddler son, an alt-timeline Superman who lobotomizes his opponents with laser imaginative and prescient, a group of killer romantic subplots, the Batman of Justice League: Limitless touring via time and assembly the aged Bruce Wayne and the long run Batman of Batman Past, Lex Luthor’s season-long presidential marketing campaign, and a direct adaptation of one of many biggest Superman tales ever advised, “For the Man Who Has Every part.”
So possibly it’s not the spooky procedural that makes you are feeling similar to you probably did if you watched Batman: The Animated Sequence for the primary time. However, then once more, neither is Batman: The Caped Crusader!
