DVD Review: The Batman The Complete 5th Season
Warner Bros, DC Comics Animated Television Series
Given the fever surrounding the 2005 live-action flick Batman Begins and its highly-anticipated follow-up, it's not surprising that Warner Bros. and DC are pumping out the Bat-product to tide fans over until The Dark Knight hits theatres.
This means a rush release for The Batman The Complete Fifth Season, the final bow for the animated show that aired from 2004 to 2008 on The Kids' WB. However, this version of Gotham's vigilante is very different from the one introduced by Batman Begins director Christopher Nolan, or even the producers of the 1990's Batman: The Animated Series.
The Batman: Anime-Inspired Kids' Show
Artist/producer Jeff Matsuda (who also worked on Teen Titans) designed the anime-inspired look of The Batman, while Rino Romano (not fan favourite Kevin Conroy) provided the voice. Unlike the recently-released Batman Gotham Knight which also gave Batman an anime-inspired makeover, The Batman is a kids' show and its tones and storylines match that intention.
This was the first full season without the guidance of Matsuda or story editor Michael Jelenic. Although this was also the 3rd season without The Edge's opening theme, his distinctive guitar textures were exstensively re-used to punctuate the action.
This season not only showed Batman working full-time with Robin (only introduced in the 3rd Season so as not to conflict with Teen Titans) and Batgirl, but the show's producers started bringing in some other popular DC characters, such as the extra-terrestrial cop Hawkman, socially conscious Green Arrow, mile-a-minute The Flash, cocky Green Lantern, and Big Blue himself, Superman. The show's producers even reverse the characters' usual behaviour patterns, with Batman looking to put together the Justice League and Superman saying, "I work alone."
Most of the 13 episodes are decent enough, but there are a couple of flat-out stinkers. "Attack of the Terrible Trio" takes the Hall of Shame award here, with its wretched tale of misfit university students using mutagenic science for fun and mayhem. Also, there's never any convincing explanation as to why Batman only brings in Robin for certain episodes and Batgirl for others, or occasionally both at the same time.
The special features show a bunch of talking heads interviews with the show's producers, focusing on how they brought in the other DC characters and how they contrasted with their main character. Interesting enough, but it's obvious their enthusiasm was for the guest spots and not developing Batman further.
The Final Analysis
Overall, The Batman: The Complete Fifth Season shows a series in obvious decline, as the introduction of other B-level (and the occasional A-level) DC characters shows that the producers weren't sure anymore what to do with Batman on his own.
Long-time Batman fanswill probably snap this DVD set up, even though there are some major departures from the comic books and movie continuities (No Kevin Conroy voicing Batman and no Mark Hamill as The Joker? Heresy!). However, this DVD is a tougher sell to those who were introduced to the character via Batman Begins. Those fans would do better to grab Gotham Knight for a stronger and more faithful look at Bob Kane's creation. And then, of course, there's The Dark Knight . . .
The Batman The Complete Fifth Season gets a 5/10.
