Product ReviewsBatman: the Animated Series: Volume 1 (DVD)

Epic series a must have

Great series

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: stones2621

They don't make them like this anymore

Great show to watch with your kids.

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BATVIEW

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thank you

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Thank you excellent

Thank you excellent

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: vinessavintage

Thank you so much

Awesome

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: theboredcyborgm...

Cool

Great

Batman: The Animated Series - Vol. 1 (2004, DVD)

I bought the DVD set for my son as a Christmas present. He has really enjoyed it. It has all the episodes from the 1st season. It also comes in a nice case, so you can keep up with all the DVD's.

Batman: the animated series Vol.1

I'm a Batman fan and this is the best animated version. The voice cast cant be beat, the stories and animation are great and it shows since it spawn other series and characters with the same style, like justice league and the latest DC animated movies.Read full review...

The best merchandise-driven show of my youth

The 4 DVD set contains the first 28 episodes of the series. This being one of my favorite childhood shows, I submitted it to the nostalgia vs actual quality test; sure, I liked to collect the action figures, but does the content of the show still hold up to my present standards?

So does it? That will be subjective depending on the watcher, but chances are if you are looking to buy this you have either seen the series on TV or are already a Batman fan. While I am not going to review each individual episode here, I must say that there is a fair share of great episodes. Some highlights for me were "Heart of Ice", "Two-Face" and "Feat of Clay", all episodes that retell the origin of villains while playing like Greek tragedies.

In fact this has been said ad nauseam in other reviews but will reiterate here: As with the Burton films, some of the episodes focus closely on the villains, especially their back-stories and motivations. I feel compelled to mention the episode "Mad as a Hatter", which takes one of the most pathetic villains from Batman's rogues gallery and has him turn to evil because of unrequited love. The man is still crazy but, hey, anyone who has ever been turned down for a date (I.E. most of us) can probably relate (to an extent) to the poor guy.

Speaking of the Burton films, the series in itself could be considered a spiritual successor of sorts to Tim Burton's vision: The gothic, art-deco Gotham and the Danny Elfman theme were taken directly from the 1989 Batman. There are also subtler aesthetic and storyline references to the films, such as "Jack Napier" being the Joker's real name, Selina Kyle being blonde as a homage to Michelle Pfeiffer and Harvey Dent being black (Okay, more "tan" than black, but this probably references Billy Dee Williams in the role). Being that Batman is a very, very long running series and thus condemned to continually reference itself, even today's fans will find some similarities with the Nolan films; I was amused when Bruce Wayne organized a fundraiser for the campaign of district attorney Harvey Dent in "Two-Face". Too bad Mark Hamill's great, great Joker didn't crash that party.

Another strong point of the series is that it is actually about Batman. Some of the episodes ("Forgotten", "Appointment in Crime Alley") seemed to have weaker villains so we could explore Batman's few relationships and see a bit of the Dark Knight's psyche, what makes him tick, what he fears. Kevin Conroy's voice work also contributed greatly to the emotional depth of the character.

Picture quality is great for an early 1990's series, I noticed some small "spots" flash onto the screen at times; I don't know if these are intentional or imperfections in the original tapes, but I find they add to the aged, gritty feel of the show.

I can't really tell much about the sound as I watched the DVDs on a bare-bones TV (just like when I was a kid!). I noticed no background noise or distortions. There are audio tracks in English, Spanish and French (the French dub is pretty good, I don't know Spanish unfortunately), and subtitles for all three.

Special features contain two featurettes as well as the original pilot for the show (which actually only lasts a few minutes, but it's still fun to watch). There is also a commentary track on 2 episodes

All in all the series has passed the test of time with flying (albeit dark) colors. The mature themes and adult plots make for a quality show that is still enjoyable to watch.Read full review...