I?ve always held that animated programmes were at their best during the 80?s and 90?s While there may have been good shows since then, they tend to be few and far between. The 90?s in particular gave my generation some of the greatest TV shows our demographic ever watched.
Case in point, let?s look at what I consider to be the best animated programme ever made for children.
Batman ? The Animated Series.
Now just to clarify, before I watched this series, the only encounter with Batman in any media were occasional episodes of the old Adam West TV show. When I first saw this for the first time, I was blown away. This guy was Batman? This brooding, serious badass? AWESOME!
This incarnation has always been my standard for the character ever since I first laid eyes on him.
The tone of this series is very film-noir, taking place in what looks like the time of the prohibition era of the USA. This setting for Gotham city really fits the character and story well. The art design seems very much like the art deco style of the era, which also suits the show well.
As you can imagine for a Batman series, this was a dark, dark show. There were many themes and story ideas thrown here that kids would never have been given the opportunity to watch prior to it?s coming. You really feel the tragedy of the main hero and why he does what he does, something very few other Batmen have ever captured before.
Also of note for this series are the villains. Batman has had some of the most memorable villain in fiction ever since his introduction to the world. They were larger than life and utterly ridiculous. Fortunately, this series treated them with much more respect and dignity than a lot of other interpretations have done. They seemed very human, very tragic. When you looked at them, heard them speak, you didn?t see typical Saturday morning cartoon villains. You saw real people. Who lives in one form or another have been twisted into going down the path of darkness. This makes them very much a mirror of Batman himself. Wronged in the past and often seeking retribution for it. Yet while he chose not to fall down that dark pit, they did and you really feel the tragedy of it. Because of this you actually find yourself rooting for the bad guys on more than one occasion.
The stories in this series were brilliant. They were put together well and each one was effective in conveying exactly what they needed to convey. If I had to pick a favourite episode it would be ?heart if ice?. An episode which introduces the great villain Mr Freeze. Before this episode, Freeze was always portrayed as a comedic villain, even in the comics. But this episode and it?s portrayal of him were so good and so universally loved that even the comics he was based on were changed to better reflect this more tragic aspect of the character.
This series tended to shy away from the more light-hearted feel of many kids shows at the time. Very rarely would you ever get an end to an episode that was anything but depressing or melancholic. But that?s one of the good things about this series. It shows kids how bleak and dark the world can get . It never looked down on them because they were children or shied away from telling mature stories because it thought they couldn?t handle them. This was a move which I greatly appreciated.
Well, that?s about everything I have to say on the topic. This series stands out in my mind as the greatest kid?s show that has ever been made. Others might have come close, but this was the first, and thus the one to stand out in my list. Hope you enjoyed reading this review!
Case in point, let?s look at what I consider to be the best animated programme ever made for children.
Batman ? The Animated Series.
Now just to clarify, before I watched this series, the only encounter with Batman in any media were occasional episodes of the old Adam West TV show. When I first saw this for the first time, I was blown away. This guy was Batman? This brooding, serious badass? AWESOME!
This incarnation has always been my standard for the character ever since I first laid eyes on him.
The tone of this series is very film-noir, taking place in what looks like the time of the prohibition era of the USA. This setting for Gotham city really fits the character and story well. The art design seems very much like the art deco style of the era, which also suits the show well.
As you can imagine for a Batman series, this was a dark, dark show. There were many themes and story ideas thrown here that kids would never have been given the opportunity to watch prior to it?s coming. You really feel the tragedy of the main hero and why he does what he does, something very few other Batmen have ever captured before.
Also of note for this series are the villains. Batman has had some of the most memorable villain in fiction ever since his introduction to the world. They were larger than life and utterly ridiculous. Fortunately, this series treated them with much more respect and dignity than a lot of other interpretations have done. They seemed very human, very tragic. When you looked at them, heard them speak, you didn?t see typical Saturday morning cartoon villains. You saw real people. Who lives in one form or another have been twisted into going down the path of darkness. This makes them very much a mirror of Batman himself. Wronged in the past and often seeking retribution for it. Yet while he chose not to fall down that dark pit, they did and you really feel the tragedy of it. Because of this you actually find yourself rooting for the bad guys on more than one occasion.
The stories in this series were brilliant. They were put together well and each one was effective in conveying exactly what they needed to convey. If I had to pick a favourite episode it would be ?heart if ice?. An episode which introduces the great villain Mr Freeze. Before this episode, Freeze was always portrayed as a comedic villain, even in the comics. But this episode and it?s portrayal of him were so good and so universally loved that even the comics he was based on were changed to better reflect this more tragic aspect of the character.
This series tended to shy away from the more light-hearted feel of many kids shows at the time. Very rarely would you ever get an end to an episode that was anything but depressing or melancholic. But that?s one of the good things about this series. It shows kids how bleak and dark the world can get . It never looked down on them because they were children or shied away from telling mature stories because it thought they couldn?t handle them. This was a move which I greatly appreciated.
Well, that?s about everything I have to say on the topic. This series stands out in my mind as the greatest kid?s show that has ever been made. Others might have come close, but this was the first, and thus the one to stand out in my list. Hope you enjoyed reading this review!
