Happy 20 Batman: the Animated Series!
By: E. Chad Metz
It has been 20 years since Batman: the Animated Series debuted that day on Fox and changed action/super hero cartoons forever.
I remember it like yesterday.
I was a ten year old from a small town in Louisiana. My area had just dealt with Hurricane Andrew and we still were dealing with the aftermath. At that point, my main issue was that we didn’t have cable and there was something I needed to see.
On the morning of September 5, 1992, I went into our living room and hoped the antenna worked just enough to grant my wish. It was fuzzy, but it didn’t matter. It was enough to achieve my goal. I was watching Batman!
I still remember sitting there, in front of the TV as the intro started. The WB symbol with that cinematic music starting off subdued, then the two sketchy figures walk in front of a bank and BOOM, an explosion and the music picks up. Then we see it, the Batmobile coming to life in all of its glory. The cops chase the guys into an alley, and they escape to a roof top. Right on cue there appears the Batman with the trademark stare. Thugs pull their guns and out comes the Batarang and Batman springs to action. The scene ends with that iconic shot of Batman standing in the shadows on a building, cape flapping in the wind, and lighting strikes finally illuminating the figure.
I was awestruck as a child and remain that way twenty years later.
The intro to TAS encapsulates the entire mood of the show. This was not meant to be just some kiddie show. There were no jokes, no monologuing plans, but it was a serious cartoon.
TAS shed the campiness of the 60s TV show. In its place, we saw a dark world, darker than anything I had seen on a show at the time. Batman moved around this world, often times not saying a word, trying to solve the case. He didn’t explain his every move, but let the viewer figure it out as he did. I did not realize it then just how much everything was spoon fed to me in other cartoons, and I did not miss it at all in Batman.
Batman also gave something else no other cartoons offered, Batman kicked ass. Think back, how many cartoons actually had a real fist fight? It was always some hokey, unrealistic fight scene. TAS Batman would make a fist and hit someone in the jaw with it. Batman was the first cartoon that I can remember that showed this type of physicality. To go along with it, and to ground the show, the creators pushed for the inclusion of guns and actual bullets. Cartoons had moved to these laser guns, because, supposedly, kids couldn’t mimic that behavior. Well, that just didn’t work in the world that was being created for TAS. So, while there were rules the creators couldn’t break (no nudity, no strangulation, no child endangerment, no drugs or alcohol), they were given their guns. It may not seem like much, but can you imagine the thugs of TAS Gotham shooting laser beams at Batman rather than those tommy guns?
I could go on and on about this show; from the dark deco art, the development of the rouge’s gallery, or the wonderful voices that brought all of this to life, the life breathed into other DC properties and the development of Justice League, but I will bring it to a close here. Twenty years ago, a ten year old boy that loved comic books and all of its characters, watched in amazement as he saw the closest thing to a moving comic book. It was something he always wanted and wasn’t sure he’d ever see. Through the years, that cartoon has brought so much joy; not just through watching, but through people that have felt the same way and become friends. The show has been a great moment for comics, for animation, and just for the fans.
Happy Anniversary to, for my money, the best cartoon ever made: Batman: the Animated Series. It has truly been a great experience.