Batman: The Animated Series Season 2
The series is part of what has become known as the DC Animated Universe, which consists of eight animated television shows and six animated films, largely surrounding DC Comics characters and their respective mythos.
Batman: The Animated Series Season 2
Batman: The Animated Series (often shortened as Batman TAS or BTAS) is an American superhero animated television series based on the DC Comics superhero Batman. Developed by Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski, and produced by Warner Bros. Animation, it originally aired on Fox Kids from September 5, 1992 to September 15, 1995 with a total of 85 episodes.[1][2] After the series ended its original run, a follow-up titled The New Batman Adventures began airing on Kids' WB in 1997 as a continuation of the series, featuring a revamped animation style. Lasting 24 episodes, it has often been included in the same syndicated re-run packages and home media releases.
The series became the first in the continuity of the shared DC Animated Universe, which spawned further animated TV series, feature films, comic books and video games with much of the same creative talent, including the 1993 theatrical release Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.[6] Another continuation of the series is in development in the form of an audio podcast drama, with most of the cast returning along with writer Alan Burnett.[7]
One of the series' best-known inventions is the Joker's assistant, Harley Quinn, who became so popular that DC Comics later added her to mainstream comic book continuity. The Penguin underwent change for the series; his appearance was remodeled after the version seen in Batman Returns, which was in production simultaneously with the series' first season. New life was also given to lesser-known characters for the series, such as the Clock King. In addition, dramatic changes were made to other villains such as Clayface and Mr. Freeze, the latter of whom was changed from a gimmicky mad scientist to a tragic figure whose "frigid exterior [hid] a doomed love and vindictive fury".
Aside from creating characters that crossed over into the main line of DC Comics, several of the series' reinterpretations were carried over as well. Mr. Freeze was revised in the comics to emulate the series' tragic story, the success of which actually compelled DC to bring the character back after "killing" him off some years earlier. Clayface was revised to be much more similar in appearance to his animated counterpart; and Two-Face's double-sided, black-and-white suit has become a common appearance for the character.
In order to complete the first season's 65 episodes, Warner Bros. Animation outsourced the series to several different overseas animation houses: Spectrum Animation, Sunrise, Studio Junio and Tokyo Movie Shinsha in Japan, Dong Yang Animation, Koko Enterprises Ltd. and AKOM in South Korea, Jade Animation in Hong Kong, Blue Pencil in Spain and Network of Animation (NOA) in Canada.[23] TMS also animated the first season's opening theme sequence. AKOM was eventually fired due to its inconsistent animation in many episodes such as "Cat Scratch Fever" and "Moon of the Wolf".[24]
The 20 episodes of the second season were animated largely by Dong Yang, with the exception of three done by Studio Junio ("A Bullet for Bullock", "Avatar" and "Baby-Doll") and one done by Jade Animation ("The Terrible Trio").[23]
Sixteen minutes of animated segments in the video game The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Sega CD are sometimes referred to as a "lost episode" of the series. These segments are intended to be interspersed between gameplay elements of an early-1990s video game and as such, the sound, color and story are not quite of the same quality of the actual television program. And because Sega did not have to follow the censorship rules of the show, the fights are also a little more violent. Many of the shows voice actors reprised their roles for the game, and are thus in the lost episode as well. Similar cutscenes appear throughout the video games Batman: Vengeance and Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu.[26]
The Animated Series was accompanied by a tie-in comic book, The Batman Adventures, which followed the art style and continuity of The Animated Series instead of other Batman comic books. The Batman Adventures, through several format changes to reflect the changing world of the series and its spin-offs, outlasted the series itself by nearly a decade, finally being cancelled in 2004 to make way for the tie-in comic of the then-new, unrelated Batman animated series; The Batman. The character of Harley Quinn's first official comic appearance occurred in issue No. 12 of the series. It has become highly sought after by collectors and fans of the character.
DC announced in February 2020 that Paul Dini, Alan Burnett and artist Ty Templeton would be leading a new miniseries, Batman: The Adventures Continue, to be first published in April 2020, based on the animated series and following shortly after its conclusion, with Tim Drake still adjusting as the new Robin to Batman.[30]
After the series produced its 65th episode (the minimum number necessary for a TV series to be successfully syndicated), Fox Network executives ordered a second season of 20 more episodes that was later reduced to airing weekly on Saturday mornings. The second season featured Robin more prominently and, as a result, was retitled The Adventures of Batman & Robin in the title credits;[31] this run of episodes had two new opening sequences and ending credits. In total, the series reached 85 episodes before finishing its original run on September 15, 1995.
The Hub started broadcasting the series on September 6, 2011. The channel aired a 10-episode marathon of the series on July 20, 2012, to coincide with the theatrical release of The Dark Knight Rises and even created an animated version of one of the film's trailers, featuring Kevin Conroy and Adrienne Barbeau re-dubbing Batman and Catwoman's dialogue from the trailer.[33]
Batman: The Animated Series has often been ranked as one of the greatest animated television shows ever made.[34][35][36] It has been critically acclaimed for its mature tone, writing, voice acting, orchestrated soundtrack, visual aesthetic, and faithfulness to the source material.[3][37] In 1992, Entertainment Weekly ranked the series as one of the top television series of the year.[38] IGN.com listed the series as the best adaptation of Batman anywhere outside of comics, the best comic book television show of all time[39] and the second-best animated series of all time (after The Simpsons).[40][41] Wizard magazine also ranked it No. 2 of the greatest animated television shows of all time (again after The Simpsons). TV Guide ranked it the seventh-greatest cartoon of all time.[42] The widespread acclaim led the series to win four Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Animated Program.[43][44]
In 1999, a futuristic spin-off series titled Batman Beyond premiered on The WB, featuring a teenager named Terry McGinnis taking on the duties of Batman under the guidance of an elderly Bruce Wayne.[48] Then in 2001, the Justice League animated series premiered on Cartoon Network, featuring Batman as one of the founding members of the League. This was continued in 2004 by Justice League Unlimited, featuring a greatly expanded League. Many DC cartoons unrelated to the larger DC animated universe, such as Teen Titans and The Batman, also featured character designs strongly influenced by those of Bruce Timm.
Batman: The Animated Series featured a strong musical score written by several different composers throughout the course of the series. The main theme of the show, which was heard during the opening and ending credits of each episode, was composed by Danny Elfman. At first, Elfman turned down Bruce Timm's offer to compose the theme for the show and so Timm hired Shirley Walker to do so. However, Elfman later changed his mind and composed a variation of his 1989 Batman film theme for the series. Walker's unused theme went on to become the main theme for the second season of the show, when the name was changed to The Adventures of Batman & Robin.[60]
During the series's 25th anniversary panel at the New York Comic Con on October 8, 2017, it was announced that the complete series and all 24 episodes of The New Batman Adventures would be released on Blu-ray later in 2018 (due to the financial success of the Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Blu-ray release in 2017).[214][215] The Blu-ray release came out in fall 2018.[216]The numbered, limited-edition box sets also included a code for a free digital SD and HD copy of the complete series, three collectible Funko Pocket Pops of Batman, the Joker and Harley Quinn, seven exclusive lenticular cards of original animation artwork, as well as Blu-ray copies of both spin-off animated films Mask of the Phantasm and SubZero.[217][218]
Several video games based on the animated continuity were released during the 16-bit game-machine era, using The Adventures of Batman & Robin second season branding. Konami developed a game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), while Sega released versions of the game for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Mega-CD and Game Gear. The SNES, Genesis/Mega Drive and Game Gear versions were side-scrolling action games, while the Mega-CD version featured a 3-D driving adventure. All of the games had art true to the series, while Sega's versions featured art elements directly from the show's creators.[222] The CD version has over 20 minutes of original animated footage comparable to the most well-crafted episodes,[223] with the principal voice actors reprising their roles.
There was also a game made for the Game Boy based on the series and created around the same time. Developed and published by Konami, this game was distinctive upon the fact that it still used the earlier Batman: The Animated Series moniker instead of The Adventures of Batman & Robin second season title given to the other games. 041b061a72