When the famous Batman television starring the late Adam West and Burt Ward show left the air, Filmation had a chance to at the Gotham superhero to their line-up in tandem with Superman and they did. The show attempted with some success to keep the lively playful Batman from the live-action series intact although new voice actors were used.
The show featured the villains from the comics such as Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Mr. Freeze, and Catwoman. With the exception of Mr. Freeze the others often worked together (sort of) to wind up Batman and Robin and attempt to execute some weirdo plot against Gotham City. Also on hand were the Mad Hatter and a new villain Simon the Pieman.
The adventures were structured with a cliffhanger which was a format also used in the Superman cartoons in 1968. To my mind this idea hurt the overall effectiveness of the cartoons, making them too long often. These adventures worked best when they were brisk and the attempts to break made the stories softer than was ideal.
That said, these are still pretty fun. Batgirl is on hand and plays a nice role, often teaming with Batman and Robin. It's almost as if the live-action series just went animated with a little less satire and a bit more pure Silver Age superhero adventure.
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The animated Batman certainly had a more athletic build than the TV live-action one, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteIf you've seen the Scooby Doo Movies series which features the first Batman appearance in Hanna-Barbera cartoons, the cartoon features the Filmation designs for the Bat-characters, before Alex Toth redesigned them for Super Friends!
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