2
(nothing substantial)
7
(some mild superhero violence)
6
(worth seeing more than once)
What happens when Bruce Wayne enters his golden years? He becomes a bitter recluse trying to live his remaining years without thoughts of what he used to be. Batman has finally been defeated. A troubled but determined young man is the only thing that can break Wayne’s shell. Terry McGinnis steals the mantle of Batman and has to convince Wayne that he should keep it. That turns into Wayne trying to teach the new Batman what he needs to do to be the best crime fighter he can be. Armed with a high-tech suit and updated gadgets Batman must battle an array of new villains and a few familiar ones here and there.
"Batman Beyond" is one of the best looks into the future of a super hero ever conceived. What would happen with an elderly Wayne that still had the spirit of Batman (once it's been rekindled by Terry)? This show delves into that, and doesn’t stop with Terry fighting bad guys. Terry and Wayne clash on numerous occasions, Terry tries to figure out why Batman threw in the towel, Barbara Gordon lets Bruce know what she thinks of him (now, Barbara, if you can't say something nice...). And if you're wondering about Terry's regular life he runs into regular high school issues like dating and getting grounded.
The animation style is a lot like other Bruce Timm and Paul Dini shows (not the more recent “The Batman” show in which he looks 13). It’s dark with sharp angles, and very high-tech. It reminds me of "Blade Runner" without the flying cars.
While the visual style is a lot like "Batman the Animated Series," the sound is considerably different. The heavy industrial/electronica music adds to that dark, high-tech feel. The stories often have ironies not usually seen in cartoons. The episode that got me interested in the show had an ending worthy of "The Twilight Zone" (it’s not in this set, but stay tuned). Others have parallels to past stories such as Waye’s relationship with Selina Kyle.
Many of the classic villains that appear are as different from their old selves as Batman is from old man Wayne and would never have been seen in these states in regular Batman stories. Of course, there are also cliché ironies such as Wayne’s nemesis have a dual nature to be Batman’s primary enemy as well.
The story from beginning to end is not without its pitfalls, but it’s written well from a character standpoint. I particularly like the deepening of the villains. I’ve seen stories where a villain appears to play it straight, but it always ends up being a ruse. "Batman Beyond" is the first series I’ve seen that allows its villains to genuinely change heart. It also allows for various motivations: classic evil insanity, megalomania, greed, revenge, addiction, even peer/familial/authoritative pressure.
Morality
While maybe too dark and violent for very young kids, there is little that approaches lethality and death is always implied off screen (when it happens at all). Batman never kills.
There is no strong language or sex though sometimes the girls can come across as mildly sexualized in skimpy clothing.
One episode deals specifically with drug addiction, but it plays out like a long PSA against drug use so the message is ultimately positive.
Spirituality
There is nothing particularly spiritual in this season. There are positive themes of heroism, second chances, and forgiveness that can make for good conversation. Terry has to learn to forgive himself for his treatment of his father which is a reminder that we don't know how long we have with our loved ones, don't waste time being mean. There's a story about a kid responding to being bullied by becoming a bully himself. Now Batman has to take him down (which can translate as don't fight evil with evil).
Final Thoughts
"Batman Beyond" is worth checking out for you Batman fans. It is probably my favorite super-hero cartoon with the possible exception of "The Tick," though I wouldn’t put it on par with the likes of movies like "The Dark Knight." It's a kids' cartoon centered primarily around high school kids so it can be juvenile at times, but there is enough maturity to keep an adult Batman fan interested.
Buying Guide
The first season of "Batman Beyond" has a couple of buying options available mostly depending on which of the other seasons you don't have yet. It's worth noting, though, that there are other releases that include much of the same content. The smaller, older episode collections are obsolete now that the whole season is available, but the “movie” might still be worth a look.
Essentially you have the season by itself or in a series box set. All of them are DVD; there is no high-def release. There are 2 separate “double-feature” releases. Each feature is made of up of 3 episodes which means 6 total per DVD release.
Box Set:
If I had known they were going to release the complete series as a box set I would have waited on it rather than buying the seasons individually. The box set has some extra extras with it which appears to be roughly an hour and a half of documentaries, some behind the scenes videos, and an art book. Otherwise you get everything I will mention below except for different packaging.
Double-Features
The first double-feature is "School Dayz & Spellbound." It contains the following episodes: Spellbound, A Touch of Curare, Hooked Up, Golem, The Winning Edge, & Dead Man's Hand (many of these are offered in the “movie” package as extras, one episode is from season 2).
The other one is "Tech Wars & Disappearing Inque" which contains Heroes, Lost Soul, Splicers, Black Out, Disappearing Inque, & Shriek (some of these are season 2 episodes).
The Movie has its own full review since I bought it long before the seasons were released, but I'll mention it here for the sake of convenience. You get the 2 part "Rebirth" pilot presented as one long presentation along with a random assortment of other episodes.
Final Recommendation:
I like having all the "Batman Beyond" episodes on TVD but had hoped for a little more out of this set. With nearly all of the episode content already available on the “Batman Beyond The Movie” release or the double-feature DVD's if you had a complete "Batman Beyond" collection up to the point this came out you wouldn't be getting much you didn’t already own (I think “Ascension” is the only episode you would have been missing). Though extras seem a bit slim, you do get something for your money, and they are all enjoyable. If you don't own any of the seasons yet I recommend looking for the series box set. "The Movie" has it's merits if you are a die-hard fan, but aside from the best formatting of "Rebirth," it and the double-features are now obsolete.
The Season 1 set includes 2 DVD's.
Video
1.33:
This is the TV standard. It's far from perfect, but it's clear and looks good with the exceptions of some noticeable grain and some small flecks of trash.
Audio
2.0 Dolby:
The digital stereo surround sound is clear and strong. There's a bit of bass rumble and enough fill in the back channels to not feel like everything is coming only from the front.
Packaging
I have a gripe with the packaging. Is there a worse case design than stacking DVD’s on top of each other? No, there is not. It’s a 2 disc set. How hard would it have been to have two trays facing each other? Instead you have to remove disc 1 to get to #2.
The box contains some colorful artwork. It's shiny and full of Batman. What's not to like?
The inside flap offers an episode list with details on the extras.
I do like the interface design. The animation, music, and sound effects are well done.
Extras
I should point out that an advertisement says this collection has storyboards included. Unless there is an Easter Egg I haven’t found it does not contain any such thing.
-Commentaries: There are 2 I'll detail in the episodes section.
-Music of the Knight: 5 segments from 4 episodes present the brilliant music of the series. There's an intro then a menu for track selection. Each selection is a few minutes of one of the episodes with nothing but the score playing. Isolated score is one of my most favorite DVD features of any release, but what would have made this feature truly great would be the scores for the entire episodes rather than small sections. I'll offer some details on which episodes offer tracks in the Episodes section.
-Inside Batman Beyond (9:36) This is a panel of the crew talking about the creation of the show. It’s well edited with graphics that keep it from being a couple of talking faces the whole time. I was surprised to learn that the concept was originally developed to draw in younger kids. Though Terry is younger than Bruce was in the original series, the dark tone does not strike me as one aimed at 10 year olds.
-Justice League/Batman Beyond Season 1 (1:09) A short trailer talks about the first seasons of both series.
-Previews: Check out a few other previews presented in a menu.
Easter Eggs:
-Smells Like Creamed Spinach (3:07) Perhaps the best extra is the hidden one. On the extras menu of D2 highlight Mr. Freeze’s eyes. It’s a song Kris Carter made to get the job of composer which ended up becoming the theme song. It’s not as refined here as the more familiar final version, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. There are Batman visuals behind it though not as impressively cut together as a music video. There’s also an intro by Bruce Timm.
Episodes
There are 13 episodes clocking in at about 21 minutes or so each. Two of these make up the pilot which is often referred to as the “movie” although they are presented here as individual episodes (check out for my review of “Batman Beyond the Movie” for an alternate presentation).
Each episode is on a single chapter which is annoying. I love the theme song. In fact, I have the whole soundtrack which gets played frequently, but if I’m going to watch several episodes in a row (which I usually do) I don’t want to see the opening every time. Chapter skipping is a lot more convenient than scanning. That's the kind of thing we had to do back in the days of VHS. Isn’t convenience one of the selling points of TVD?
There is a play all option because you deserve it.
1) Rebirth part 1
-Commentary: Director, producers: It’s a shame there aren’t more than two commentaries on the set. This one is quite informative and interesting getting into some additional details of topics similar to the behind the scenes feature.
5) Meltdown
-Dr. Lake's Betrayal (1:42) A slow electronic music piece.
7) Shriek
-Commentary: Director, writer, producers: Once again it’s good enough to make me wish there were more of them.
8) Dead Man’s Hand
-Ten Dumps Terry (1:12) A soft musical piece.
10) Spellbound
-Vietnam (3:26) A spooky musical moment leading into some rock.
-Monster Bugs at the Wedding (3:28) Music with more of an exciting industrial/metal sound than the others.
11)Disappearing Inque
-Hostage Situation (1:33) Some suspense and action music.