Cartoon Corner- Batman the Animated Series (Season 3/The Adventures of Batman and Robin)

Originally posted at the DL March 2015

So everyone knows Batman:TAS.  Season 3 is a bit tame overall, although in part I think it's because the later DCAU got considerably more sophisticated than Batman really had a chance to.  That said at least in this season you can really see why they decided to go with the revised animation style in later shows and the last season of this one.  There's a lot of off model moments, especially with more kinetic characters, that don't happen much in later stuff like Batman Beyond.



Anyway, some surprises this season were mostly induced by researching things after the fact.  Like, it turns out every appearance from Ra's al Ghul in this series is actually in this season, which is strange to me because I remember him as the number two overall villain behind the Joker.  Though actually on the whole the Joker doesn't get much action in this season either, so I guess that might be where the impression came from.

This is also the point they seemed to realize that they could do some serious continuity in the series.  They were about 60 episodes in going into this season, so they had enough material to actually do a lot of continuations of previous stories or bringing back previous characters as experts for the duo to consult.  Basically I feel like this is sort of the foundation for what the DCAU eventually became, but a lot of the individual pieces definitely show their age.

Best Episode: There's a few good but not outstanding episodes to pick from.  I'm going to single out House and Garden though.  I dunno, Poison Ivy is so often the most sadistic villain on the show, so her more vulnerable side being on display here is pretty nice to see.

Weakest Episode: Harley's Holiday.  Those comments about being off model above are to a large extend inspired most by this episode.  As well, a lot of Harley's dialog and peppiness are honestly a bit grating in this one, which was pretty damned disappointing.

Grade: 6/10.  No episodes stood out as much as, oh, Heart of Ice and while it's cool to watch the show transform into the DCAU more or less it's still a bit just okay unto itself.