by Brad Chmielewski

When I was first asked to do this review I was rather excited, I thought I was going to get a chance to have one of the first DVD’s of “The Batman.” Unfortunately when the package finally arrived (much sooner then I expected) to my disappointment it was “Batman – The Animated Series” and not even volume one or an appealing special edition. Instead what had been delivered was a four episode DVD entitled “Secrets of the Caped Crusader.” I am going to be straight forward this is not a series I ever got into or could get into, it for some reason lacks what I look for when I sit down to watch television. I enjoyed “Batman Beyond” much more and would recommend that show to everyone. Still, given that I agreed to write this review I decided to take another look at the show, since first impressions are often wrong.

Warner Brothers’ “Batman – The Animated Series” aired from 1992 – 1995 and was produced by Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski. Bruce Timm joined Warner Brothers in 1989 as storyboard artist and character designer for “Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures,” later he was producer on the feature-length “Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker” and is now currently working on Cartoon Network’s “Justice League Unlimited.” Without a doubt Bruce Timm is doing great work and I hope he will continue on this path. Eric Radomski was co-producer and director on “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm” in 1993 then as “Batman – The Animated Series” was finishing up he was then given the chance to be the director on “Freakazoid” and now his most recent project is “Xiaolin Showdown.”

The “Secrets of the Caped Crusader” DVD was released on October 19, 2004, which was rather surprising because volume one contains these same four episodes that are packaged on this DVD. The episodes are “The Cat and the Claw Parts 1 and 2,” which features Catwoman, “Heart of Ice,” featuring Mr. Freeze and “See No Evil.”

The first two episodes leave much to be desired from the series. If someone was given these two episodes to base their perception of the series off of, it would without a doubt come up short. Both part one and part two include little action, with the biggest scene coming at the end of part two, I felt my 35 minutes here was rather wasted. Throughout part one and two Batman and Catwoman flit back and forth, both in disguise and out. Most young boys do not want to see their superhero falling in love; it ruins that tough guy image.

The second two episodes “Heart of Ice,” featuring Mr. Freeze and “See No Evil” are what stood out. “Heart of Ice” was an excellent episode and I am not just saying this because Mr. Freeze rules. The plot was there and animation looked much better. When something was frozen by Mr. Freeze the snow / ice sparkled, similar to diamond, which was a great touch to the animation that I felt was lacking in “The Cat and the Claw Parts 1 and 2.” As for “See No Evil” it did not have the style that “Heart of Ice” but it worked because the story did not call for that level of extra detail. “See No Evil” was meant to be darker, which works wonderfully with the aesthetic of “Batman – The Animated Series.” Overall “The Cat and the Claw Parts 1 and 2,” had no business being on this DVD and are not worth the time to check out, “Heart of Ice,” and “See No Evil” in my mind do the series justice.

Color is where “Batman – The Animated Series” stands out. The use of dark colors is what I enjoyed the most, to see an animation use a color pallet not associated with children’s programming and make it work is marvelous. Even during the middle of day the sky is this sinister drab gradient. The only thing in my opinion that could of made the backgrounds work even better would have been a small amount of animation to them. In the sky I would have appreciated to see a few clouds slowly moving, or in the buildings a light flickering.

On the whole this DVD is sub-par but if you enjoy “Batman – The Animated Series” and are looking to collect the episodes I would highly recommend spending the extra 20 dollars and picking up one of the box sets. Otherwise if you are looking for something to entertain your kids for a little over and hour then this DVD may be what you are looking for. If you still haven’t seen the series yet, I recommend spending an hour and checking out a few episodes.