Saturday, November 22, 2008

Batman: The Brave and the Bold

AMAZING pilot. Now, I'll add that I've accepted that the original Batman: TAS was a fluke. A combination of hard work and a ton of luck. And I'll always admire Bruce Timm's crew for riding that fluke and changing the entire action cartooning game. Unfortunately, the days of a 50 piece orchestra accompanying your cartoon are pretty much over (unless your name is Seth McFarlane...).

In one short first sequence, the show quickly explained what producer James Tucker had so much trouble explaining without losing fans. This new Batman was less dark and funnier, but kept all the important elements to make it work.

In the pilot, "Rise of the Blue Beetle", Jamie Reyes (one of my new favorite DC characters), finds himself on an unplanned adventure with the worlds greatest crime fighter. By the end of the episode, Jamie learns the superhero business from the master himself, while Batman watches an inexperienced kid become a legendary hero.

The show had about 2 or 3 laugh-out-loud moments, with plenty more cool action sequences and interesting cinematic staging (familiar ground with WB Animation). What's really interesting about this new Bat-entry is the "brush pen" look. The clean-up drawings are given line-weight for the first time in recent memory, to further simulate that "old-skool" Dick Sprang look.

In a sentence, I dug it. Maybe you will too. Check it out on the CN.

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