Batman The Animated Series: Criticisms and Things You Didn't Like

[Hypestyle]

Title says it all... What do you not like and what would you change?

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I would have had more Robin in from the beginning. Of course self-described "purists" were just fine with no Robin at all. I wanted Robin to have his own spinoff series. Heck, if Timm/Dini team could have used Dick's Robin in a 90s era Teen Titans show, that would have been fun.
It would have been fun if at least one "non-canon" villain from the 1960s live action show were updated during the run of this series. King Tut, Egghead, somebody. (I guess Maxie Zeus was vaguely reminiscent of Tut's shtick, but...)

[superduperman]

Everything that came after it. It was a fine stand alone series. Tying it to things like STAS and the JL cartoons diminished it.

[Rac7d*]

Batgirl crushing on Batman

[Comics N' Toons]

Everything that came after it. It was a fine stand alone series. Tying it to things like STAS and the JL cartoons diminished it.

I concur. And I'll take it further than that. It seems to me that BTAS was a Prime Time quality show in the early 90's, on par with the best adult TV shows after 8pm on Weeknights that were produced around that time.
Superman TAS seemed more of a Saturday morning cartoon, despite its serious tone and take on the character. In my mind everything after BTAS (especially the first dozen or so episodes) was just not at that same level.

[SiegePerilous02]

Everything that came after it. It was a fine stand alone series. Tying it to things like STAS and the JL cartoons diminished it.

I agree, even if the general quality became much more consistent in the later shows. It never quite felt the same as BTAS at its height, and I think BTAS was wrapping up pretty well on its own. Characters like the Joker, Clayface and Mr. Freeze had good endings in the original run (MOTP was originally planned to be the end of BTAS, so Andrea killed the Joker within the context of the film) that didn't need to be undone. Granted, their endings being undone and continued usage was still much better than anything similar that happens in the comics (especially the Joker) but still.

Sometimes I like to think of BTAS in terms of pre-Crisis (original run + MOTP and Subzero) and post-Crisis (TNBA, Beyond, etc). It would certainly help explain why the Penguin was no longer a mutant and the Mad Hatter shrunk 2 feet

[Dr. Skeleton]

Things I didn't like:

The Joker Fish episode. How the Hell did that get past the censors? It was very disturbing for it being a kids show and it went pretty far, especially that poor cat being infected by the Joker venom. This is worst example of how DC and WB goes to far with the Joker. In the original comic storyline if I recall correctly, all his victims in that storyline dies.

With that being said, way too much Joker and always having him one upping the other villains giving them egg on their faces.

I thought Harley Quinn was damn annoying despite the fan following she had.

Didn't like that they had the Matt Hagen Clayface with Basil Karlo's background. Matt's been dead since Crisis Of Infinite Earths.

Summer Gleason was practically Vicki Vale with a name change. Why couldn't they use Vicki?

We could've done without the Looney Tunes and Animaniacs references having WB reminding us that they run the Bat-Franchise.


All and all, I liked most of the series except for those particular ones I mentioned.

[PCN24454]

The Batman definitely improved as it went on and deserves more credit than it gets, but those first couple seasons (especially 1) are pretty dire.

BTAS had its share of lousy episodes, but I would definitely put its best far above anything in The Batman's first couple seasons.

Yeah, we can agree to disagree.

[exile001]

No Killer Moth. He'd have been a perfect fit even if they had to retool him a little.

I see the original run as somewhat flawed with some real duds (I've got Batman in my basement, Joker's Wild) but the excellent episodes and many positives that were carried over to the comics far outshines the negative. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is still the best Batman movie in my opinion.

However, I didn't like TNBA much (although there are two eps I love). I dislike most of the redesigns, especially Joker, Catwoman and Poison Ivy. That said, the Scarecrow redesign was fantastic.