Batman: The Animated Series

This was one of many episodes that was damaged by BS&P (Broadcasting Standards and Practices). Its not the fault of the writers who worked on this episode. BS&P demanded several changes. Bruce Timm was very upset about it. As for good points, I like the animation of this episode. I like the atmospheric touches Studio Junio gave to this episode. And I thought Sewer King was a good villain. But Sewer King would have been a far better villain if the writers had freedom to work properly on this episode. I gave it 8 out of 10, because of the animation and wonderful music score.

I remember watching this very episode as a kid when it aired on tv. I saw nothing wrong with this episode, and even now when I rewatch the episode on dvd I still enjoy it. In fact I probably enjoy it more now at the age of 17 then I did at the age of 8. I can understand why people dislike this episode; Sewer King had a rather annoying voice, and his crime wasn't very diabolical, but I thought it was entertaining and brought something new to the table. I guess I cannot really think of any other reasons why I enjoy this episode as much as i do. This episode will always be one of my favorites of the series.

"The Underdwellers" is without a doubt one of the most out of place stories in the series. Most of the episodes in the series deal either Batman defusing an end of the world situation or solving a mystery while beating up the bad guys. However in this episode Batman catches a juvenile purse snatcher and ends up liberating a number of child in Gotham City's sewers enslaved by a megalomaniac. Add a subplot involving Alfred having his hands full trying to corral the purse snatcher Batman caught and you have the weirdest story in the series.



Along with the story, the Sewer King is the oddest villain the writers created. While his delusion as a powerful king of the sewers and caregiver of his child slaves ranks him as one of Batman's crazier adversaries, quite frankly he's pathetic. All of his evil is concentrated in the fact he makes kids his slaves and forces them to steal for him. Granted that's bad, but he is doing nothing of life or death circumstance. He is just plain nuts.

There is always one episode in any given TV show that one ends up seeing many more times than the average. For me, that episode is The Underdwellers. Back in the good ol' days when BTAS was still airing, this is the episode that always seemed to be on.



Too bad, then, that it isn't a better episode.



The villain is The Sewer King -- that should already be enough to warn you off, because sewer-related villains don't fly outside of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But let's not get ahead of ourselves! The episode starts out with two dumb kids playing chicken on top of a train. For some reason Batman takes time out of his night to save one of these Darwinian wonders when the kid's foot gets (unrealistically) stuck in some cables. Batman's first spoken line in this episode is, "You play chicken long enough, you fry." And here I thought this was BTAS, not the corny 60s live-action show.



This scene is indicative of the rest of the episode except that the average number of alligators (or crocodiles? I can't tell the difference) climbs steadily as the episode wears on. One would think Gotham City was located in Florida, not the northeast.



Other absurdities include:

1) Batman, the world's greatest detective, can't tell the difference between a kid in a green cloak and a leprechaun.

2) Batman has nothing better to do with his time than to spend it hunting a purse-snatcher.

3) Batman brings said purse-snatcher to the Batcave and then lets him go upstairs. What happened to protecting his secret identity? Why didn't he just turn the kid over to Social Services?

4) "Children and guns do not mix - ever!" Corny lines that hit viewers over the head with moral lessons are best left to Adam West.

5) The villain appears to have trained alligators/crocodiles. I'm sure the late Steve Irwin would like to have a word with the writers.

6) Trains are a menace to society. In twenty minutes, there are three close shaves involving people getting hit by trains.



Avoid this episode...unless you want to laugh at just how bad this usually solid cartoon can be.

A lot of people don't like this episode and I can not see why ,it has good animation , a good dark plot and a truly evil villan. The villan here is the Sewer King , he lives in the sewers and forces children to work for him and bring him things from the surface. Batman naturaly has to stop him. It even shows how far Batman takes his no killing code, despite everything the Sewer King has done, Batman still tries to rescue him. I don't understand why this episode has such a bad reputation. People like Batman dark, well this is about as dark as you can get

This episode begins with Batman chasing a young kid stealing from a woman at night. This unknown theif mysteriously dissapears in an alley, leaving Batman puzzled.



When more of these thieves arrive Batman captures one of them and tries to intterogate him, but this child is confused and uneducated. All Batman can gather from this odd child is that he is an orphan from the sewers and that he hates the sunlight. When Batman asks the child to lead him there, he finds a whole bunch of orphans and begins to take photos for the police of the enslaved, working children.



He finds the man behind all of this and confrots him. the man assaults Batman with his two alligators on him. After defeating these two distractions the madman behind it is luring Batman throguh the sewers trying to escape. After reaching the man, Batman begins to battle. He flips the man over the edge of a rail in the sewers.



When Batman looks over he sees the man hanging for dear life over a watery pit of alligators. Batman tries to save him but the madman lets go and the alligators dive after him and pull him to land. He then begins to flee once more. Batman graples over them and catches the man. In the end he sends the man to jail and the polices are taking the children to an orphanage.