Batman: The Brave and the Bold

It's "Batman Brave and the Bold" doing a "Night Galary" like anthology and it's great. Paul Dini is one of my favorate writers and he never fails to disapoint me, he hasn't written one bad thing yet as least none I know about. Anyway this segment parodies on some of the really bizzare moves that have been done to the Batman franchise around the 60's decade, and trust me this episode isn't making this up.

The first story to me is the weakest, it's basically on MAD Magazine's version on Batman but this story unfortunately just wasn't that funny and was a little too long. I know that in a parody weardness is sometimes one of it's elements but here they took it too far, there just wasn't enough suttlely and the dialog just lacked a certain amount of zip. Don't get me wrong it has it's humorous moments but like I said moments.

But the other two stories I thought were the best ones. The Batman 60's anime was great, it's true there was a manga series of Batman for a while (there is even a current manga graphic novel available for the record and it's great) just as there was for the Spder Man but that's a different story. It was just great seeing Batman in 60's Japaneze Animation which looks similar to "Speed Racer" heck Bruce Wayne looks like Speed Racer even the scenes in the batmobile are similar to car scenes in that show which makes this all the more funny. Some of the technical problems are there like bad english dubing or continuty problems which are there if you look carefully. I don't just love how it parodies on 60's anime but it also parodies on the live action 60's Batman tv show with Adam West from the design of the Batmobile and some dialog. I don't know if it means anything or not but the supervillian "The Skull Man" is sort of a reference joke to an anime superhero "The Skull Man" which was influenced by the Batman series and has had it's own manga series for a while in the 60's as well as an anime mini series currently, so I thought that was cool it's like seeing two superheroes clash with one another.

The best one for me was the Scooby Doo and Batman story, Scooby Doo use to have this spin off series where each episode there would be celebrity special guest like the "Halem Globetroters" not kidding. Batman and Robin were one of those guest only different is this episode is funnier the old original one I don't feel has aged well. Loved the animation style which both looks and feels like the old Hanna Barbara animation. Some reference jokes to the 60's Batman with Adam West where there is a safety lesson and Batman has some sort of machine to repel sea creatures from attacking, that was from the "Batman" movie from the 60's only they were spray cans. And some of the fight sequences seeing the typical back and forth and the visuals of Biff and Pow were there.The funniest moment for me was when Bat Mite stated a fact about Batman and Robin never throwing one punch and he then corrects this flaw with his magic, and it's just great because it felt like a breath of fresh air seeing both Batman and Robin as well as Joker and Penguin doing one of the things they do best fight each other phyically. But the most hillarous moment was seeing Scooby Doo and Shaggy kick some butt as well, it was just surral not just seeing both Shaggy and Scooby fighting back against the monsters but seeing them fight along side Batman and Robin which is something I thought I'd never see in a million years, it was just awesome and comic gold.

Batman indeed comes in many forms.

First, let me say this episode is not for everyone. It is lacking in most of what serious Batman fan's seek. (then again, this series probably wouldn't appeal to them either.) But if you watched the cartoons New Adventures of Batman (1977), you may have some nostalgic love for Bat Mite, which adds to the appeal of this episode.



The episode is broken up into 3 different (and unrelated) versions of Batman.



In the first version Bat Boy and Rubin, Bat Mite seems to have taken the role of Batman, with a Jerry Lewis style Rubin filing in for Robin. Bat Boy's actions are opposite of what you would expect of Batman making it quite funny.



The second segment isn't all that entertaining, as they attempt to . It seems more like they are attempting to make fun of the short comings of Japanese animation of yesteryear. The story doesn't have much to it, nor is it particularly funny. The one redeeming feature is that the original Batmobile from the 1966 Batman series appears.



The final segment pays homage (or parodies?) the Scooby Doo episode in which Batman and Robin appeared. While I really don't care for Scooby Doo, whenever I saw the opening credits of that show and saw Batman and Robin appear, I hoped it would be that episode. I don't recall many specific details of the original show, but they captured all the elements, especially the look of the Joker and the Penguin as they appeared in the original episode. It's always great to hear Frank Welker reprise his role of Freddy, but it's too bad Casey Kasem was unable to provide the voice for Shaggy, who sounds slightly off.

This is the weirdest episode thus far, written by Paul Dini, who brought us the darkest episode of the series with "Chill of the Night" and the previous Bat-Mite funfest "Legends of the Dark Mite". The episode starts off with a 7 minute MAD magazine segment with Batboy and Rubin, it's really weird, possibly too strange for it's own good, the jokes are pretty dumb and I didn't really laugh, I smiled and chuckled a couple of times, but it dragged on and it should've been way shorter, I was kind of disappointed at this point, but then, then, the Bat-Manga segment begins, genius, just genius, it has so many hilarious moments and clever small details, you have to wach it more than once, at first I thought the sound on the TV was off, but of course it's intentional, supposed to be lousy dubbing of japanese animation. I often talk about the gags, but I won't here, you HAVE to see it for yourself. The animation is terrific, and the choice of villain is awesome, granted, it's the only one I know from the Bat-Manga.



The Scooby-Doo/Batman team up is about as awesome as the Bat-Manga, it's funnier than the previous Batman/Scooby team up, and getting Frank Welker, Matthew Lillard and one special guest to appear, really made it all that much better. The animation IS totally 60's Hanna Barbera, it looks like an old Scooby-Doo cartoon, much respect for the animators. This is another high for Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which continues to be completely unique, hilarious and awesome. I didn't like the MAD segment, but the two other ones are so good they more than make up for that. I guess I just couldn't help but compare the MAD parody to Freakazoid's "Fatman and Boy Blubber", whose hilarity and pace just destroys the MAD one, anyway, give the episode a watch.