Batman: The Animated Newsletter
Weeks of January 3 - January 8/9, 2000
Volume 3,
Rated: PG for some "low-key coarse language and occasional griping"
THIS ISSUE'S SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE: "HAPPY NEW
MILLENIUM, EVERYONE! Now let us NEVER use that 'm'
word again. Talk about overkill..."
___________________________
ANNOUNCEMENT
Due to the unprecedented response to our annual poll, the results for
this newsletter's GOLDEN
OVAL awards will be posted in NEXT WEEK'S issue (#52), due out on January 10.
That means you
all still have 7 more days to get in those submissions! The poll form
can be found at the end
of this issue.
___________________________
UPCOMING NEW EPISODES
This section will just basically give an insight into what the new
episodes are about and
hopefully a synopsis of the episode. This section will feature new episodes
for BATMAN,
SUPERMAN, and BATMAN BEYOND.
'BABEL'
Batman Beyond #25
Air date: January 8, 2000
Shriek returns, throwing Gotham into chaos with a device that
distorts all sound waves,
making communication impossible. In exchange for normalcy, Shriek demands a
ransom of Batman's
life.
'LEGACY (Pt. 1 & 2)'
Superman #44, 48
Air date: January 2000
This two-parter features the final showdown between Superman and
Darksied in which he strips
Superman of his memory and adopts him as a son in an effort to take over
Earth. This is being
touted as the FINAL Superman episode EVER. However, I must say that I've read
a synopsis of the
episode, and it's a doozie.
For synopses of all other upcoming second season
BATMAN BETOND episodes, check out of
BTAN at this address:
THE NEW BATMAN/SUPERMAN ADVENTURES airs Mondays
thru Saturday; BATMAN BEYOND also airs on these
days. Check local listings each day for what show is on at what time.
THIS WEEK:
Mon 01-03-00: Superman #28 Father's Day
B-BEYOND #11 A Touch of Curare
Tue 01-04-00: Superman #37 Little Girl Lost (Pt.
1)
Superman #38 Little Girl Lost (Pt. 2)
Wed 01-05-00: Batman #66 Sideshow
Superman #10 My Girl
Thu 01-06-00: Batman #90 You Scratch
My Back
Superman #09 Stolen Memories
Fri 01-07-00: Batman #95 Torch Song
B-BEYOND #18 Bloodsport
Sat 01-08-00: Batman #106 Mad Love
B-BEYOND #25 Babel <------------- NEW!!!!
All episodes #86 and onward of BATMAN are considered THE NEW BATMAN ADVENTURES
while the
original 85 are considered BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (BTAS) episodes.
____________________________
CANADIAN EPISODE SCHEDULE
(BTAS/BEYOND on YTV)
(courtesy of our friends at YTV)
-To find the episode guide and airing schedule of
BATMAN and BATMAN BEYOND on YTV then please
go to
http://www.ytv.com and click on the YTV
GUIDE icon at the bottom of the screen. To check
out the schedule then click on BATMAN or BATMAN BEYOND in the time grid and it
will have the
schedule for the current week.
BTAS will air at 7:30am on weekday mornings (in
all time zones), and BATMAN BEYOND will air at
2:30pm on Saturday and Sunday. YTV has the rights to show all 109 BTAS
episodes. They also
have the rights to air the first 26 episodes of BATMAN BEYOND (all of season 1
and the first
half of season 2).
THIS WEEK:
Mon 01-03-00: BTAS #80 Second Chance
Tue 01-04-00: BTAS #81 Harley's
Holiday
Wed 01-05-00: BTAS #82 Lock-Up
Thu 01-06-00: BTAS #83 Make 'Em Laugh
Fri 01-07-00: BTAS #84 Deep Freeze
Sat 01-08-00: BEYOND #07 Meltdown
Sun 01-09-00: BEYOND #08 Heroes
____________________________
CARTOON NETWORK WB ANIMATION SCHEDULE:
"Yabba Dabba Doom"
(courtesy of Brian Cruz)
THE CARTOON NETWORK was able to get the exclusive
rights to 52 episodes of the classic BTAS, as
well as both animated movies. BTAS airs Monday-Friday at 6pm (ET) and then
repeated again at
midnight. If our schedule listings is not complete or up to date then please
go to either of these sites for the schedule:
To see the 52 episodes that the CARTOON NETWORK
does show, go to this link:
NOTE: The schedules at Brian Cruz' site are
currently unavailable; if anyone knows of any other place where people can get
listings for BTAS on the Cartoon Network, please e-mail us!
____________________________
EPISODE REVIEW: (SPOILERS!)
(by Tim "TWO-FACE" Leighton)
All of Tim "TWO-FACE" Leighton's reviews
of the new-style BTAS episodes and BATMAN BEYOND can
be found via these links, which link to "Two-Face's Tower of Tranquility
and Terror":
NOTE: ALRIGHT! I've been messing up WHO is writing
WHAT for this column for too long now. If you wanna see who's writing each
review, just go to the bottom - they all sign it there. Sorry Zanna and
Justin! I feel so foolish...agh...*HALF OF MY FACE BLUSHES*
NOTE: Since there are no new episodes to cover, I
went back and inserted a copy of my review of
GIRLS' NIGHT OUT from 1998. No real reason for it, aside from the fact
that I've never
reviewed it in this newsletter yet.
-Tim
<BATMAN BEYOND>
GIRLS' NIGHT OUT
Written by Hilary J. Bader
Directed by Curt Geda
Animation by Dong Yang
Original air date: October 18, 1998
My rating: **
These fiesty femmes should have stayed in for the
evening, not only to save themselves but the
audience as well.
I knew from the beginning that this episode was
going to be just for laughs, but it didn't even
work for me on that level. What logical reason is there for five girls to
steal the spotlight
of the entier episode? There is none, really - it was all purely coincidental.
Sigh.
The story begins with Livewire being transported
to Gotham City - but we never learn why.
Anyhow, she escapes, and runs into Batgirl. Meanwhile, Batman, who is out of
town, tries to
contact Superman to give her a hand - but his phone call is intercepted by
Supergirl, and she
comes to the rescue.
Remember, that happens in just the first three
minutes of the show. I really think this was
directed poorly - it just happened too damn fast!
Batgirl and Supergirl instantly bond. Meanwhile,
Livewire has escaped and joined up with Poison
Ivy and Harley Quinn, who are keeping a low profile until they have an
"edge". Livewire is the
perfect "edge" they were looking for. They go on another crime spree
and eventually are caught
by the dynamic female duo and the episode ends.
Yep - that's the whole plot. Simple, huh? I was
hoping for at least some cool gimmicks in this
episode, but I was wrong...just more of Ivy's plants, Livewire's electric
touch, and Harley's
buffoonery.
In fact, Harley is hardly in this episode, and
when she is, she just isn't funny. I did
somewhat like her hammering escapades, though - it really showed that she was
out of Ivy and
Livewire's league, as far as superpowers and gimmicks go. That's the only
scene that I did
manage to stomach chuckling at - it made Harley look truly pathetic - and she
is supposed to be
pathetic, so I liked it. The only good plot twist in this episode was how Ivy
was growing fond
of Livewire, and instantly forgets about Harley. Woohaa! If only the writers
did the same thing
this episode.
Other miniscule good points were how the general
public don't really trust these two "sidekick
superheroes", Penguin's very minor role, and, of course, the hinting at
Poison Ivy's
homosexuality, in the "kiss and make up" line.
In short, if you don't look for anything deep, you
might like this episode, but on the whole, I
thought it was pretty poor, and the action was very slow and delayed much of
the time. Only 10 minutes into the show, I felt like it was going on for far too long -
something is obviously
wrong if the audience thinks this.
-Livewire, as annoying as she is, got decent
characterization.
-Poison Ivy finally gets a starring role, and is OK, but her character was not
interesting
enough this time.
-Harley Quinn, love her as I do, should not have come within an earth's radius
of this episode; she added practically nothing.
-Batgirl had a decent role.
-Supergirl has obivously grown on me, because I didn't mind seeing her this
time around, even though I utterly despised her debut on "Superman".
In short, this episode was quite poor, in
virutally every aspect. Not downright terrible, but
it insulted my intelligence while watching it. What makes this episode even
worse is the fact
that it had so much potential, but did not take advantage of it. Miss it.
