Batman: The Animated Newsletter
Weeks of December 11 -
December 17, 2000
Volume 3,
Rated: PG for some "low-key coarse
language and occasional griping"
THIS ISSUE'S SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE: "ONE FACE, TWO-FACE, RED
FACE, BLUE FACE."
THAT SAID, WELCOME TO PART TWO OF OUR TWO-PART
RETURN-OF-THE-JOKER SPECIAL. ;-Y
-editor Tim "Two-Face" Leighton
very two-faced,
indeed
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SPECIAL
NEWS
EARLY RELEASE OF ROTJ IN CANADA STILL EDITED
Yeah, can you believe it? After all our hype, it turns out the
RETURN OF THE JOKER movie released in Canada WAS edited, just as it will be
in the United States. Nothing major is cut, except a few rather vital scenes
in the flashback sequence (the best one, of course). The flashback scene is
still great and all, but it's just not the same. We really oughta pressure the WB into making a special release for the unedited version of this movie.
Go get an unedited copy ASAP, I urge you.
That is all.
Begrudgingly yours,
Tim "TWO-FACE" Leighton
* * * *
*
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT OUR 'RETURN OF THE JOKER' GIVEAWAY!
SCROLL DOWN TO JUST BELOW OUR EPISODE REVIEW FOR DETAILS!
* * * * *
FOR A LIST OF ALL THE THINGS THAT WERE CUT (thanks to Dick
Grayson), CLICK EITHER OF THE FOLLOWING LINKS. BELIEVE ME, THERE ARE MANY
MORE THAN WE ORIGINALLY EXPECTED.
(These have already popped up at DARK HORIZONS, CINESCAPE, and
many other notable sites, too.)
For an article on the history of this travesty, go here (there
are lots more pics there, too!):
http://filmforce.ign.com/news/1716.html
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EAGERLY
ANTICIPATING...
New episodes are on the horizon! Here's what we can expect in
the near future...
UNMASKED
Batman Beyond #??
Air date: ???
Synopsis: A
little kid gets a glimpse of the face under the Batman mask.
COUNTDOWN
Batman Beyond #??
Air date: ???
Synopsis:
Zeta and Mad Stan return.
THE CURSE OF KOBRA (Pt. 1, 2)
Batman Beyond #??, ??
Air
date: ???
Synopsis: This two-part episode features a villain named
Kobra.
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KIDS
WB ANIMATION SCHEDULES:
(courtesy of Brian Cruz and/or the official BTAS/STAS
site)
Kids'WB! currently airs BATMAN BEYOND five or six times a
week. Batman airs on weekday afternoons Monday-Friday, as well occasionally
Friday morning before Pokemon. Remember, Kids'WB! is notorious for switching
schedules around at the very last minutes. Batman Beyond currently airs at
11am (ET) on Saturdays and 4:30pm (ET) on weekdays. Check out these links if
our schedule is not 100% updated:
THIS WEEK:
Mon 12-11-00:
NONE
Tue 12-12-00: B-BEYOND #??
Wed 12-13-00: B-BEYOND
#??
Thu 12-14-00: B-BEYOND #??
Fri 12-15-00: B-BEYOND #??
Sat 12-16-00: B-BEYOND #??
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
(BATMAN and BEYOND on YTV)
(courtesy of our friends at
YTV)
YTV currently has the rights to air all 109 episodes of
Batman, as well as the current 52 episodes of Batman Beyond. YTV usually
airs these episodes in either chronological order, or in the original order
they aired on Kids'WB! and FOX. Batman now airs at 3:30am Monday - Friday. (Actually, more correctly, they seem to be airing them at 3:40 am - go
figure.) If our schedules are not updated or are inaccurate, please use these
links:
http://www.geocities.com/worldsfinestpage/epsched.htm
http://www.ytv.com/ytvguide
THE FATE OF BATMAN BEYOND ON CANADIAN TELEVISION:
My co-editor Dick Grayson e-mailed YTV last week regarding the
absense of Batman Beyond from the YTV schedule. We got a response, and
here's what they had to say:
"'Batman Beyond' is not part of our current schedule. We
are sorry if this is disappointing for you to hear. We hope you can
understand that it is not uncommon for television stations to move some
programs to another day or time, introduce new shows, temporarily remove
programs, or cancel shows with expired contracts. It is important to
remember that all schedules are subject to change without
notice.
"With this said, your comments have been forwarded to our
Programming Department for future consideration. Please keep in mind that
although we do try to make all of our viewers happy, as a national network,
it can be quite a challenging task."
Maybe it is just gone temporarily - they are under contract to
air all 52 episodes at least twice. However, if you don't want to take any
chances and encourage them to bring it back, e-mail them, Canadian
viewers!
Anyhow, the original BTAS series is still airing, and it will
be shown as follows:
NEXT WEEK:
Mon 12-11-00: BTAS #22 Joker's
Favor
Tue 12-12-00: BTAS #13 The Cat and the Claw
(Pt. 1)
Wed 12-13-00: BTAS #16 The Cat and the Claw
(Pt. 2)
Thu 12-14-00: BTAS #05 Pretty
Poison
Fri 12-15-00: BTAS #03 Nothing to
Fear
_____________________________________________________________________
THE
CARTOON NETWORK
Cartoon Network has the right to air all 109 Batman episodes,
as well as all 54 Superman episiodes. Come September, Cartoon Network will
begin airing these. Shows. Batman currently airs during the weekday Toonami
block at 6:30pm (ET). Superman will soon have a set airdate as well. Since
Cartoon Network is unpredictable with their schedules, we are unable to keep up with them. Please, use these links to find out the schedule information you
need:
http://www.geocities.com/worldsfinestpage/airdate.htm
http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/TOONAMI/lineup/batman.html
_____________________________________________________________________
EPISODE
REVIEW: (SPOILERS!)
(by Justin Chen and/or Zanna)
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":
The creative "team" for this column alternates between Zanna
and Justin Chen, two loyal subscribers and great friends of ours here.
Any other reviews printed here are written by editor Tim "TWO-FACE"
Leighton. Enjoy!
<BATMAN BEYOND>
BETRAYAL
Story by Robert Goodman
and Stan Berkowitz
Teleplay by Stan Berkowitz
Directed by Kyoung-Won
Lim
Animation by Dong Yang, Koko
Original Air Date: December 9,
2000
Rating: ***˝ out of 5
DESCRIPTION: "Big Time" returns to Terry with a new
offer.
HIGHS: Good action, decent plot.
LOWS: Big Time looks corny, some
predictable moments, characterization gets a little odd at times.
OVERALL: If you didn't like BT's first episode, you won't be persuaded -
otherwise it's not a bad episode.
"Betrayal" is the follow-up to the "Big Time" episode that ran
a while back. In that episode, Terry met up with an old friend named
Charlie from his earlier years in juvenile hall. Charlie had served
time in prison, but still wanted to get back to his old lifestyle, bringing
Terry along for the ride. In the process, Terry fought against Charlie and
caused a growth chemical to fall onto him, turning him into a deformed,
hulking freak.
In this ep, we learn that Big Time has broken out of prison
and is working with a mob boss called "Major". BT's not all that happy
since the Major is making most of the decisions and leaving him as muscle.
So he approaches Terry again with another offer to join in a life of crime,
and that sets up the conflict in this story.
Now, I'll discuss the high points of this episode. The
storyline isn't all that bad, it features dissent between Terry and a former
friend as well as between Terry and Bruce. No matter how hard he tries to
hide it, Terry really has difficulty bringing himself to fight Big Time. Bruce can sense this hesitation, and although the younger Batman
denies it, he admits it later. Big Time himself also clashes with
Batman, as Terry obviously refuses to join Big Time's gang. At one
point, Terry seemingly convinces his old friend to cooperate and go straight...but it's a little predictable as to whether BT really does or
not. The end is also a tad depressing, watch it and find
out.
Also, the action is pretty sweet in this ep. Having a
physically strong opponent like Big Time practically assures intense
physical battles. Anyone looking for lots of punches, kicks, and throws won't be disappointed. I also want to mention the addition of a
mob shootout with the police, given the toned down nature of the show these
days I was surprised to see people being shot.
Now is there any reason to dislike this ep? It's
basically just an extension of Big Time's first appearance (wanting to go
straight but not actually doing it). So if for any reason you didn't
like the one before, there's not much in here to change your mind. Bruce's
character is a bit odd this time, he tries to discourage Terry from fighting
Big Time. He's going soft in this one, in contrast to the times he
tried to prepare Terry for tough situations. However, I did think it
was a nice line on Bruce's part when at one point Max Gibson has the Batsuit: "Don't even think about putting it on." Since I'm against Max becoming
an official "teammate", that was the way to go.
And did I mention that Big Time himself just looks kind of
dumb? He's not exactly scary, just laughable in appearance. It
looks as if the producers said "Let's make a really, really, big tough guy"
and then threw in the story (which I will repeat isn't that bad) around
it.
As a whole, this episode was good, not great. If you
were alright with the first appearance of this villain, then you'll probably
like this one better. If not, you may still want to stay for the
action.This should probably be the last of Big Time, and is an appropriate way
to end the story.
By Justin Chen, aka The Overseer
overseer@pacificwest.com
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