Official Score = 3 Devils[/caption]When I was a kid one of my favorite shows was, 'Batman: The Animated Series' It was sleek, it was dark, it was cool, and it had finally dropped all that campy stuff that made Batman so popular from the 60s through the 80s!
So when I discovered, 'Batman Beyond' in the early 2000s, I found the concept of, 'What if Bruce Wayne had to retire and pass the mantle of, 'Batman' to the next generation' and what that would be like. Now I will admit that I have not really seen to many episodes of this new series yet, but I will admit that so far, that I have found this show to be pretty awesome!
And so far, starting with Episode 1 of Season 1, the show has been a great way to start... But we will get in to that in a moment!
Written by: Alan Burnett (Superman), Paul Dini (Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker) & Directed by: Curt Geda (Ultimate Avengers). Starring: Will Friedle (Boy Meets World), Kevin Conroy (Batman), Teri Garr (Tootsie), Michael Gross (Tremors), Sherman Howard (Day Of The Dead), George Takei (Star Trek) & Lauren Tom (Futurama).
This first episode tells the story of how 50 years in the future, Gotham City is a whole different place... The technology of the future is there, including hover cars, and an over grown bustling Gotham City... The only problem is that Batman retired years ago, and the Police are essentially under the control of, 'Derek Powers' (Sherman Howard)...
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Derek Powers (Sherman Howard) as he is having a frank discussion with Warren McGinnis (Michael Gross)... And boy is it the discussion of a life time![/caption]Now Derek Powers is an up and coming billionaire playboy who is slowly replacing Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy)... Being that Powers is buying up Wayne Enterprises one company at a time!
But there is a secret that Derek Powers is harboring, and it will hit the McGinnis family pretty hard!
You see after his fight with his father, Terry McGinnis (Will Friedle) takes off to go and be with his girl friend, 'Dana' (Lauren Tom)... While there Terry is confronted by, 'The Jokerz' a street gang that modeled themselves after the legend of the original, 'Joker'!
Well in the end, they chase Terry up to Wayne Manor... Once there McGinnis meets an aged Bruce Wayne, who helps McGinnis take down the, 'Jokerz' and after helping Bruce up to, 'Wayne Manor', Terry ends up accidentally stumbling on to the Batcave and discovers who Batman really is! Well after he gets home and discovers that his father is dead and decides to enlist Bruce's help in trying get vengeance...
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It's gonna be like a buddy cop movie, ya know?[/caption]Since this is a 2 parter, stay tuned for part 2 of this review!
In the end though, the acting in this episode was good... Not exceptional, but good... The animation was good... Not exceptional, but good... In the end what really held my interest in this episode was the story! I love stories that quickly establish great back stories... which this episode did really nicely (what with having shown how Bruce Wayne initially retired as, 'Batman'... And it also quickly established a great story and motivation for bringing, 'Batman' back to life!
In the end, this episode was fun, and if this series continues this way, it is sure to get better and better!
http://youtu.be/3ABcSoiDnFQ
