Batman: The Animated Newsletter
Weeks of May 22 - June 3/4, 2000
Volume 3,
Rated: PG for some "low-key coarse language and occasional griping"

 

THIS ISSUE'S SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE: "'RETURN OF THE JOKER' PROMOTIONAL ITEMS ARE NOW BEING UNVEILED AROUND THE GLOBE. LET THE TEASING BEGIN."
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HOOORAYY!!!

 

About a week after was delivered, our subscription list surpassed 1800 subscribers. Thank you to everyone for subscribing!

 

-Tim "TWO-FACE" Leighton
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EAGERLY ANTICIPATING...
 New episodes are on the horizon! Here's what we can expect in the near future...

 

THERE ARE NO KNOWN EPISODES ON THE HORIZON. AGH.
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WB ANIMATION SCHEDULES:
(courtesy of Brian Cruz and/or the official BTAS/STAS site)

 

THE NEW BATMAN/SUPERMAN ADVENTURES air Mondays thru Saturday; BATMAN BEYOND also airs on these days. Check local listings each day for what show is on at what time.

 

http://www.batman-superman.com/batman/cmp/episodes.html
http://www.toonzone.net/brian/schedules/
http://www.ktla.com/backstage/programming/kids_framed.frm

 

NOTE:
If our schedule is not updated, then go to the following URL. It will ALWAYS contain the most up-to-date schedule possible.
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Taping/2928/airdate.htm

 

THIS WEEK:
Mon 05-15-00: Batman #80   Second Chance
    Superman #43 The New Kids in Town
             
Tue 05-16-00: Superman #15 Ghost in the Machine
    Batman #69   Avatar
  
Wed 05-17-00: Batman #68   Trial
    Superman #42 Where There's Smoke
             
Thu 05-18-00: Superman #13 Two's a Crowd
    Batman #103  The Demon Within

 

Fri 05-19-00: Batman #86   Holiday Knights

 

Sat 05-20-00: B-BEYOND #22 Rats
    B-BEYOND #29 The Last Resort

 

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.
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CANADIAN EPISODE SCHEDULE
(BATMAN, SUPERMAN, and 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 Noon on weekdays (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).

 

*YTV has just got the rights to air episodes #27 - 52 of BATMAN BEYOND. It's unknwon when these episode to air, but expect fall 2000. YTV may air all the episodes through in ONE run, unlike the first 26 episodes.

 

THIS WEEK:
Mon 05-15-00: BTAS   #72  Harlequinade

 

Tue 05-16-00: BTAS   #73  Time Out Of Joint

 

Wed 05-17-00: BTAS   #74  Catwalk

 

Thu 05-18-00: BTAS   #75  Bane

 

Fri 05-19-00: BTAS   #76  Baby-Doll

 

Sat 05-20-00: BEYOND #03  Black Out

 

Sun 05-21-00: BEYOND #04  Golem
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THE CARTOON NETWORK

 

BATMAN IS BACK ON THE CARTOON NETWORK!!!!

 

Thanx to CNX: Toonami Revolution - Batman: The Animated Series is getting more airtime on Cartoon Network; more accuratly, on Toonami. Toonami has a weekend block called Rising Sun which airs shows in morning hours. airing from 9 AM to Noon EST/PST. Rising Sun will be changed this weekend. Not only will Ronin Warriors be dropped from the lineup, but also, the second airing of Gundam Wing is dropped as well.

 

So technically, Rising Sun is missing an hour. Surely they're not going to give that mutt an extra hour, so they've but in a American flavor to the block, one a familiar Midnight Run standby while the other is making its debut to Toonami (finally). Batman: The Animated Series airs on Rising Sun at 11 AM EST/PST while Powerpuff Girls ends Toonami at 11:30 AM EST/PST. This is the new Rising Sun. Check it out! Now you'l have something to watch besides Pokemon!
The lineup, as of May 13, is:

 

9am-Thundercats (One Hour)
10am-Dragon Ball Z (The Garlic Jr. Saga)
10:30am-Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
11am-Batman: The Animated Series
11:30am-Powerpuff Girls
(all times in Eastern Time)
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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":

 

MAIN PAGE: http://www.angelfire.com/tx/TimTwoFace/index.html
BTAS PAGE: http://www.angelfire.com/tx/TimTwoFaceText/bats.html

 

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>
PAYBACK
Written by Robert Goodman
Directed by Kyoung-Won Lim
Animation by Koko Enterprise Co., Ltd. and Dong
Yang Animation Co., Ltd.
Original airdate: May 13, 2000
My rating: **1/2 (Out of five stars)

 

Gotham's futuristic Batman tangles with a black suited, laser whip wielding vigilante called Payback.  This new "defender" specializes in terrorizing the people who bully or abuse teenagers.  Based on information that Bruce pulls together from Payback's previous attacks, Bruce theorizes that someone from the Gotham Youth Counseling Center is involved.  Terry joins a teenage support group at the center to investigate. 

 

This episode, like many of the recent episodes, dealt with troubled youth and not the homicidal, larger-than-life villains of BTAS or TNBA.  There was no clever or twisted master crime or colorful criminal character.  The villain's only claim to fame was a dark costume and a laser whip.  Though the laser whip was an interesting weapon, it lost some of its impact when it was shown to be only a sculptor's tool being used by the vigilante. 

 

The saving element of this episode was that a bit more time was spent showing more of the Bruce-Terry relationship and showing a bit more insight into some of Terry's detective training.  There was some good dialogue exchanges between Bruce and Terry.  

 

For instance, when Bruce is patching up Terry's head after Terry is attacked at the center, Bruce asks, "Why weren't you watching your back? 

 

Terry responds defensively, "I was too busy watching my front.  Am I supposed to have eyes everywhere?"

 

"Only if you want to live to a ripe, old age," Bruce answers.

 

Sarcastically, Terry says, "You don't make it sound too inviting."

 

Later, in the last scene, when Bruce asks Payback what he is, Payback answers, "Your worst nightmare." 

 

Bruce replies, "You have no idea what my nightmares are like."

 

The last time the words "Your worst nightmare" are spoken in a Batman episode, the impression was menacing.  This time, spoken TO Bruce, the words evoke little terror, but since the words are directed at Bruce, they had a different, but significant impact.

 

Of some trivia interest, the actor that provided the voice for the store manager in the opening scene was Curtis Armstrong, currently seen in the OnStar Batman commercials as the Joker.  (He also played Booger in the Revenge of the Nerd movies and Herbert Viola in the Moonlighting TV series.)

 

While this episode is not one of this season's strongest episodes, I enjoyed the interaction between Terry and Bruce, which gave the story more interest.

 

Reviewed by Zanna
(Zanna_Z@NOSPAMyahoo.com  remove NOSPAM to email)

 

* * * * *

 

WHERE'S TERRY?
Written by Stan Berkowitz
Directed by Kyoung-Won Lim
Animation by Dong Yang, Koko
Original Air Date: May 27, 2000
Rating: ***1/2 out of 5
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EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Bruce and Max team up to find Terry, who has mysteriously disappeared. 
HIGHS: Decent plot, some funny lines, Bruce plays a big role, and Max is NOT welcomed into the Bat "family".
LOWS: Lack of action (which may or may not be a problem), the "Where's Terry" aspect isn't all that used, Max is still annoying as usual.
OVERALL: Excuse the dumbed down title, this ep's not bad.

 

After seeing a movie one night with Dana, Howard Groote, and Max, Terry heads to the subway station home. He spots a cloaked figure walking around the tracks, and decides to follow him. He trails the man into one of the tunnels, and then disappears.

 

Later, Bruce wonders where Terry is, and visits Max's house to ask if she knows. Max doesn't, but insists on following Bruce to help him find out. Terry's whereabouts aren't really a secret, he's in a caved section of the subway system. There he meets a runaway kid named "Dak", who looked kinda old for a little boy (but that's just me). It also happens that Shriek and his assistant are hiding in the tunnels too and what they want is no secret either.

 

So the episode mainly consists of Bruce and Max looking for Terry, and Terry trying to escape his underground prison. The characters aren't bad, so I'll start there. The little kid Terry meets thinks he's real tough because he's living on his own. His name "sounds like a throat lozenge" according to Terry. Dak looks up to villains like Blight and Spellbinder and is always there to throw in little remarks about Terry's actions. But by the end, he finds new respect for the Batman.

 

Shriek isn't a huge part of this episode, but he's obviously got a real vendetta against Terry and wants to kill him at any cost. He exhibits a new "echo" ability and can bounce his sound waves off walls to attack hidden targets. Max Gibson is annoying like she usually is, and constantly pesters Bruce about how she deserves to be looking for Terry too. She does do one thing important by distracting a group of "T" gang members for Bruce. 

Obviously though, the spotlight is on old man Wayne. He's strong and determined to find Terry without Max, but tolerates her presence. He displays his cleverness by tricking Max into being a decoy for some subway workers. Bruce is still a great fighter, as he beats the crap out of several T's. At one point, he asks for a moment alone to interrogate a T gangster, and comes out saying he's quite sure he's telling the truth. It's not hard to imagine what Bruce did. Bruce handles Shriek easily as well, as the villain stands over Terry gloating at the end, he mumbles "Why do they always talk so much?", before giving Shriek a couple whacks on the head.

 

The ep ends with Shriek in custody (which means he'll probably be back), Max being forcefully escorted away, Dak on his way home, and the two Batmans watching over. It's kinda funny watching Max being dragged off, to be honest. She is not allowed to officially join the Bat group, although the little kid...he did get a look at Bruce, perhaps even Shriek did? We'll see what comes out of it.

 

Compared to some of the latter eps of season 2, this one's pretty good. I still long for some eps as good as the first batch, but that's not likely to occur. Maybe next time...

 

-Justin Chen, aka the Overseer
t_overseer@yahoo.com
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