Batman: The Animated Newsletter
Weeks of
October 23 - November 5, 2000
Volume 3,
Rated: PG for some
"low-key coarse language and occasional griping"
THIS ISSUE'S SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE: "IMAGINE THIS:
ADAM WEST IN A MAJOR SUPPORTING ROLE IN THE LIVE ACTION 'BATMAN BEYOND'
MOVIE. SERIOUSLY, THAT WOULD BE
PERFECT!"
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SPECIAL
NEWS
*MAD ABOUT THE DELAYED RELEASE FOR 'RETURN OF THE
JOKER'? CHECK OUT THE FOLLOWING LINK AND WRITE TO THE WB!
*TO READ PAUL DINI'S WORDS ON THE SUBJECT, CLICK
HERE:
*TO SIGN A PETITION, GO HERE:
*TO SIGN ANOTHER PETITION, GO HERE:
*TO SIGN YET ANOTHER PETITION, GO
HERE:
*WANNA SEE THE NEW TRAILER FOR RETURN OF THE JOKER?
GO HERE:
*WANNA HEAR SOME RETURN OF THE JOKER SOUNDS? HOW
ABOUT SOME OF MY OWN SHAMELESS
SELF-PROMOTION? GO HERE:
-Tim "Two-Face" Leighton
(very shameless,
indeed)
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EAGERLY
ANTICIPATING...
New episodes are on the horizon! Here's what we can expect in
the near future...
SPEAK NO EVIL
Batman Beyond #45
Air date:
November 4, 2000
Synopsis: This episode features a rather large simian, who
might be friend, foe, (or both) of Batman.
BIG TIME
Batman Beyond #??
Air date: November
4, 2000 (on GLOBAL in Canada...TBA on the WB)
Synopsis: A friend from Terry's
Juvie days who gets in over his head.
BETRAYAL
Batman Beyond #??
Air date: November
4, 2000 (on GLOBAL in Canada...TBA on the WB)
Synopsis: This episode is a
sequel to "Big Time." Big Time comes back and Terry has to deal with
the guilt he has for having helped turn his friend into a monster.
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.
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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 10-23-00:
NONE
Tue 10-24-00: B-BEYOND #12 Disappearing Inque
Wed
10-25-00: B-BEYOND #07
Meltdown
Thu 10-26-00: B-BEYOND #05 The Winning Edge
Fri 10-27-00: B-BEYOND #08
Heroes
Sat 10-28-00: B-BEYOND #16
Splicers
NEXT WEEK:
Mon 10-30-00:
NONE
Tue 10-31-00: B-BEYOND #24 Revenant
Wed 11-01-00:
B-BEYOND #23 Mind
Games
Thu 11-02-00: B-BEYOND #34 The Eggbaby
Fri 11-03-00: B-BEYOND #13
Ascension
Sat 11-04-00: B-BEYOND #45 Speak No
Evil
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 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. 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
NOTE: It would seem that BATMAN BEYOND has been
taken off of YTV's list of shows to air. We'll keep you posted on when
it will return.
NEXT WEEK:
Mon 10-23-00: BTAS
#79 Riddler's Reform
Tue 10-24-00: BTAS #80 Second
Chance
Wed 10-25-00: BTAS #81 Harley's
Holiday
Thu 10-26-00: BTAS #82
Lock-Up
Fri 10-27-00: BTAS #83 Make 'Em
Laugh
THIS WEEK:
Mon 10-30-00: BTAS
#84 Deep Freeze
Tue 10-31-00: BTAS #85 Batgirl
Returns
Wed 10-01-00: BTAS #86 Holiday
Knights
Thu 10-02-00: BTAS #87 Sins of
the Father
Fri 10-03-00: BTAS #88 Cold
Comfort
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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>
INQUELING
Written by
Hilary J. Bader
Directed by Butch Lukic
Animation by Koko Enterprise Co.,
Ltd. and Dong Yang
Animation Co., Ltd.
Original airdate: September 30,
2000
My rating: *** (Out of five stars)
Inque has recovered from her last run-in with
Batman and is now sabotaging a satellite at the Shimano Space Center. Terry
is on his patrol as Batman and is talking to Max on the phone. Bruce
is out of town and Terry says that Bruce always thinks that something bad will
happen the minute he leaves town. Terry sees an explosion at the space
center and says that somehow Bruce is always right. Batman and Inque
fight. She succeeds in destroying the satellite and much of the space
center before making her getaway. Terry is determined to capture Inque
without Bruce's help.
GOOD POINTS:
Inque is in the story. She is a strong
villain. Inque and Batman's various fight scenes were exciting -
though it's hard to top Inque's previous attempt to suffocate Batman by pouring herself down his throat in BLACK OUT.
This episode had several different subplots
complicating it. Inque suffers genetic injury. Inque's daughter
is introduced and the audience gets some background information on Inque.
Max still wants to be more active in Batman's crime fighting. Dana
announces that she has figured out the special nature of Terry's job.
Terry agrees with Dana's opinion of Terry's job.
The art was quite good. The fiery explosions
at the beginning of the story were very well rendered. Inque's viscose
nature was cleverly drawn, as was her less coalesced state.
BAD POINTS:
While I enjoyed the interactions with Max and
Terry, I enjoy interactions with Bruce and Terry even more, and Bruce never
appears in this episode.
Viewers have already seen a rich villain, Blight,
and his relationship with his son, Paxton Powers. Inque and her
daughter, Diana's relationship seems rather similar. I suppose it's part of the moral of the story, to illustrate that providing your children
with all their physical needs is not enough, but it's already been
done.
* * * * * *
KING'S RANSOM
Written by Rich Fogel
Directed by Butch Lukic
Animation by Dong Yang, Koko
Original
Airdate: September 17, 2000
Rating: ****1/2 of 5
Description: The Royal Flush gang comes up with a
new plan to put them back on the top...but will it work?
Highs: Tells
quite a bit about the gang itself, gives Paxton Powers a role, interesting feud story.
Lows: None to speak of, really...the voices for Paxton and Barb
were different. That's it.
Season 3 kicks off with "King's Ransom", and...wow!
There are plenty of reasons to like this episode, which is a good thing
because at the end of season 2 some of the eps simply weren't up to the
standard set before.
First the story is excellent. Much has happened
since the last time Batman fought the Royal Flush Gang. Now that Ten has
abandoned them, the gang is operating one member short. During a museum
heist Bats intervenes and in the ensuing battle Ace is badly damaged (finally,
we know he's a robot), Jack is beaten and arrested, and the King is reduced
to selling off the goods to Paxton Powers. The R.F.G. is falling apart, but
the King introduces a "trump that cannot fail"...hold Paxton Powers hostage
and demand a massive payment.
We find out a lot more as well...Melanie, alias
Ten, is now working a low paying restaurant job. She sees the news of
Powers's abduction and freaks out. Terry questions her, and we learn she
hasn't spoken to her family in months. And when she asks about the note she
wrote to Terry at the end of "Once Burned", Terry as Batman simply dismisses
the whole issue. That's pretty cold, but it's perfect Bat attitude.
Paxton Powers shows off more of himself as well, he
has his own secrets to hide. Although not as impressive as his father's
condition, Pax has an illegal collection of artifacts. He's just as scheming
as Derek, and he convinces the King to cooperate with him in a plot to kill
Bruce Wayne. There's still more to this twisting storyline, but I'd rather
not spoil it all here...just watch it.
A few more character notes: Bruce is calm and
collected when King demands a ransom. He obviously doesn't care for Paxton,
but he knows just how far to deal. Even when Terry gets nervous, it doesn't
shake the elder Bats. We also learn of the former King, who was the father of the current queen. It doesn't seem as if the present King is quite up the
old man's level, a factor which comes into play later.
The fight scenes are also quite nice. They're not
quite as intense as season 1, but they're action-packed all the same.
There's no shortage of hard blows and people smashing into other objects.
Bruce also gets a fight with the King, where he pulls a neat disappearing act to
come out again on top. The R.F.G. Ace almost ends it all, but fortunately
Batman has his own "Ace in the Hole"-the dog.
Is there anything wrong with this ep? Well, the
voices for Barbara Gordon and Paxton Powers were different. I can't say
that's a good thing...BG sounds too young for her supposed age, and Paxton's
just whiny now. I guess it can't all be perfect though.
Amazing. This chronicles the fall of the Royal
Flush Gang perfectly, and would be a fitting end to Batman's conflict with
them. Jack and Melanie go straight and old Paxton's in a bit of a jam...
PP: "Bruce Wayne's my mentor! He's like a father to
me!"
Barb: "Except he doesn't glow in the dark."
PP: "Hey, I resent
that! Where's my lawyer? I'll sue!"
Do yourself a favor and catch this showing...it
sets a standard I would like all season three episodes to meet.
-J.Chen, aka The Overseer
overseer@pacificwest.com
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EDITORIAL
(by
anyone that has something to say. Anyone?)
???
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