The New Batman Adventures

The New Batman Adventures
Image:Tnba.jpg The New Batman Adventures promotional image. Art by Bruce Timm.
Genre	Animated series
Starring	Kevin Conroy Mathew Valencia Tara Charendoff Loren Lester
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	24 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	22 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	WB
Original run	September 13, 1997 – January 16, 1999
Links
IMDb profile

The New Batman Adventures was the successor to the highly acclaimed American animated television series Batman: The Animated Series. There has been some debate over the official title of this show (some refer to it as "Batman: Gotham Knights"), but creator Bruce Timm has clarified on numerous occasions that The New Batman Adventures is the official title. The DVD release of this show is known as "Batman: The Animated Series Volume 4 (from The New Batman Adventures)"

Stories in this series tend to involve Batman's supporting cast, which include fellow crimefighters Robin, Nightwing, and Batgirl, among others. The show also features guest stars such as Superman, Supergirl, Etrigan and The Creeper; characters who would later appear with Batman in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.

Television series

The New Batman Adventures was produced for The WB and started almost three years after Batman: The Animated Series had stopped production. The animation style was changed significantly from Batman: The Animated Series due to budgetary issues and to have the show more compatible with the smoother Superman: The Animated Series which TNBA would eventually air in tandem with as part of The New Batman/Superman Adventures. The show had a significant change in focus from the original series with episodes focusing less on Batman and more on the many characters that inhabited Gotham City. The art was more streamlined, giving Batman a more sleek, buffed appearance and his classic plain black chest emblem, though the yellow oval would also be removed from the comics in later years; it remains so as of the present day. The appearances of villains from his rogues gallery were also changed. For example, The Joker was made pale blue with green-highlighted black hair, and black eyes with white pupils, as well as being depicted as much smaller. He no longer had the ruby lips from the earlier animated series. Additionally, the Penguin was redesigned to match his classic counterpart rather than resemble the freakish appearance of Danny DeVito's Penguin from 1992's Batman Returns. Most characters were given a more ghoulish appearance. The tone of the show shifted between "dark & serious" to "light & charming", with some of the darkest episodes ever seen in a cartoon (Over the Edge featured the death of Batgirl, albeit as a dream), as well as wacky, lighthearted fare. (Critters, for example, is one of the least popular episodes amongst some fans for its tone, but actually one of Timm's favorites and has commentary on the DVD release of the TNBA episodes.) Many of these changes and contrasts were somewhat similar to the regular comics post-KnightSaga.

Having much of the same cast and crew behind it, and supervised by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini (and even Dennis O'Neil, Mike Manley, and others from the regular comics at times), TNBA was not quite as well received by fans and critics as the original Batman: The Animated Series.

The New Batman Adventures had its fair share of memorable episodes. Perhaps the most famous was the adaptation of the Batman Adventures comic Mad Love which featured the origins of Harley Quinn and the dynamic of her relationship with the Joker. "Legends of the Dark Knight" featured three kids telling stories about Batman, one in the vein of the 50's/60's stories involving giant instruments, and another featuring a near word-for-word adaption of a scene from Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Other episodes included "Over the Edge" (mentioned above), "Old Wounds" (filling the gap between B:TAS and TNBA), "Joker's Millions" (an adaptation of a classic 1950s story originally drawn by Dick Sprang and possibly written by Bill Finger) and "Growing Pains".

Controversy

A source of controversy revolving around the series is the supposed romantic relationship between Batman and Batgirl off-screen. This was confirmed in Batman Beyond. To complicate the situation, Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson (Bruce Wayne's adopted son) were in a relationship prior to Dick's tenure as Nightwing. In Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman, there is one scene where Barbara calls Bruce perhaps from some far off college dorm and asks him if he's found someone else closer to his own age.

The Batman Adventures: Lost Years

Shortly after The New Batman Adventures aired on Kids WB! , a mini-series set in the continuity of the series was published. In a total of five books, Hilary Bader, Bo Hampton, Terry Beatty, Lee Loughridge, and Tim Harkins explained the gap between B:TAS and The New Batman Adventures.

Book One: Robin (Dick Grayson) voices his disapproval towards Batgirl’s (Barbara Gordon) fighting crime and tries to stop her from doing so. During this time, Batman finds out that Batgirl is Barbara Gordon. After some time Batman comes to the conclusion that Batgirl will continue to fight crime, but under his wing. Dick gets upset and has an argument with Bruce, but fails to change his mind.

Book Two: Bruce and Dick have a very hot argument the day of his graduation and Dick decides to leave Gotham City. Barbara and Bruce butler/confidante, Alfred Pennyworth, try to convince him to stay, but to no avail. Dick leaves to fine-tune his skills.

Book Three: Dick comes across an ancient African tribe and learns combat from them; he finally gets ready to step out of Batman's shadow. He develops a new crimefighting persona, Nightwing.

Book Four: Batman and Batgirl fight crime side by side, and Batgirl notices the difference. One night, while on the trail of Two-Face, Batman saves a young Tim Drake, son of petty criminal "Shifty" Drake. (The writers of the animated series characterized Tim as such to blend him with another character, Jason Todd -- the ill-fated Robin who would otherwise make no appearances in the animated universe). Shifty was murdered by Two-Face and Tim swore revenge. Batman trained Tim as the new Robin and gave him another shot at life. Two-Face was captured and Batman took in Tim as his second ward.

Book Five: Dick returns to Gotham and unveils his new persona, Nightwing, to the world. Batgirl is baffled by Dick's newfound arrogance, while Nightwing meets the new Robin and is left heartbroken. Nightwing then reveals that he had actually intended to steal an ancient artifact which belonged to the tribe that taught him. Batman stops Dick and eventually gets him to join him in his fight against crime. Dick then leaves Gotham for Blüdhaven, much like his comic book counterpart in an issue of the critically acclaimed Batman Adventures (2004)

Episode list

Main article: List of The New Batman Adventures episodes

Videos and DVDs

The following is a list of videos and DVDs released to the market of The New Batman Adventures and the episodes they contain.

The Batman/Superman Movie VHS/DVD

Episodes:

• World's Finest, Part I (Superman, the Animated Series episode)
• World's Finest, Part II (Superman, the Animated Series episode)
• World's Finest, Part III (Superman, the Animated Series episode)

Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman VHS/DVD

• Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (direct-to-video movie)

Batman, the Animated Series: Volume Four (from The New Batman Adventures) 4-Disc DVD Set

• 1st Disc Episodes:
  • Holiday Knights
  • Sins of the Father
  • Cold Comfort
  • Double Talk
  • You Scratch My Back
  • Never Fear
• 2nd Disc Episodes:
  • Joker's Millions
  • Growing Pains
  • Love Is A Croc
  • Torch Song
  • The Ultimate Thrill
  • Over The Edge
• 3rd Disc Episodes:
  • Mean Seasons
  • Critters
  • Cult of the Cat
  • Animal Act
  • Old Wounds
  • The Demon Within
• 4th Disc Episodes:
  • Legends of the Dark Knight
  • Girls' Night Out
  • Mad Love
  • Chemistry
  • Beware the Creeper
  • Judgment Day

Main cast

Recurring villains

• Ron Perlman - Clayface/Matt Hagen
• Arleen Sorkin - Harley Quinn/Harleen Quinzel
• Mark Hamill - The Joker
• Michael Ansara - Mr. Freeze/Victor Fries
• Paul Williams - The Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot
• Diane Pershing - Poison Ivy/Dr. Pamela Isley
• John Glover - The Riddler/Edward Nygma
• Jeffery Combs - The Scarecrow
• Richard Moll - Two-Face/The Judge/Harvey Dent
• George Dzundza - The Ventriloquist/Scarface/Arnold Wesker
• Adrienne Barbeau - Catwoman/Selina Kyle
• Roddy McDowall - The Mad Hatter/Dr. Jervis Tetch
• Henry Silva - Bane
• Brooks Gardner - Killer Croc
• Mark Rolston - Firefly
• Laraine Newman - Baby Doll
• Charity James - Roxy Rocket
• Sela Ward - Calendar Girl
• Stephen Wolfe Smith - Klarion the Witch Boy
• Lori Petty - Livewire (a guest villain from Superman: The Animated Series)

Supporting Cast

• Jeff Bennett - Jack Ryder/The Creeper
• Billy Zane - Jason Blood/Etrigan
• Nicholle Tom - Supergirl - (guest from Superman: The Animated Series)
• Mel Winkler - Lucius Fox
• Renee Montoya

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