by Crazy Jetty » Sun Sep 22, 2013 9:13 am
Beware has good and bad to it.
The Bad:
CGI- This really needs to be abandoned as a platform for animation. It just does not work, and to date, the *only* series to pull it off well is Clone Wars. And that's because the SW people could just throw gobs and gobs of money at the animators to keep the universe full and vibrant, instead of dead and empty like TF Prime. Beware has picked up a little bit, but it still feels like a ghosttown. And that is 100% due to budget restrictions.
Villains- Okay, I get that they don't want to use Batman's main rogues, to make this series different and fresh from what we've seen before. However, they have so fare done some horrible choices. And launching the series with that pig and toad duo? Could they have chosen a more boring villain, and a more boring potrayal of that villain? Nothing against his voice actor (Because it does fit the character well), but that voice and the way it's presented is JUST BORING. (And that's what they use to advertize the series, too!). Plus, the frog guy is like... one of the worst things they could do. Mutants/animal people are sort of out of place with Batman to start with, and one of the potential appeals of this series is that it looks like it could be a much more realistic take on Batman. More akin to Nolen than BatB. Starting out with a talking frog man is just jarring.
Katana- Nothing against the character, and in this series she's been handled well. However, I still feel there are a dozen other characters relevent to Batman that would or could have been much more fitting. Chief one of them being Huntress. She could have easily been reimagined and worked in the exact same role, with virtually the same background as they gave Katana. Plus, she's not well known outside of Batman or comic fans, so she fits in using lesser known characters.
The Good:
Storytelling- The story they tell hasn't been that interesting so far (Though it's picking up), but it's the way they're telling it that intrigues me. This is the first batman animated series that has used a continuing story arc. Each episode featuring an A plot, and a B plot. The A plot is the focus of the episode and stands on it's own. Accessible without watching the whole series. The B plot though is an overall arc spreading across all episodes.
This has a lot of potential.
Voice Acting- The voice cast is remarkable (I would expect no less from Andrea Romano!), and all voices so far are perfect for the characters.
And for the Art style was extremely jarring at first, with Alfred taking the biggest leap. However I've gotten use to it and it's no longer as bad.
All that said, it's a horrible replacement for Young Justice and Green Lantern. I know this series isn't responcible for GL and YJ's cancellation, as it would have been in developement well before they pulled the plug on them. But it has to carry the "DC Nation" now, and so far it's the weakest batman series.
I'd have much preferred a Batman series following the YJ batman.
