Review – Batman: Brave & The Bold

Saturday morning cartoons used to be a television staple. Cartoons with no educational value featuring superheroes, robots, action heroes driving cars that would transform into flying vehicles, and mythical warriors from far off lands. Yes, they were designed purely to sell new lines of action figures, but they were entertaining nontheless.

These days, the kids seem to be more into anime-flavoured series. And that’s fine. The problem is that these shows tend to only get a screening on Foxtel, with a small number of them airing on Channel Ten’s Cheez TV. The era of spending hours on a Saturday morning watching these shows is truly at an end. FTA stations seem to have no interest at all in catering toward this form of programing – evidenced by the fact Channel 9 regularly screens episodes of Justice League Unlimited at 3am.

Cartoon Network in the US has this week debuted the new Batman cartoon series Brave & The Bold. While the show is produced with young children in mind, it takes on an interesting approach in that the show depicts Batman in the same way kids of the 70′s and 80′s knew Batman – completely lacking in the dark noir-ish tone that he’d regained since the first Tim Burton Batman flick.

It likely won’t screen on a Saturday morning, but I’ll be darned if it doesn’t make you wish it were.

What’s It About?
Brave & The Bold each week teams Batman up with a different DC superhero. Inspired visually by the Dick Sprang artwork of the late 1940′s and 1950′s, the new series embraces the pop-art nature of the live action Adam West series. It’s bright. It’s funky. And, importantly, despite being written for young kids, it certainly doesn’t pander to them.

Who’s In The Darn Thing?
Diedrich Bader, best known as Oswald on The Drew Carey Show, voices Batman. For the style and vibe of the cartoon, Bader is practically note perfect in the role. Based on the premise of the series, that Batman is paired with a different hero each week, Bader is the only consistent voice talent throughout the series. Guest stars will include John DiMaggio as Aquaman, R. Lee Ermey as Wildcat, Will Friedle as Blue Beetle, and Tom Everett Scott as Booster Gold.

Brave & the Bold Teaser Trailer from david brothers on Vimeo.

What happens in that crucial first episode?
We meet up with Blue Beetle, a young and inexperienced superhero. Blue Beetle has access to a magical scarab statue that generates a costume for him and enables him to do…stuff. Blue Beetle idolises Batman it seems and is keen to impress. Batman, however, is hoping to find out whether or not Blue Beetle has the goods to truly be a hero.

Both Batman and Blue Beetle are sucked into a wormhole that takes them to a far off planet where its feeble inhabitants worship Blue Beetle and consider Batman to be his sidekick. Can Blue Beetle, however, rescue the planets natives from their evil oppressor and prove he has what it takes?

Is it any good?
I approached the show expecting it to be the first and last episode I would watch. I was largely unimpressed with the last Batman cartoon ‘The Batman’ of which was poorly written and lacked any energy or spark. Consider me happily surprised to find this new incarnation of Batman is all energy and spark.

The show is clearly designed to serve as a venue for children to enjoy an incarnation of Batman as the cinema version is anything but child friendly. While I personally tend to love a dark Batman, this series has proven itself to be an unexpected joy.