taffer

A lot of older shows don't hold up well today. I recently tried to rewatch the 1980s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which I loved as a kid, but now it is just so painful to watch how bad it actually is.

I have never actually watched the Batman and Superman Animated Series. I somehow missed out on them when I was a kid. Do they still hold up today?

Lastdaysofrain

Absolutely. Batman/Superman was made with a little more love and a wider audience in mind. I actually think that the Superman Animated series is by far the best media adaption of the character and is much better than any of the movies that have been made.

RocShemp

To me they certainly do. I particularly love the Batman episode when he's loses his memory and ends up as a homeless guy working in a mine. There was also the great episode where he awakes to discover he was never Batman, his parents are alive, and he's engaged to Selina Kyle.

For Superman, the whole show is very charming and fun starting from the first few episodes. But none were as deep as those two Batman episodes. At least not until they transitioned to JLU.

Great, now I feel like watching both these shows again. Did they ever make it to BD?

RichC2

I was never big into the Superman Animated series though it wasn't bad by any stretch.

Batman TAS has gotten better with time. The atmosphere and story lines in 22 minutes outrank most movies out there.

boredsilly

It definitely holds up. I do think the earlier animation (before BTAS had its redesign), while wonderful, might take an episode or two to get used to watching. It isn't as slick as animation has become. But the stories are still really good, and BTAS has that great timeless style.

resinrats

The animationin BTAS is inconsistant. One episode looks fine, then the next looks like crap. Then there are episodes that are decent but one scene looks like the blew their animation budget on (it goes to movie quality animation for 10 seconds for some pan around shot).

Also, it isn't a Batman episode without something exploding like its filled with C4. Extra points if he's in a concreate/metal building but inside, a electric cable is cut and hits a computer. Clear out people, that building might as well have just become a fertalizer plant in Texas.

cleaver

I watched the first 5 eps of Superman last night, I've seen all the Batmans plenty of times. I was so impressed by Young Justice, I thought the 90s Dini series looked a lot more simple by comparison in terms of animation and story arcs, but they still hold up when compared to Avengers/Ultimate Spiderman/Green Lantern etc. But then I think TMNT holds up better than anything.

chess

Yes. These are the best versions of both characters, including the live action movies, and in Superman's case, it isn't even close. The animation on both still looks great because it's stylized, the writing is generally very sharp, and the voice acting is phenomenal.

They are the only two animated series I own.

davidh777

Could Batman TAS Ever Be Released on Blu Ray?

In that thread, GizmoDVD will state his opinions about a kids' cartoon he's never seen.

feenst

I watched all of Batman and Superman in the past year, and both hold up very well. Superman was a first-time viewing for me, but I watched most of Batman during its first run.

Another show I watched during its first run in the 1990s that hasn't held up: X-Men. The animation is awful and the voice acting is stilted.

chess

Agreed. I'd been planning to pick this up on DVD/BRD at some point, but I watched as much as I could take on Netflix. It wasn't nearly as good as I remember.

RocShemp

Holy crap! Reading that thread makes me think of certain threads (and a certain poster) over in Other. Except no one was talking about the Bible.

RichC2

Here are 20 episodes if anyone's bored.

http://www.thewb.com/shows/batman-th...8-1c4cb872093a

taffer

You think the 1980s TMNT series holds up?

I have heard that the 2003 series is much better, but I haven't seen it to know personally, and its not available on DVD.

Mike86

I've already expressed my opinion about Batman: The Animated Series numerous times over. I think it's simply one of the best shows of all time personally. Animation or live action it's just so well written and the way it was stylized it seems to have a timeless look to it if you ask me. I think the show was written in such a way where it was kid friendly but yet not so dumbed down (like a lot of modern animation) that an adult can't enjoy it. I could (and have) watched it numerous times over and not get sick of it. Also Kevin Conroy will always be the definitive voice of Batman in my mind and Mark Hamill's Joker is great too. The rest of the voice cast was fantastic as well.

I honestly didn't watch Superman: The Animated Series as much. I was never a big Superman fan growing up so I just never watched it very often. I just picked up the first volume for $10 at Walmart. I really need to watch the show more but from what I remember it was decent.

chess

Some really good ones in there too.

I recommend:

Heart of Ice
Feat of Clay 1&2
Leather Wings
Joker's Favor
P.O.V.
Two Face 1&2

mrhan

Quite a few of them were actually comic based stories from the 70's and 80's. The one episode with the kids talking about what Batman looked like was actually published in the 70's but updated with the inclusion of the Return of the Dark Knight story.

Spottedfeather

Wow. You two guys are the only 2 people I've seen that doesn't love the X-Men cartoon. It's great, and it does still hold up. When it came out, I made sure to get the versions with the slipcovers. It's a great show.

resinrats

Yes it is. I own the majority of it.

resinrats

I remember thinking the animation was crap when it first came out. It isn't one of those shows that I remember animation better then it really is. It was crap to begin with.

fujishig

The simpler style of the Timm/Dini stuff (along with the stellar writing, and the carryover into JL) helps it to stand up over time better than it's contemporaries with a more realistic/comic book style, like 80's Spiderman or X-men, IMHO. Sure there were still episodes handled by the B-team in Korea or whatever, but overall it was a good decision to make the stylistic change.

fumanstan

I still enjoyed the X-Men series on DVD when it came out.

HN

Be sure to catch Batman: Mask of the Phantasm as well.

RocShemp

+1

Fantastic movie.

PhantomStranger

These were cartoons made for an adult audience, they didn't really pander to the kids the shows were nominally targeted at. They easily hold up today and many consider them the definitive interpretations of the characters from any medium. Both series have their bad episodes and clunkers, but on the whole these are both compelling presentations of Batman and Superman.

The '90s X-Men cartoon doesn't hold up nearly as well. It's still more watchable than the '80s cartoons, but don't expect something you can watch over and over again. The best Marvel cartoon of the '90s was probably the Spider-Man or the short-lived Silver Surfer series.