This series is a victim of being bashed by fans and critics due to not being like the predecessor. The Batman, aired originally from 2004 to 2008, is a series with ups and downs. People did not like the redesigns for the characters or the tone, but what's the problem. Unlike the live-action Gotham, which airs on FOX, this series keeps everyone in character, rather than changing them to a state similar to Goku from Dragonball Evolution or Deadpool from X-Men Origins Wolverine. The series may be light, but it gets darker as it reaches the 4th season. The series is still watchable. Batman is perfectly portrayed. Since it is set during Bruce Wayne's earlier years as Batman, it certainly makes sense why he gets his back broken by Bane in episode 2 and why he is new in knowing those villains. Of course, the predecessor may be better, but this series contains consistent animation and character development with Batman becoming more prepared to face his enemies and Joker becoming more monstrous as seen by the episode Joker Express. The series even uses obscure villains properly, by using them alongside classic villains, not like Beware the Batman where they shoved most of the good villains and replaced them with obscure ones. Batgirl before Robin is not bad is Batgirl is legitimately Batman's sidekick, not like Katana in Beware the Batman, who replaces Robin entirely. The series even had a good direct-to- video film follow-up, The Batman vs Dracula. This movie is to The Batman what Return of the Joker was to Batman Beyond and Mask of the Phantasm was to Batman the Animated Series, having a darker tone than the series. The lack of Two-Face, Scarecrow and Ra's al Ghul was mainly due to Nolan movies, not to make the series child-friendly. And Gordon does appear from the third season and is just as well depicted, despite not being there from the start. Lucius Fox is also portrayed in a way reminiscent of the Nolan films. Enjoy it if you have an open mind.

THE BATMAN: is a representation of the caped crusader that we love, the setting of this show is way too different than what we are used to, with a great art style, superior action, terrific voice cast; this show cant be bad, if you are asking where did the plot go?, well, here it is ; the show started a little weak, because it focuses a lot on the gadgets, vehicles and leaves the nice detective work of the dark knight that we always loved, and that's because batman is still young and not at his full strength or intelligence ( that's in the about first 7 episodes),then the show started impressing me with a lot of nice themes and quotations by either Alfred or batman or other guys, and then, the show develops and develops like no show i have ever seen, the incomplete batman that we saw in the beginning becomes a more wise aware of whats going on, the writers showed how batman develops in a fantastic and terrific way when the maniacs and high class villains showed up , it looks like the writers wanted batman to look weak and then made him cooler while developing, (when the batman becomes better the show becomes better ), which makes it a highlighted batman presentation in the batman history and unfortunately, people will not notice that until they watch the entire show to notice the real thing that's going on, all in all : is it better than batman the animated series? not really, but that won't make it one of the nicest presentations of batman i have ever seen.

There are minor spoilers in this review! 'The Batman' is a great iteration of the character. Many comparison's naturally are drawn to the phenomenal BTAS series of '92, which is quite unfair. BTAS had a double view of the story telling; children could watch and be entertained, but adults could watch and understand a compelling, human and dark story in which children would be totally oblivious to.The 2004 series is purely a more child-based series. The stories are quite good and goofy. The design of all the villains is unique; they are very different majoritively to their comic book counterpart. Joker is THE main difference. He has a sort of Rastafarian appearance which is extremely strange, but it works for this universe. Penguin is quite young, but easily recogniseable. Scarecrow is massively different and less fear-elemented. Mr Freeze and Firefly are very modern takes on the characters and their designs and voice acting are great. Killer Croc looks much more like Lizard from Spiderman, but Ron Pearlman returns to his Batman voice acting duties switching from BTAS Clayface to The Batman Croc.Batman himself, voiced by Rino Romano (Luis Sera from Resident Evil 4)is a great rendition of the character. The young, suave playboy millionaire with the handsome looks is played brilliant. He is also a great batman. He isn't as 'dark' as some would like, but there is the element of dark and mysterious which children would pick up. The Batmobile is superb, both designs from season 1-3 and 4-5.Tim Drake and Barbara Gordon are great characters as Robin and Batgirl. I cant stand Justice league or any other DC character outside of the Batman universe but the episodes which does feature JLA (noticeably Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter and Superman) are actually quite entertaining.Some stories are hit and miss, but there's some great stories such as the transformation of Bruce's best friend Ethan into Clayface thanks to the Joker, along with trying to rehabilitate him. A great episode featuring Green Arrow and a 3-way turf war between Riddler, Joker and Penguin in which whoever unmasks Batman first will control Gotham.In the first two series there's a really nice element of Batman still not being recognised by the Police; they do pursue him and hunt him down, but he has an ally in Detective Yin after the transformation of Ethan Bennett. Commissioner Gordons voice will be instantly recogniseable to any sci-fi fans; Mitch Pileggi (Walter Skinner from The X-files/ Samuel Campbell from Supernatural).Overall, the series is a great watch. Is it as good as BTAS? No, but then BTAS is arguably THE pinnacle interpretation of Batman. Highly recommend watching this series. Miles better than anything of the past 10 years.

I have to concur with other reviewers that this series was disappointing. While nowhere near the crapiness that is Batman and Robin, it doesn't hold a candle to Batman:The Animated Series, my absolute favourite interpretation of Batman.Starting with the redeeming qualities, the theme tune is quite funky. Yes I know it isn't as dark, sophisticated or as dramatic as that composed by Danny Elfman, but I liked it. I actually like the animation of Catwoman, she is very sexy and manipulative like she should be, and Poison Ivy was an interesting character here.The animation is variable. It is done in a very flashy style, and the backgrounds and Gotham City were at least well animated. While the flashy style looked nice and stylish, I couldn't help thinking "this is not my beloved Batman". The show does start off slow and the characters, like the animation, are variable, but by Season 4 it got more interesting and pretty good.However, the show does suffer from some quite poor writing. It is clichéd and childish, and the puns are lame. And the story lines are not always very well thought out not helped by the fact a lot of the episodes were way too fast paced. In terms of characters, Catwoman. Poison Ivy and Alfred were fine, and to a certain degree Batman even if he wasn't sincere enough. Penguin has his moments, as does the Riddler, and how they revisioned Clayface was decent, but although it all sounds like old news the Joker and Mr Freeze were disappointments. Joker because his motives were absolutely insane and even pointless and that it took a while to get used to how he was animated, and Mr Freeze because he didn't come close to the complex and emotionally wrought character explored in Batman:The Animated Series and SubZero. I will give you this, he is better than Arnold Schwarznegger.Like the characters and the animation, the voice work was also variable. Rino Romano tries his best to give Batman a dark and brooding persona that Kevin Conroy captured so brilliantly, but he lacks the sincerity. On a plus Alistair Duncan, Gina Gerschon, Pierra Coppola and Robert Englund are great as Alfred, Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Riddler. Clancy Brown does okay as Mr Freeze, if anything I had more problem with how the character was written rather than how he was acted, and Tom Kenny as Penguin has his moments. However as much as I like Kevin Michael Richardson I just don't think he is right for the Joker, he lacks that manic, sinister and humorous touch that Mark Hamill embodied so phenomenally.Overall, it is worth watching, but I found it disappointing. Stylish I give you that, but it lacked substance. 5/10 Bethany Cox