Batman: The Animated Series: Difference between revisions

[[File:Batman_TAS_001_8613.jpg|frame|[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEx9r5enZsk Dun, Dun-dun Duuuuuuun, dun...]]]

It drew heavily from [[Frank Miller]]'s 1986 graphic novel ''[[The Dark Knight Returns]]'' and the [[Batman (film)|live-action films]] directed by [[Tim Burton]] (although some of the latter's baggage, such as the mutated version of the Penguin, caused them some problems). The often-minimalist look of the show was largely influenced by the 1940s [[Superman Theatrical Cartoons]], with character designs resembling those of [[Jack Kirby]], [[Dick Tracy (comic strip)|Chester Gould,]] and Alex Toth. The resulting product, revolutionary for its time, was dubbed "dark deco"; it was also the result of co-producer Eric Radomski's standing order to the animators that all backgrounds be drawn with light colors on black paper (instead of dark colors on white paper, as is the industry standard) to ensure that the artwork stayed as dark as possible. Head producer Bruce Timm -- who also took on other roles -- carried his design style over into other shows, thus making ''Batman: The Animated Series'' the first entry in the fully-realized canon known as the [[DCAU]].

This show now has a [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/BestEpisode/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Best Episode Crowner].

{{tropelist}}

** William Sanderson's character is a guy who [[Blade Runner|is heavily involved in robotics, having built some of the most advanced models and also created a bunch of small toy-like robots to keep him company at home]]. He's also an [[Ink Suit Actor]].

** Sela Ward played Page Monroe, the eponymous "Calendar Girl" in one episode -- a former model who turned to a life of crime after being passed over in favor of younger faces and tried to exact revenge on the ones who ended her career.

* [[Adam Westing]]: The star of the [[Batman (TV series)|'60s series]] appears as a washed-up actor who played "The Gray Ghost," a [[Show Within a Show|fictional superhero]] whom Bruce Wayne idolized as a child. The dramatic variant of the usual Adam-West-as-himself gag works, and this rendition is a more sincere experience for West and fans ("So it wasn't all for nothing."). Also doubles as [[Remake Cameo]] and [[Actor Allusion]].

* [[Adaptation Distillation]]: The episodic nature replicated the feel of the comics, and the various characters were streamlined into their most efficient archetype.

* [[Auction of Evil]]: Twice. In "The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne" (for Batman's secret identity) and "Harlequinade" (for an atomic bomb).

* [[Author Appeal]]: The Harley/Ivy [[Ho Yay|Les Yay]]. Even [[Wikipedia]] notes it. The [[Powers That Be]] also claim Paul Dini had a crush on Zatanna. Since he actually ''married'' a real life magician, Misty Lee (who bears a striking resemblance to Zatanna), this only furthers the evidence.

* [[Badass Back]]: Just try to sneak attack Batman from behind. I DARE you.

* [[Badass Longcoat]]

* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Joker has three [[Mooks]] based off the [[Three Stooges]]. Similarly, Baby Doll's henchmen to [[Gilligan's Island|Gilligan and Skipper.]]

* [[Captive Date]]: In "Mad as a Hatter", Jarvis Tetch tries to win his co-worker Alice's heart after her recent breakup. She is charmed by Jarvis but mistakes his romantic overtures as attempts to cheer her up and she later reconciles with her boyfriend. Jarvis then uses his [[Mind Control]] technology on her and takes her on a "date" at a Wonderland-themed amusement park.

* [[Cast as a Mask]]: Both John Rhys-Davies and Aron Kincaid had the opportunity to play Batman himself in "The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy" and "Almost Got 'Im," respectively.

* [[Catapult Nightmare]]: multiple episodes, but notably in both parts of the two-partner "Two-Face"

* [[Catch Phrase]]. Many, including:

** Harley Quinn went through extensive therapy and treatment for her [[Mad Love|obsession with the Joker]] and was certified legally sane by the staff of Arkham Asylum. However, on her first day out out, a series of comical misunderstandings resulted in her taking a hostage and being pursued by Bullock, the hostage's father (a general in a tank!) and a vengeful gangster, winding up right back in Arkham by the end of the day. In this case it seems that everybody involved (including Batman himself) was rooting for Harley's successful recovery and the end of the episode implied that she would make it there eventually, but that storyline was never followed up (''[[Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker]]'' shows that she eventually did reform and have a normal life, but only ''after'' Joker was dead).

** The Penguin decided to abandon crime one day when he was released from Stonegate, deciding that he never wanted to return to jail again, but when he learned that the woman he began to fall in love with was only spending time with him to mock his uncultured ways he relapsed into villainy. However, unlike the other villains, he does manage to stay out of jail in ''The New Batman Adventures.'' He didn't really reform and uses his nightclub as a front for shady deals, but he does a much better job of ensuring his legal safety. Batman is well-aware that Penguin hasn't changed, but keeps him around because he is just as often a [[The Rat|good source of information]] about other, more dangerous criminals.

* [[Classy Cat Burglar]]: Who else but the real deal?

* [[Clear My Name]]:

* [[Clingy Jealous Girl]]:

** Baby Doll, for [[Crack Pairing|Killer]] [[Squick|Croc]].

* [[Clock King]]: Did not invent the trope, but certainly named it.

* [[Coat, Hat, Mask]]: The Gray Ghost.

* [[Dead Line News]]: A non-lethal example, involving the Joker and laughing gas.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Sometimes Batman and Robin took turns in this role (With Robin sometimes giving [[Spider-Man|Spidey himself]] a run for his money in the snarky battle banter department), but usually Alfred had at least one sarcastic remark per episode.

** Both Robins. Tim Drake had a particularly fun moment:

{{quote|'''Tim:''' I know [the American justice system] is bogus.

** The cut scenes to the [[Sega CD]] version of ''The Adventures Of Batman And Robin'': Toshihiko Masuda; In house.

** ''Read My Lips'': Yuichiro Yano; [[Tama Productions]].

* [[Dirty Cop]]:

** When the planned police sting goes awry in "P.O.V.," with the intended target getting away ''and'' taking the bait money, the [[Internal Affairs]] investigator looking into the event suspects that the three officers involved are "on the take."

** But the most extreme example had to be that depicted in "Joker's Favor": After rudely cutting off another motorist on the freeway, Joker is yelled at by that motorist and retaliates by forcing the other man off the road and chasing him into the woods, threatening to kill him when he catches him. The man begs for his life, and Joker agrees to spare him if he will perform "a favor" for Joker sometime in the future. The man promptly changes his name and relocates his family to Ohio, but Joker obsessively stalks him and finally tracks him down, forcing him to honor the favor owed to him. Once the man has done this favor (which makes him an unwitting accessory to the attempted assassination of Commissioner Gordon), Joker tries to do him in for good. When the man survives and finally works up the nerve to confront his tormentor, Joker threatens to kill his family. All this because of a minor altercation on the freeway.

{{quote|'''Charlie Collins:''' Exactly at what point did I become [[Cosmic Plaything|life's punching bag]]?}}

** In "Critters", not only does Farmer Brown take revenge against Gotham for shutting down his projects and forcing he and his daughter to go broke, but for calling his experiments "monsters".

** And in one hilarious scene in "Fear of Victory", Batman intercepts a telegram believing that it is a fear-toxin laced letter sent by Scarecrow to make the recipient unable to play at his best. It's just an ordinary telegram, and the delivery boy comes to the conclusion that Batman was lying in wait for him because he ''double-parked''.

'''Batman''': [[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right|I don't]] [[Screw Destiny|believe in fate!]] }}

** Harley's hyena's burst through a wall to attack Boxey after Harley calls for them.

* [[Easy Amnesia]]: "The Forgotten"

* [[Empty Quiver]]: "The Lion and the Unicorn" revolves around Red Claw's hijacking of a nuclear missile.

* [[Episode Title Card]]: Every episode save two in the first three seasons: "The Laughing Fish" and "The Demon's Quest", plus one from ''The New Batman Adventures,'' "Joker's Millions." Even more impressive than the title cards, every episode has its own ''theme song''.

* [[Establishing Character Moment]]: The original opening titles of the series, which feature Batman foiling a couple of bank robbers. Numerous people have noted that within the minute-long sequence, you learn everything you need to know about Batman not only without any dialogue or captions being used, but without the name 'Batman' being mentioned even ''once''.

* [[Freeze Ray]]: Mr. Freeze.

* [[Friend to Psychos]]: Most of [[The Joker]]'s [[Mooks|minions]] (save for Harley Quinn) don't seem to share his psychosis, but help him pull off his crime sprees anyway.

* [[Genki Girl]]: Harley Quinn.

* [[German Expressionism]]: [[Bizarrchitecture|Exaggerated architecture]] is reasonably common throughout the series, and is especially prevalent in the episode "Growing Pains."

* [[Gilligan Cut]]: A dramatic example: the end of "The Terrible Trio" has the [[Complete Monster]] rich playboy Warren declaring [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|his family's lawyers will undoubtedly get him off]] as Batman apprehends him. The very next scene is him being pushed into a jail cell.

* [[Girlish Pigtails]]: A villainous example in Harley Quinn.

* [[Giving Them the Strip]]: In "Christmas With the Joker", Batman attempts to grab the fleeing joker, only to end up holding the Joker's cardigan, complete with a false set of arms.

* [[Hello, Attorney!]]: Janet Van Dorn, at least in "Trial." In "Shadow of the Bat, part 1," Van Dorn looked more like a frigid, 40-something old maid. But "Trial" was a Paul Dini episode; so Van Dorn gets a Hello Makeover.

* [[Heroic BSOD]]: Batman gets a brief one in ''I Am the Night'' after he blames himself for {{spoiler|Commissioner Gordon getting shot.}}

* [[Heroic Fatigue]]: Batman in "I Am the Night".

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* [[Ink Suit Actor]]:

** Harley Quinn, the Joker's lovable henchwoman, was based on her voice-actress, Arleen Sorkin. The producers are apparently amazed that she still talks to them.

* [[Instrumental Theme Tune]]: Initially an adaptation of [[Danny Elfman]]'s theme from the [[Tim Burton]] movies; Shirley Walker's own theme was eventually promoted to main title status. The series eventually had a soundtrack album released featuring its scores (though sadly Walker had passed away a few years before).

* [[Insult Friendly Fire]]

* [[Joker Jury]]: The Trope Inspirer "Trial."

* [[Judge, Jury, and Executioner]]: Batman admits to toying with the idea when he catches the Sewer King, but his ideals prevail.

** The Joker during Harley's debut episode "Joker's Favor."

** Harley did slinkily emerge from an oversized lemon custard pie in "Beware The Creeper."

* [[Multilayer Facade]]: In one episode, a villain is hired to obtain Batman's cape and cowl. When he ultimately succeeds, Batman reveals a second mask underneath the cowl to protect his identity.

* [[Murder by Cremation]]: The Joker plans an acid bath variant for Sid the Squid.

* [[Musicalis Interruptus]]: In "Joker's Favor", The ''[[Leave It to Beaver]]''-esque [[Leitmotif]] used for everyman Charlie Collins suddenly stops dead as he realizes, [[Oh Crap|with a look of horror upon his face,]] that two of Joker's underlings have managed to track him down to Ohio after living for two years in some form of peace and quiet under a new name.

* [[My Greatest Failure]]:

* [[No Man of Woman Born]]: "No man can take us prisoner!" It is a good thing [[Gotham Central|Renee]] [[52|Montoya]] is ready to step in and take up the slack.

* [[Non-Idle Rich]]: Guess who?

* [[No One Could Survive That]]: They [[Never Found the Body]], but the criminals from "The Man Who Killed Batman" believe that not even he could have escaped the massive explosion that left only his cape and cowl behind.

* [[No OSHA Compliance]]: In "The Forgotten", the chain-gang Bruce gets shanghaied into has workers in a mine without lights, helmets, or any sort of safety equipment. [[Justified Trope|The mine is being operated illegally and the operators do noy care if their employees live or die]], since they are grabbing them off the street.

* [[Oh Crap]]: Charles Collins in "Joker's Favor" ironically gets ''The Joker'' to do this after the Joker tormented him for the entire episode. It becomes a truly satisfying conclusion.

* [[One Steve Limit]]: Averted with the presence of Harvey Dent and Harvey Bullock. Also on a meta-level with Bruce Wayne and Bruce Timm.

* [[Oral Fixation Fixation]]: Harvey Bullock is perpetually chewing on a toothpick, and on one occasion was implicated in a crime because of its presence.

* [[Orphaned Punchline]]: In "Birds of a Feather", Penguin has one: "--and I said, 'But, warden--those aren't ''my'' pants!"

* [[The Paragon Always Rebels]]: Kyodai Ken.

* [[Perky Female Minion]]: Harley Quinn.

* [[Phlebotinum Overdose]]: When Batman first defeated Bane, he broke the Venom pump, giving Bane a massive dose. [[Nightmare Fuel|Bane's eyes looked ready to pop out of his head]] before Bats managed to pull the line out.

* [[Pin-Pulling Teeth]]: A SWAT cop does this with a tear gas grenade in "On Leather Wings".

* [[Punch-Punch-Punch Uh-Oh]]: Batman vs. Rhino ([[Spider-Man|no, not that one]]). Also, ''vs''. Bane.

** "The Last Laugh" involves Joker's use of a [[Mecha Mook]] to drive a garbage barge oozing laughing gas across the city, which inevitably leads to this.

{{quote|"You are not my father. I am not a disgrace. I am vengeance. I am the night. I. Am. Batman!"}}

* [[Punny Name]]: Temple Fugate, the DCAU's version of Clock King, is a pun on the Latin phrase ''Tempus Fugit'' ("Time Flies"). Given his personality, it may also be a [[Shout-Out]] to Temple Grandin, a famous autistic.

* [[Put the Laughter In Slaughter]]: With Joker, when he is torturing, maiming, or driving someone insane. Also the Penguin's goons after the Batmobile explodes in "The Mechanic": "B-b-b-b-bat's all, folks!"

* [[Sexy Jester]]: Harley Quinn

* [[Shapeshifter Swan Song]]: Clayface.

* [[Shirtless Scene]]: Both Batman and Robin get in on this, and in ''The New Batman Aventures'' season [[Fan Service|Nightwing has a completely gratuitous one]].

* [[Shoot the Television]]: The episode "Joker's Millions" has the Joker shooting the [[Video Will]] in which his benefactor reveals {{spoiler|most of the money is fake}}.

** Averted in "On Leather Wings." The Man-Bat throws a security guard out of a window who lands in some sort of canal. Cut to a picture of the next day's newspaper with a picture of guard recovering in the ICU, where he is alive but severely injured from the fall.

* [[Something Completely Different]]:

* [[Something They Would Never Say]]: "Cousin Frederick" knows that Alfred hates being called 'Alfie' almost as much as Frederick hates being called 'Freddie.'

* [[Spinning Paper]]:

** Used for the crime spree early in "Harley and Ivy"

** In an out-of-universe example, Fox Kids produced commercials for roughly the first third of episodes from the first season that depicted a spinning paper with a headline describing a key plot point of the next aired episode ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzsZdCCLzR8&feature=related example]).

* [[Spot of Tea]]: Alfred, as the most British of gentlemen, frequently offers an ''actual'' 'spot of tea.'

* [[Stage Magician]]: [[Zatanna]] guest stars in the episode "Zatanna," where it is reveled that Bruce studied with her and her father, Giovanni "John" Zatara, in order to hone his abilities to escape locks and traps. Unlike her comic character, and her later appearances in ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', Zatanna does not seem to have any actual mystical abilities, instead she performs traditional sleight-of-hand as part of her act.

* [[There Are No Therapists]]: Averted. Harvey was visiting a therapist to deal with his anger issues - until Thorne got a hold of his files and tried to blackmail him with them. Harley ''was'' a therapist before meeting the Joker, and is declared sane by one at the start of ''Harley's Holiday'' (unfortunately, the optimistic ending is never followed through on).

* [[They Called Me Mad]]: The first line spoken by the man who would soon, appropriately enough, become the Mad Hatter.

* [[Time Skip]]: As well as having a bit of an [[Art Shift]], ''The New Batman Adventures'' takes place about roughly three years after the prior seasons of the series.

* [[Tin Man]]: Mr. Freeze. Despite claiming that he can no longer feel any emotion, his despair at losing his wife -- and his cold hatred to those who took her -- is demonstrable.

* [[The Vamp]]

* [[Vaudeville Hook]]: Joker gets dragged offstage by one of these in "Make 'Em Laugh". He is outraged by the thought of being disqualified from Gotham's annual stand-up comedy competition on the flimsy grounds that ''he never entered'' that a year later he seeks [[Disproportionate Retribution]] on the judges.

* [[Villainous Breakdown]]:

** Two-Face, Mary Dahl and Clayface (in his case, also a [[Superpower Meltdown]]) all undergo a nasty snap at some point.

** Riddler has one just because Batman will not tell him how he survived a seemingly perfect deathtrap.

** The Judge in "Judgement Day", who is determined to punish the criminals and corrupt of Gotham City.

** Ra's al Ghul is the quintessential example, carried over from the comics where his terrorist activities are motivated by his coincern for the environment and the world..

* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]: In "Trial," Riddler is seem among the villains as a juror in their [[Kangaroo Court]]. However, he disappears during the second half of the episode and his chair in the jury is even empty.

* [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]: Ruthlessly exploited. On the commentary for "Heart of Steel, Part 2" the producers explained that the censors and Bureau of Standards and Practices would not object when they harmed or destroyed robots, so not only did they use them as foes to be destroyed, but made their destruction as violent as possible. It is discussed in "His Silicon Soul": When a robotic Batman (mistakenly) believes that he has killed the real Batman, he becomes so horrified that he commits suicide. Batman later reflects on this, and wonders if the robot could have had a soul.

* [[Yiddish as a Second Language]]: The Joker, oddly enough, in "The Man Who Killed Batman", says: "[Sidney]...the weaselly little ''gunsel'' sitting there in our midst. The cowardly insignificant ''gonif'' who probably got lucky when Batman slipped on the slime trail this loser left behind him."

* [[You Answered Your Own Question]]: Zatanna: "What do you care about some leggy dame in nylons? Or did I just answer my own question?"

* [[Zeppelins from Another World]]: As part and parcel of the unique society that the creators developed, the Gotham City Police Department frequently uses blimps to patrol the city and transport personnel. They were included to create an atmosphere evocative of the 1930s, even though the producers admitted that they never really existed at all, not even in the 1930s. An ''armoured'' example appears in "Showdown." In ''1883''.