Adventures of Batman, The: The Complete Collection

Great series on blu ray. Quality is great and brings back fond memories of watching this show from back in the day. Overall great product.

A great animated series that feels like an adaptation of the Silver Age comics, as well as a perfect fit for an animated continuation of the '66 Adam West TV show. LOTs of fun!

The Adventures of Batman a great Cartoon series. The animation is superb and the storylines. I highly recommend this product to anyone

The release of this new Blu-Ray version of the classic Filmation Batman series caught me off guard. Had it merely been a transfer of the same prints used for the earlier (still very nice) dvd, I would have skipped it. But I ran across a clip in a video review, & was stunned by the image, so I picked this up immediately. What a difference! Color & clarity are greatly improved, & the crisp sound is as good as you're going to get from a 1960's animated series. My main complaint about the older dvd version is that - perhaps deliberately & perhaps just from laziness - the opening title sequence was blurry & faded (like an old vhs dub), compared to the image quality of all the actual episodes. Here, the credits are stunningly bright & clear, & the very mod popping between background hues in some scenes is so startling that a disclaimer is even added to the start of the program. Keep in mind, no contemporary television back in 1969 was likely to have the fidelity to transmit the picture this clearly, so today's audience is getting a show that is miles better than its original broadcast. Character designs are awesome, & true to the Silver Age incarnations. The whole show is very much an animated continuation of the live-action 1966 Batman series, making it a splendid addition to any fan's library. While the tone & style of this series isn't everyone's cup of tea in the grim & gritty 2020's, there is a wonderful innocence & optimism to the Filmation Batman adventures that make them more than worthy of their place in DC history.

Great

Great dvd

As a fan of Batman and superhero shows in general, I was a little hesitant at first, because I remember seeing this show in syndication when I was a kid. I knew that it wasn't as good as the Batman Animated Series but decided to get it anyway. I was glad I did. For those who don't know, this was an animated series produced by Filmation in 1968, which was not long after the live action series with Adam West went off the air. This show takes quite a bit from the previous series, but it doesn't have quite the satirical edge that the Adam West series had. This was more of a Saturday morning kids' show, but still is entertaining. It mirrors more the comics that were in print at the time which means that the villains were more colorful and tended towards more unusual heists and capers rather than murder and mayhem. I haven't watched the entire series as of this writing, but the episodes I have seen do feature Joker and The Penguin the most, with Catwoman, Mr. Freeze and Riddler rounding out the usual rouge's gallery. Batman and Robin do, of course, get the usual assistance from Commissioner Gordon, the faithful butler Alfred, and occasionally Batgirl. Every 22-minute episode has two story lines with the first one broken up into two parts (split by the commercial break) and then the last story lasting about 8 minutes or so. This is actually the first animated Batman series with Olan Soule and Casey Kasem providing the voices of Batman and Robin respectively. These two actors also provided the voices for the dynamic duo in the Superfriends cartoons of the 70's and 80's, so I was very familiar with their performances. Other actors were Ted Knight (who provided the narration as well as voices for Commissioner Gordon, Penguin and Riddler) and Larry Storch (of "F-Troop" fame performing as the Joker). Overall, the show is really fun to watch. The stories may be a little simplistic, but this was Saturday morning programming with limited TV budgets and the need to get the stories wrapped up quickly. Also, again, since it was aimed at kids, there was no murder, mayhem or really sinister happenings. Yes, Batman and Robin would find themselves in a little peril (just like the Cliffhanger endings of the previous Live Action series), but they would always get out and put the bad guys in jail. The restoration on these episodes is really fantastic. Bright colors with no trace of scratch or speck. Great sound and picture quality. It could have been nice if they used the computer technology to correct some of the coloring mistakes that the original artists made (such as coloring Robin's hand with flesh colors instead of the usual green color of his gloves), but I can see that the intent was to restore these cartoons, not necessarily enhance or improve. I will address the issues that may turn off some people. One is the animation style common to Filmation Studios. For those who remember, Filmation was the last fully American run animation studio, and while other studios cut costs by outsourcing overseas, Filmation saved by reusing and recycling animation cels extensively. This leads to a "limited" animation style where you will see the same profile used for a character over and over. For those who prefer the fluid styling of today's modern animation, this limited style may be a turn-off for some. Next, there is the Photosensitivity warning. At the beginning of the disc, there is a warning stating that there are some flashing strobe effects that may trigger epilepsy or other conditions in photosensitive viewers. They're not kidding. Every opening credit sequence has red & blue flashing strobe effects that can be unsettling and maybe even headache inducing for those who aren't normally photosensitive. The restoration makes these colors even brighter, so it may be best to skip forward through the opening sequence, or at least not watch in a room with dim or no lights. And this is just a personal beef of mine, but this is a really Bare Bones release. There are no commentaries or documentaries of any kind. I'm always fascinated by behind-the-scenes stories or opinions by historians for these shows, but nothing was provided in this release. There are the usual language and subtitle choices, but if you were looking for any insight into the production of these shows, you'll have to go elsewhere. That's really the only reason I am not giving full 5 stars for this review. Overall, however, I would highly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of Batman, the Silver Age Batman comics, and 60's programming in general. I would also strongly suggest that all fans get copies of this release so that Warner will get the message that there is a market for these shows and that they will work to restore and release the other Filmation cartoon productions of the 60's such as Superman, Aquaman and various other Justice League characters. Also, if you're looking for entertainment for your youngsters, you won't go wrong with this show.

Have not watched it yet but if you purchased it you know that it's what you remembered when you saw it for the first time it's gonna be good