Saying that Batman: the Animated Series is dark would be an understatement. It's dark in every sense of the word. The plot threads are dark, the villains are dark, the visuals are dark, the music is ominous (and dark). The reason for this is that every incarnation of batman, from the comic books, to the recent "Batman: The Brave and the Bold", has at least attempted to delve into the darker parts of the human psyche and show the viewer the thin lines bridging sanity and insanity as well as good and evil. For this post, we're going to break down the elements that made Batman: The Animated Series such a hit.
Batman: The Animated Series was aimed at a more mature audience than many cartoons of the 90's. Where most cartoons airing during that time had characters use laser guns (believed to be a more child friendly alternative to actual firearms), Batman villains almost always used actual guns. Despite the heavy number of shots that were fired, only Police Commissioner Gordon was actually ever shown to actually be injured by a bullet. The show also frequently showed blood and had its fair share of sexual innuendo. Batman was unafraid to browbeat information out of his captives and in more than one instance actually watched as they met their demise.
I would be remiss if I forgot to mention show's the unique sound animation styles. The show uses an interesting art style heavily influenced by art deco. The world could best be described as how an American living in 1920's New York would picture the world 80 years later. It combines 20's era architecture with modern aesthetics and technologies to create a truly unique feel. The visual individuality is increased by, as I mentioned in the introduction, how dark this world is. This was accomplished by starting with a black canvas and adding light to the scene, as opposed to most cartoons which start with white canvasses and add darkness. As for the music the main theme was written by Danny Elfman, who is most known for his musical direction in many of Tim Burton's films, including the 1989 film adaptation of Batman.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Batman is his particularly intriguing cast of villains. While Batman has always had a healthy supply of villains to fight, ranging from perfectly sane mobsters, to psychopathic killers, and from the small time thieves to supernatural beings from other dimensions, the animated series put a strong focus on the more feasible and mentally unstable criminals. The rouges focused on by the show are often portrayed as once well meaning individuals who were either consumed by their obsessions or felt wronged by the law. Poison Ivy, for example, was once a simple botanist, but now believes herself to be a valiant defender of the oppressed. She fights for the good of plants, no matter how many humans she might kill or injure in the process. Baby Doll possesses an aging disorder that causes her to appear as a young child, even well into her 30's. While she makes the best of her situation as an actress, she is upstaged by an actual child, and, as a result, years later she holds her former cast mates hostage and forces them to act as though they were the actual characters that they used to play. This leads to my personal favorite moment in the entire series:
Villains such as these, while simply colorful and sinister characters to the younger viewer, cause older viewers to question their own views on morality. They emphasize the idea that morality is objective, and that just because one believes they are in the right, doesn't mean they actually are.
Then, there's the Joker, Batman's long time arch-nemesis. Seldom is there written such a perfect foil for a character; where Batman is dark, mysterious, and brooding, the Joker is playful, extravagant, and downright psychotic. The two share a similar origin in which they were mentally damaged by the world around them and attempt to change that world as a result. However, the key difference between the two is that, while Batman accomplishes this by relieving the cause of the evil in the world and pursuing types like the ones responsible for his suffering, the Joker claims to attempt to alleviate the symptoms by spreading both joy and madness (although its apparent that he's very well aware that he's not the "good guy"). I could spend an entire post talking about the different Jokers through the years and their relationship with their respective Batman, but instead I'll show you with my personal reason for thinking that The Animated Series' Joker is the best:
That laugh. That bone chilling, blood curdling, hair raising laugh. No amount of words or in depth analysis can sum up what the Joker is all about quite like Mark Hamill's laugh.
In short, Batman: The Animated series took a good number of risks, nearly all of which came out in the creators' favor. They introduced many elements that were eventually incorporated into Batman's "official" universe. This series kept the true nature of the Dark Knight alive for all children growing up in the 90's.
