Saturday Morning Cartoon Reviews for 5/30/09

Batman: The Brave and the Bold

Ep. 19 – “Legend of the Dark Mite”

Review
While I enjoyed all the different references for this episode, by the end of “Legend of the Dark Mite” I felt that it was a bit over done. What I have been enjoy about this new DC cartoon is how the creators have been able to make references to a lot the old DCU stuff that helps give this show a lighter tone than previous Batman cartoons and the current movies. But here the viewer was not given much time between references in order for the viewer to know where each reference is from.

Still this was an enjoyable episode that featured the first appearance of Bat-Mite in a Batman cartoon. My favorite part of the episode were the comments Bat-Mite made when he was trying to give Batman a new look by using previous incarnations from Batman’s history. The animators did a good job capturing the various costume nicely as they made the vampire Batman look creepy and the Dark Knight Returns version have that super bulky look Frank Miller gave him. It was just too bad that they were not given a chance to animate some good action sequences as there was not much in terms of fighting in this episode.

I did enjoy the parodies to Batman: The Animated Series and the old Daffy Duck cartoon. It was funny seeing Bat-Mite’s small head on Batman’s body as he made his big entrance to try and be Batman with the red sky and lighting in the background. And as a big Looney Tunes fan it was fun to see how they incorporated that old Daffy Duck parody into this episode by having Bat-Mite surrounded by all of Batman’s rogues gallery. Though the chase sequence afterward felt a little to drawn out.

Again the creative team behind this cartoon seems to be enjoying themselves with all the references they make in the show.  Even a Batman fan convention was referenced with all the Batman fans arguing the portrayal of Batman.  However, this episode just overdid it with all of these references that they weren’t as enjoyable as they should have been by the end.

Episode Rating – 8/10

Iron Man: Armored Adventures

Ep. 8 – “Field Trip”

Review
In an attempt to pull of their best Ocean’s Eleven impression, this episode properly titled “Field Trip” focuses on the worst aspect of this show: the teen drama. As I’ve said before this Iron Man cartoon is at its best, at least animation wise, when it specifically focuses on the action between Iron Man and his armored adversaries. But, other than Tony shooting down a couple small robots, there wasn’t much in terms of action.

While the set-up for this episode of Tony using his new invincible armor upgrade to his Iron Man armor will convince the 6 year-olds watching this show that it is a good set-up; it was all too convenient and made Tony really look dumb. As it was shown, the invincible armor upgrade was still in the testing phase.  However, instead of showing Tony testing it out in other locations; Tony goes to the fortress that is Stark International as a way to test it. It is just a lack of common sense and something that a genius like Tony should never do as it only makes him and those around him not to seem very smart.

Even though we have not seen Gene (aka Mandarin) in a while, this episode just reminded me how the creative team continues to ruin great characters by turning them into teens. Even though we are supposed to believe this teenager is the big bad guy, it is hard to take a teen seriously as a threat with how cliche everything in this series is.  I would much rather see Gene in his Madarin armor for the rest of the series instead of as a teen going to the same school as Tony and being best friends. It just has bad soap opera written all over it.

The one thing I wonder is that what does giving Obidiah a teenage daughter do to the story and add to the character?  It will at least be semi-interesting if the girl is used in the future. Though it still bothers me that Obidiah looks like a bony version of Lex Luthor. Oh well, again this was another below average episode and I just hope that we get a lot more action in the next episode as that is the bread and butter of this below average series.

Episode Rating – 3.2/10

Wolverine and the X-Men

Ep. 10 – “Greetings from Genosha”

Review
One of the cool things that this new X-Men series has done is not make it seem like it is the first time that the viewers are seeing all the various X-Men characters. With the X-Men films and X-Men: Evolution from a couple years ago most people that watch this show are already familiar with these characters.  There is no point to wasting time trying to introduce one character at a time in each episode.

Outside of Scarlet Witch, Dust, and Mystique, none of the characters introduced in this episode were actually mentioned by name which makes it fun figuring out who were the X-Men characters in this episode. Just from first look I noticed Dazzler (the most obvious), someone who looks like Holocaust, Mercury, and a prisoner that looks like Sauron.

Even though Magneto is the ultimate X-Men villain I thought that the writers did a nice job making Magneto into someone that is over his villainous actions from the past and may actually be considered a protector now. It made the scene at the midway point of the episode were Nightcrawler discovered the actual prison were those mutants don’t follow Magneto’s law are being held. Also with him being the one who sent Mystique to invade the X-Mansion and retrieve Xavier’s body, it will be interesting to see what Magneto’s actual plans are since we know that in this new series he already has a long past of attempting world domination.

Also speaking of Mystique, it was interesting to note that in this X-Men series that this was the first time the X-Men have faced her. It is odd considering that she has always started almost every X-Men universe as Magneto’s right-hand.  But since this is Mystique’s first meeting with the X-Men I wonder what she was doing before teaming with Magneto. From the looks of it, this version of Mystique shares a relationship with Wolverine and the Weapon X Program as she knew about Wolverine even though he did not recognize her.

Just like in the previous Nightcrawler centric episode, I really enjoyed this episode. I liked how the animators were able to capture Nightcrawler’s teleportation powers and show how powerful he really is when he uses his powers at full strength. It was cool seeing him take down the character that look liked Holocaust by constantly teleporting and punching him until he went down. Nightcrawler using his powers to escape Genosha once he discovers what Magneto actually does and being able to make it to the Mansion was impressive. And I’m guessing that his relationship with Scarlet Witch will lead to some interesting conflicts in Genosha once she discovers that her father is holding Nightcrawler captive.

Overall this was a very good episode that mostly centered around Nightcrawler and introduced even more characters from the X-Men’s vast character list.

Episode Rating – 8.5/10