Batman: The Animated Series Review

The founding decision was technical and it changed everything: backgrounds painted in light on black card rather than dark on white, so every frame begins in shadow and the animators add only what the story needs. Add a full orchestral score, Art Deco cars, blimps and rotary phones, and a refusal to fix the time period, and you get a Gotham that feels invented rather than borrowed. Kevin Conroy's two voices and Mark Hamill's laugh became the standard against which every later performance is measured.

What people forget is how much of it is not action at all. Heart of Ice rebuilt Mr Freeze as a grieving husband and won an Emmy for a script about a man who cannot cry. Baby Doll, Almost Got Im and Perchance to Dream are character studies with a costume in them. Harley Quinn was created here as a throwaway henchwoman and is now permanent. The flaws are real: the outsourced episodes vary wildly in animation quality, some early instalments are flatly plotted, and the later restyle divides its audience to this day.