Batman: The Complete Animated Series (1992) (Blu-ray)

Batman The Complete Animated Series on Blu-Ray ReviewBiases: I am a fan of the Batman, I have had a fascination with the character from childhood. I am a fan of animation in general, I own a large collection of animated TV series and films.I already owned Volumes 1-3 of the series and Mask of the Phantasm on DVD, and only bought this set for the upgrade in visual quality and the digital copies. Even without the digital copies it is easy enough to create them from the original discs, which I am doing to stream across PLEX over a home network.Packaging comparison: Visually the packaging for the DVD editions is by far more appealing to the eyes, however it comes with a cost, and that is shelf space. Which is one reason I prefer the packaging of the Blu-Ray edition, you will gain a substantial amount of shelf space for other shows/films. The packaging for the Blu-Ray edition is bare bones, the physical discs for example do not feature a color printing of random characters, just the series logo. The lackluster packaging is fine with me to be honest, not a big deal considering the reason for buying this set.Practical score: 5/5Aesthetic Score: 2.5/5“She’s got it where it counts kid”Content: 12 Blu-ray Discs featuring:• all 85 episodes of Batman The Animated Series,• all 24 episodes of The New Batman Adventures,• 2 animated films Batman: Mask of the Phantasm + Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero,• And other bonus content from the DVD versions. Note: the bonus content is directly from DVD so it is not upgraded, it is still 720p.Overall this set includes more content than I previously owned, a nice bonus which makes up for the bare bones packaging and adds to the value in terms of bang for the buck.Video Quality: For this part of the review I will quote Martin Liebman from his review on Blu-Ray dot com:“Batman: The Complete Animated Series makes its long-anticipated Blu-ray debut in 1080p high definition, framed at its original 1.33:1 (4x3) aspect ratio which preserves the broadcast specifications and presentation parameters as were standard at the time of the show's initial airing. The resultant image, with vertical "black bars" on either side of the 1.78:1 panel, look marvelous, generally, with a few caveats to keep in mind. First, the bad. Speckling and debris are not uncommon. The opening sequence is particularly troublesome in this area, but episodes do reveal a fairly steady, albeit generally light, infestation. Most of the time, though, such do not prove distracting. A little more serious is background banding and compression artifacts. Almost never is this issue more prominent than it is right out of the gate in episode one, beginning with a scene featuring a security guard speaking into a tape recorder only minutes in. Such occurrences can be found in many places, but but not always to the same level of distracting severity. Finally, a few obviously lower resolution shots and scenes are interspersed throughout. They are rare but do make a negative visual impact, particularly if they extend for any length of time. Take a look at the episode "Riddler's Reform." Around the 7- and 9-minute marks are rather extended sequences where the lower resolution is obvious (though still obviously encoded in 1080p), featuring jagged lines, false colors, softer elements, and a more limited color range.The transfer's good qualities far outweigh the bad. Clarity is tremendous. The animated imagery translates exceptionally well to Blu-ray. The picture is crisp, firm, finely detailed, and richly colored. The clarity and visibility of small details in the animation -- such as costume details, environments, even smudges and signs of wear that reveal the animators' careful, detailed renderings -- come to life on Blu-ray like never before. Character definition is particularly stout, with organic movement and stability to match. Static backgrounds are a joy beyond the occasional banding and macroblocking elements, revealing richly layered and complex renderings with ease. Colors are a standout. The show defaults to a noir-inspired darkness favoring plenty of black and shades of gray and blue (Batman's costume most prominently beyond less dynamically colored Gotham environments and nighttime interiors and exteriors), but colorful costumes worn by characters such as Robin, Joker, Riddler, and Harley Quinn are bold and true, if not a bit lacking in nuance by nature. Brighter scenes additionally handle other colors pleasantly and brightly. Blacks are deep and dense and do border on crush at times, but for the show's style that's preferable to seeing them lifted to gray. The image is not without its issues, but Warner Brothers has done a very good job overall bringing this to Blu-ray.”Having watched approximately ten episodes of this release so far I can vouch for Martin’s analysis above is spot on. This is what this release is primarily about to me, the most important aspect of the release and it delivers.Aesthetic Score: 4.5/5Audio Quality: This release features a two-channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. Despite the limitations of two channel sound, the sound is exceptional, outstanding, exactly as it should be.Aesthetic Score: 5/5Final Thoughts: Overall, despite the lackluster packaging I give this a score of 5/5 based on quality and value.Many years ago I spent roughly $28 per DVD volume (I purchased them around original release dates) and so even though I am a Batman fan and love this series, I hesitated to spend more on this series, however in my opinion this is definitely worth the upgrade and the HDX digital copies alone will cost more (for the equivalent content) through the various digital providers than the $40-60 for this physical discs plus digital set.So I hope this information has been useful/helpful to readers thinking about purchasing Batman The Complete Animated Series on Blu-Ray.

Awesome! Caught this on sale and got it. Just as good as I remembered from the 90s. The production quality holds up very well to today's standards. I always loved the timeline of the series. I forgot Danny Elfman did the music to this series, makes it so good.

A lot of people have already written about Batman The Animated Series. I will just add my 2 cents that I think that except for actual comic books (and even in those not all are great), this is by far the best Batman you will ever see. Whether you want the blu ray or even to own the series, if you are a Batman fan, you should watch it somewhere.The set comes with all episodes of the series (both seasons 1 and 2 - some of season 2 was also called the Adventures of Batman and Robin) as well as all episodes of the New Adventures of Batman (which many people consider season 3). The main difference being the animation style of the New Adventures is closer to the Batman you see in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. Characters were redefined a little (Penguin looks more human and less like the Danny Devito Batman Returns Penguin). Still great scripts and animation though. Episodes follow the list you will find on wikipedia. Season 1 has 65, Season 2 has 20 and New Adv has 24. The reason season 1 has so many is the series started out as a daily show and changed to a weekly one. For those looking at the DVD set, some people consider each box a season - which makes 4, but most sites don't follow that numbering.The set also comes with Mask of the Phantasm in both widescreen and 4x3 ratios. This was originally going to be a straight to video release (which would have been 4x3) but then ended up being released to theaters (widescreen). The decision was made part of the way through, so the widescreen is not just a crop of the 4x3. In some scenes (if compared) the 4x3 would have more picture but in some scenes, the widescreen actually shows more. This is why both are included. I tend towards watching the 4x3 just because it matches the rest of the series, but the widescreen is there for those who saw it in the theaters.And the last show is Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero. This one was a straight to video movie and is 4x3 only.Besides the shows, there are commentaries for a bunch of episodes, and specials describing the creation of the series and the various characters. The commentaries are in the same hi-def format as the regular shows (probably just a different audio track). The specials do not appear to be hi-def. They look closer to the DVDs I owned prior.As for video quality of the shows. I own the DVD set. I notice a difference between them and the blu rays. The blu rays are clearer and the colors stronger. When viewed on my laptop (which does not have the upscaling software that a blu ray tv or dvd player has) there is a big difference in quality eventhough the screen is small. On my TV, the quality is not as strong unless you view them side by side. Then you will notice it. After watching an entire season in blu ray and then watching the special which is lower def, I immediately saw a difference.The images have also been cleaned up. As an example, I was watching the commentary of the first episode. Bruce Timm was speaking and then stopped at one scene to comment how much dirt was on the sleeve of one of the characters. He said the sleeve looked like it had measles. I saw nothing. It was totally clear and clean. So I loaded up the DVD and looked at the same scene. I could see some of the speckling/dirt that he was speaking about.The packaging is sparse. Really just the disks and a pamphlet with the episodes listed. It also comes with a digital code for streaming. I have not viewed these, but others have complained it is only standard def quality.If you're a fan of Batman, get this set. If you have the DVDs already and want better quality, get the set. If you're happy with the DVDs, there's not a big reason to jump to bluray, except for one item. 4k TVs are becoming the standard. A blu ray upscaled to 4k will be better than a DVD upscaled. I guess you could wait for a 4k set, but I'm guessing that won't happen any time soon. And that is one of the main reasons I upgraded.