Batman: The Animated Series debuted 30 years ago today, and fans are celebrating. Batman: The Animated Series remains a milestone for both Batman and the animation industry. Hot on the success of Tim Burton’s Batman movies, Warner Bros. tasked Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and Mitch Brian with developing a new Batman cartoon to appeal to kids. Since Burton’s films had a darker tone to them, the team of creators was free to develop a similarly mature take on DC’s Dark Knight. The result is a series with a mature tone that takes Batman seriously without pushing over the edge into grimdark parody territory.
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Batman: The Animated Series also changed the face of animation. Until its debut, kids’ action cartoons emphasized detailed character models (that could be turned easily into toys) at the expense of smooth animation, a style that peaked with X-Men: The Animated Series, which debuted two months after the Batman series. Batman: The Animated Series instead used Timm’s character designs, which used only the most essential lines, allowing for more graceful animation, a strategy adopted by many shows that followed, including the DC Animated Universe shows (Superman: The Animated Series, Static Shock, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited) that would follow.
On top of all of that, Batman: The Animated Series‘ vision of Gotham as a blend of noir and art deco forever changed how Batman fans imagine the iconic fictional city. Keep reading to see how fans on Twitter are celebrating Batman: The Animated Series’ 30th anniversary.
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Image Credit: Marvel Comics
