Batman: The Animated Series changed my life forever

September 5, 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of Batman: The Animated Series. As a lifelong fan of the series, I feel compelled to write about the legacy and impact of Bruce Timms and Eric Radomski’s animated version of the Dark Knight. I do so, however, knowing that the long shadow of this legacy has already spawned a body of robust critical work that would otherwise render any such effort superfluous.

I could write about the origins of Batman: The Animated Series as a show that emerged as a result of the 1990s Little Toon Adventuresand how the show not only redefined DC Comics’ iconic masked vigilante, but all of American animated television itself, but that’s perhaps a story better told by the creators of the show themselves. I could have written about how the series reinvigorated Batman’s rogues’ gallery with a level of nuance and pathos unparalleled in any medium other than comics at the time, or about the series triumphant and bold title sequence. But these issues, as you might have guessed, are already well-trodden terrain. To write and celebrate Batman: The Animated Series In a way that doesn’t feel entirely redundant, that feels true to both myself and the auspiciousness of the occasion, I must tell a story I have never fully told or written about: my own.

To be honest, I have a hard time remembering a time before I knew about it Batman: The Animated Series. I can’t even remember the first episode I saw. What I do

I remember being hooked like so many other kids of my generation after I was introduced to the show. By this point I had seen more than enough cartoons; out Looney Tunes and Pink panther to Tom and Jerry and The Jetsons. but Batman: The Animated Series was something else. It wasn’t just a cartoon, it was schedule television. The adventures of the masked, brooding vigilante Batman and his crusade for justice against a cadre of villains set in the anachronistic “Dark Deco” vastness of Gotham City sent a shock through my young imagination like nothing else.

I consumed this series with the kind of random infatuation that only a child is truly capable of. I loved everything Batman: The Animated Series, from the memorable characters and stirring orchestral score to the captivating storylines and beautiful title card designs. But there was a moment when that love matured from infatuation into something deeper and more considered. While watching TV in the living room of my father’s apartment, I asked aloud, “Why does that see so unlike anything else?”

I knew there was something special there Batman: The Animated Series, even though I didn’t have the knowledge at the time to determine what it was or to put into words what I was thinking and feeling. There was nothing like it on TV. Hell, for all I knew at the time, there wasn’t even another Batman story quite like this one. I still didn’t have access to the internet at home and the ability to type a question into a search bar and be instantly taken to an exhaustive wiki page that presented the answers to all my burning questions in the right order. What I had was my immediate circle of friends and family, and none of them knew or particularly cared about animation, let alone how it was done, by whom, or for what reason. I still had questions, but without the means to track their answers, nor the knowledge to phrase them properly. I didn’t just want to know what inspired me Batman: The Animated Series; I wanted to find the words to express and describe why this special show made me feeling

something in a way that nothing else did back then.

So, with no other recourse, I did what felt only natural at the time: I continued to watch, read, and learn as much as I could about art, exploring beyond my earliest introduction to animation into the realms of film, visual art, music, and even architecture in search of answers to these questions that were close to my heart.

Over the course of my life, I finally found these answers. I found them in the German expressionist films by Robert Vienna, whose winding corridors I recognized as the back streets of Gotham City. I found them in the paintings of Giovanni Baglione, whose mastery of Light-dark lighting I recognized in the logo image of Batman lit up against the backdrop of a blood red moon, scowling and clutching his cloak. I found her in the futuristic world of Fritz Lang metropolisin which Architectural illustrations by Hugh Ferrissand in the Art Deco building of the Carbide and carbon construction in downtown Chicago. Each of these discoveries pointed to a past collective vision of a future that could have been but has not happened. But in the world of Batman: The Animated Series, that future lived on. And finally, I found my answers in an issue of Paul Dini and Chip Kidd Batman animated I found them after college in an antique shop that told the story of the series’ production in vivid detail and finally allowed me to connect the dots of who the writers, artists, and animators behind the series were and what they were trying to accomplish.

my love for Batman: The Animated Series transcends the character or medium. Not only did the show introduce me to the character of Batman, and it not only cemented my love for animation; It opened my world to whole dimensions of art and expression and story that I might never have followed or known if I hadn’t encountered this series from a young age. Without a doubt, however many degrees away, Timm and Radomski’s show is responsible for setting me on the path to pursuing a career as a writer about art and sharing that knowledge and passion with others. I’m the curation editor here at Polygon, which means my job is to sift through the ever-growing and changing catalog of film, television, comics and games and highlight work that I find particularly remarkable, thought-provoking and beautiful. I would never have honed that sensibility, let alone thought of writing about it, if it hadn’t been for it Batman: The Animated Series.

I am not alone with my story. Batman: The Animated Series has touched the lives of countless viewers since its premiere 30 years ago and inspired the artistic endeavors and aspirations of people from all walks of life. Although it is an excellent example of the transformative power of art, Batman: The Animated Series is far from alone in this quality. How many people do you think were first introduced to classical music by watching an episode of? Looney Tunes or Tom and Jerry? How many young artists could have been introduced to such Frank Frazetta, Hieronymus Boschand Alexander Yodorovsky for the first time simply because they grew up watching adventure time?

Anything that can provoke such a reaction can by no means be called trivial. They are awesome in every sense of the word. art Affairs. animation Affairs. stories matter. Get out there and find the ones that matter most to you, and then tell your own. You’re the only one who can.

Batman: The Animated Series is available for streaming HBO Max.