New "Bat Wheels" show for pre-schoolers

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SprangFan
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New "Bat Wheels" show for pre-schoolers

Post by SprangFan »

Announced at SDCC was a new show aimed at the preschool audience: Bat Wheels. The idea is the Batmobile, Batwing and other vehicles owned by the bat-family have minds and personalities of their own and go off on adventures in Gotham.

I was ready to laugh it off, but I have to admit I am at least not hating the theme song, which sorta kinda evokes Nelson Riddle whenever the title is sung:



Along with the "Super-Pets" movie, I guess this is part of DC's plan to bring in younger audiences for its superhero properties. Which is cool except that the majority of DC's currently published output is not suitable for children.
"You were right again, Batman. We might have been killed."
"Or worse. Let's go..."
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Lou Szabo
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Re: New "Bat Wheels" show for pre-schoolers

Post by Lou Szabo »

What does no one want, but no one wants to lose - brought by Pixar/Disney?
Some days you just can't get rid of a ... SHARK!
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AndyFish
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Re: New "Bat Wheels" show for pre-schoolers

Post by AndyFish »

Well it's CARS, right? Or whatever PIXAR's racing movies were. When the first one came out I took my neighbor who was 8 at the time to see it because his Dad was on a business trip-- and this kid loved cars-- I'd often leave him a Hot Wheels car in his mail box every once in a while and he thought it was the postman. The movie was cute and he loved it, but I didn't run out and buy the DVD for myself-- so I'm not the target for this new show- but if it makes a kid happy so be it.

Which leads me to a thought I had from a conversation at SDCC-- a good friend who I haven't seen in years mentioned how I, as a Batman fan, must be in my glory since it's the "golden age" of Batman in Hollywood, with all of the TV Shows like GOTHAM and PENNYWORTH, and all of the movies with Batman-- he looked at me like I had four heads when I said I'd not seen any of the TV Shows and that the only Batman movie I've seen past the Nolan ones was THE BATMAN and I thought it was lousy.

Just because they make something doesn't mean I have to watch it or even accept it as part of 'canon'-- I'm not directing this thought at BAT WHEELS because clearly this is a kids show. To date they've made TWO Batman adaptions that I consider successful, the '43 serial and the '66 Batman movie and a good chunk of the TV episodes. Other than that, Batman doesn't exist on film in my head.

Am I alone in this type of thinking?
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SprangFan
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Re: New "Bat Wheels" show for pre-schoolers

Post by SprangFan »

It may be heresy to say so on this board (I've got my desk items in a cardboard box and I'm ready to be escorted from the building by Security), but the only truly satisfying translation of "my" Batman to screen was in B:TAS. Everything else involves compromise.

That said, yes this show looks like "Cars" and a bit like the popular "Paw Patrol," which involves a lot of rescue vehicles operated by animal characters. It also reminds me of a show from when my boys were young -- though for the life of me I can't remember the title -- that involved sentient construction vehicles (tough for me to watch since I'm still traumatized by "Killdozer" :lol: )

I could never quite warm to "Cars" like I did "Toy Story." Buzz and Woody existed in a world with humans and simply had their adventures when no people were looking. The "Cars" characters, however, existed in a world devoid of humanity, so nothing ever made sense to me. Why where there buildings in that world and who built them? Why have doors, seats and windshields if not to accommodate human operators? Where did new cars come from; did they build each other or were they capable of reproduction? I know that's a lot of stupid questions for what's obviously supposed to be a fantasy franchise, but it bugged me.

This show gets around it by -- apparently -- existing in a world where Batman, Robin, Batgirl and the villains are alive and active. So I guess some adventures happen with human drivers at the wheel and others happen when the humans aren't around? Beats me.

Anyway, I can see where the suits would figure you can't go too wrong by appealing to kids' love of (1) cartoons (2) toy cars and (3) Batman. This could move some merchandise if nothing else. But story-wise? I don't know, how do you come up with a story where the Batmobile battles the Joker's van (or whatever)? It can't all be "Okay, if you lose this race, you go to the impound yard, agreed?"
"You were right again, Batman. We might have been killed."
"Or worse. Let's go..."
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Lou Szabo
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Re: New "Bat Wheels" show for pre-schoolers

Post by Lou Szabo »

So a couple of things since I see where we are headed.

The 66 Batman is my childhood Batman and to an extent my adult Batman. West didn’t imitate anyone before him, it was a literal interpretation of the comics. The first two episodes are my definitive episodes. Some are so silly I didn’t understand the as a kid, and as an adult, they can be hard to enjoy. Spidey 67 is like that, season one is great, season 2 a few episodes and season 3 is not for me.

I have to spend more time with the serials to gain a better feel for them. The Animated series is what I imagine as a Batman series in 39 to 41.

This cartoon series is a merchandise play. The original Hot Wheels TV show didn’t share a logo or cars with the toy line except for two vehicles that were release after the show, but Congress shut them down anyway.

My daughter’s take (Grandson is 4 months old today) is that he will likely not see it, along with other bright blinky image flashing noisy cartoons targeted at kids. Her take is that it will numb him to daily events. I can see her point as no one under 15 builds models, races cars on tracks, etc. their phone is a lifeline...

So good luck to them, but not something for us.
Some days you just can't get rid of a ... SHARK!
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AndyFish
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Re: New "Bat Wheels" show for pre-schoolers

Post by AndyFish »

Ha- someone call security on Sprang Fan! BTAS is great, no question, I have a hard time watching it because I was freelancing at WB at the time and did some storyboarding for it-- I saw the bat bible (had one actually) and the scripts and the proposed art for the show was so much better than what it finally became, and a lot of the animation which was done overseas is really shoddy. Its a case of I saw how good it COULD have been if they'd stuck with the original designs and used a better animation studio.

I liked the fourth season the best (I had nothing to do with that one) because they took Bruce out of that awful brown suit, slicked his hair back and put him in sleek black suit like I imagine a billionaire to wear. They also tightened the art and made it look no longer like people were made out of play-doh.
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SprangFan
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Re: New "Bat Wheels" show for pre-schoolers

Post by SprangFan »

It wasn't just the people: I remember in some of the earliest episodes, the Batmobile actually bent itself to get around curves. Obviously whoever they got to animate those episodes didn't understand it was a cartoon but not that kind of cartoon.

Looking back all these years later, the quality of the animation was pretty uneven at first, especially compared to what would follow in Season 4, S:TAS and JLU, but back in '92 literally every cartoon on TV looked like garbage. It was a rough period for animation. What mattered to me was the writing and direction: they captured the spirit of Batman as I'd always seen him, the spirit of the O'Neil and Adams, Englehart and Rogers version of the character, with easter eggs thrown in from other periods in bat-history.

In that sense, I guess B:TAS requires a bit of "compromise" too: I have to overlook some of the technical shortcomings to enjoy it. But given that I'm a lifelong fan of Star Trek (TOS), that's a skill I mastered early on.

Anyway given how far they've come with animation, I'm looking forward to Timm's upcoming revamp in "Caped Crusader."
"You were right again, Batman. We might have been killed."
"Or worse. Let's go..."
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AndyFish
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Re: New "Bat Wheels" show for pre-schoolers

Post by AndyFish »

Ditto the excitement for Tim's new Batman-- I've seen some test footage and it's head and shoulders-- much like the STRANGE DAYS short they did a few years ago. In animation Key Frames are essential, and in the cheap production companies they often skimp on those in-betweeners, which results in things like the bending Batmobile and there's a ridiculous scene where Bruce Wayne is talking to Alfred and he does a sort of combination Watusi dance and I'm having a stroke movement.

In the original designs, the characters looked like they stepped out of a Dick Sprang 50s Comic Book-- with full Dick Tracy edge, man I wished that had been what they went with. They wanted to mimic the Fleischer Bros Superman Cartoons and Jonny Quest, which had actual BLACKS in the art which makes all the difference and gives cartoons a real noir feel. Anyway, still a great show, and I agree they adapted amazing stories right from the best of the comics. I'll never forget the first time I saw the full Pilot at SDCC which featured Man-Bat and the entire audience was blown away.
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SprangFan
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Re: New "Bat Wheels" show for pre-schoolers

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I envy you getting to see those original designs. Maybe someday I'll get a peek. I have seen Timm's early character designs for the Superman show, and they are jaw-droppingly wonderful. Alas the decision was made that those were TOO faithful to the Fleischer style and they went another way. I still like what they did with the adapted "Mighty Hercules" face but a series with that Shuster/Fleischer look would've been phenomenal.

I also felt the Superman show suffered a bit from the need to adhere to post-Crisis continuity and "Byrne Reboot" ground rules. Great Batman stories could be cherry-picked from multiple eras and adapted to the BTAS format with minor tweaks. In contrast, most if not all the best Superman stories dated back to the Silver and Bronze ages and were built around concepts, characters and power levels that were all off the table in the 90s.

All things considered it's a miracle BTAS turned out as good-looking as it did. It arrived in a period that wasn't known for putting real money or effort into animation, and for sure just starting with black backgrounds was a radical notion in itself.
"You were right again, Batman. We might have been killed."
"Or worse. Let's go..."
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AndyFish
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Re: New "Bat Wheels" show for pre-schoolers

Post by AndyFish »

You can find some of them with a simple Google Search for Original BTAS Designs-- these are some of the ones by Kevin Nowlan, who was contracted by Timm and Company to come up with the original versions.

Art_of_Batman_The_Animated_Series_A_129.jpg
Art_of_Batman_The_Animated_Series_B_28.jpg
Untitled-copyjj.jpg
Art_of_Batman_The_Animated_Series_A_125.jpg

Timm adapted many of these-- but there is a missing link between this version and the final done by Timm himself-- the designs were much more comic book faithful and the order came down from upon high that characters should fit more into the Burton Batman Universe. I wish I had taken copies of that Bat-Bible I had-- I gave it to a sick kid many years ago who was a big fan of Batman.
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AndyFish
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Re: New "Bat Wheels" show for pre-schoolers

Post by AndyFish »

And while we're trolloping down memory lane, here were my suggestions to fix some of what I saw as the problems with the design they were going with...

FISH BATMAN.jpg
FISH BATMAN.jpg (84.56 KiB) Viewed 2851 times
First one is Bruce's design-- I didn't like the color scheme, the shape of the ears, the cowl opening or the size of his eyes so I did the one in the middle. They said they weren't doing "That Batman"-- i.e. the Filmation Batman-- I didn't see it, I based the look on the 1940s Bob Kane/Jerry Robinson/Dick Sprang comics-- i.e. Batman #4 or so, and Marshall Rogers run in 1978.

The one on the right is the same design with the color adjusted to be less Filmation, still no go. I was after all, merely a freelancer hired to do storyboards, so I got the impression my input was unwelcome, but I had to try.
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SprangFan
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Re: New "Bat Wheels" show for pre-schoolers

Post by SprangFan »

Okay, so I guess I had seen the Penguin design before, or maybe a slightly later one by Timm that was still comics-accurate. It was definitely a shame they went with the "DeVito" version, but I always try to remember that without the Burton films we wouldn't have the cartoon at all. As silver linings go, four seasons of a great TV show is ample compensation for one crummy film.

I like your concepts, but I see why they went with the bigger eyes. It allowed for stealing Spider-Man's schtick where they can get larger or smaller to convey surprise, worry, anger, etc. And yes, that's a cartoon physics "cheat" as sure as a "bendy" Batmobile, but one I'm more willing to allow. After all, Carmine Infantino and even Neal Adams had the cowl's eyebrows move up and down to show emotion and even showed Batman occasionally crying out of those lenses, so there's a long tradition of artistic license, there.

The ears I grant you took some getting used to, the way they curve backward like that. But I "get" it from the POV that animation designs tend to favor curves over angles. The redesign for Season 4 and Justice League was an improvement.

Nowlan's Man-Bat is awesome, but can you imagine that on merchandise aimed at kids? That's some real nightmare fodder, there.
"You were right again, Batman. We might have been killed."
"Or worse. Let's go..."
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