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Once again I'm right there with you on the points you brought up in the review. You failed to mention my favorite part of the episode though, Grodd telling Batman "You've never seen me wear it!" in regards to his cool new belt. That was a crack up.
Eh. Now those of you who read this column might be surprised to find that I’ve lead with an “eh.” You’re likely not to find a more avid fan of this program anywhere else on the entire internet, but I just found this latest installment to be an “eh.”
Normally, Batman: The Brave and the Bold is nothing if not a guaranteed 30-minute smile-fest for me. I love the purposeful corn. This show reverently harkens back to a time when Saturday mornings were our much-deserved vacations. The promise of watching superheroes right wrongs made learning about fractions and diagramming a sentence almost bearable.
This week however, it was just “eh.”
I’m willing to admit I’m probably over Gorilla Grodd as a featured bad guy. I was never a huge fan of his stories before, so the fact that these guys have made him interested a few times before is already more than I could have hoped for. The same can be said of B’wana Beast. I’m done with that guy already.
The pre-credit action was fun as always. I have to admit I find the Spectre a strange choice for this particular lighter version of Batman. He worked fine in last week’s “Chill of the Night,” but his darkly religious thirst for vengeance seems a tad out of place in this admittedly sweetened up edition of the Caped Crusader. While I enjoyed the twisted retribution the Spectre laid on Milo, I found it to be a different flavor than what I expect when I sit down to this show. Not that it was bad, but I’d like expecting to swallow a mouthful of Coca Cola, and realizing you just swigged down some grape soda. It’s not bad, but not what you wanted at the time.
Since we were dealing with Gorilla Grodd, I was pleased to see the Detective Chimp as Bat’s crime-busting partner du jour. I’m a huge Planet of the Apes fan, and who doesn’t love mystery-solving monkeys?
As the Dark Knight and the Simian Scrutinizer (I just coined that nickname. Not that it’s a great one, but I figure a medium-sized ape who speaks with an upper crust English accent deserves at least one other moniker) were busy battling Grodd and his gorilla gang, B’wana Beast and his fickle love interest, Vixen, were entrusted to keep Gotham safe. The only thing that is safe is B’wana will screw the pooch eventually. Of course I shouldn’t come down on him too hard, because Bats got himself caught in one of those James Bond crotch-sizzling laser traps. Luckily the Chimp had his trusty spyglass handy. He humorously explained, (while he was pantless) that he feels naked without it.
Naturally the good guys defeated the bad guys, thanks to some tricky 3 animal/ 1 man combination courtesy of B’wana. I must admit I did enjoy the visual of the Batgryffin. B’wana Beast learned a lesson about trusting his own abilities, and in doing so re-won the heart of his lady fair.
As always there were some nice jokes spaced out through the episode, and the Detective Chimp managed to work out some funny material that was just barely on the family friendly side of blue on a couple of occasions.
Overall, this episode wasn’t among the greats, or even the very goods of this series, but there was still enough fun to not demand my money back.
Want more Brave & the Bold?
If you’re a fan of animation, check out “Joe’s Weekly Ani-Rants.” They’re not weekly, but they are animated, ranty, and funny. Feel free to search YouTube for all other animation by Joe Oesterle.
Once again I'm right there with you on the points you brought up in the review. You failed to mention my favorite part of the episode though, Grodd telling Batman "You've never seen me wear it!" in regards to his cool new belt. That was a crack up.
I found the Spectre's vengeance for Milo a tad bit dark especially for a kid's show. As for the rest, I never was too big on Vixen as a character. B'wana Beast always makes me smile just because he is that C-list hero he says he is, but he always manages to pull through in the end. And Detective Chimp, for me, always works better in supernatural stories than in a pedestrian story about Gorilla Grod. We didn't even get the infamous Bat-Gorilla, instead we got Bat-Griffin.
I think I mainly enjoyed the episode for the bizarre array of characters that appeared in it: the Spectre, Professor Milo, Detective Chimp, Vixen, Bwana Beast, Gorilla Grodd, Monsieur Mallah (still waiting for the Doom Patrol to show up on B&B) and the Gorilla Boss of Gotham City (!!!). I also have to agree that while enjoyable -- it obviously was a comedown from episodes like "Chill of the Night", "Aquaman's Outrageous Adventure", the JSA episode and so on. I'd still rank it above a few lesser episodes that aired earlier in the B&B series -- like the very first episode with Blue Beetle & Kanjar Ro or the rather bleah Outsiders one...but not one I'd choose to have someone check out if I was trying to lure new fans into the B&B fold.
Still - the episode did have what might have been the funniest line (as someone else pointed out):
"I've had this belt for years...you've just never seen me wear it!"
Grodd was simply done far better on the JL/JLU series -- but then again, when you had Powers Boothe doing the voicework (and often in conflict with Clancy Brown's Luthor) -- it IS a hard act to follow.
I also agree that the Spectre turning Milo into a cheesy treat for the rats seemed a little out of place for a fairly lighthearted and kids-friendly show. I mean, I thought that was great -- but I also am not watching the show with any six-year olds.
So -- I'd agree with the grade given -- B-. Maybe I'd be generous and bump it to a B just for the audacity of having Detective Chimp as the main pairing. And thumbs up for "the simian scrutinzer" - nicely done!
Good episode, but we just camer off of the Best episode ever of B&B so it's tought to follow Chill of the night. While I agree the Specter's vengeance on Milo was darker than I expected, and darker for this show... I still liked it. I think the kids won't really grasp what happens, they'll just think he's made of cheese, it's not as if they showed him graphicly getting devoured...
That Belt line was AWESOMW, had cheerios coming out of my nose! (I tivo B&B, and watch Sat. morning with cereal like Joe said last week)
The eclectic mix aof characters was awesome, I don't know much about B'Wanna Beast, but I liked him in this ep.
OK, I have Dish Network, and their DVR is pretty awesome for the most part. However, I just realized that I have missed a few episodes of B:B&TB for some reason or another! I've got a couple I need to catch up on, including Chill Of The Night, and that Super Batman one. Aarrgghhh.
This episode was OK. I love the fact that this show lets them expirement with so many characters. But come on... B'wana Beast? Laughed when they used him the first time, but I'm ready for them to move on.
I assume they don't have permission to use Supes and WW? Or are they actually trying to save those characters for something bigger later on? That would be the bomb, if it were the case. At least we have seen glimpses of those characters on more than 1 occasion. (We see them from behind on one of the Robin episodes, and we see WW on a poster or something in another episode -- can't remember which one).
I'm mostly echoing what was already said, but I was surprised to see a rather gruesome death-by-cheesification before the opening credits and sexual chimpuendo shortly afterward. But I'm not complaining, just surprised they went that far.
I thought the episode was so/so, Last weeks Chill of the Night was one of the best episodes. I hope they release the series on dvd. Not just selected episodes. I like the lighter Batman, and yes it does remind me of the 60s and 70s cartoons. I like the current episodes with the Joker. So how does Mark Hamell, who does the voice of Spectre in this current version, feel about someone else doing the voice of the Joker?