Batman, The: The Complete Fifth Season DVD: Review By aeinhorn

I'll confess that, of the various animated incarnations of the Dark Knight, “The Batman” has always ranked low on my list. There's no real reason for that, other than my over-fondness of the vision of the Batman and the rest of the DC Universe that appeared from “Batman: The Animated Series” through “Justice League Unlimited”. That said, the final season of the show was easily my favorite, and I'm thrilled with the presentation of that series on this DVD set.

This last season of the show moved away from Batman as a solo-hero, or working only alongside the Bat-family of Robin, Nightwing and Batgirl, and moved us closer to the old “Brave and the Bold” comic book. Almost every episode from this season featured Batman teaming up with another member of the Justice League, from the two-part season opener with Superman, to episodes featuring the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Green Arrow, and a series finale featuring the entire Justice League!

The episodes this season were also more over-the-top than the early episodes, featuring villains with more outlandish abilities and a much stronger comic-book sensibility than were found in the first three seasons of the show.

Graphically, the episodes are all presented in crisp 4:3 aspect ratio, and the transfers are solid. While the animation style of “The Batman” will never replace the crisp lines of the Timm/Dini universe, the animation flows nicely, and the voice acting is solid, with some veteran actors from other DCU properties returning to the roles they made well known.

As bonus features, we have a series of Justice League profiles for the heroes and villains used in this season, as well as a featurette about how series producers adapted the comic book “team-up” to the television series.