Batman The Animated Series Blu Ray

I just got the 90's Batman animated series set on Blu Ray that was released on Monday. Anyone else picked it up yet? Got to say I'm quite impressed by the effort they put in. Remastered picture quality looks really nice and it's great seeing a few more special features than your average US animated series. I mean I know it's an iconic show but it easily could have been slapped onto disc without any real consideration for fans.
Really nice that they included the mask of the phantasm and Sub Zero films as well. I watched quite a few of the episodes about five years ago on DVD but seeing them in HD really makes the show shine.

I imagine the episodes animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha studio look amazing now. I vaguely remember "Feat of Clay" pt 2 and "Grey Ghost" having almost anime level animation.

"Hear of Ice" is the best episode, by far, but I can't remember if the best studio did that one.

It's a shame the New Batman Adventures all seemed to be animated by the cheap studios. None of those episodes looked as good as the original seasons.

What are some of the other best animated episodes? Not story or plot, but animation-wise?

I'm a big anime fan myself (particularly of old school stuff) and while I haven't rewatched many of the BTAS eps yet (only had time to watch 3) the 2 anime studio episodes I have watched were "The Cat and The Claw" Parts 1 and 2 which were animated by Sunrise. They look pretty good, some very fluid movement. As for Tokyo Movie Shinsha I haven't watched any of their episodes yet but I'll let you know when I get to them. I do remember Feat of Clay looking pretty good when I watched it about five years ago.

I seem to recall the Ras Al Ghul episodes "The Demon's Quest" as well as the first ep of the Two Face 2 parter looking pretty good as well.

"Heart of Ice" is indeed a great episode. Can't remember how it fares in the animation department but story-wise no wonder it elevated Mr Freeze from a third rate villain into a fan favourite character. I've always liked Mike Mignola and he did a great job with the freeze re-design.

retrohead said:

"The Cat and The Claw" Parts 1 and 2 which were animated by Sunrise..

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They might have great animation but I always hated those episodes in particular, because they were re-run so many times. I must've seen them 30 times a piece as a kid. I was so tired of watching them. It was such a disappointment to come home after school, excited to watch Batman, only to see 'The Cat and The Claw' was on ... AGAIN!!

I got the set also.. THey look great. The colors really pop.

I never thought in a million years they would upgrade this to a Hi Def release. Very happy they did.. I am sure WB is also as it is selling very well.

SwedishHeat said:

They might have great animation but I always hated those episodes in particular, because they were re-run so many times. I must've seen them 30 times a piece as a kid. I was so tired of watching them. It was such a disappointment to come home after school, excited to watch Batman, only to see 'The Cat and The Claw' was on ... AGAIN!!

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Mercifully I haven't watched any single episode to death because repeats were rare during the time it aired here in the UK. Every time I watched on a Saturday it was a new episode. I never owned any episodes on VHS or DVD and although I did watch some about 5 years back when I borrowed the discs off a friend. Never did see any of em a lot though.

I looked up who animated "Heart of Ice" and it was Spectrum animation. I did not realise that Spectrum was made up of former Tokyo Movie Shinsha staff according to info found online. Interesting!

Jaws: I hoped it'd sell well. Hopefully in addition to older fans some younger Bat-fans will enjoy it too. I hear the "Heart of batman" documentary on the disc is a really good insight into the production of the show and how they tried to capture the spirit of the comics.