Fan Page: The New Adventures of Batman

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

1981 marked the departure of The New Adventures of Batman, a cartoon that I hold near and dear to my heart. Not only did it feature the vices of Adam West and Burt Ward (the Batman and Robin from the 1960's live-action TV show), but it also included my two favorite terrible cartoon ideas:

• Bat-Mite: If you think Scrappy-Doo is annoying, just give Bat-Mite a try for a while!
• The Bat-Computer: As we all know, our cartoons had to convey some sort of moral or socially-conscious message like "Always brush your teeth" or "Drugs are bad mmkay?" For the most part it was up to the kids to figure out the message of the show on their own. But on The New Adventures of Batman, every epiode ended with The Bat-Computer blaring a flashing and loud alert of "BAT-MESSAGE! BAT-MESSAGE!" which would then lead to Batman and Robin and Bat-Mite all talking about what the message of this episode was. IT WAS ASTOUNDING!

So if The New Adventures of Batman is one of YOUR favorites like it was mine, then be sure to go and vote for it in our Best of 1981 Poll and leave your own personal memories or feeling about the show in the comments below :)

Comments

[cherry-faery.livejournal.com]

At least this cartoon had a moral that was based on the episode. The old He-Man cartoons were fabulously awesome for having a clear moral through the whole episode and at the end, Prince Adam or someone would turn to the camera and bring up something completely banal that someone (most likely Orko) had done and make up a moral about that. It was pretty much the funniest and best reason to watch He-Man as an adult!

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

OOH! I've been watching He-Man with my 5-year-old daughter and my wife recently, we like to play "What minor moral will be the end moral"!

EXAMPLE: The episode is all about Prince Adam's friend stealing things. He steals all sorts of stuff from everybody, including Orco's magic wand. Skeletor then gets hold of the wand somehow. Man-AT-Arms and Teela go off to recover the wans with the help of He-Man. In the end, He-Man tells Prince Adam's friend all about how this whole mess could have been avoided if he had just not stolen things, and the new friend vows to never steal again.

MORAL: "In today's episode, Teela disagreed with her father, Man-At-Arms and it nearly cost them dearly. Remeber, you should ALWAYS obey your parents, because they're older and know better!"

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Oh, and also: The moral at the end of the episode of The New Adventures of Batman and Robin RARELY matched-up with the episode we just saw. Like, they used the Bat-Computer as a segway in to teaching something/anything. Joker steals paintings of clowns, Bat-Mite gets in the way, Batman and Robin catch the Joker, episode done. BAT-MESSAGE: Staying in school is important.

[raven-blue.livejournal.com]

GI Joe did the best job of conveying a moral. Who wouldn't want to brush their teeth every night if there was an armed, highly trained soldier watching you. A bit like Santa Claus if Santa was a US Marine.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Well sure, and I like how GI Joe made the moral completely separate from the rest of the episode. It was like a bonus mini-episode at the end of the show. They didn't have to cram in a second or third storyline where "Little Joe" learns a valuable lesson about how to cross the street :)