Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It gets better every time!, July 27, 2006
I remember watching BATMAN BEYOND when I was a little child. I still enjoy it, and I can tell you that it is a great series. If you like BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, JUSTICE LEAGUE, JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED, STATIC SHOCK, and THE ZETA PROJECT...then you'll love this! While I have not seen all of the episodes, I have seen some. But, being the Season Two box-set, I already know what episodes are going to be in this - all of Season Two's episodes!
Here is a list of the episodes featured in "Batman Beyond: Season Two."
1. Splicers
2. Earth Mover
3. Joyride
4. Lost Soul
5. Hidden Agenda
6. Bloodsport
7. Once Burned
8. Hooked Up
9. Rats
10. Mind Games
11. Revenant
12. Babel
13. Terry's Friend Dates a Robot
14. Eyewitness
15. Final Cut
16. The Last Resort
17. Armory
18. Sneak Peek
19. The Eggbaby
20. Zeta
21. Plague
22. April Moon
23. Sentries of the Last Cosmos
24. Payback
25. Where's Terry?
26. Ace in the Hole
I hope you make a wise choice and purchase this item. Trust me, this is a true collector's item for any DC Animated Universe fan.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bat To The Future With Season Two!, January 8, 2007
With Season One, "Batman Beyond" had gained a new following of Batfans by successfully expanding the Batman mythos with the introduction of new, younger Dark Knight Terry McGinnis. The presence of old Bruce Wayne as mentor to the new hero for a new era not only provided the series with a linchpin, but also allowed the producers to do something new with the character, but still stay true to the Bruce Wayne/Batman legend.
For Season Two, the series creators' intent, according to producer Bruce Timm, was to focus a little bit more on Terry and a little bit less on Bruce, believing [from focus groups they'd done with the series, and their own instincts] that the teenage kids watching the show were much more interested in Terry than in Bruce, given it was TERRY'S show now. To that end, Terry reluctantly gets his own confidant/sidekick in schoolmate Maxine "Max" Gibson (Cree Summer), a computer genius who stumbles upon his secret identity in "Hidden Agenda." "You call me Robin, and I'm outta here," Max warns. Terry coyly responds with "No problem...Alfred." To her credit, Max [at given times] proved to be quite useful to Terry, covering for him to girlfriend Dana; babysitting younger brother Matt; plus employing her technical skills. Also included in this set is "Once Burned" featuring the return of Melanie/Ten (Terry's own Selina Kyle/Catwoman) and the Royal Flush Gang; "Blood Sport", "Sneak Peek", and runaway robot "Zeta" which was spun-off into the short-lived series "The Zeta Project."
Batman Beyond - Season Two is a 4-disc (544 min.) set featuring all 26 Season Two episodes; Full-Frame (1.33:1) video; English Dolby Digital Stereo audio; Spanish, French subtitles; plus extras.
Disc One: Splicers, Earth Mover, Joyride, Lost Soul, Hidden Agenda, Blood Sport, Once Burned
Disc Two: Hooked Up, Rats, Mind Games, Revenant, Babel, Terry's Friend Dates A Robot
Disc Three: Eyewitness, Final Cut, The Last Resort, Armory, Sneak Peek, The Eggbaby, Zeta
Disc Four: Plague, April Moon, Sentries of the Lost Cosmos, Payback, Where's Terry?, Ace in the Hole
Special Features:
Featurette: "Inside Batman Beyond - The Panel": Batman Beyond Season Two panel discussion continues with Bruce Timm (Producer), Alan Burnett (Producer), Glen Murakami (Producer), Paul Dini (Producer) and Moderator Jason Hillhouse
Commentary: "Splicers" by Bruce Timm (Producer), James Tucker (commentator replacement for director Curt Geda), Glen Murakami (Producer), Andrea Romano (Voice Director) and Will Friedle ("Terry McGinnis/Batman" Voice)
Commentary: "Eggbaby" by Bruce Timm (Producer), James Tucker (Director), Glen Maurakami (Producer), Andrea Romano (Voice Director) and Will Friedle ("Terry McGinnis/Batman" Voice)
Highly Recommended!
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Some Good, Some Lax, January 29, 2007
I've got to agree with other reviewers that, after Season One, Season Two is a letdown. You can get a sense of this from the Added Features that frame the 4-DVD set.
The first episode, "Splicers," gets good commentary from the actors and other interested parties, including Will Friedle's description of how he distinguished vocally between Terry and Batman. There are also appreciations of fellow voice actors in the series, including the late Paul Winfield. But "Splicers" itself is terribly derivative, an unimaginative imitation of Season One's "The Winning Edge."
Disk 4 gives us an interview with four of the series producers, who confirm that they were charged with (1) introducing a new character (Max), (2) making the stories more "high school" and Terry-centered, less "crime comics"/Batman-centered, and (3) reducing the reliance on corporate baddies. All these they did, with the result that the stories are, more often than not, vehicles for long-term character and relationship development.
That's not bad, if the characters are interesting, which often they are. But I don't hear much excitement from the producers, except when it comes to "Earth Mover," a "return from the grave" story reminiscent of EC Comics. There's also some talk about the younger cartoonists not knowing Jack Kirby's work. But does that really explain why the artwork is, in general, pretty slack in the second season?
In addition to Max, new characters in Season Two include Stalker (Terry's nemesis in "Blood Sport," his ally in "Plague"), the incapable-of-introspection schlump Howard Groot, and one real gem, Stanley "Mad Stan" Labowski, voiced to perfection by Henry Rollins. Catch him in "Rats" and "Eyewitness," two episodes that seem to have caught the imagination of artists, writers, and actors alike.
The season's emphasis on high school brings us some good comedy--best being "The Eggbaby"--and effectively shifts antagonism away from the corporate and toward the family. "Hooked Up," an addiction drama like "The Winning Edge," gives us affecting portrayals of troubled or neglected kids' compensatory fantasies. "Armory" shows what happens to the rich family of Season One's "Spellbound" when all-sufficient Dad loses his job. In "The Last Resort" family and corporation collaborate as betrayers and oppressors. In the better-drawn, better-imagined episodes, I get a fuller sense of who Terry and Max are: working-class kids living in the projects: architectural design can be traced to London's Barbican, and sometimes you can see the bubbles in the cast concrete, a reminder of Le Corbusier.
A final word. I like the dark, creepy side of "Batman Beyond," so my personal recommendations are "Mind Games" and "April Moon." The first is a take on the classic anime "Akira." The second is film noir, predictable, but with an ending almost as good as that of Season One's "Disappearing Inque." Looking forward to Season Three.
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