Superman: The Animated Series Review

Ladies and gentlemen they said that it couldn't be done they said i'd be foolish to even try such a feat but as of right now i've watched and reviewed Superman: The Last Son Of Krypton AND Superman: The Animated Series. I admit I doubted if I could even keep my word and even make this review but here we are so let's not waste any time here is my review of the awesomely underrated Superman: The Animated Series.

The premise of this show is Clark Ken aka Kal-El is an alien from the long dead planet of Krypton who after being sent to earth to avoid his own planet's destruction becomes the hero known as Superman. Yes I know that the summery I just gave could also be used to describe alot of Superman media but due to the fact that the show has no story to speak of this is the only one that makes sense. Speaking of making sense it makes sense to me that this show be episodic since this was made in the mid nineties and superhero weren't that big back then so it makes sense that something superhero related not have an overall story arc.

Starring in the series is Tim Daly as Clark Joseph Kent / Superman / Kal-El and Bizarro , Dana Delany as Lois Lane , David Kaufman as James "Jimmy" Olsen , Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor , Lauren Tom as Angela Chen , Mike Farrell as Jonathon Kent and Shelley Fabares as Martha Kent. Now I wouldn't mention this in my Last Son Of Krypton review so I can mention it right now the acting from the people playing Superman and Lois is honestly some of the best acting seen on the show I really believe that they are friends who secretly love each other.

Before you all start wondering how I managed to watch this series plus the premier movie and still review both. Well the answer is simple I havn't watched every episode of the show I instead went on Wikipedia and selected a handful of episodes and thus i'm basing my review just of those episodes and those episodes alone. I also want to say that i wouldn't recommend doing what I did just because it takes alot out of you so i'd only attempt it if your crazy , insane or both.

Now I actually cannot find any company listed as doing the animation so i'm just going to assume that it was done by Warner Bros Animation. With that said the animation in the series I thought was really good but it's not as good as the animation that was seen in the Batman animated series but then again anything is going to look bad compared to that masterpiece of a show but for a Superman show the animation is as good as you'd expect it to be.

Technically this show ran for two seasons I say technically because a third season of the show did indeed air but it was when the show was combined with Batman and became The New Batman/Superman Adventures. So I personally say the show is two seasons long but i'd understand it if people count The New Batman/Superman Adventures as the shows third season heck i'm even including some episodes from that season in this review.

Superman: The Animated Series originally ran from September 6th 1996 until February 12th 2000 which was when it was apart of The New Batman/Superman Adventures and it aired on Kids WB. There actually aren't that many episodes to this show at all in total including the season from New Adventures there's only fifty four episodes which might sounds like alot but it's really not so you guys could very easily watch this entire series in a week and still have time to review anything else.

One of the many things that the Batman animated series is known for is for being really dark which is fine for batman because he's a dark character. So it won't shock any of you to learn that Superman: The Animated Series is the complete opposite to that show in that it's very light in tone and is filled to the brim with hope and that right there is perfect for Superman because he's a hopeful character so it would seem out of place if he was dark brooding for twenty two minuets.

I will say that out of the two shows I and I think many others prefer Batman not only because it's alot more closer in tone to the comic books but also because it's the best adaptation of that character and yes that includes the Chris Nolan films get over it people. That said tho I don't think that this is the best adaptation of Superman I think it's a great adaptation of the nineties version of the character but if you guys want to see a great version of the character as a whole that check out the 1978 Superman movie it's alot better then the DCEU Superman in every way possible.

Now I mentioned this very briefly at the end of my review of The Last Son Of Krypton but the score for the series was done by the late and great Shirley Walker who also famously did the score for Batman: the Animated Series as well as Todd McFarlane's Spawn animated series. Does it really need to be said how great her score is she's a legend so of course it's going to be great I only wish that they used the iconic Superman theme tho and that the actual intro and the intro theme for the show was a bit shorter but that's just me personally.

We have ti talk about the action seen in the series in my own opinion the action that was in the animated Batman show was far better however that's not to say that the action seen in this show isn't good it's just that I preferred the action in the Batman show. I preferred it because we know that Superman isn't going to die or go to jail so there's no suspense there when a fight scene starts where as in Batman is a fight scene does start there's always a slight chance that Batman could die.

Overall this is a fun show and it's one that i'm glad that I watched but at the same time I prefer the animated Batman show more because of the fact that that show was a great adaptation of that character. Like I said this is a fun show and if you have young Superman fans in your family then there's no harm in showing them this show in fact i'd honestly recommend it more for little kids since they'd get alot more out of it so with that in mind this show gets an 7 out of 10 from me.