Batman fans I thought that i'd do something that I do see many people doing and that's talk about episodes of the classic Batman animated series. I want you al to know that i'm covering this two part episode first because the first part was the first episode to be aired while the for some reason despite having a to be continued sign at the end of the episode part two aired as episode eight and so here is my review of "The Cat And The Claw" enjoy.
The plot of this two part episode is Batman meets a new theif by the name of Catwoman however he soon finds out that there's another new villain in twon going by the name of Red Claw who plan to unleash a plague upon Gotham. Plot wise I can see why this was a two part episode since there's so much story that to do it in just twenty two minuets wouldn't do it any kind of justice whatsoever and I do feel that the story being told here was honestly a really good story in my opinion.
Starring in the episodes are Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Bob Hastings as Commissioner Gordon. Also starring in the episodes are Adrienne Barbeau as Catwoman / Selina Kyle , Herb Edelman as Mr. Stern , Orange Is The New Black star Kate Mulgrew as Red Claw , Mary McDonald Lewis as Maven , Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Alfred Pennyworth and voice acting legend Frank Welker as catwomans cat Isis.
Yeah there's nothing that I can say about the acting that also isn't true for the acting in the rest of series since the acting in these episodes are so good. I don't think that it needs saying but Kevin Conroy simply IS the voice of Batman everyobe else can have what ever live actgion Batman they want but none of them can hold a candle to Kevin Conroy and the rest of the cast do such a good job in this episode as well.
Now from what I can work out every episode of the show had a different animation studio doing the animation and so doing the animatio for the first part of this two part episode is Sunrise with the second half having animation being done by Akom. Yeah i don't know why they chose to have two different studios working on this two parter since it must be cheaper just to hire one studio to do the animation for the episodes.
However with that being said tho the anomation on both episodes is honestly really freaking and while there is a slight dip in quality in episode two that is honestly to be expected in any animated series. With that being said the overall quality of the animation is really good with the characters having some nice fluid movements to rhem as well as the explosions looking good but perhaps the best part of the animation for me at least is the backgrounds which are simply stunning to look at.
As you might have worked out by now this two part episode featured the debut of Catwoman and honestly I loved her in this episode. Everything from her voice which was done by former sream queen Adrienne Barbeau to her design just works so well for the character there's honestly not a songle aspect of this verion of the character that I didn't enjoy because of the fact that it all came together so perfectly.
I might sound like i'm praising the hell out of this episode and alot of that is due to the fact that it really is a good two parter. However there are a few things that I didn't like the first of which bveing the fact that there's no mystery for Batman to solve whuch is something that you really do need for Batman since he's meant to be the world's greatest detective but for some reason this two part episode chose not to have one.
The other thing that I didn't like about this two parter is the villain Red Claw as played by Kate Mulgrew. I personally didn't find the villain to be all that interesting or even entertaining both of which a villain needs to be to me she was just there which is a shme because her design is really cool and as I said before she is really well acted it's just a shame that she's not that well written in my opinion and as such she's not that memorable either.
Since this is an action show boys and girls it only makes sense that we now talk about rhe action in these episodes. I honestly feel that the action that we have in these two episodes is honestly really good it does a good job of not only advancing the overall story but also making the action seem exciting which is something that not alot of action shows some focus on just being exicting while others focus on advancing the story while very few do both.
Overall these were a really good pair of episodes but honestly what did I expect when the show it's coming from is really freaking good. Yes there are a few things that I didn't like about the episode some are easier to deal with then others but they are still things that need to be taken into account as such I give these episodes an overall score of 8.5 out of 10 and if you want me to cover more episodes from this iconic show then please let me know and i'll look into it.