Batman is a character that most likely one of the pillars of comic books as he is so well known that you don't really need to do a lot to make sure that the main stream audience knows who he is. As such the characters has had more animated shows then alot of other comic book characters out there and his latest one Bat-Fam has just dropped all ten episodes and while the whole first season of the show is available to watch this review will only be based off of the first episode only as ten episodes is a bit to much to watch in one sitting and so then join me as I give you my SPOILER FILLED review of the episode that sees the Bat-Fam gain a new member with the episode in question being called simply just "Game Knight" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when Alfred's niece suddenly shows up at Wayne Manor just before family game night Damien and Claire discover that she has a secret and will do anything to get her to reveal it. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad with this episodes plot being fun enough for the sows quite clearly younger target demographic but in saying that tho Batman: The Animated Series was also aimed at kids and still managed to tell very mature and grown up stories in it's episodes so there was no reason for this episode to be as kid friendly as it was especially since the pilot movie Merry Little Batman was a kid friendly Christmas movie and yet for one reason or another the makers of this shoe thought that going the more kid friendly route with it's debut episode would be a great way to get more viewers to the show when they already going to get that because of the fact that it's a new animated Batman show but to be fair tho this plot is also one that is a perfect first episode plot as it does set up what the dynamic will be like for the rest of the show it's just that it's not that strongest plot to start out on and with any TV show you always want to start out with the episode that has the strongest plot to it as this episodes plot whilst it is indeed a really good plot it's also one that could have been done alot more better then what it was with the plot of this episode not really being really rather entertaining and nor is it really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Luke Wilson as Bruce Wayne / Batman and Yonas Kibreab as Damian Wayne / Little Batman Also starring in this episode is Haley Tju as Claire Selton / Volcana , London Hughes as Alicia Pennyworth , James Cromwell as Alfred Pennyworth , Kaitlyn Robrock as Copperhead , Bobby Moynihan as Dr. Kirk Langstrom / Man-Bat , Fred Tatasciore as Giganta , King Tut and Skaratata , Diedrich Bader as Killer Moth , Michael Benyaer as Ra's Al Ghul and Lori Alan as The Alarm.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty OK at best. With the episodes acting being about as good as you'd expect from the first episode of a TV show in that it's clearly not going to be as good as later episodes of the show and that's OK as the actors even those who are returning from Merry Little Batman are still trying to find there characters and get to gripes with them and while yes there some good performances in this episode like Fred Tatasciore for example and Luke Wilson is as fine as he ever will be the rest of this episodes episode whilst it isn't bad persay does leave alot to be desired with the episodes best actor being Fred Tatasciore as he plays not one not two but three different characters all of which appear in the same scene together and he has to go back and forth between all three of them with him making each character sound different and unique to each other and he has to do all of that and still turn in a good performance as well something would have been hard for any actor to do and while yes he might have recorded all of his lines for each character separately it is still a hard to job to make them all sound different and unique from each other with the acting that's in this very episode not really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so bad as it gives none of this episodes actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
Doing the animation for this episode is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Gigglebug Entertainment. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad with the episode having a water color type of look to it's animation which is something that does make it stand out from all of the other animation shows out there but in saying that tho the characters designs for all of the characters do look really off putting alot of the time with Alfred being the best example of this as he's meant to be Bruce's parental father figure he looks like a knock off version of Abe Simpson and while people will either love or hate the fact that they gave Bruce a mustache for this show given the fact that he's meant to be more of a father figure to Damien in this show it is something that does work for this take on the character where the animation does fail tho is in the characters movements as all of the characters are given these really stiff movements that look unnatural with this having the add on effect of making the shows animation look even more cheaper then what it already does and given the fact that has two very big companies backing it then this shouldn't be the case even shows like teen Titans Go a show that's known for having bad animation in it has better animation then we got in the first episode of this show as the animation in that show looks finished where as here it looks like it hasn't been fully completed yet which only adds to the episodes overall cheap looking nature and that's not to the mention the fact the episodes backgrounds whilst they are passable just look lifeless and uninspired.
SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This episode does introduce at the very least two characters those being Alfred's niece Alicia Pennyworth and Claire Selton / Volcana. Whilst it is natural for a show to introduce new characters not long after introducing the main characters it would have been more helpful if say Claire was introduced in Merry Little Batman as this episode acts like she's been here the whole time and yet this is the first time that she's really showing up in the show as a whole but the show does get alot of credit for including an obscure character like Volcana and for introducing an entirely new character in Alicia with it feeling like that there going to go the Batman & Robin route with her character in that not only does she share a first name with batman & Robin actor Alicia Silverstone but also much like her character in Batman & Robin this shows Alicia is also the niece of Alfred which does make it feel like that there going to make her this shows of Batgirl which if so the internet better be ready because there could be alot of posts made about her if so with the episode doing a better job at introducing her character then Claire's character as the episode doesn't act like she was here all along with one of the first few scenes of the episodes being her arriving at Wayne Manor and greeting Bruce her is meant to be her childhood best friend but outside of that her character doesn't really seem to have much going or her as for Claire her character could have been replaced with Raven and nothing about the characters backstory would need to be changed as there basically the same character with the only real difference being the fact that Claire has lost her memories about her past and after an accident with the Lazarus Pit gets shrunken down to the size of a twelve year old.
Much like with Teen Titans Go this show is a comedy action show however unlike Teen Titans Go this episode has no actually funny jokes in it. With the episode putting more of an effort into it's action element then in telling good jokes and when your a film or a show that has to vastly different genres then the balance needs to be fifty fifty as while everyone expects any kind of Batman show or movie to be an action film or TV show you can have elements of comedy in there you just need to give us jokes that are actually funny Teen Titans Go for alot of the hate that that show got and still does get to this very day does at the very least understand this by giving us action and comedy in equal amounts with there being just as much thought and effort put into there comedy as well as there action where as it felt like that the make4rs of the episode couldn't be bothered to come up with any decent jokes and so they just left it as it was heck even a fart joke would have been welcome as that would have been at the very least an attempt to tell a joke with the closest thing to a joke in the episode being when Damian is telling Alicia of all the ways that he's tried to get Claire to trust him and there all just different versions of the game "The Floor Is Lava" and that's it and that one joke right there does show that the makers of this show can come up with a decent joke and yet for one reason or another they just chose not to with this episode and it boggles the mind that they would do that as this is the first time that people are getting to see this show and yet while your fulfilling the action part of the show your doing nothing to fulfill the comedy part of the show and all that does is make this is an action show that might have one joke in it maybe if your lucky.
Like with Merry Little Batman this episode does rightfully put alot of focus on the relationship between two characters of the titular Bat-Family. This time it's Damien and his adopted sister Claire with Claire having to try and overcome her untrusting nature as all Damien wants is for her to trust him and that's it and that's a great angel to go with as it would have been very easy to just copy and paste what Merry Little Batman did and have the focus be on the relationship between Damien and Bruce but by having Claire be the one with the issue it not only means that the people who are just finding out about her character thanks to this show can get a better grip on her character and the ones that somewhat remember her character from Superman: The Animated Series , Justice League: The Animated Series and Justice League: Unlimited get a true representation of her character and this shows take on the character is one that very easily could become popular enough to make it into the comics much like she would eventually do as seeing her relationship with Damien bloom over the course of the episode is pretty sweet as he really does think of her as his big sister with him willing to do anything to get her to trust him with the only thing that lets there relationship down being the fact that Damien is perhaps a bit to trusting of her as she afterall a former supervillain and yet he right away just trusts her when it would have made for a more compelling story for those characters if he didn't trust her at first but then of the course of the episode learns to trust her much like she learns to trust him but in saying that tho this shows take on Damien is a little kid and therefor it really does make sense that he would trust her right away.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly twenty six minuets and sixteen seconds. Which does seem to pretty par the course for this show and to be fair this episode really does have the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time but in saying that the this episode really doesn't use it's running tom all that wisely in one respect as the plot of the episode isn't that well developed as the episode doesn't really tell us why Alicia is coming to stay with Bruce in the first place with the whole game night aspect of the episode being one that doesn't really play a big role in the episode with it only being mentioned once or twice and that's really it but to be fair this episode does take the time that it really did to develop it's characters as well as they possibly could have done in just one episode and while legacy characters like Bruce , Alfred and Damien don't really get any character development with the same thing also being for Alicia with it being Claire that gets alot of the character development in this episode and while that is something that does make alot sense as the episode is focused on her and Damien it would have been nice is Alicia got some character development as well as she is a newly created character and therefor it would have made sense for her to get some development as the only things that we only things that we find out about her is the fact that she's a counselor for villains who trying to turn good and that's really it and while that job does open itself up for plenty of jokes in future episodes it doesn't really tell us just who her character is but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. With the episode having some decent looking action in it which was something given that the shows target audience is little kids and those don't typically have that great action in them and yet here we are with an episode of a new Batman show that does have some really good action in it but the issue is tho is that the action in the episode doesn't last very long with the best action in the whole episode being the episodes third act fight between Batman and Damien as they take on Skaratata who is this Egyptian god like being that was held in a ball and only came out when Damien lied to Bruce to protect Claire with the monster putting up a really good fight with it taking all three of them to team up to take him down which they do by having Damien and Claire stick to paper to his forehead whilst Batman traps him back inside the ball with the help of Ra's Al Ghul which is something that does show you how well they've bonded as a family and yet they have to do all of that whilst still trying to hie from Alicia that they are actually superheroes and while the episode does have another action scene in Damien and Claire take on some villains on their own it doesn't top the third act fight just due to how creative that the makers of this show got with there visuals in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall this is a show that people are either going to love or going to hate with the same thing being true for this episode as there's just as much wrong with the episode as there was enjoyable as while it's not as bad as Aquaman: King Of Atlantis was it's also not as good as the worst episodes from Batman: The Animated Series either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that ate in his very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.