Have Cheetah,Will View #201 – “Batman: The Brave and the Bold” Season 3 (2011)

It’s 5:27 pm
sunny

After posting our 200th review,the cheetah was pretty excited to start the march to number 300 and I couldn’t agree more. We couldn’t think of a better way to start then to take a peek at one of our favorite animated series we have reviewed here.

Thanks to our favorite undercover informant “MP” at Warner Brothers Archive,we have managed to get a copy of the third and sadly,the final season of BTBATB. As always the cheetah and I are most grateful to Warner Brothers for hooking us up with so many great films and TV series!

Going into the third season of “The Brave and the Bold”,we honestly didn’t know what to expect,the first season was fun and fluff but the season two was a hell of lot more darker to be sure.  It wasn’t until I saw the list of episodes on the back did I figure out that DC decided to go out with fun and the lighter tone of season one and I think it was the right call.

The third season starts off with a shocking take over of the show by that dastardly Clown Prince of Crime,the Joker!! The whole episode is seen through the eyes of the Joker as he strives to stop Batman from doing heroic deeds throughout the show. He even manages to take over the opening credits as The Brave and Bold becomes “Joker: Vile and Villainous”!! This episode sets the table for a fast and very fun filled season of The Brave and the Bold”.

In the first two seasons,there was nary a visit from either Wonder Woman or Superman (DC’s Big Three) but in season three,both pop up regularly,the Wonder Woman portrayed is the Lynda Carter version as the theme music from the TV show is played during her appearances in “”Triumvirate of Terror!” and in the cold opening of “Scorn of the Star Sapphire!”.

Superman also pops up in “Battle of the Superheroes” as Lex Luthor manages to infect Supes with some red kryptonite which causes Superman to act in anger and recklessness as Superman almost kills Toyman before Batman stops him.
This is a homage to a famed story in the Superman comic book. It’s up to Batman and Krypto the superdog to hold Superman at bay until the red kryptonite leaves his system.
As in the other seasons,the Brave and the Bold kept the cold openings during the final season and my 2nd favorite was in the episode “Bold Beginnings” when Batman teamed up with the most unlikely guest star! It was such a wicked cool and unexpected surprise and was really quite creative on the part of the staff.  (My favorite cold opening was the one featured in season two – “Gorillas in the Midst”).

Since James Tucker and Mike Jelenic,the show’s producers,had plenty of warning that the show was ending with the third season,they were able to go out with a bang and on their own terms. In “Mitefall!”,BatMite is complaining how the show has gotten stale and “formula”. He is doing while breaking the fourth wall (wait,you really didn’t Deadpool invented that,did you? Rookies…..). He decides to create such havoc on the show that DC and Cartoon Network will be forced to cancel it. There so many in-jokes that many older comic book fans will just crack up at.
But at the end of the day,the show is indeed cancelled but Diedrich Bader,who voiced Batman does thank the viewing audience for watching the show. It is a an extremely rare thing for a cartoon to actually do a proper finale show.

The voice acting again is spot on superb and is clearly a highlight of watching,while many superstar voice actors like John DiMaggio,Vanessa Marshall and Dee Bradley Baker all put in yeomen efforts,its seeing which screen actors can Andrea Romano get to come on the show. Season three saw a host of stars like Henry Winkler,Paul Reubens,Obed Fehr and Morena Baccarin (what? you didn’t know she appeared as Cheetah before doing Deadpool? Rookies…….).

As I will always mention in discussing these older DCAU shows,without Romano,there would be NO DCAU. She paved the way in approaching and casting many big stars to lend their voices in projects like “Brave and the Bold” making these series a must have in any real fan’s collection.
The BluRay release of season three of Brave and the Bold consists of 13 episodes. Sadly there are no extras and I really have hope that many in a future re-release,Warner and DC will include some special features as this series really deserves the love.

The cheetah and I were completely hooked on “The Brave and the Bold” and think this series was great. We hope that maybe someday on the CW’s streaming channel that DC will maybe bring back this series for a limited run.

You can buy all three seasons of “Batman: The Brave and the Bold” at the Warner Brothers Archive online store.