Batman Gets By With A Little Help From His Friends
The premise behind this Brave and Bold version of Batman is that he works together with other heroes to thwart the plans of a variety of different villains. You won’t find Robin in this cartoon; Batman teams up with the likes of the Blue Beetle, Plastic Man, Aquaman, Red Tornado, and Green Arrow to stop the sinister actions of villains such as Kanjar Ro, The Clock King, Gorilla Grodd, Ocean Master And Black Manta, and Fun Haus.
The first season started in late 2008, and according to tvrage.com, is still running currently with over twenty episodes aired. This Volume 1 set includes just four episodes, the first four, and zero extras. I’m sure a more complete release is in the works, so it’s already hard to recommend purchasing this one. That said, the episodes included are:
Rise of the Blue Beetle! – In this episode, a young mutant kid longs to be Batman’s partner. He gets his chance when Batman asks for his help in stopping a meteor headed for Earth. Meanwhile, the two meet an alien race that is under oppression from another alien race and together they are able to save the day.
Terror On Dinosaur Island! – Gorilla Grodd, an ape king, intends to transform humans, who he deems inferior, into apes so that he might conquer the world. It’s up to Plastic Man and Batman to stop him.
Evil Under the Sea! – If it’s underwater action in the DC Universe, you gotta have Aquaman. Aquaman teams up with Batman to stop Ocean Master (Aquaman’s jealous brother) who has teamed up with Aquaman’s arch rival, Black Mantra. The evil duo is determined to rule the sea, but Batman and Aquaman will have something to say about that.
Invasion of the Secret Santas! – Fun Haus isn’t exactly in the holiday spirit when this episode, that aired on the twelfth of December last year, aired. Fun Haus plans to bring down the Christmas cheer with a heinous crime spree, but Red Tornado and Batman are up to the task of stopping him.
Wait, this is it?
Each episode has a kid friendly script and is well animated. Although I have only seen these four episodes, given the kid focused nature of this show it’s probably my least favorite of the Batman cartoons thus far, but it’s still entertaining and a good show.
This DVD set doesn’t include any extra features, and runs just under 1.5 hours total, so it’s all over pretty darn fast. The presentation quality is just fine; it’s a new animated show, so expect straight-forward, full screen video. The audio is also just fine.
That’s about all there is to say about this very brief DVD release… to the summary!