DCAU REVIEW: BtAS: The Cat and the Claw

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Review:  ★★

This episode marks the introduction of Catwoman, master thief and commonly Batman’s love interest. Despite this being a two-part episode, however, the actual relationship between Catwoman and Batman feels oddly rushed, especially for the typically more stoic Batman.

The main plot of the episode involves a terrorist organization run by “Red Claw”, an illusive criminal that few have even seen. She wants a plague that Interpol apparently stole from her, to use for nefarious, terrorist purposes. Also she wants to buy land for some reason I never fully comprehended, and Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, wants that land undeveloped so mountain lions and such can live there. Thus Catwoman becomes involved in a plot that barely has anything to do with her.

There’s also a large chunk of time devoted to Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle spending time together, after Selina buys a date with Bruce at a charity event (charity for animal preserves – Selina likes aminals, y’all). Bruce flirts terribly throughout, but they’re generally fun scenes. It’s just that, for most of these scenes, neither of them knows the other’s alterego, so I guess Batman is just playing the Bruce part throughout, rather than genuinely flirting? It’s unclear.

Let’s talk about the minor sexism and the weird constant cat jokes, though. I hate both of them. There’s several boring, eye-rolling lines like “Lately I’m learning never to underestimate the opposite sex.” Please, stop. Also, the number of times it’s appropriate to make a “nine lives” joke in a Catwoman story is maybe once, but rest assured, you’ll hear it more than that, along with classics like “Here, kitty, kitty.” Ugh.

A few other, minor points. First, this episode shows that Batman and Gordon are actively collaborating already, which is a nice touch. Second, Red Claw is a villain with potential that feels largely squandered – we barely get to see her in action. Third, the relationship between Selina and her ‘secretary’ Maven is 100%, definitely not platonic.

In summary, this is an uneven two-parter with some good action scenes but a rushed romance and somewhat lackluster villain. Also light sexism and awful cat jokes. Worth watching for continuity’s sake, since it introduces everyone’s favorite cat burglar, but expect a bumpy ride.

Classic Cartoon Critic: Alpine Climbers

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Rating:  ★★★

The last few minutes of this cartoon really make me want to give it four stars, but the sad fact of the matter is Pluto takes up a large part of this short’s runtime with largely boring antics.

Mickey, Donald and Pluto are going climbing this time around, for edelweiss flowers and eagle eggs, apparently. Why they brought Pluto is a bit of mystery, as he seems to only exist as dead weight (in both a literal sense, to Mickey and Donald, and a metaphorical sense, to this cartoon). Donald goes for the flowers and gets entangled with a baby goat, Mickey tries to take some eagle eggs and gets attacked by an eagle mother, and Pluto pretty much reacts to things and gets drunk.

Because of Mickey’s shenanigans, Pluto ends up dealing with a baby eagle, which is arguably his most interesting moment in the cartoon. Afterward, he falls below into the snow and gets unfrozen by a beer-carrying St. Bernard. He acts super gay, too, tbh – I’ve seen you make those same goo-goo eyes at lady dogs, ya bisexual pup.

Mickey doesn’t get to do too terribly much, but what he’s there for – upsetting mama eagle and a bunch of baby eagles – is fun enough. His role in the finale of the short is mostly just ‘gripping things in terror’, but again, fun enough.

Donald, for neither the first nor last time, is the true star of this one. His scenes shine, whether he’s trying to hit a baby goat with an ice stalactite, headbutting an angry adult goat, or charging a flying mama eagle, he’s a joy every time.

The finale of the short, when Donald tries to rescue Mickey from the attacking birds, is a high-intensity ride from start to finish, and it, coupled with Donald’s scenes, make me recommend the short, overall, despite the lackluster Pluto bits.

 

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Classic Cartoon Critic: Little Beau Porky

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Rating:  ★★★

Another Porky Pig cartoon by Frank Tashlin, and it’s a significant step up from the last. There’s a lot of good gags in here, even if the pacing is a bit off and there’s a significant amount of racism to deal with.

Porky is part of the French Foreign Legion this time around, but unfortunately for him, he’s just a camel scrubber, something his Commandant makes sure he’s acutely aware of. The rest of the legion leaves Porky at the base, and, of course, the evil Ali Mode chooses then to attack. Porky and his camel have to fend off the villains, in a short action sequence that’s the most exciting part of the short.

There’s good gags throughout, many of them based around the Commandant, and his fun character design. Porky also displays much more of a personality in this one than in the last Tashlin cartoon.

The two things that drag the cartoon down a bit, though, are pacing and racism. There’s several shots that go on way too long, especially in the beginning, stretching the short out more than was necessary. And then, of course, there’s the racism, which is expected given this is a 30′s cartoon set somewhere in the middle east. The depiction of Ali Mode is not great, from his appearance to the gibberish that he mostly speaks in.

The end of the cartoon, where Ali Mode assaults the base and Porky has to fight the villain’s forces off, is paced dramatically faster than the rest of the short, with quick cuts back and forth to fast gags. It’s got a great energy, and is honestly the main reason to give this cartoon a look, if you can deal with the racism.

 

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DCAU REVIEW: BtAS: P.O.V.

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Rating:  ★★★★

Another good episode, and a great introduction to the amazing Renée Montoya. Though she’s not quite as well known as the other main character BtAS introduced, Harley Quinn, Montoya is still a character that’s seen lots of success outside of this, her debut series.

After a brief introduction, the scene changes to an interrogation led by Lieutenant Hackle, who’s trying to figure out who bungled the sting operation and allowed the criminals to get away. The suspects are Detective Bullock, rookie Wilkes, and Officer Montoya. Oh, and Bullock blames Batman, to no surprise.

The first half of the episode unfolds as each of the three suspects explains their side of the story, or ‘point of view’, if you will. Bullock lies to make himself seem good and Batman seem bad, but the scene itself plays out as what actually happened, rather than his fabrications. Wilkes, starry-eyed at the sight of the legend that is Batman, accidentally embellishes his story somewhat, while Renee’s part of the story is straightforward. With no clear culprit, Hackle suspends all three of them.

The second half of the episode follows Montoya as she pus together clues, finds Batman and the criminals, and helps Batman take them down. It’s basically a good ten minutes or so spent showing us how awesome this woman is, and it’s a fun, action-packed ten minutes, let me tell you.

The interrogation stuff with Hackle never goes much of anywhere, but fortunately, that wasn’t really the point. This episode wanted to show us Batman from three different points of view, and then prove how great Montoya is, and it does a great job at both.

DCAU REVIEW: BtAS: Appointment in Crime Alley

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Rating:  ★★★★

The issues Batman has to deal with in this episode may be fairly mundane – no supervillains or citywide threats to be found – but this is still an excellent episode for two main reasons. One, it shows us what Batman does when he’s not fighting supervillains, and it also does a great job showing the softer, more emotional side of The Bat.

Roland Daggett, a shady businessman, wants to get rid of Park Row, or, as it’s better known, Crime Alley, so he can build his own, more profitable buildings there. But the residents of Crime Alley protest against this plan, and thus Daggett resorts to underhanded schemes – he hires a demolitions expert to blow the place up and make it look like an accident.

Batman, of course, comes to the rescue, but not before having to deal with three other crimes beforehand. The first one is actually related, as some of Daggett’s thugs try to force a woman and child to abandon their apartment. The next one isn’t as directly related, and involves a desperate gunman threatening to hurt a Daggett Industries clerk who he blames for his lost job and house. And the third isn’t related at all, as a trolley with an unconscious driver goes careening out of control. Batman deals with all of these, even if slightly begrudgingly in the final case, because that’s what the Batman does – help people.

Interestingly, the reason Batman was even in Crime Alley that evening wasn’t because he was patrolling the area, but because he planned to meet a woman called Leslie Thompkins – someone we learn is near and dear to him. He apparently meets with her regularly, and, until this episode, was never late in doing so, which goes to show exactly how important a person she is to him. That he visits her as Batman, his true self, rather than Bruce, who he met her as, also says much without any words spoken.

It’s a rather low-key episode, but an important one, because it goes such a long way in showing us exactly who Batman really is – a man who helps everyone he can, and who, despite his cold demeanor, feels deeply.

Classic Cartoon Critic: Moving Day

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Rating:  ★★★★

It’s time for another Mickey, Donald and Goofy cartoon, and it’s a fun one, the only problem is they forgot about Mickey!

With rent that’s six months overdue, Sheriff Pete is selling Mickey and Donald’s house and everything in it. Goofy, the friendly neighborhood ice delivery man drops by, and the mouse and duck recruit him in their scheme to take all their stuff and run for it. It goes poorly.

The cartoon starts off strong, with some great animation on Pete, and an amazing sight gag of him nailing things to the wall. Goofy drops by, and then there are three main segments of the cartoon that follows.

One, we’ve got Goofy and the piano. Try as he might, Goofy can’t seem to get the piano to stay in his truck – it keeps rolling back into the house. This escalates to the point of perfect absurdity, as the piano starts playing hide and seek with Goofy, among other things. It goes on a bit long, but honestly it had me laughing, so no complaints.

Next is the Donald segment, which isn’t nearly as strong. It’s “stuck” humor, something Disney uses liberally in most Pluto and some Donald cartoons eventually, and generally it’s not my thing. Donald gets a plunger stuck on his tail, and struggles to get it off. Once he finally does, a fish bowl gets stuck there, etc. It’s a bunch of Donald flailing and being angry, and some of it’s pretty good, but it’s very one-note.

And then, finally, Pete re-enters the house, and we have the finale. After lighting a match the building explodes, sending most of the furniture and our trio into Goofy’s truck, while Pete is left behind in a bathtub.

You might notice that, after the first two paragraphs, I didn’t mention Mickey once, and that about sums up his presence in this one. He’s there in the beginning and end, and gets one very short moment with the suitcase, but otherwise he’s off camera the whole time. For that reason in particular, this isn’t one of the better ‘trio’ cartoons, but, fortunately, it’s still a decent short overall.

 

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DCAU REVIEW: BtAS: On Leather Wings

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Rating:  ★★★

The debut episode of not just Batman: the Animated Series, but what would eventually become the DC Animated Universe. While it’s not an amazing episode by any means, it does what it was meant to do excellently. Namely, introduce Batman, Gotham, and the Gotham Police Department (Gordon and Bullock in particular), and, most importantly, set the tone that this new series would take.

The visuals are top-notch, the long pans of the cityscape and the blimp cruising along within it instantly bringing viewers into this strange gothic world where old and new technology combine to create something unique. Lighting and, of course, shadow, are key components in setting the mood of both the city and the cartoon – something not necessarily inherently sinister but certainly foreboding.

The character designs for the main characters are all spot-on, and the design of the episode’s villain, Man-Bat, is undoubtedly the best thing about him. Dr. March, Francine, and Langstrom’s designs are a bit less inspired, but they’re serviceable.

It’s important to note that, generally, I will probably not comment on the music of each episode. The reason for this is not that it’s bad or not noteworthy, but because it is just uniformly great, so my praise for it would quickly grow tiresome. I’ll only mention it if I want to call attention to a particular part of it in an episode. In this one, I wanted to note that the evocation of “Night on Bald Mountain” at the beginning of Man-Bat’s transformation was a particularly inspired musical cue.

The plot is basic, but it was clearly meant to be. There’s a mystery about who’s stealing chemicals and terrorizing people in Gotham – the only thing that’s certain is that the perpetrator resembles a man with bat wings. A bat-man, if you will. Which Bullock certainly will; he instantly assumes it’s Batman, even though Gordon insists it’s not Batman’s M.O. Something this episode does a great job in establishing is the uneasy relationship between the Gotham PD and Batman, even going so far as to force our hero to fight some of Bullock’s forces. He doesn’t injure any of them, however, and even saves one from an explosion.

Batman continues to investigate as himself and Bruce, and eventually finds the man who’s been transforming into Man-Bat. For some reason the guy decides to explain everything to Batman before transforming, a rather cliché villain move that seemingly happens only to spell things out for the viewer, rather than due to any in-universe motivations. We then get a fantastic sequence where Batman and Man-Bat fly through Gotham, and eventually Batman manages to wrangle the villain and knock him unconscious.

It’s a decent episode, even if the villain is sub-par beyond the monster design. But taken as a series and even animated universe opener, it becomes something more special, excelling at exactly what it was meant to do – introduce the viewers to Batman and his world, and immediately draw us in.

Classic Cartoon Critic: Porky’s Poultry Plant

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Rating: ★★

After “The Blow Out”, Porky became Warner Bros’, new big cartoon star, and so the pig starred in a huge amount of cartoons throughout the rest of the 1930s and into the early 1940s. This was one of the earlier ones.

This Frank Tashlin cartoon suffers strongly from an identity crisis. It can’t decide if it wants to be a cutesy farm short, an action adventure, or an absurdist comedy. So it tries to be all three, succeeding most at the comedic bit towards the end.

The first three and a half minutes of this short are excruciatingly boring. A rooster crows, we’re introduced to all the birds around the farm, and Porky feeds them. Finally, after that we’re introduced to the fact that chicken hawks have been nabbing a bunch of Porky’s chickens (who are framed more as his friends than his livestock).

Soon thereafter, a chick is nabbed, and it’s Porky to the rescue. When a normal gun fails him, he hops in a plane to give chase, and soon there’s a small army of chicken hawks fighting against him.

The absurdist comedy bit first starts when Porky and the hawks fly into some clouds, and then emerge with the hawks holding the gun of Porky’s plane. But it really takes a turn towards the absurd when the hawks start acting as though they’re football players, huddling up and tossing the baby chick to each other. The rooster even narrates as though it’s a football game!

A very uneven short, but with some surprising comedic gems toward the end. Looney Tunes are slowly but surely turning into the sort of series we remember it as.

 

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Final Fantasy Music Guide: FFIV

This is part four of a series! The other parts can be found here: (one, two, three).

And we’re back! Sorry it took so long, I had lots of work, a wedding, and a hurricane to deal with! But now it’s time for a soundtrack that I know is near and dear to a lot of people – Final Fantasy IV! Along with an original soundtrack, a remake soundtrack, and an arranged album, as we’ve come to expect, as well as a return of remixes, there is also another, shorter arranged album, and, for the first time, a piano collection album! This would start a trend of piano collection albums that would actually end up lasting longer into the series than the arranged albums – the last ‘piano collections’ album was for Final Fantasy XIII!

I should give a small warning – though I like FFIV’s soundtrack, I’m not nearly as enamored by it as a lot of the rest of the internet seems to be. So it’s quite possible my picks will be at odds with popular opinion in some cases. I encourage you to look further into the soundtrack if you find yourself really liking all the tracks I recommend. Regardless, there’s a lot to love about this one, so let’s dive in!

Final Fantasy IV – SNES

The Super Famicom/SNES version of the Final Fantasy IV soundtrack was released in 1991 as an album titled “Final Fantasy IV Original Sound Version“. It was Nobuo Uematsu’s first foray into higher-quality sound hardware for a videogame, a foray that was wildly successful by most standards.

There is a remastered version of this soundtrack, released in 2013. I highly recommend purchasing this version, should you decide you want to own this music. The remastered version has superior sound quality, of course, but more than that, it loops the songs twice instead of just once like on the original release, and it has a few extra tracks that didn’t make the cut before.

There’s a lot of tracks I like, but don’t quite love in this one, so expect a lot of songs in the ‘other fun tracks’ section.

What you should definitely listen to:

• Theme of Love – starting strong, with arguably the most well-known and beloved piece of music from this whole soundtrack. There’s a good reason for it – it’s an amazing, beautiful track.
• The Dreadful Fight – also known as “Battle of the Four Fiends”, this is a fantastic song that really ups the drama of the battle music to this point, cluing you into just how much of a challenge this series of bosses truly poses to you.
• Main Theme of Final Fantasy IV – a fun, flowing track that does a great job of setting the overall tone for the game.
• Mystic Mysidia – there’s some really fun use of various sound effects in this one, that work to give an odd, unfamiliar air to the town it represents.
• Dancing Calcobrena – it’s short, but boy does this track, a creepy waltz, leave a lasting impression.
• Fight 1 – another great, peppy fight theme.
• Samba de Chobobo! – the song that would start the tradition of remixing the chocobo theme with different musical styles – and what a way to kick that tradition off!

Other fun tracks:

• Tower of Bab-il – a very enjoyable dungeon theme.
• The Final Battle – Uematsu has a fun time again with the final boss music again, but it’s not as relistenable to me as many of his other efforts.
• The Lunarians – though it’s not a very exciting track, I love the otherworldly tone this piece of music sets.
• Troian Beauty – a classic track that grates on me if I listen to it too much.
• Cry in Sorrow – a sad track for a terrible loss.
• Rydia – the theme for the character of the same name, with an appropriate amount of melancholy.
• The Prelude – the first version of this melody that I like a fair bit.
• Fight 2 – this is actually the normal boss battle music, and it’s fun, even if it’s not quite as catchy as Fight 1.
• Hey, Cid! – a jolly theme for a version of jolly version of Cid.
• Golbez Clad in Darkness – the theme for the main villain (throughout most of the game), there’s some interesting use of a synthesized organ, but there’s not a lot else going on here, especially compared to later villain themes.
• Fabul – an interesting track that manages to sound like a faraway land, as it no doubt intended.
• Welcome to Our Town! – the normal town theme, peaceful and inviting.
• The Airship – another airship theme, and it’s fun, but not much different than all the others up to this point.
• Fanfare – that good ol’ battle ending music.
• Chocobo-Chocobo – pretty much the last ‘normal’ version of this theme, as virtually all others past this point are in some other musical style.
• Chocobo Forest – a cute little Chocobo theme variant. This one can’t be found on the original release, only the remaster.

Final Fantasy IV – NDS

Released in 2008, the soundtrack to the DS remake of Final Fantasy IV was called “Final Fantasy IV Original Soundtrack“. Uematsu’s original tracks were rearranged for the DS hardware by Junya Nakano and Kenichiro Fukui, who did a fine job translating the original work.

This is the last remake soundtrack for quite some time, as the other SNES-era and the PS1-era games never had their music rearranged when they were ported to other systems.

What you should definitely listen to:

• Moonlight ~Ending Version~ – it’s a vocal version of the Theme of Love, and it’s utterly gorgeous, and I love it.
• Theme of Love – an amazing song, now with more harp.
• Final Fantasy IV Main Theme – I love the sound of the bass in this version.
• Battle 1 – this rearranged version of an old battle theme miraculously still sounds good!
• Battle with Golbez’s Four Emperors – listen to that lovely bass.
• Troia – the instrumentality of this version works a lot better for me than the original.

Other fun tracks:

• The Lunarians – this one sounds a bit more dire now.
• Kingdom Baron – greater instrumentality makes for a more sonically rich and enjoyable version of this formerly mediocre song.
• Battle 2 – the boss music returns, and honestly I like this one a bit better than the original, but it’s still my least favorite FFIV battle theme.
• Rydia – harp and strings make this song even more melancholy than before.
• Boss Cid – I love that tuba.
• Mystic Mysidia – I don’t find the sounds in this one as charming as the original’s, but it’s still a good song.
• Castle Damcyan – I think it’s the bass that makes me enjoy this song more than the original.
• King Giott’s Castle – this song makes me feel like I’m going to fall over – in a good way?
• Golbez, Clad in Darkness – now with more organ-y organ.
• Dancing Doll Calcobrena – something’s a little lost in translation on this one.

Final Fantasy IV – Minimum Album, Celtic Moon, Piano Collections, & After Years

Final Fantasy IV was popular, and that popularity spawned several music albums, many remakes, and even sequels. There’s a lot of extra music to listen to, but is all of it worth it? Frankly, no. If you were to only buy one of the arrangement albums for FFIV, I would far and away recommend Celtic Moon. But, for the sake of completion, here’s the good stuff from all three side albums, and from the sequel game, The After Years.

Minimum Album:

This album is decent, but there’s nothing particularly amazing about it. It includes arranged versions of some songs, and a few unreleased tracks. The best thing on it is, perhaps unsurpringly, the Theme of Love arrangement.

Celtic Moon:

This 1991 release features, as one might expect from the title, Celtic arrangements of various FFIV tracks. They’re arranged by Máire Breatnach, and the majority of them are great. My absolute favorites are:

• Mystic Mysidia – you haven’t lived until you’ve heard this one. It works so perfectly, and is by far my favorite track on the album.
• Main Theme of Final Fantasy IV – this is an overall very relaxing version of the main theme, with a fun extra melody thrown in partway through, and some really great percussion.
• Dancing Calcobrena – the violin works so well for this song, and the second melody is quite good, too, even if it’s rather different.

Piano Collections:

This 1992 album features piano renditions of several FFIV tracks, performed by Toshiyuki Mori. It’s a solid album, but I vastly prefer later piano collections.

Standouts include: The Prelude, Rydia, and, once again my favorite, Theme of Love.

The After Years (Final Fantasy IV & The After Years Sounds Plus):

The soundtrack to The After Years, composed by Junya Nakano, is, like the game it represents, mostly forgettable. The one track I would most recommend is Epilogue II.

Final Fantasy IV – Remixes

Final Fantasy IV’s music is popular enough to have spawned not only a lot of remixes, but a whole fan remix album, called Echoes of Betrayal, Light of Redemption. Here’s a list of my favorites, both from that album, and from elsewhere on the internet (by which I mean ocremix.org).

Smiling Hilltop for Four Hands, Kind of Green, All Your Calcobrena Are Belong to Us, Smooth Sun of Magma, Rydia’s Chocobo, and A Chocobo’s Mystic Life.

That’s it for the FFMG this time around. If there’s a song you feel I missed or should give a second chance to, leave a comment, and I’ll listen to and reconsider it! Let me know if there’s something different or more you’d like from me in these articles, or hey, if you just wanna tell me you like my picks, that’s cool too!

Next time it’ll be the often-neglected Final Fantasy V!