My Review of Superman: The Animated Series · 8:45pm January 7th
My TV Show Rating Score:
5/5: It is an awesome show!
4.5/5: it is a great show albeit not perfect
4/5: It’s a good show with minor flaws
3/5: It’s overall okay/guilty pleasure
2/5: It’s bad but not awful
1/5: Look, up in the sky! It’s super bad!
0/5: MY EYEEEESSS!!!
Greetings, folks! This is Mr. J back with another TV show review for today. This afternoon, I will be reviewing Warner Bros’ “Superman: the Animated Series” which ran from 1996-2000. This show, like BTAS, has proven itself to be such a blast to watch. I remember watching at least one episode of this show when I was a kid, but I can’t remember exactly what that episode was. Regardless, I managed to binge watch this show on Max, and it was so fun and entertaining.
This show is about the last surviving member of Krypton who is blasting off to space and reaches all the way to Earth. Kal-El, also known as Clark Kent, grows up in a town called Smallville, and he grows up to become a reporter at the Daily Planet in Metropolis. Having learned about his superpowers and understanding his moral sense of duty, he becomes the sworn protector of the city from supervillains and other deadly threats.
Now, I remember always having a negative opinion on Superman; I always thought he was boring, generic, and unappealing to me. I mean, can ya blame me? I’m more of a Batman fan than any other DC superhero. All the live-action movies never painted Superman as someone I should relate to. But surprisingly enough, this animated series managed to do just that—making him relatable, understandable, compassionate, and humanized.
Every episode was so much fun to watch because of the coherent writing, the storytelling, the humor, and even the lessons we learn from them. From watching this version of Superman, I learn something about humility, justice, sacrifice, and true love. We understand Superman on a fundamental level, and this is something we need to see more of. I might even go ahead and say that Superman is overall more likable than Batman himself (if you ignore the Injustice comics lol).
We see what he is like in every day life, how he has to balance his normal life and superhero life, and how he has to be two people in order to function in our world. And from what I learned about him in general, the real him is Clark Kent whereas Superman is just a public persona. He is a reverse opposite of Batman because the latter is the real deal unlike his “mask”: Bruce Wayne.
Tim Daly did a terrific job making Superman sound like someone you can trust and someone who can be your helpful friend. His tone is so down-to-earth which makes his Superman voice stand out more.
I especially like the other characters as well. Lois Lane is a pretty good character overall although she doesn’t go through any sort of character development at all. She’s a damsel in distress half the time, and that’s the most excitement she often gets in this show. Although I’m impressed there is zero chemistry between her and Supes, she doesn’t do much in this series except get rescued and report for the Daily Planet.
Now, there was at least one instance (in an alternate universe) in one episode where her true feelings about Superman were revealed. I don’t count that because they never follow up on that, and they were forgotten pretty quickly in my opinion. So that went nowhere.
Nonetheless, Dana Delany’s vocal performance as Lois is so iconic and praiseworthy. She sounds so natural in her causal conversations with other characters, and she manages to bring more of her emotion in hard-hitting situations.
And let’s not forget Clancy Brown’s performance as Lex Luther himself. His genius-level intellect, calm mannerisms, cold demeanor, and short-tempered attitude are all spot-on and make him such a cool villain to watch.
But Lex isn’t the only baddie in this bad boy; we have other iconic villains who manage to challenge the blue Boy Scout every now and then: Brainiac, Metallo, Toyman, Livewire, Mr. Mxyzptlk, Bizarro, and even Darkseid.
Major props to Bruce Timm, Alan Burnett, and Paul Dini for writing and producing this show alongside the others and also to Curt Geda and a few others for directing a huge chunk of these episodes.
I even like the animation of this show. It may not look fresh in today’s world and age, but it still looks very decent to look at and has some pretty impressive animation for a late 90s cartoon.
But the one thing I admire the most about this show is its boldness. It doesn’t hold back on the dark aspects thereof, and whenever it manages to go dark in some episodes, it does it in the most unexpected way possible. When Darkseid killed Dan Turpin, I was shocked and thrown off. They managed to kill an important side character in this show, and its impact was so powerful.
It has consequences within its storytelling which significantly highlights the seriousness of its world-building. This is how you make a mature setting without going overboard with unnecessary blood or gore like how some shows do. That’s something I enjoy the most about STAS.
Overall, this show is amazing in every way and is on par with BTAS in terms of story, characters, lore, animation, and voice acting. This gets a solid 5/5: super rich and awesome! I highly recommend you watch this from start to finish if you haven’t already.
Peace!
Your enthusiasm for the DCAU continues to inspire me, my friend. At some point in the future, I’ll definitely take the time to further acquaint myself with the series.