Nursery rhymes never looked so creepy…
Directed by Rick Morales
Written by Michael Ryan
Watch it live on Cartoon Network USA, Saturdays @ 10:00
Beware of spoilers!
This week marks the introduction of Humphrey Dumpler aka Humpty Dumpty to the ‘Beware the Batman’ universe in an incredibly fun episode which packs a huge amount of action into its 22 minute running time.
Before proceeding can I just say it now… Humpty Dumpty here looks like a Sonataran! Don’t pretend you weren’t thinking it!
I could quite happily start my review each week with: I love this show! I’m still surprised by how much I’m enjoying a CGI animation show, it’s a complete first for me.
This week continues to drive forward the Tatsu/Katanna story whilst Batman makes up for a lack of development with a pretty awesome show of gadgets and detective work.
Let’s start with Tatsu who a lot of online fans are applauding for being a complex character with a continued story which shows that the production team behind this show are playing to both their audiences: the kids and the comic fans.
This week Tatsu is lurking around the manor trying to find the missing sword after last weeks battle. With the help of Alfred we get some history on the sword and learn a little more about Tatsu’s motivations.
The relationship between Alfred and Tatsu is becoming quite father-daughter and it’s really great to see. Alfred is so often portrayed as the stoic Brit or as the expected father figure to Bruce. With ‘Beware’ he is getting to spread his wings much further and I for one applaud that.
Batman/Bruce is in need of some development but this aside he has a lot to do this week. There’s little time to setup the story this week, as soon as the opening credits (that theme tune will be in your head for hours Bat-fans!) have finished rolling the toy soldiers are attacking and Humpty’s plan is in full swing.
Batman is required to do some detective work, interrogating mob bosses and having serious conversations with Gordon who pretty quickly regretted asking Batman to stay off the case.
There’s a great format coming in to this show. Batman detects, there’s a scuffle, some gadgetry and further detective work required and then the big final battle and in between this is woven the story of Tatsu.
Morales does a brilliant job of directing his second episode of the series but of course his first episode was ‘Secrets’ so that’s a big one to follow. The action sequences to be really well choreographed and in this episode there are even some faux focus shifts to give the effect of real camera lenses. It’s clever stuff and well worth keeping your eye on.
The script continues to work well and Michael Ryan proves himself to be a great addition to the writers room. This episode crams in screen time for all three leads as well as both Ltd. and Barbara Gordon, Humpty and Tobias Whale. There’s even a mention of Ra’s al Ghul.
At the risk of repeating myself Gotham still seems empty. There’s a great scene at the shows opening featuring some members of the public but after that Gotham is mainly populated by toy soldiers. One major plus for me was the couple appearing at the beginning seemed to be very BtAS in style the only difference being that they were 3D, looked to me like a nod to the classics.
The episode builds to a great dramatic conclusion without crossing any boundaries towards excessive violence which as we all know was a toned down before the show premiered due to concerns as to how parent groups would react.
A great family show, shaping up to be a great addition to the Bat-family.
7/10
