hosted by popgeeks.com | Forum DC Comics Solicitations June 2024 DC Comics Solicitations May 2024
The World's Finest Presents

Hooked Up

Episode #21 - Hooked Up
Original Airdate - November 13th, 1999

Batman must rescue Max when she becomes addicted to a virtual reality world created by the Spellbinder.

Media by Bird Boy
Review by Tim "Two-Face" Leighton
Credits:
Written by Robert Goodman
Directed by Dan Riba
Music by Kristopher Carter
Animation by Koko Enterprise Co., LTD., Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD.

Voices:
Will Friedle as Terry McGinnis
Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne
Cree Summer as Max Gibson
Jon Cypher as Spellbinder
Jason Marsden as Donny
Charlie Rocket as Donny's Dad
Michael Rosenbaum as Wendell
Greg Eagles as Max's Dad
Telma Hopkins as Max's Mom
Mark Jonathan Davis as Virtual Anchor
Eliott Goretsky as Kip
Jennifer Hale as Jessie
Screen Grabs






Pans

 
Review

A new type of technology - the VR Room - is all the rave and sweeping across Gotham. The VR Room allows Gotham's youth to totally zone out of reality and live in a picture-perfect fantasy world; after their time in the room is up, they are sent out to steal more money (or credits, as they're called in this show) as payment for using the room. Spellbinder is raking in the dough.

OK, let me get all the negativity out of the way...why is it that such a large chunk of the episodes of this series deal with an addiction or fad of some type? Is that what the producers think of us "youths" these days? There was "The Winning Edge", "Splicers", and now this. All of them, for better or worse, dealt with the topics well, but come on - originality, pelase!

That said, I really did enjoy the episode. It harkened back to "Perchance to Dream" from the original animated series, where the Mad Hatter hooked up Batman to a machine to keep him in a fantasy world. Spellbinder seems to be a futuristic version of the Mad Hatter, as I've stated in my review of "Spellbound"; unlike that episode, Spellbinder here is very interesting.

The various dreams of the VR victims - Donny the rock star, the love-magnet from the fast-food joint, and Max's "perfect" family - were all entertaining AND provided insight into their lives. I never thought we'd get to see someone autograph a bra on this series - we still didn't, but we came close!

The animation was superb, and the action scenes were perfect. I thought the first action scene with Terry VS. Donny (a reject from Team Rocket, I swear) was particularly well done - over the top, but well done. It just goes to show how desperate these addicts can get. It was also nice to see Terry grow a lot darker after he realizes just how dangerous Spellbinder's technology is - he claims to want to beat the answer out of someone's face and, and, and...not surprisingly, Bruce keeps him in check.

As noted, Spellbinder was more entertaining in this, his second outing. We still don't get to know much about him, and what makes him tick - we just see him as the brains behind the operation. No more, no less. He is still in dire need of character development, but that lack of development doesn't hurt this episode in the least.

The other major plot-point in this episode is Max's persistence to become a more integral part of the Bat-team. Both Bruce and Terry adamantly refuse, and in the end still never let her go all the way; however, after she manages to help defeat Spellbinder - not just with her brain, but with brawn - Terry shows some more respect for her. (Makes me wonder, though - I've seen some BATMAN BEYOND toy previews and one of them included a Robin figure - could she get a costume of her own someday?)

Thank God that this episode didn't preach and talk down to the viewer. Thank you for sparing us, Mr. Goodman - it's very easy to fall into that trap with moralistic episodes, but you steered clear of that.

Aside from a terribly quick ending, this episode was great - which is rare in season two.

[ Back to Episode Reviews ]

 

DC Comics on popgeeks.com