REVIEWS

Episode #17 - Swamped Original Airdate - June 11th, 2005 Killer Croc, a half-man, half reptile plans to submerge all of Gotham in water in order to facilitate his plundering of the city. Reviews by Stu, Jim Harvey Media by Gareb Credits Supervising Producer Duane Capizzi Supervising Producer Michael Goguen Producer Linda M. Steiner, Jeff Matsuda Associate Producer Kimberley A. Smith Written by Tom Pugsley and Greg Klein Directed by Brandon Vietti Animation by DR Movie Co., LTD. Music by Thomas Chase Jones Voices Rino Romano as The Batman Alastair Duncan as Alfred Ron Perlman Killer Croc Jim Cummings as Vic and Freddy Screen Grabs HD Screen Grabs Pans Review (Stu): With The Batman still a little shaky in its sophomore season, I was slightly looking forward to the newer villains coming in, rather than the older one’s reappearing. Riddled is a great example. Since most of the villains in season one sucked, it’s cool that season two can get a fresh start with some of The Batman’s rouges gallery. Killer Croc has never been a massive favorite, but I’ve enjoyed some of his past stories, in both comics and Batman: The Animated Series (Sideshow being his best appearance). I had a small amount of hope that this episode would topple it, but it didn’t even come close. There was nothing especially awful about this episode, but there’s still not enough here to call this episode good. I’m struggling to find a better word than “average”. One of the main turn offs of the episode, believe it or not, as Ron Perlman; I loved most of his work in the past, Clayface, Orion, Slade, the guy from Blade II and of course, Hellboy, but here, it’s simply jarring. For reasons unknown, Croc was a hick accent. It’s not only painful to listen to, it makes the already pale dialogue suffer, and basically deprives us of what may be the show’s only great voice actor. There was a nice amount of fanboy references here, especially the ‘Timm’ truck and the new museum, now located in the whatever-this-show-calls-the-bat-cave. Nothing massive, but hell, any attempt to reach a wider audience is appreciated. But here, it wasn’t fanboy nods that saved the episode from being a complete waste of time. No, as always, the fight scenes saved the day. The first fight between The Batman and Croc may very well be the best the show’s done, if only to see Croc completely outclass Wayne, and then have The Batman, fight back with a vengeance in the rematch. And this time, praise The Lord, he didn’t use a giant action figure to help him. Speaking of action figures, Deep Sea Diving Batman was introduced here. Whilst I’m not sure if it’s a toy yet, I’m pretty sure it will be, and it’s not too bad of a design. It may remind some of the Batman Beyond design, due to its belt and lack of cape. Croc’s own design wasn’t too bad, but I’m still not entirely sure as to why he has a 6ft tail. As always the animation shines. It makes the show so much more pleasing to watch, even if you are completely bored out of your skull. So we’re 4 episodes into season 2, and I’m still watching. That’s an achievement. Not a big one, but an achievement all the same. [ Back to Reviews ]

 

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