REVIEWS

Episode #22 - Ragdolls to Riches Original Airdate - July 16th, 2005 The Batman finds himself caught in the middle of a game of one-upmanship between master thieves Ragdoll, a triple-jointed contortionist, and Catwoman. Meanwhile, Selina Kyle, Catwoman's alter ego, eyes Bruce Wayne as a possible target for future robberies. Review by Stu 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 Adam Beechen Directed by Seung Eun Kim Animation by Dongwoo Animation Co., LTD. Music by Thomas Chase Jones Voices Rino Romano as The Batman Alastair Duncan as Alfred Ming-Na as Detective Ellen Yin* Gina Gershon as Catwoman Jeff Bennett as Ragdoll * - Credited, although didn't appear. Screen Grabs Additional HD Images Pans Review After nearly two full seasons worth of episodes, the fact that a single villain has yet to be given a full background/motivation is fairly inexcusable. The problems with the show are apparent to even the most casual of viewers, but no massive steps are being made to improve them. Perhaps it's because the creators are reading feedback from the wrong places and are lead to believe their show is utterly perfect and nay-sayers are nitpicking, but alas, if the show hopes to become great, it needs to make some damn big improvements. It's not bad but man, Batman has the second best rouges gallery in comics (nothing beats Spidey's, True Believers!), so why are there only 2 half decent villains in the show? Especially when Batman's most interesting villains from the comics, The Joker, Mr. Freeze and The Penguin are so completely and utterly annoying in this show that they're being outshined by the likes of Spellbinder? The new villain of the week doesn't fair much better than those before him. His gimmick is interesting, and often had this reviewer cringing at the site of it, but he's given no origin, no motivation and a voice that makes you wish your neighbor would start playing her N'Sync album at the maximum volume again. Thankfully, the fight scenes are here to save the day again. If the storyboard artists in this show ever have a day off, this show is completely and utterly screwed. Whilst I think a lot of the negative reaction to this show is solely because of Bat-Embargo place on Justice League Unlimited, the fights have saved this show from being DC's answer to the first season of the 1990's Fantastic Four series. Ironically enough, the episode wasn't almost (but not quite) saved by Catwoman, of all people. I found her relationship to be one of the more interesting in this show, and wouldn't mind seeing more of it in the show, hell, a continuing storyline would be pretty cool to see, and may actually, * gasp * develop one the villains! Untold! It's also worth nothing that the mediocre Gina Gershon, Catwoman's voice actress gave a slightly better performance than her terrible effort in The Bat, The Cat And The Very Ugly, but she still needs to at least sound interested in what her character is saying. So gentle reader, as per usual, another pointless villain, another bland episode. As said above, the "catch the jewel" fight scene in the Clock Tower basically kept me watching until the end of the episode, but for a show staring a character as interesting as Batman, this show should be about 20 times better than it is. And at the end of the day, if it were, it would sell more toys. [ Back to Reviews ]