TRAILER: Your First Extended Look at ‘Beware the Batman’

We’ve had some teases and glimpses of the new Batman cartoon but now we get a full-on trailer (granted, sans dialogue) that shows a lot of action, a lot of villains, and a lot of Batman.

 

Here’s some more information on the show which premieres in just a few weeks:

The Caped Crusader will return to television screens this summer when Beware the Batman premieres on Cartoon Network Saturday, July 13 at 10 a.m. (ET/PT) as part of DC Nation. Featuring cutting-edge CGI visuals to match the intricate twists and turns of the narrative, Batman steps out of the shadows and into the spotlight for an entirely new generation of fans.

A cool, new take on the classic Dark Knight franchise, Beware the Batman incorporates Batman’s core characters with a rogues gallery of new villains not previously seen in animated form. Along with backup from ex-secret agent Alfred and lethal swordswoman Katana, the Dark Knight faces the twisted machinations of Gotham City’s criminal underworld led by the likes of Anarky, Professor Pyg, Mister Toad and Magpie. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation (WBA), this action-packed detective thriller deftly redefines what we have come to know as a “Batman show.” WBA’s Sam Register serves as executive producer, with Glen Murakami (Batman Beyond) and Mitch Watson (Scooby-Doo! Mystery Inc.) producing.

Starring Anthony Ruivivar (Banshee) as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Beware The Batman boasts a stellar voice cast with JB Blanc (The Count of Monte Cristo) as Alfred and Sumalee Montano (ER) as Katana. Lending voices to the villains are Wallace Langham (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) as Anarky, Grey DeLisle (Green Lantern: The Animated Series) as Magpie, Udo Kier (Scooby-Doo! Mystery Inc.) as Mr. Toad, Lance Reddick (Fringe) as Ra’s al Ghul and Brian George (The Big Bang Theory) as Professor Pyg.

Beware the Batman is the latest series based on characters from DC Comics to be added to DC Nation, Cartoon Network’s programming block on Saturday mornings. It will be followed by Teen Titans Go! at 10:30 a.m. and joined by all-new animated shorts.

And if that’s not enough, check out this gallery of really dark images:

Comments

  1. This actually looks alright. Im in.

  2. Sorry. I hate to be THAT guy, but Kevin Conroy IS Batman’s voice. Not sure why they didn’t bring him on this. When I read any Batman I hear Kevin’s voice for Batman….

    • Because he can’t be Batman forever. There have already been two Batman cartoon series not featuring Kevin Conroy as Batman and this will be the third.

    • You 90’s babies need to let go of this dude.

      That said – not interested in this CGI non-cartoon at all.

    • @Grandturk: *ahem* 80’s babies, the show started in the early 90’s… 😉 AND, Kevin Conroy’s voice IS Batman, BUT, you make a point, sometimes, letting go is the way to do it. I read Batman comics and hear his voice in my mind, same with the Joker and Mark Hamill but I accept other takes on the character, I thought Peter Weller was terrific as Old Batman in The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 and 2!

    • I love Conroy as much as anyone, but come on. This is a show that clearly wants is own identity. And Grandturk, what does being a “90s baby” have anything to do with it. My friends and I are late 70’s – early 80’s babies and we love Conroy too. Are you a 12 year old 00’s baby? It’s cool if you are, just curious.

    • The voice they had for “The Batman” was too high pitched for my tastes. The voice for the “Brave and the Bold” suited the show’s tone quite well.

    • And A hate to be the contrarian, but I frikking hate Conroy as Batman. He was never good in my opinion and has gotten worse after JLU stopped. His voicework is the one letdown about the Arkham games for me (paired with some abysmal dialoge like Batman saying “Gordon isn’t as dumb as he looks. He left a trail for my to find him.”) and don’t get me started on his whole “I am vengeance, I am the night, I am Batman!” Thing he does on every public appearance.
      Bruce Greenwood is a much better Batman, when it comes to voice work. Jeremy Sisto was also very good in his small role in New Frontier. But Conroy… Ugh… I am so sick of him.

  3. Cool! Batman Vs Moon Knight!

  4. Looks too cheap, not for me.

    • Cheap how? This CGI animation style is actually very expensive. And it worked extremely well for GREEN LANTERN: THE ANIMATED SERIES.

    • As Conor said, CGI is far from cheap and they were able to do some incredibly impressive scenes with it in Green Lantern: The Animated Series. I’m incredibly curious how they’ll apply the style for Batman.

    • Completely agree with ArKay….CGI for TV always looks pretty low rent….might be expensive but not expensive enough.

    • Wait, I thought shows like TMNT and GL:TAS used CGI because it was cheaper than traditional hand-drawn animation? I think Bruce Timm said something to that effect in a interview.

    • @IthoSapien, Cheaper doesn’t necessarily mean cheap.

      @ArKay & Apotheosize, A CGI cartoon looks too cartoonish? Are you expecting cinema level rendering?

  5. Doesn’t look too bad. Of course, it’s a DC show on Cartoon Network so they’ll probably cancel it before the premiere next month.

  6. This kinda confuses me cause this looks very dark and is something I thought cartoon network wanted to steer away from considering most of it’s content is now more comedy orientated. Also joe kelly visited my college like a month or two ago and said that cartoon network is really looking for comedy action shows now and not so much dark tone shows.

    • I agree the color palette looks pretty dark, but with villains like Mr. Toad, Professor Pyg, and Magpie, you’re bound to have some levity thrown in for good measure.

    • Levity with Mr. Pyg??? Not when you take the character as he is established in the books! I know they will kiddy him down, but I still think its strange to use the word levity when talking about Pyg. To me he is the creepiest most disgusting new Batman villain since… well… Joker!
      Just think about them using his mother of nails in a kids show! That would be so awesome! I can already see the parent organisations protesting! Such a great Batman villain! I really hope someone uses him in the near future again, or he even gets a live action appearance one day.

  7. Sign me up! I need to get my DVR set to record this. I am surprised to see Professor Pyg in a cartoon too. He was a freaky villain back in the old DCU Batman and Robin series. I think I saw him somewhere in the New 52 too, but I think it was mainly a cameo. It might have been in Detective Comics.

  8. I hope they give Pyg his Dollotrons

  9. I can see the appeal of having Professor Pyg in a kid’s show: animal-themed villain! But I’m betting everything I have that his character will be toned down as compared to the comics (well I hope so! 😉 )

    Now Flamingo needs to pop-up too and we’ll be set for the Super Evil Animal Villains’ League!

    • Yeah, that’d be cool. The Penguin could bring them all together.
      Terrible Trio
      Ratcatcher
      Croc
      Flamingo
      Pyg
      Catwoman
      Great White Shark
      Magpie
      Firefly / Killer Moth? (not sure if they would count)

    • Remember that girl who Damian promised he would save from Professor Pyg? Then she ended up teaming up with the Red Hood? It would have been interesting to see that storyline continue.

    • It did end, though. She drove away from Gotham after the fight with Flamingo and her mask fell off, I think because she was crying so hard, if I remember correctly. She is gone and left Gotham behind her.
      It was a great story though. Just reread that whole run a few weeks back in the Absolute edition. What a great book! As much as I like Batman Inc. its nowhere near a s great as the Black Glove arc or Batman and Robin.

  10. Looks pretty cool. Not sure if I’ll tune in every week or anything, but the animation looks solid and I really dig the variety of villains. I’ll keep my eyes on the reviews.

  11. “ex-secret agent Alfred”

    Alfred was James Bond!? Why would he become a Butler!?

  12. I think it looks dark. Not in terms of subject. I mean it VISUALLY looks REALLY dark. There were several shots where I could not make out what was going on. Did anyone else think this was a problem?

    • Perhaps you should turn up the brightness on your monitor? My brightness is up kind of high and I didn’t have a terrible problem with the darkness.

      I think they went for that weird off-black/charcoal color for his suit to avoid Batman blending in with the dark backgrounds, however it doesn’t seem to work 100% of the time.

    • I was about to make the exact same comment, visually it’s really dark (and I have a correctly calibrated monitor) I can imagine all the kids at home watching on small, cheap CRT screens not being able to make out what’s going on.
      It’s odd because tonally it doesn’t seem as dark as it is visually.

    • On reflection it’s not so much the brightness as the lack of saturation it looks more ‘drab’ than ‘dark’ which is odd for a show aimed at kids, usually they go over the top with color and saturation.
      It does mean certain things, like the explosions, really pop though.

  13. Pass. It’s too much like the Green Lantern visually and I don’t care for the CGI style. Hope it does well but it isn’t for me.

    • miss Young Justice…that’s an animation style I can get behind….this CGI is too Bobby Neutron and not enough Pixar. I know it’s for TV and I’m sure kids won’t care cause they’re used to this mediocre delivery system.

  14. Bering in mind this early goings, the CGI looks too… clean. Which is to say, it lacks texture, it lacks grit. A couple of the shots the walls are one simple color with no lighting, it looks like Batman is standing against a matte background. The CGI look works for GL, primary colors, space, etc. Batman in a city? Not so much. It’s not that it’s even bad, just very bland. It’s not even a “THis isn’t Timm-verse Batman” thing, because Batman: The Brave and the Bold worked fairly well with its more pop-art style animation. Maybe I feel Batman is more a “pulp” character that needs to be drawn instead of pixelated?

    The design work isn’t bad though, except that Batman’s head looks odd proportioned. Hope it works for them, but I’ll be giving it a miss.

    • Upon thinking about it the main word I came away with after seeing this was that it felt flat. That’s odd since it’s 3D animation. But looking at it again, I keep coming back to flat.

    • Thats probably something to do with budget. I’ve noticed that some shows animation starts out crude but improves over time, “The Boondocks” being the first I can think of. When a show has proven itself I think it gets more money to improve the visuals.

    • Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

      To be honest, I think all the darkness and shadow helps the 3D models, whereas in Green Lantern the brightness sometimes exposed those flat textures.

  15. This looks terrible. I hate this style of animation.

  16. Batman again. This seems like a massive wasted opportunity. Where’s a new Superman series? I think a Brave and the Bold-style Superman series where he flies around and solves problems with science and invulnerability would be a blast.

    • This has been in production for a long while now. Sadly, I think the WB is going to regret not making a Superman show, considering just how popular it turned out to be.

  17. I’m in, at least to give the first episode a try.

  18. Avatar photo tripleneck (@tripleneck) says:

    I really liked the Green Lantern CGI series that recently ended even though I didn’t think I would. I hope the same creative minds are behind this and that there’s the same kind of season long arc that binds each episode together. By the time the GL season ended, Aya was my favorite character and I was crushed by the story developments. I already love Batman and the animation looks a lot better than the still images I saw before. I am hopeful!

  19. That house design looks just like the one from the New Batman Adventures! Seriously, if this is like “The Batman” I might like it, I’m not overly enthuased about ANOTHER batman cartoon. That might be my biggest problem with it, I’m getting burnt out on Batman movies and cartoons.

  20. This has got to be the most antiseptic Gotham City ever. Hopefully they find a way to grime it up a little.

    That said, Udo Kier as Mr Toad looks like a brilliant bit of casting:) Brian George as Pyg could be interesting too.

  21. I love CGI. But I’m not a fan of this style. I know it’s not cheap to produce. But compared to the video games we’re used to, you see this and it looks silly. That said, I’m not the target audience. And really none of us are. Even if you dig it. This is for kids. So really none of our opinions matter.

  22. This actually looks really cool. Going to give it a shot. Professor Pyg!

  23. Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

    You know what? I’m into it.

  24. Wasn’t interested until I saw this trailer. I think it is cool how they have managed to incorporate a bunch of different styles from Batman’s history. His suit looks part Nolan Batman but the ears feel very original Bob Kane Batman and the Batmobile feels like the animated series. Title treatment is pretty solid too.

  25. i like the look of this im in !!

  26. Not bad.

    I’ll probably watch this on disc or streaming in a few years.