Star Wars The Clone Wars: This is what the newest movie trilogy should have been. While those movies were overall a bitter disappointment, these cartoons have been fantastic! There isn't a bad episode among them, even--yes I'll say it--even the few episodes with Jar Jar
Binks. Yes I said it. The most important characters are of course
Anakin Skywalker and his new
padawan Ahsoka
Tano. If only they made
Anakin in the movies like
Anakin in this series. You would have cared about him falling the
dark side, you would have felt something for him. He's an amazing character in the Clone Wars cartoon series as in, he's my favorite character. The first season just came out on DVD and if you're a Star Wars fan, do yourself a favor and pick it up, you won't be disappointed. And if you are, well frankly there's something wrong with you and I pray for your soul.
Brave and the Bold: The most refreshing thing about this series is this version of Batman is NOT the brooding, dark, psychopath that's been shoved in our faces since the Dark Knight Returns first came out. Don't get me wrong I like myself some dark and brooding Batman, but it's really nice to have a change of pace. That's one of things I like most about Batman, is that he works in so many different interpretations. This version focuses on a lighter Batman, the master detective, the master
strategist, who's brain and gadgets gets him out of the worst situations. More akin to the 60s and 70s Batman or like the TV show minus the camp (well there's a bit of the camp but it's quite enjoyable). Each episode opens with a quick team up with a character not shown during the rest of the episode. After they defeat whatever villain, it cuts to the opening title scene then on to the real story which finds Batman teaming up with a different super hero (or heroes). I highly recommend this series, mixes the great stuff of Batman from your childhood, the stories and characters are fun, the animation quite enjoyable.
Now on to the episodes from last Friday night (11/20/09).
Batman Brave and the Bold Season 2 Episode 1: The second season debuted on Friday following a handful of
unaired episodes from season 1. Titled "Death Race to Oblivion" we open with a great team up with Captain Marvel (not seen at all in season 1--I hope they continue to bring in new team ups).

The main story is homage the the classic Roger
Corman film, Death Race 2000,
Mongul comes to earth and captures the heroes Batman, Plastic Man, Green Arrow, Guy Gardner, Huntress and Plastic Man's comic side kick Woozy Winks as well as the villains the Joker, The
Catwoman (donning her silver age costume), Gentlemen Ghost, and Black Manta to battle his champion,
Steppenwolf in a race to be the ruler of Earth.

Naturally upon refusal,
Mongul threatens to destroy all of Earth. What ensues is a classic death race as Batman's master plan unravels to save Earth and his friends. Each
combatant has their own unique vehicle, with Gentlemen Ghost's dragster and
Steppenwolf's war machine being my favorite.



And one of my favorite shots of the episode:

Star Wars the Clone Wars Season 2 Episode 7: We're already seven episodes into this season and progressing on a storyline started two episodes before, but this one still stands on it's own. Titled "Legacy of Terror," Jedi Master
Luminara Unduli pursues
Poggle the Lesser into the catacombs of
Geonosis and is quickly captured by the creepy undead bugs lurking in the darkness.


This quickly turns into a homage to the Aliens movies as
Anakin, Obi-wan, Commander Cody and his troopers descend into the twisted catacombs in search of their captured comrade. This episode is surprisingly scary as they really saturate it with thriller/horror themes. They even have the queen bug (again taken straight from the Alien Queen)



We are introduced to these worm things that give the queen control over a person whether its living or dead. There's quiet the comical scene where Obi-wan nearly allows
Luminara to be implanted by the worm, curious to which
orifice the worm will go into which follows by a nice back and forth between
Anakin and himself as they bicker over which it will be. Naturally they spring into action right before leading to some great
lightsaber action.

Overall a great episode, creepy and a bit scary with the same great characterization that makes this series so good (we'll talk more on that in another post).
Both Batman Brave and Bold and Star Wars the Clone Wars play each week on Friday, 7:30 for Batman and 9 for Star Wars.
And if you noticed all the great screen caps, follow my link to my next
review!