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The World's Finest Presents

Episode #17 - Old Wounds
Original Airdate - October 3rd, 1998

The original Robin, Dick Grayson recounts to the new Robin, Tim Drake, why he and Batman broke up as a crime-fighting team. 

Media by Bird Boy
Review by Robin III, Batman Fan
Credits
Written by Rich Fogel
Directed by Curt Geda
Music by Shirley Walker
Animation by Koko/Dong Yang

Voices
Kevin Conroy as Batman/Bruce Wayne
Tara Charendoff as Batgirl/Barbara Gordon
Loren Lester as Nightwing/Dick Grayson
Mathew Valencia as Robin/Tim Drake
Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. as Alfred
Mark Hamill as The Joker
Townsend Coleman as Rocco
Neil Ross as Henshaw
Ian Buchanan as Connor
Pamela Hayden as Geena
Screen Grabs

































Pans



Quotes
NIGHTWING: Here, kid. I think you lost this.
ROBIN: I coulda handled him.
NIGHTWING: Coulda, woulda... Didn't.
--
DICK: This isn't a good time--
BATMAN: I'm not making the schedule.
--
JOKER: Ah ah! If you stick your nose in... It might get cut off!
--
BATMAN: You're late.
ROBIN: Excuse me for having a life!
--
ALFRED: Ms. Gordon, I earth you've discovered our little secret? Yes, I admit it, I am Batman.
BRUCE: It's alright, Alfred.
ALFRED: Very good, sir.
--
JOKER: Hey! Do I hit your kids? Oh, actually I do...
--
BATMAN: I thought we had the same goals...
ROBIN: Things changed! I changed! The games over, Batman! I quit.
--
ROBIN: I guess Batman had a change of heart. Who'da though he had one.


Review (Robin III): While it was an excellent bridge between BTAS and TNBA, this episode still seemed quite weak at moments. The bookends to the episode with Nightwing and Robin were fine, especially the final one, but the flashback was rushed. The Joker plot seemed thin, the scene of Barbara and Bruce playing tennis (from the comic THE LOST YEARS) was cut, totally ruining Batman's deductive skills of who Batgirl was, and the unexplained more-violent-more-cruel Batman seemed odd.

What did work, which saved the whole episode, was the aftermath of the Joker fight with Batman, Robin and Batgirl. It was quite well done, and excellently scored musically. Even Batman's acting (which didn't seem like much of a change) had a small inflection of being sad that Robin didn't see eye to eye with him. This one minor scene may have saved the entire plot.

The animation, unfortunately, was quite oblong. Actions were clunky, and character staging just seemed off. This should have been one of the episodes that sprung for a better quality job considering the importance of the main plot.

Overall, it was an okay episode because of it's necessity, but if it were just a simple episode, it would have been terrible.

Review (Batman Fan): This is an excellent an episode, and one of TNBA's best!

It all starts out with our young Robin fighting some thugs, and Nightwing coming in to get one he missed. When Robin compares Dick to Batman, we get a very cold and harsh remark from him saying they are nothing alike and the flashback story pursues. I thought it was kinda symbolic how the new Robin wanted to know just what happened between the old Batman and Robin, which he admired so much, and to see what happened to Dick that made him decide to give up the Robin costume, and in a sense, maybe it was Tim's way into getting to know Bruce better, and what may inevitably be happening to him in the future.

The flashback was handled perfectly. It brilliantly fit together all the pieces of the mystery behind Dick's transformation and did a great job showing the tension building between him and Bruce and how Barbara was stuck in the middle of it all. They also did a great job humanizing Dick, by showing his college graduation and seeing him on a date with Barbara, which was really sweet. As it progressed, you could see just how sick Dick was getting of Bruce, starting out mildly with saying he has a life besides Robin leading into his departure from Robin.

The main thing here was to show the differences between Dick and Bruce. While Dick has a heart and human side under him, shown while Batman interrogates Conner, and seeing Dick looking through the eyes of Conner's family and seeing how horrified they were, which was an excellent scene that really depicted black and white between Bruce and Dick, as Batman was portrayed very cold hearted in that scene. Then comes Barbara, who cares for Dick a lot and wants to know what's going on between the two, which I thought was really sweet of her. Finally, she's in on the secret of Batman and Robin, which I thought was a breaking point for Bruce, I mean, why else would he show her the cave unless he didn't really care about both Dick and Barbara.

The Joker was an excellent choice for a villain. The Dynamic Duos archrival is the last enemy they face together. In a sense, I guess you could say it was The Joker, who finally was able to break apart the Duo, and if he knew that, I'm sure that would've done wonders to his ego. The ending action scene with the Joker was amazing. Not much of a diabolical plot for the Joker, hijacking a radar to disrupt aircraft, but it worked for the situation. Batgirl was really able to prove herself, by holding her own against the Joker and his thugs, while Batman was having problems with his glider and the hyenas. When Robin finally arrived, you could tell he felt betrayed seeing the girl he loves with the man he can't seem to reason with. In the end, they both bond together to save Batman, and Batgirl saves the day, by tricking Joker into destroying the radar, just before a plane crosses over. One thing I liked was Joker's reaction too Batgirl, and the line about hitting Batman's kids.

In the end, Dick feels betrayed and used seeing Barbara working for Bruce. In a powerful scene where Batgirl tries to convince him that she chose to work for Bruce, it's the final straw for Dick as he gives up Robin and strikes Batman. I have to say, Dick's anger was misplaced for a bit, being mad at Barbara for keeping a secret from him while he was doing the same, but it transferred to Bruce, who wasn't really sure how to deal with situation and wasn't able to save his ward. The end were Nightwing realizes maybe Bruce has changed or always had a heart while talking to Conner and being told Bruce gave him a job was a great way to smack Dick in the face and tell him that maybe a part of him was wrong, but he had to do what he did to become his own man, and at the end, flying off with Robin saying it's about time was a nice finish with the great music playing at the episode ends.

And what, so the animation isn't that great, you just can't blame the episodes amazing story for some mediocre animation.

****1/2

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