April Moon
Episode #35 - April Moon
Original Airdate - April 22nd, 2000
Batman must battle a gang of criminals who have been given bionic
enhancements by a noted medical scientist.
Media by Bird Boy
Review by J. Chen, aka The Overseer |
Credits:
Story by Stan Berkowitz, James Tucker
Teleplay by Stan Berkowitz
Directed by Butch Lukic
Music by Michael McCuistion
Animation by Koko / Dong Yang
Voices:
Will Friedle as Terry McGinnis/Batman
Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne
Ed Begley, Jr. as Dr. Corso
Jason Nash as Harold/Bullwhip
Ethan Embry as Terrapin
Johnny Galecki as Knux
Eric Michael Cole as Kneejerk
Cree Summer as Max
Daphne Zuniga as April
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Screen Grabs
Pans
Fun Keepers
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Review
HIGHS: Attempts to mix several plotlines, Max is kept to a minimum,
return to the darker colors.
LOWS: Out-of-place music, hokey looking villains, just plain weird.
OVERALL: This ep is...just...different.
A group of punk kids are given cybernetic enhancements by a known Gotham
prosthetics doctor, and use them to commit crimes. The Doc isn't a
willing partner in all this, it turns out that the thieves have
kidnapped his wife April and demanded that they be given these upgrades
in exchange for her release. When Terry finds out about this, he must
defeat the criminals and rescue her.
This episode tried to do a lot of things - it mixed in action, a
romantic aspect, unwilling partnerships, and even a betrayal at the end.
Some of them were executed better than others, like the partnership and
betrayal parts. The doctor's anger at cooperating with these criminals
is very evident, as shown when he breaks down in front of Batman, or
when he says "It's a chance to do some good...for a change", when
leaving the punks.
Max is given a role in this episode, but it's kept to no more than 30
seconds. Now that's what she should be there to do, give Terry a quick
idea if he needs it, not tagging around with him all the time. Bruce is
also present, but his lines are also brief; no more walking Terry
through his fights. The colours are also darker in most scenes than in
the last few episodes...yes!!
But the above aspects haven't really been the big thing about this
episode. The whole feel of "April Moon" wasn't the same as the rest of
the eps. From the start, there was always a swinging jazz beat in the
background, rather than the usual hard techno/rock tunes. For me, it was
simply out of place.
And then, the villains just looked kind of hokey, especially one guy who
had chainsaws in his knees...it seemed like they were always causing him
to get stuck somewhere, although it was funny to see his limbs fall off
at the end.
The impact of the romance and other supposedly emotional scenes never
really hit me that hard though, it just didn't feel right...maybe it was
the music. It kind of felt like a cheesy film-noir deal, which isn't
what I'm looking for in BB. And they had little swirling blurs when the
Doc went into a flashback...since when did we see THAT on this show?
In the end, I'm still not sure what to say on this episode. I'd still
hold it above any of those teen-angst eps any day. It's different to be
sure, but too much deviation can alter the concept originally set. If I
was looking for lightheartedness I'd watch Superman (the early ones
anyway), know what I'm saying? I have a feeling this was just a
"experimental" sort of deal, now I'd like to return to watching some
darker material.
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