Gorillas in the Midst!
Original Airdate - April 16th, 2010
Gorilla Grodd and his super secret ape alliance
replace Gotham 's entire human population with
gorillas. Batman teams with Detective Chimp,
B'Wana Beast and Vixen to thwart the mad Grodd's
plans.
Written by Todd Casey Directed by Michael
Goguen
Animation by MOI Animation
Review by Andrew
Media by Warner Bros. Animation
Cast
Diedrich Bader as Batman/Gorilla Boss Mark
Hamill as Spectre John DiMaggio as Gorilla
Grodd Kevin M Richardson as B'wana Beast/Msr.
Mallah Dee Bradley Baker as Dr.
Milo/Detective Chimp/Bat-Griffin Cree Summer
as Vixen
Music
Theme Written and Performed by Andy Strumer
Music by Michael McCuisition, Lolita Ritmanis,
Kristopher Carter
Media Video
Clip
Review
The teaser this time around lives up to being a “tease”
quite well, but I’m not entirely sure it’s intentional.
Introduced in “Chill of the Night,” the mysterious
omnipotent anti-hero known as The Spectre is teamed up
with Batman to track down Dr. Achilles Milo. It starts
with them finding him, of course, and really he just
comes across as a plot device to give us a more proper
introduction to The Spectre. This leaves me to wonder if
this is indeed a mere tease, and we will be having some
more focus on The Spectre in an episode to come.
Especially given the full use of his dark tactics as he,
behind Batman’s back, sentences Dr. Milo to an
inevitable incredibly gruesome death. Overall, it’s a
bit bland since it doesn’t really conform to a real
plot, but it’s very fascinating - especially if it’s
supposed to leave us salivating for more of The
Spectre’s dark tendencies.
Blandness, however,
doesn’t stop there. The main story revolves around a
Gorilla Grodd storyline involving, predictably, making
gorillas and apes superior to man. Or rather, GASP, a
humorously corny acronym for Gorillas and Apes Seizing
Power. Maybe that offset me for the rest of the episode,
but I simply can’t say it was entertaining. Gorilla
Grodd can be an interesting villain, and I do like that
they introduced the strange notion that he is obsessed
with Batman, but it doesn’t really save the episode any.
It really only seems present to provide exposition as to
why Grodd cares at all about taking over Gotham City.
Back in Gotham, the episode finds its little bit of
redemption in a subplot with the second appearance of
B’Wana Beast, and the introduction to Vixen. As their
subplot unfolds, it becomes evident that not only are
they dating, but their relationship is on the rocks.
Frankly, the episode would have been better expanding on
this further. They seemed shoved to the side in favor of
Batman and Detective Chimp, which was a fun pair up, but
it really feels as though this is two episode squeezed
into one, with only a vague relation.
What
annoyed me most about the episode, though, is that Grodd
and GASP easily took over Gotham City. While you can
imagine the GCPD not putting up a fight to the Gorilla
and Ape invasion force, given the firepower they brought
with them, it doesn’t really seem likely that Gotham’s
other notorious criminals would sit back and let their
turf be taken so easily. I especially can’t imagine the
Joker simply laughing it off. Overall, the episode has
its entertaining moments which you’ll get a laugh from,
but aside from the proper introduction to The Spectre,
and Vixen’s foray into the universe, there simply isn’t
anything that stands out as all that worthwhile. Well,
there is Vixen and B’Wana’s relationship, but it’s
easily fixed without much struggle. I will note,
however, that it was nice to see Vixen being the one to
propose marriage.
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