When something as beautiful as Batman: The Animated Series boasts over 100 episodes, it can become really difficult to choose a favorite. I mean, when it has classics such as “The Laughing Fish,” “Heart of Ice,” and “Almost Got ‘Im” under its belt, you can see why pretty much everybody experiences their own internal debates to this day.
So, now that the complete series has found its way to Blu-ray, I imagine that many of you reading this are currently experiencing nostalgia overload as you revisit those episodes listed and various others. In fact, your own shortlist may not include any of those – and that speaks volumes of how much great content the show yielded.
Believe it or not, lead actor and voice of the Dark Knight himself, Kevin Conroy, is actually able to choose a favorite of his own. Having already revealed Mask of the Phantasm to be his animated movie of choice at Michigan Comic Con a few months back, he had this to say about the series which spawned it to Coming Soon:
“My favorite episode of Batman: The Animated Series would probably be ‘Perchance to Dream.’ I love many of the episodes, but that one… What’s made the character fun for me to play is his complexity, his darkness. All of that is rooted in the loss of his parents when he was a child, and anything that deals with that psychology and that psychodrama that he lives in makes it fun for me as an actor.”
As Conroy hinted there, that tale saw Bruce Wayne wake up in a world where his parents were alive and he was engaged to Selina Kyle – though something was obviously amiss. Of course, this was all an illusion concocted by the Mad Hatter, but it’s understandable why Conroy dug it so much.
Actually, I happened across this one just yesterday while watching the complete Blu-ray set in order to prepare for my upcoming review, so stay tuned for that. While doing so though, I marveled over how such a complex and mature storyline found its way into all ages programming. Hey, that’s only one reason why this show changed the game when it came to superhero cartoons.
Tell us, is “Perchance to Dream” also your favorite episode of Batman: The Animated Series, or do you have a different pick? Sound off in the usual place below!