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Sorry, my bad, did I say Brave and the Bold Season 2 Episode 2? I meant Batman the Musical! What was I thinking! Naughty me! Naug… wait, Batman The Musical?!? Are you serious??

(NOTE - Despite the fact that, upon checking wikipedia, it’s listed as a Season 1 episode? I’m going to take it this is Season 2 since there’s that huge gap between June (Season 1’s end) and now (October)… so let’s just call this Season 2 and be done with it shall we?)

(NOTE Returns - Despite the fact, also, that this is the first time I’ve seen Batman on it seems that it came on LAST week! Dang thing came on BEFORE Star Wars though, in the timeslot that was hosting Poke’mon Mystery Dungeon’s series!! WHAT GIVES!! Anyway I’ll drop in on youtube and review that one too…)

Ah, today must be a SPECIAL day!
Not just for the fact they didn’t show a new Star Wars : The Clone Wars just so you focus on the new Batman episode, oh no… I mean for the fact that THIS week we’re graced with the appearance of Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother from CBS and a load of other stuff including a guest riff over at Rifftrax (what came after MST3K) riffing Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory… or was it Charlie… one or the other).

When the show first starts and you see Harris’ overtly dramatic song belting minstrel villain Music Meister I know what you’re thinking! Oh yes! This episode from the start is going to so be the best Batman episode we’ve seen of this new series yet!! How could it not be the best! After all… it’s a crossover with Freakazoid!… oh, no, wait, that’s NOT Freakazoid it’s a weirdo named Music Meister and he’s voiced by Neil Patrick Harris who simply must SING most of his lines… which hypnotizes others as you’ll soon see.
(How long has it been since Freakazoid was on TV? Long? Really long? Yeah… long.)

Anyway it starts off with a classic standoff at a rocket launch site between bad guys Grodd, Black Manta and Clock King (miss the old Clock King of the original Batman the Animated Series BTW) versus Green Arrow, Aquaman and strangely classic drawn Black Canary… which is great because they totally killed her character and it would have embarrassed the present day Black Canary to be even associated with this thing they have playing her in this episode… more on that in a minute. First the slow painful death of the episode… and I do mean slow painful death.

Hey everyone! I know you couldn’t wait one iota for Batman The Musical! I know you were just dying for this episode!! JUST DY—what? No? Me neither… but here it is anyway as the two groups of good versus evil is about to fight who should suddenly start to break out in song but… Black Manta. Next thing you know it’s like hiccupping and it quickly becomes contagious as EVERYONE STARTS TO SING! Apparently who should be standing stage left by the menacingly gimpily dressed (wait for it… wait for it…) MUSIC MEISTER!! (Arch villain of the Music Man, the super heroic Von Trappe League and Kamen Rider Hibiki… which is a Kamen Rider series with a musical spin which, yes, you’ll be seeing reviews of soon… again… so stay tuned!)

Anyway Batman shows up, plugs his ears with Batplugs… dammit, where’s my Batplugs?!?… and begins to fight the musical stylings of Music Meister (who was apparently beat up a lot as a kid for being in Choir until he discovered his power to make people his puppets when he sang… damn you Neil Patrick Harris for bringing this abomination to life, and yet the character strangely fits your voice and acting range… and yes, I’m not a fan of his, not even when he did that Rifftrax episode. Not at all.)
Music Meister first pits Batman against his new “pawns” who fight, sing and dance in perfect harmony… until the Music Meister escapes and sends the group dancing to their death beneath the hot fiery roar of the rocket’s ignited engines… until Batman saves them.

Should have let Black Canary go though, and damn me for saying that about a female character but… well… all of a sudden she’s got the HOTS for Batman and wants to be his girl… SAY WHAT?!? Sure, sure, I know that whole thing in Birds of Prey where she cuddles and kisses Barbara Gordon (post her paralysis and becoming Oracle) meant nothing in her sexual orientation and all but dammit why is she suddenly totally just obsessed with Batman all of a sudden?!? And why is it Music Meister (after hearing her sing for so long) is hot for… wait, no, I take that back… who wouldn’t be (even if she is dressed and drawn abit dated character wise).

Well Batman catches up with Music Meister and we have one interesting song in the Musical (Batman Drives Us Bats) which is actually fairly good… if not for the fact it just continues the ridiculous notion of the musical to no ends. Oh, and after trying to hit on Black Canary in a duet song (she’s pining over Batman and he over her) he shoots her in the back with his power musical cane and I stopped caring what happened next… then I tuned in to watch Clone Wars since I was watching this on replay on my cable box from Time Warner Cable and found out there’s no new episode today of Clone Wars… sucks.

So in conclusion what did we learn today?
1-We learned that the series may be headed to that Road Runner end of the cliff high fall to oblivion if it keeps cranking out total waste of celluloid like this episode.

2-Neil Patrick Harris is only appealing to those who watch CBS’ nighttime line up and doesn’t have an adverse reaction to said viewing (Me? I’m watching Kamen Rider and Ultraman and stuff off the net so… well… Neil Patrick Harris does nothing for me.)

3-Black Canary is hot even when the animators try to tone her hotness down visually.

3a-Black Canary would never pine and whine in song over wanting to be Batman’s. Never.

4-If you were going to subject us to a musical then the episode needed to go the Full Monty (and by that I don’t mean we needed to watch Batman strip). We needed to have Batman (for this one episode) voiced by… yes… Adam West! It’s a musical, we’re singing here, let’s go the full monty and have Singing Neil Patrick Harris versus Adam West Batman! I would have been most forgiving of the singing if he swung with the plot and came back with his own musical hits and jabs at the musical plot and made the episode a real duel of personalities between Harris and West… or at the very least get Kevin Conroy for this episode and have him do some comebacks on the whole musical thing to go against Harris’ singing! Something to make this more than Harris stealing the show (which he did to a far too great extent, because while yet Green Arrow and Aquaman are there it’s all about Batman and Black Canary (pining for Batman) and Harris’ character.

So that’s that. What else is there to say about this but the score.
Neil Patrick Harris, for your hard work and determination to bring this character to life and really shine in this episode of Batman : The Brave and the Bold I’m going to reward you with… a 2 out of 5. Now kindly shut your yap, go back to CBS and be quiet while leaving the room!! PLEASE!! NO MORE SINGING!! Enough already!!

I guess I can go find out what next week’s episode is… but I don’t want to… mainly because I don’t think there’s a next week episode (due to the Halloween line up). We’ll tune in after Halloween (same Bat Musical time, same Bat Musical channel) to see what’s next… oh damn, does that mean no Clone Wars for TWO WEEKS?!? WHY!!

Anyway, recap, 2 out of 5, didn’t like singing episode, one song (Batman Drives Us Bats) makes good music video and that’s it, Neil Patrick Harris needs to go back to CBS and not quit his night job… nuff said.

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