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The New Batman Adventures is the successor to the highly acclaimed American animated series Batman: The Animated Series. Although being different names, Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures is sometimes considered and appears to be the same series as the original, as the theme song and opening and closing credits are the same for both. The New Batman Advetures is referred to by the producers as the "revamp" seasons of Batman: The Animated Series. However, seasons referred to below treat The New Batman Adventures as a separate series. There has been some debate over the "official" title of this show; some refer to it as Batman: Gotham Knights despite that title having never been referred to in any way regarding TV broadcasting or merchandising, always utilizing the New Batman Adventures name and its accompanying artwork. To better adhere with the prior DVD sets of the original series, the DVD release of this show is titled Batman: The Animated Series Volume 4 (from The New Batman Adventures)
Stories in this series tend to involve Batman's supporting cast, which include fellow crimefighters Robin, Nightwing and Batgirl, among others. The show also features guest stars such as Supergirl, Etrigan and The Creeper; characters who would later appear with Batman in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. The series takes place after B:TAS and around the same time as Superman: The Animated Series.
The New Batman Adventures was produced for The WB and started almost three years after Batman: The Animated Series had stopped production. The animation style was changed significantly from Batman: The Animated Series due to budgetary issues and to have the show more compatible with the smoother Superman: The Animated Series which TNBA would eventually air in tandem with as part of The New Batman/Superman Adventures, then later return to its own series again.
The show had a significant change in focus from the original series with episodes focusing less on Batman and more on the many characters that inhabited Gotham City. The art was more streamlined, giving Batman a more sleek, buffed appearance and his classic plain black chest emblem, though the yellow oval would also be removed from the comics in later years; it remains so as of the present day. Nearly every character design was darkened with the animation change.
The appearances of villains from his rogues gallery were also changed. For example, The Joker was made pale blue with green-highlighted black hair, and black eyes with white pupils, as well as being depicted as much smaller. He no longer had the ruby lips from the earlier animated series. Additionally, the Penguin was redesigned to match his classic counterpart rather than resemble the animal-like appearance of Danny DeVito's Penguin from 1992's Batman Returns. Notably, Harley Quinn was the only character to not receive any drastic change in appearance or color alterations. Her popularity also became more evident, as she appears in 6 episodes; more than any other recurring villain - even The Joker.
Most characters were given a more ghoulish appearance. One of the most apparent was the Scarecrow's new design which became a dark, corpse-like figure which had a hangman's noose around his neck. The tone of the show shifted between "dark & serious" to "light & charming", with some of the darkest episodes ever seen in a cartoon (Over the Edge featured the death of Batgirl, albeit as a dream), as well as wacky, lighthearted fare. (Critters, for example, is one of the least popular episodes amongst some fans for its tone, but actually one of Timm's favorites and has commentary on the DVD release of the TNBA episodes.) Many of these changes and contrasts were somewhat similar to the regular comics post-KnightSaga
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