LTSmash

The latest episode of John Siuntres' fantastic Word Balloon podcast features an interview with Andrea Romano, who basically cast and directed the voice actors for the entire DCAU (from Batman: TAS to Justice League Unlimited to the current direct-to-DVD projects). I have yet to listen myself, and from the blurb they seem to focus on New Frontier, but there is sure to be some talk on the older stuff. Word Balloon: Andrea Romano on Directing the New Frontier

RE: Montoya's promotion and demotion I have yet to listen to the most recent episode so somebody else may have emailed about it, but I think this can be explained. Just because a police officer is in plainclothes, this doesn't mean they are a detective. It depends what their assignment is.

Regarding Levar Burton's cameo in Worry Men: In the review Mike said he didn't like the fact that Burton had such a small role, considering his high profile at the time (Reading Rainbow, Star Trek: The Next Generation). The reason I can come up with for giving him such a small role was that it was only intended as a cameo. Given his busy schedule with the aformentioned shows, he may not have had time to record lines for an entire episode. I imagine somebody on B:TAS ran into Burton somehow and asked him if he'd like to appear on the show, or maybe the other way around.

So basically wait five years!?

Thanks so much for this episode. It brought back tons of memories from a show I haven't watched in at least ten years. Now I'm seriously considering buying the complete series set I saw at Costco.

That badass admiral from "The Pegasus": Terry O'Quinn IMDB article --------- RE: Kirstie Alley in Star Trek She appeared originally as the Vulcan ensign Saavik in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

David Warner as Ras al Ghul is one of the best voice casting decisions ever. He's just perfection. "Detective."

RE: Wayne Enterprises vs. WayneTech According to Wikipedia, WayneTech is a division of Wayne Enterprises. It's an interesting article, as we don't hear much about the other companies such as Wayne Foods or Wayne Entertainment. Wayne Enterprises

Animated Shorts: Kevin Conroy It's a nice brief interview where Conroy talks about working on the show, how he got the job, working with other voice actors, etc.

RE: Joker's Favor I remember Joker's Favor being the very first episode of Batman: TAS I ever saw as a kid. This was an odd thing since this one is light on Batman himself. It speaks to the overall quality of the episode that a more nontraditional episode was what got me started watching. RE: Beware the Gray Ghost I'm pretty sure this wasn't mentioned on the show, but it might have been glossed over just because of how much the guys disliked the character. The Mad Bomber is both visually based on and voiced by Bruce Timm. "My beautiful toys!!"

RE: S&P restrictions Don't know if anybody else has seen this, but in the book Batman Animated by Paul Dini and Chip Kidd they printed a sketch, done I'm guessing by one of the animators, showcasing everything they were prohibited from putting in the show (children in direct peril, drug abuse, nudity, etc) all in one image. It was pretty over the top and hilarious. I don't own the book now, but plan on ordering it. Batman Animated RE: Heart of Ice One thing that didn't come up in the review was the quality of Michael Ansara's voice acting as Victor Fries. He somehow manages to make Mr. Freeze sound almost robotically cold, yet still expressing great emotion, mostly anger and sadness. Added to this was the processing that made him sound even more distant and cut off from the rest of humanity. Good stuff kids.

I also have a soft spot for The Forgotten. For me, it was a combination of the catchy theme composed for the episode (which was VERY different from the other episode themes) and the supporting characters of Riley and Salvo who I found really likable. Their plight was more affecting to me than that of the runaways in The Underdwellers for some reason.

Re: scoring If the 1-10 grading scale reflects a school grading scale, it makes more sense to cut out the middleman and simply use A-F. Otherwise, it makes more sense when using a 1-10 scale to use the entire scale as opposed to only 6 through 10. This topic has come up a lot on some video game podcasts I listen to regarding the correct scoring scale to be used when reviewing video games.

The distinctive music for each episode was one of the big things to me when I was a kid. Looking back, it amazes me that they were able to come up with so many original pieces. Just hearing the theme for Last Laugh really takes me back.