6/3/11

MAD magazine and batman

If there is one thing I remember as a child that i read other then the usual comics and choose your own adventure books was MAD magazine. A lot of People are saying that this shouldn't count as Saturday morning them nostalgia but I disagree. MAD magazine was one of those semi adult magazine that was funny and loved to poke fun at everything and one of those things were children's cartoons and Saturday morning based nostalgia , not just movies.like weird AL, I think MAD magazine was a big part of childhood memories in comedy and parody.  One of the most popular issues that the release are usually the batman and cartoon parody specials. I know I use to get all the issues that involved Batman.





MAD is owned by dc Comics so it seems almost Natural that MAD would Parody DC's most popular characters. Batman Being one of the most during my time because of Tim Burton's Famous Batman/batman returns and the ever Popular Batman TAS. The reason I mention this is because of recently I was watching Batman -The Brave and The Bold and they Had done a Great reference episode involving one of the comics from MAD Magazines line of parodies on the Dark Knight.
I have to say I love Batman Brave and the Bold! It has gotten a bad rep from teens and hard core Dark Knight movie fans but the show is on its third season and is much like the cartoons of my youth. This version of Batman is a hybrid of the different ages of  batman . From the darker 80's to the campy golden age. brave and the bold of course  takes heavily from the golden age series and was originally geared to a younger audience. All though it's not old and relatively new the show is still done by almost everyone who has worked on batman animated series in the past including voice actors And other various Batman Animated Projects.

One episode even had all the batman famed  Adam West and Kevin Conroy guest staring in a much darker story then Brave and the  Bold has done. The show may be lighter then the Batman TAS or the comics, but it does still hold the same heart as previous batman series. You can really tell that writers of the show worked on cartoons from the past and really took heavy influence on the 80's and 90's style of comedy and story telling, while they kept the characters heavily influenced on the golden age look.

There are several episodes that feature Bat-mite played by the legend Paul Reuben's( Pee-wee Herman ). To me , This was a perfect choice by far. Bat-Mite was a Imp Like character from the 5th dimension with unbelievable abilities causing  cartoony like mischief  much like the superman's Mr. Mxyzptlk.


Picture Bat-mite  like the genie from Aladdin...annoying and can do about anything with his powers.  The reoccurring character had showed up in an episode sharing the different versions of the batman from the past including one I really remembered as a kid:  Batboy and Rubin.




Originally this small short was a parody comic done in a issue of MAD and was one I had in a batman special issue in the 90s.  Not only was it a small reference, but they took the entire comic parody word for word and included voice actors from old popular cartoons to play the main characters batboy and Rubin.


Frank Welker played the voice of Bat-boy , you will recognise him for being the voice legend of the 80's playing the character of Slimer on the Real Ghostbuster also Dan Aykroyd's Character Ray. Rubin was played By
Tyler Samuel Lee the voice of Dexter from Dexter lab (using the voice of Mandark ,Dexter's arch nemesis).
It was quite humorous and a real throw back to childhood Nostalgia! MAD magazine is definitely still alive today but its those past issues that really fill out nostalgia as children  on Saturday mornings.
Now I'd like to say it stops there but the show continued with  more the Japanese version of batman from the early  1960's manga .  For the finale, They Brought back Batman and Robin Meets Scooby Doo with a Bat Mite twist.
Thankfully, today we still have cartoons much like the past made by fans and legends of time when cartoons over flooded the market of the 80's and 90's. Sadly, just not as many as the yester-years  and not on the Saturday mornings like it use to be. We are lucky to still Have DC comics continuing there great lineup of animated films and shows that still hold true to the formula that made them more popular in the 80's and 90's.
(See the clip from the episode Below )