10 Reasons Batman Animated Is The Definitive Dark Knight

8. It Didn't Shy Away From The Darkness

Batman isn't all doom and gloom, but it's certainly a huge aspect of his origins. Though there's definitely room for the crazy and zany (I'm looking at you, The Brave and The Bold), up until the show's debut the darker elements of the character had been neglected in animation. Considering what was covered in BTAS, it's pretty amazing how much the show runners were able to get past the censors. Murder, torture, horror, firearm use and more were all covered in the series, in turn producing some of the most terrifying imagery to have been associated with the mythos since. Often the censors actually had the reverse effect of impeding the show's darker elements, as what wasn't shown was equally and perhaps more terrifying than what could've been realistically portrayed on what was effectively a children's cartoon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tab9C3GW3U One particularly interesting result of the censors was the infamous 'Joker Grin'. As the show couldn't explicitly portray the clown prince's murders it instead chose to inflict the clown-like smile on his victims. It's remarkably ghoulish, and still has the desired effect of terrifying adults to this day.