Posted By Dan Greenfield on Dec 15, 2020 | 4 comments

VOTE in BATMADNESS: The Animated Tournament…

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Welcome to BATMADNESS: The Animated Tournament — your chance to VOTE for the greatest Batman: The Animated Series episode of all time.

Writer Fred Van Lente, a 13th Dimension regular, and his artistic collaborator Ryan Dunlavey have produced The Comic Book History of Animation — a five-part series that debuted this month from IDW. To celebrate, we’re holding a tourney to pick the best episode from the greatest comic-book animated series of them all — and YOU get to decide.

Fred and Ryan have seeded eight episodes each for a Sweet 16 and we’ll be pairing them off until we have a champion in January. (Click here to follow the whole tournament.)

— HOW TO VOTE: You can pick your choice two ways: 1) Note it in the comments below; or 2) Take part in our Twitter poll, also below. Votes will be tabulated and the winner will be announced in the following round.

We’re up to MATCH-UP #6: ROBIN’S RECKONING (Ryan’s No. 3 seed) vs. BABY-DOLL (Fred’s No. 6 seed)

Written by Randy Rogel. Directed by Dick Sebast.

“Batman’s back story has been told countless times but here Robin finally gets the on-screen origin he deserves and it’s even more harrowing than Batman’s — giving us some of the richest character moments (in ANY medium) between the two heroes. The high-stakes drama of this two-parter where Batman finally tracks down the man who killed Robin’s parents never lets up for an instant, and the animation (especially the sequence of the Graysons’ murder) is a master class in ‘less is more’ storytelling.” — RD

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Written by Paul Dini. Directed by Dan Riba.

“A great original villain with a classic WB look in a standalone crime story with a terrific vocal performance from Alison LaPlaca, whose work I will admit to not being otherwise familiar with. The premise of this episode is also pretty much the same as one of my other favorite cartoons of all time, BoJack Horseman.” — FVL

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Now, which do YOU prefer? VOTE!

It's BATMADNESS: The Animated Tournament! MATCH-UP #6: Which of these is the better BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES episode?

— 13th Dimension (@13th_Dimension) December 15, 2020

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For the complete BATMADNESS: The Animated Tournament: Click here.

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NEXT: Harley and Ivy (Ryan’s No. 2) vs. The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy (Fred’s No. 7). Click here.