Batman: The All-New Adventures

Batman: The All-New Adventures is a 2021 American action-comedy puppet television series based primarily on the DC Comics superhero Batman, as well as characters from other DC and Warner Bros. properties. Produced by The Jim Henson Company and DC Studios, and distributed by Warner Bros. Television, the series premiered on HBO Max on March 30, 2021 (the 82nd anniversary of Batman's first appearance in Detective Comics #27).

Batman: The All-New Adventures, which depicts characters from the Batman franchise as Henson-style puppets, follows Batman (real name Bruce Wayne) as he and his allies (including Robin, Batgirl, Commissioner Gordon, and, eventually, the Justice League) fight crime in his hometown of Gotham City, usually foiling the schemes of Batman's colorful gallery of villains. Recurring antagonists in the series include the Joker, Harley Quinn, Ra's al Ghul, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, and the Scarecrow, while some characters who are usually depicted as enemies of Batman, including Harvey Dent (Two-Face), Catwoman, the Riddler, and the Penguin, appear here as neutral or even allies (Dent remains a likable (if conflicted) district attorney throughout the series, Catwoman often appears as a partner and on-and-off love interest to Batman, the Riddler is a private detective whose services are occasionally sought out by Batman when dealing with particularly difficult cases (but only after Batman has successfully solved a riddle), and the Penguin's nightclub, the Iceberg Lounge, is often visited by Batman as a place to relax when not crimefighting; the Penguin himself sometimes serves as a source of information about Gotham's criminal underworld).

The series was known for its wildly changing tone; many episodes had dark, gritty stories (i.e., a story arc adapting Dark Nights: Metal, or a timid scientist horrifying DC's greatest villains by creating a child-molesting robot), while some featured stories reminiscent of the 1960s' Batman TV series and Batman: The Brave and the Bold (i.e., Batman and Robin teaming up with the Scooby Gang to battle the mythical Abominable Snowman, or the Justice League finding themselves in the world of Looney Tunes, or Batman teaming with the likes of ALF, Red Fraggle, and the cast of Sesame Street), and some were a mix of the two (i.e., the Joker trying to copyright fish bearing his own, wicked smile; or Batman, Robin and Batgirl doing battle against the titular creatures from Gremlins). Each episode features an "experimental sketch" in the middle of the episode, which allowed the writers to place the characters in all sorts of settings and scenarios. One such sketch features a parody of the classic Looney Tunes short "What's Opera, Doc?", starring Batman (voiced by Kevin Conroy) and the Joker (voiced by Mark Hamill) in the Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd roles, respectively, while another sees Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy re-enacting a scene from The Children's Hour.

The series follows Batman's life in chronological order; the first episode focuses on Bruce Wayne's childhood and ends with him witnessing his parents being killed by a mugger named Joe Chill. The subsequent episodes of the first season depict Batman's first years as a crimefighter, where he mainly battles mobsters and smalltime crooks, before the events of the season finale, where he confronts a criminal known only as the Red Hood, in an encounter that ends when the unnamed crook falls into a vat of acid at Ace Chemicals. Batman solemnly walks home to Wayne Manor, thinking he's let someone die under his watch. The episode ends with crazed laughter echoing through the entire city. In the second season, Batman engages in battles against his familiar foes, and eventually adopts a young circus performer named Dick Grayson to be his sidekick, Robin. Subsequent seasons feature stories such as Dick Grayson ditching the Robin mantle and becoming Nightwing, leading to Jason Todd becoming the new Robin; Barbara Gordon retiring as Batgirl (and becoming Oracle) after being crippled by the Joker, who then attempts to drive her father, Commissioner Jim Gordon, crazy, with other women becoming the new Batgirl; Jason Todd being beaten to a bloodied pulp by the Joker and left to die in a factory explosion, with Tim Drake eventually becoming the third Robin (and eventually, Jason Todd returning from the dead as the vigilante Red Hood); the Justice League's first adventure as a superhero team, Lex Luthor setting up a secret drug trafficking operation in Gotham, and the Joker torturing and brainwashing Tim Drake into becoming a Mini-Me of himself (a retelling of a scene from Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker), with Damian Wayne, the son of Batman and Talia al-Ghul, becoming Robin number four.

Besides the DC Comics heroes and villains, the backgrounds of Gotham City and other locations are populated with puppets used in Henson Alternative productions, such as ''Puppet Up! Uncensored, That Puppet Game Show, No, You Shut Up!, Late Night Liars, Neil's Puppet Dreams, and The Happytime Murders; many of these puppets, in turn, were recycled from past Jim Henson Company projects, such as The Animal Show, Animal Jam, Bear in the Big Blue House, and Kermit's Swamp Years''.

Lead voice actors for the series include Bruce Greenwood (as Batman/Bruce Wayne), Tom Kenny (as the Joker), Corey Burton (as Alfred Pennyworth), Jesse McCartney (as Robin/Dick Grayson), Rachel Bloom (as Batgirl/Barbara Gordon), Fred Tatasciore (as Commissioner James Gordon), Sirena Irwin (as Harley Quinn), David Kaye (as Superman), and Grey DeLisle Griffin (as Wonder Woman). Lead and supporting puppeteers include Bill Barretta, Julianne Buescher, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, Kevin Clash, Alice Dinnean, Brian Henson, Donna Kimball, Tim Lagasse, Bruce Lanoil, Drew Massey, Colleen Smith, John Tartaglia, Allan Trautman, and Victor Yerrid, with guest performances from Pam Arciero, Jennifer Barnhart, Warrick Brownlow-Pike, Tyler Bunch, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Ryan Dillon, Louise Gold, Eric Jacobson, John Kennedy, Peter Linz, Noel MacNeal, Joey Mazzarino, Carmen Osbahr, Karen Prell, Martin P. Robinson, David Rudman, and Matt Vogel.