“Tyger, tyger, burning bright / In the forests of the night
/ What immortal hand or eye / Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”Dr. Emile Dorian (Joseph Maher) abducts Selina Kyle (Adrienne Barbeau) and whisks her away to his secluded island where he conducts genetic experiments on felines to perfect his mad science. By the time Batman uncovers Dorian’s scheme, he’s too late – Selina has been transformed into a literal cat-woman, and she may not want to leave, especially after she meets Dorian’s greatest success, the wolf-man Tygrus (Jim Cummings).
For one of Batman’s greatest rogues, the bad news continues. “The Cat & The Claw” and “Cat Scratch Fever” were tragic disappointments for Catwoman, overly moralizing in the one and utterly dismal in the second. For “Tyger, Tyger,” I’ll say that it’s not as objectively bad as the first two Catwoman episodes, but it is certainly the strangest episode and the first real moment in more than forty episodes where I’ve had to remind myself that this is Batman: The Animated Series and not, say, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Classics Illustrated – the latter because “Tyger, Tyger” is essentially The Island of Dr. Moreau. More precisely, I should say that I had a hard time reconciling this as a Catwoman episode; after thwarting bioterrorism and animal testing, Catwoman is next faced with a feline fetishist mad scientist. Wait, what?
Batman, however, is right at home in a story of science without morals, and “Tyger, Tyger” is valuable in that it demonstrates the sheer bulletproof nature of Batman, who can be dropped into any sort of story imaginable without having to change much to accommodate his new genre surroundings. It’s no trouble at all to imagine Batman going from the streets of Gotham to the abandoned castle where Dr. Dorian conducts his loony experiments, and he’s equally at home in a notably compelling fight scene with Tygrus in the jungles surrounding Dr. Dorian’s lair. It’s Catwoman, though, who never quite fits in. Because Dr. Dorian’s motivations are pretty thin – mad science for the sake of science – it isn’t clear why Catwoman becomes involved, aside from the obvious pun invoked by the name of her criminal alter ego. It’s equally vague why Catwoman might want to remain a cat-woman or why she feels any attraction to Tygrus, and for the episode to hinge on those developments results in a fairly flat narrative.
The voice cast in this episode is quite strong, and I’m not just saying that because Jim Cummings does no fewer than three voices (one of whom, the ape-man Garth, is easily the scene-stealer of the episode). Cummings is suitably tragic as Tygrus, though it’s never clear whether Tygrus is a man turned into a cat or vice versa. Most notably, Joseph Maher plays Dr. Dorian like Doctor Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger) from Bride of Frankenstein, an effete yet clinical scientist obsessed with pushing the boundaries of morality. It’s just a shame his episode isn’t particularly strong, because one could imagine a better Dr. Dorian plot that didn’t result in a strange contortion to include Catwoman.
For about two-thirds, “Tyger, Tyger” is head-scratchingly incongruous with itself and the rest of the series. It never quite coalesces as an episode of Batman: The Animated Series, but Batman’s involvement in the third act is as baseline engaging as we’ve come to expect from the show. It’s never dull, just strange, and its ending – in which Kevin Conroy recites William Blake (which is alone worth the price of admission) – is surprisingly thoughtful and heady for a kid’s cartoon. Is it too much to ask, though, for a Catwoman episode where she’s stealing jewels and being chased across rooftops?
Writers: Michael Reaves, Randy Rogel, and Cherie Wilkerson
Director: Frank Paur
Villains: Dr. Emile Dorian (Joseph Maher), Tygrus (Jim Cummings) and Catwoman (Adrienne Barbeau)
Next episode: “Moon of the Wolf,” another creature feature in which Batman wrassles a furry beast.
🦇For the full list of Batman: The Animated Series reviews, click here.🦇
No comments:
Post a Comment