Batman: The Animated Series debuted 30 years ago today, and fans are celebrating. Batman: The Animated Series remains a milestone for both Batman and the animation industry. Hot on the success of Tim Burton’s Batman movies, Warner Bros. tasked Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and Mitch Brian with developing a new Batman cartoon to appeal to kids. Since Burton’s films had a darker tone to them, the team of creators was free to develop a similarly mature take on DC’s Dark Knight. The result is a series with a mature tone that takes Batman seriously without pushing over the edge into grimdark parody territory.

Pokemon Sword and Shield: GameStop to Give Away Shiny Eternatus

Pokemon Unite’s New Map Changes Everything About the Game

Fortnite Leaks Hint at New Spider-Verse Skins for Season 4

Batman Fans Celebrate 30th Anniversary

Batman: The Animated Series also changed the face of animation. Until its debut, kids’ action cartoons emphasized detailed character models (that could be turned easily into toys) at the expense of smooth animation, a style that peaked with X-Men: The Animated Series, which debuted two months after the Batman series. Batman: The Animated Series instead used Timm’s character designs, which used only the most essential lines, allowing for more graceful animation, a strategy adopted by many shows that followed, including the DC Animated Universe shows (Superman: The Animated Series, Static Shock, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited) that would follow.

On top of all of that, Batman: The Animated Series‘ vision of Gotham as a blend of noir and art deco forever changed how Batman fans imagine the iconic fictional city. Keep reading to see how fans on Twitter are celebrating Batman: The Animated Series’ 30th anniversary.

Wow so Batman: The Animated Series
aired for the first time today, 30 years ago
one of the best shows ever made,by far!!!
God i feel old now pic.twitter.com/RiWEKHxlqk

— alexander (@alexwargod) September 5, 2022

Happy 30th Anniversary to Batman: The Animated Series!!! Still the greatest piece of DC content of all time, for me. #BTAS30th #BTASForever pic.twitter.com/n1RYxGTgt9

— Animus (@Annimus__) September 5, 2022

Greatest Comic Book Show

Happy 30th anniversary to Batman: The Animated Series, the greatest comic book show of all time pic.twitter.com/15zHfwiHtL

— BLURAYANGEL 🦇 (@blurayangel) September 5, 2022

GOAT

One of the greatest animated series of all time turns 30 this year! #Batman #BatmanTAS pic.twitter.com/Hq7cJF02l9

— Matthew Walker (@Jokerman1994) September 5, 2022

Shockwave

Happy 30th anniversary to Batman: The Animated Series. The game changer to all cartoons, the birth of the DCAU, the first appearance of Harley Quinn even. All this created a shockwave still felt for years to come and many more. pic.twitter.com/G8Hh7Lkx2Z

— SJWJamesBond Wants Nazis Banned ︽✵︽ Agent of GIRL (@mvbrat91) September 5, 2022

Happy Anniversary

Happy 30th Anniversary, Batman: The Animated Series! #BTAS30 pic.twitter.com/FgNUnPeLf8

— 👑Gianni Shamari (@GianniShamari) September 5, 2022

Thank You

On September 5th, 1992, the first episode of #Batman The Animated Series aired in North America.

Happy 30th anniversary to this legendary series. Thank you to everyone involved with bringing these characters to life.

BTAS is my personal favorite version of Bruce Wayne. pic.twitter.com/p7ktyUbInQ

— Matches Malone 🦇 (@cell_0801) September 5, 2022