YMMV / The Batman (Serial)

• Audience-Coloring Adaptation: William Austin's portrayal of Alfred Pennyworth as a tall and distinguished Englishman would serve as the basis for most versions of Alfred going forward, with even the comics redesigning him to be closer to Austin's depiction and retconning his original fat and bumbling portrayal from the golden age.
• Funny Moments: The shot where Batman falls off the building at the end of "The Electrical Brain" wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that bomb whistle!
• Harsher in Hindsight: After Dr. Daka demonstrates his radium gun, he enthuses about its potential:
  "We can build a lethal mechanism so destructive that it will make retaliation by the United States impossible!"
• Overshadowed by Controversy: While the serials did establish aspects of the Batman mythos that are still around today, such as the current appearance of Alfred and the Batcave, nowadays they are more infamous for their WWII-era anti-Japanese propaganda and racism than anything else.

• Values Dissonance: Due to the films being made around World War II, when anti-Japanese sentiment was at an all-time high, the serials have quite a bit of an anti-Japanese bent to them, with the main villain, Dr. Daka, being a villainous Yellow Peril stereotype played by a white actor in yellowface. Needless to say, even those who otherwise enjoy the serials for what they are can agree they have not aged well in this aspect.
  • The narrator gratuitously throws in a comment claiming the Japanese-American internment was justified.
    Narrator: This was part of a foreign land, transplanted bodily to America, and known as Little Tokyo. Since a wise government rounded up the shifty-eyed Japs, it's become virtually a ghost street.
  • Robin also tells Daka "You're as yellow as your skin!"

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