Answer: Dark Deco

The early 1990s television cartoon series Batman: The Animated Series received universal critical acclaim and has been consistently ranked (then and now) among the greatest animated television series ever created. Among the many things the show is praised for, including sophisticated story development for a children’s series, excellent soundtrack, faithfulness to the original Batman source material, and top-tier voice acting (all of which contributed to the four Emmy awards bestowed on the series), the cartoon was also very notable for its dark and gritty animation style.

This particular style is known as “Dark Deco” and was made by the show creators specifically to capture the grit and film-noir feel of the Batman universe. While animation was traditionally done on white stock with dark colors layered over it, the animators of Batman: The Animated Series started every scene with a totally black background and painted the colors and white highlights over top. The result was extremely dark scenery rich with Art Deco influenced set design that recalled the early 20th century origins of the Batman comic franchise.