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I am the Night, I am Batman! (Volume 3)

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  • Title: Batman: The Animated Series – Volume Three
  • tv.com: link

The third volume of Batman: The Animated Series continues with final 28 original episodes from the series which includes the few episodes that were released under the title The Adventures of Batman and Robin.  All three volumes make a great collection, but this final volume is no exception including some of the best episodes of the series.  With a host of returning villians and a stable of new characters introduced here the creators have enlarged Batman’s world and allowed for more variation from episode to episode.

The art deco animated Batman series won over fans and critics alike with its stylish retelling of the Batman mythos.  Bruce Wayne prowls the streets of Gotham with the sometime help of his ward and young college student Dick Grayson to fight crime and dispense justice as Batman and Robin.

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Batman Returns

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  • Title: Batman Returns
  • IMDB: link

“I want in. The thought of busting Batman makes me feel all… dirty.
Maybe I’ll just give myself a bath right here.”

Michael Keaton returns as the Caped Crusader to fight against evil and corruption. He isn’t just battling a single adversary this time around, oh no he is battling a feathered brained Penguin / Oswald Cobblepot (Danny DeVito), a nimble bi-polar secretary that plummeted to her death and returned with feline alter ego and one crazy
Max Shreck (Christopher Walken), Gotham’s new crime lord hidden behind a mask of a not so much legitimate business man.

Bruce AKA Batman (Michael Keaton) has a bit of a fetish for little Miss. Kitty and whenever the two of them around each other they can’t help it, either it’s almost kissing or scratching each others eyes out, maybe even both. Penguin finds himself a little more than a touch attracted to Cat Woman and is constantly hitting on her with some of the most inappropriate pick up lines.

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Batman

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  • Title: Batman
  • IMDB: link

Vicki Vale: “I just gotta know, are we gonna try to love each other?”
Bruce Wayne: “I’d like to. But he’s out there right now. And I’ve gotta go to work.”

Tim Burton is obviously one of our greats in concerns to innovation, style and creativity towards filmmaking. His vision for Batman was dark and brooding, just like Keaton played him. Gotham City was dark and corrupt, it had dirty streets and always foreboding and controlled by mob boss Carl Grissom (Jack Palance) until the sadistic and charismatic Joker (Jack Nicholson) appeared and took over not only Grissom’s control of the city, but his gal Alicia (Jerry Hall). The Joker owned the streets and controlled the crime in Gotham with a “smile”, the Caped Crusader (Michael Keaton) created this monster and realized he was the only one who could put him down.

As I see it I must have always been meant to be a film critic. Do you know where I was at 11:00 PM the evening before Batman was released? I was sitting in a theater watching the film before anybody else (as far as I was concerned) got to view this masterpiece. Yes back then I would have considered Batman a masterpiece. If you were to compare it to today’s Batman Begins it would have been considerably dark for it’s time.

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Holy 60’s Movie Batman!

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  • Title: Batman: The Movie (1966)
  • IMDb: link

“What has yellow skin and writes?”
“A ball-point banana!”

Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) take on one of their biggest challenges yet as four of the villains from the 60’s Television show team-up to take down the Dynamic Duo and kidnap the World Security Council, turn them into dust, and hold the world hostage.  You know, just your average run-of-the-mill day in Gotham City.

Although not as good as the series itself (it was filmed during the hiatus between the first and second seasons), the film does capture the spirit and campiness fans of the show came to love.

We get ridiculous riddles which are reasoned (and I use that term loosely) in an insanely twisted logic to unexpected, and quite unbelievable, answers.  Oh, and don’t forget the suicidal porpoise.

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Batman the Animated Series

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  • Title: Batman: The Animated Series – Volume One
  • tv.com: link

No digital cartoon here folks.  Despite the fact that many cartoons had gone to digital at the time it came out Batman the Animated Series is old school, in more ways than one.  Hand drawn on cells with painted backgrounds with a limited color palate and a breath-taking style that merges old school images into a new and exciting storytelling.  Producers Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm deserve all the praise I can muster for this wonderful creation that got better and better year after year.

As you watch the main titles you notice they never say Batman (that’s pretty ballsy for a “kid’s show”).  From these early images you can see the importance of the visual look to the series, which is very important on a show where the main character doesn’t talk much.  Building on core concepts of who and what Batman is while adding a new dark art deco style and flair to the look of Gotham the creators make almost all the right choices including retuning the Joker‘s balls and allowing him to be a wickedly scary demented killer.

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