Theme Week

The Animated Dark Knight Detective

/ / Home Video News , Theme Week
  • Title: Batman: The Animated Series – Volume Two
  • tv.com: link

Season One (read that review) dealt with setting up the major Bat-villains, the city, and dealing with Bruce Wayne.  Season Two delves deeper into the Batman universe in examining the more of the characters’ origins, motivations, and roles in the series.  Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski really begin to knock out some winners as the series begins to hit it’s stride.

Season Two brings back the villains and Gotham natives from Season One while expanding the universe and adding a few new characters.  We get some more Robin episodes, most notably the retelling of the Dick Grayson Robin origin story.  Finally a Riddler episode “If You’re So Smart Why Aren’t You Rich?” tells the origin tale of the Mr. Edward Nigma and his life of crime involving riddles, a maze and a Minotaur.  Commissioner Gordon will be shot in “I am the Night” prompting Bruce Wayne to consider hanging up the cape and cowl.  The episode is also of interest for the sly reference O’Neil and Adams.

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The Animated Dark Knight Detective Read More »

Holy 60’s Movie Batman!

/ / Home Video, Theme Week
  • 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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Holy 60’s Movie Batman! Read More »

Batman the Animated Series

/ / Home Video, Theme Week
  • 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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Batman: Dead End

/ / Film News & Trailers, Theme Week

As part of all things Batty we take a look at Batman: Dead End.  This low budget fan film makes some important points – 1) Batman doesn’t need to be cased in rubberized armor to be cool; this costume (made for far less) simply makes those multi-million dollar rubber suits look silly.  2) Fanboys, no matter how much they love the character, can just as easily screw something like this up (as you’ll notice with the introduction of both a Predator and an Alien). 

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