With Batman Begins hitting theaters, Batman is once again about to ascend his throne as one of the most successful comic creations ever. As one of the premiere comic book characters, Batman has had a life of his own outside DC Comics’ pages. Batman is a pop culture icon, showing up as action figures, on t-shirts, bed sheets, video games and every other imaginable form of merchandise. Maybe most importantly outside of his comic book roots, Batman has had a great career on television and on film.
Two of the most successful adaptations of the Caped Crusader came in very different times, but were very reflective of the state of the Batman Comic Books of each era. Each resulted in a very influential show and a theatrical film released to theaters. Both of these films would be more accurate to their source material than the other four theatrical films released during the character’s major theatrical run.
In the 1960’s television was ruled by one superhero, Batman. In 1965, ABC was getting killed in the ratings. ABC was dead night after night until one man came to the rescue of the network. That man’s name was William Dozier. Dozier was the brains behind hits Bewitched and Dennis the Menace, and ABC took a chance that Dozier knew what he was doing. Dozier studied the comics of the time and got a clear picture of how to bring Batman to the small screen.
A large scale film was planned to give the series a worldwide premiere. With a large budget and cool gadgets, the movie was planned to give the series a foot hold with which to introduce Batman world wide. Unfortunately, ABC was in dire straits and needed the show on the air immediately. So without testing the waters first, Batman and his faithful sidekick went in with both feet. Fortunately for all involved the series was a smash, so when the first season ended the film was immediately put into production. With a much larger budget, more gadgets and more baddies, the Dynamic Duo were set to make a big splash on the big screen.
Batman: The Movie Starring Adam West, Burt Ward, Lee Meriwether, Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith, and Frank Gorshin. Directed by Leslie H. Martinson.
As the movie begins, we see our heroes rush out to answer a distress call coming from a luxury yacht. Making its debut, the Batcopter jets Batman and Robin out to sea and to the rescue of the wayward luxury ship. Unfortunately for the dynamic duo, as Batman begins to lower himself on the cleverly named Bat-ladder, the ship disappears. In a terrible turn of events, The Caped Crusader is unable to stop his forward momentum. He hits the waters and lands in the clutches of the most fake looking shark ever put on screen. Always the quick thinker, Batman remembers that the Batcopter comes equipped with a spray can of shark repellent. As Batman tries to get away from the deep sea predator, punching and kicking as well as he can, the repellent finally works its magic. The shark loosens its grip and then explodes on contact with the ocean’s surface.
After a press conference at the offices of Police Commissioner Gordon (Neil Hamilton), the heroes discover that not just one, but four separate villains are responsible for the dastardly trap set for them. The crime fighters shudder as they realize that The Joker (Cesar Romero), The Riddler (Frank Gorshin), Catwoman (Lee Meriwether), and The Penguin (Burgess Meredith) have all joined forces for one fiendish plot. To what end the villains will go, not even the Dynamic Duo is ready for them.
The United Underworld, their motto “Today Gotham City, Tomorrow the World” painted upon the walls of their secret headquarters, has a plan that even Batman could not fathom. The yacht the villains had hijacked was the property of an inventor named Commodore Schmidlapp (Reginald Denny), who has invented a machine that will dehydrate anything it is aimed at, including people. With the dehydration machine in their possession, the evil doers kidnap the nine Security Council members of the United World Building and ransom them.
The Caped Crusaders spring into action, making use of all of their Bat Gadgets including the new Bat-Cycle, Bat-Boat, Bat-Copter, and the classic Batmobile, to save the international representatives from the clutches of the dastardly foursome. The final battle atop Penguin’s submarine is a ruckus of epic proportions as the two heroes fight for their lives against the villains and an army of henchmen. Will The Dynamic Duo prevail or will villainy reign supreme?
For light-hearted fun, you could do much worse than Batman: The Movie. While the costumes are bad, the acting atrocious and the sight-gags nonstop, the movie is quite a good representation of what the pages of Batman were like in those days. That’s something that Batman Forever and Batman and Robin would have no business saying. Through its primary colors, askew camera angles and conspicuously labeled gadgets, Batman: The Movie brings a few chuckles and light but vigorously staged action.
In the world of over-acting, few can reach the heights that Adam West does as The Not-So-Dark Knight. As if he were playing Macbeth, West delivers the most ludicrous dialogue with the utmost sincerity. Not to mention that he looks ridiculous in that Batman costume with his robust abdomen, but I digress. West WAS Batman for nearly 25 years until Michael Keaton took the mantle from him.
Unfortunately I can’t necessarily say that anyone has taken the Robin mantle from Burt Ward. Even with the bad mask and pantyhose, Chris O’Donnell pales in comparison with Ward’s enthusiasm for the role. The villains also do their usual, hammy and delightful work here. Caesar Romero’s Joker is nonstop puns, but this portrayal helped to give Joker his definitive look for a long time. Frank Gorshin’s antsy Riddler may have marred the character to some degree, but he’s much better than Jim Carrey’s poor imitation. While Lee Meriwether may be the worst of the Catwomen, though Halle Berry gives her a run for her money, Burgess Meredith is still the best Penguin ever.
Though the years have not been kind to Batman: The Movie or its accompanying series, it makes a nice time capsule for what Batman was at that time. It would not be until 1989 that The Dark knight would make his return to the big screen, and he did so with phenomenal success. What was lacking in Batman’s 1989 outing was a true sense of what Batman really was as a character. While Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson gave it what they had to entertain audiences in Tim Burton’s big screen adaptation, creators Bruce W. Timm and Paul Dini were ultimately able to create a more true incarnation without even using flesh and blood actors.
What they created may be the truest vision of Bob Kane’s character outside of his original form. The animated format allowed creators the freedom to make Batman a three dimensional character and develop him and his villains. The show was also such a success that a theatrical movie was ordered by Warner Bros. Studios. Taking many cues from original comic book miniseries Batman: Year One and Batman: Year Two, the Dark Knight came to the big screen with its first feature length animated film.
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Voiced by Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill. Directed by Eric Radomski and Bruce W. Timm.
The film begins with a familiar sequence to those acquainted the adventures of The Dark Knight on the pages of DC Comics. A meeting of mob bosses is interrupted by Batman crashing through the window of a huge skyscraper. In the ensuing chaos mob leader “Chuckie” Sol is killed in an altercation with another vigilante, but Batman (Kevin Conroy) is blamed for the murder. Batman becomes the target of not only Organized Crime in Gotham City, but is also wanted by the police.
As Batman tries to sort out the mystery of this new killer, his alter ego is enjoying the company of a long lost love. A former fiancé of Bruce’s, Andrea Beaumont (Dana Delany), has returned to his life after years apart. They recall the early days of their love, and Bruce thinks of his early days as a vigilante. Especially vivid in Bruce’s mind was when he first looked upon the Batmobile, which was seen on a date as part of The World’s Fair, and his first unsuccessful outing as a crime fighter as he was not able to instill fear upon criminals because of the lack of a costume. He also thinks of when he nearly gave up the entire plan due to his love for Andrea. This causes confusion for the crime fighter as this renewed love affair stands in the way of his quest for justice once again. If Andrea truly makes Bruce happy, would his need for vengeance be at an end?
Things are made worse when the mob hires The Joker (Mark Hamill) to take care of The Dark Knight. Also Batman finally makes a connection between the mysterious mobster deaths and the disappearance of Andrea’s father. Has her father returned to wreak vengeance or is Andrea not revealing her true motivations to Bruce? A final confrontation at the remains of The World’s Fair between The Joker, The Phantasm, and The Caped Crusader reveals all with heartbreaking conclusions.
All in all, Mask of the Phantasm may be the best Batman film ever. With its very human hero and the best interpretation of comics’ greatest villain, the film is a moving comic book and spins the most compelling Batman yarn ever put on screen. Everything from the score to the look of the film feels as if the movie was made for comic book enthusiasts and children alike. The picture also has a real heart that makes Burton’s gothic nightmares seem hollow and cold, while also making the Schumacher films seem garishly “cartoonish”.
The combination of voice actors and their animated counterparts give real life to the characters of the film. No actor ever portraying Batman has been able to project just how much Bruce Wayne is the character and Batman is the real person than Kevin Conroy. Mark Hamill’s chillingly funny Joker is so perfect it’s beyond me to describe it. I just wished he looked more like The Joker so he could play him in a live action film. The rest of the cast does its stellar work here, just as it was always great on Batman: The Animated Series.
While the animation isn’t as impressive in Mask of the Phantasm as it is in many Disney features or popular Anime films, the work done here is quite adequate and never distracts from telling a great story. While many animated films merely tell a story with flashy visuals and little else, the creators of the various animated Batman films and TV shows sought to tell intelligent dramas rather than just have the hero merely fighting crooks constantly.
Neither Batman: The Movie nor Mask of the Phantasm featured budgets of tens of millions. The films merely told effective stories about Batman by using comic books as a driving influence. No shred of what the characters are actually like is contained within the “films” by Joel Schumacher. At last with Batman Begins does it look like Warner Brothers is finally making a film that stays true to the spirit of what writers like Bob Kane, Dennis O’Neal, and Frank Miller brought to Batman. After that, these are the two films that represent Batman’s truest form.
