Animated 66 Batman Movie: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

[elmrgraham]

I agree.Or have Villainesses like The Sea Hag from the 1966 Batman Topps Card series.

[AndyFish]

Sea Hag or Lord Death Man would be great!

[elmrgraham]

I definitely agree.

[The Boss]

A seahag film would kill the franchise.

[elmrgraham]

I respectfully disagree with that.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

Sea Hag or Lord Death Man would be great!

Agreed--it would take Batman and Robin on some fresh adventures having nothing to do with the big four.

[elmrgraham]

I agree with that too.

[The Batker]

I was surprised when a friend of mine got me this for Christmas. Was a pretty good film and satisfied my needs as a 1966 Batman fan. My sister also got me the Matty Cowl.

Anyways did anyone notice that the Batman chest logo constantly seems to change shape. I wonder if that was done on purpose of by error?

[MollyRobin]

I received the blu-ray on the New Year's Day and watched it twice, which I guess counts for something. Personally, what I most took away from the experience was: 'more please.' My step-son, who watched it with me the first viewing vocally complained before the climatic fisticuffs: 'when is this going to end?!' Philistine I say. We did both laugh at the various shenanigans though: the Bat Anti Antidote being a particular mirth inducer.

I felt that it did capture something of the original show. The inventive silliness. I guess though, as I ponder, I can think of more negatives than the reverse, which is probably more about me than anything else.

Indulge me a list:

The animation and the general look of the film was a bit too generic - I would have preferred more vibrant hues and softer lines. More of a 'Sixties' look. I know they were probably saving on budget but I was watching Gorshin on the TV show the other day and he - not surprisingly - was far more 'animated' than his cartoon equivalent. He filled the screen - he bounced around the corners. His eyes shone with a wicked mania.

The music. I'm presuming that they could only really get the rights for the main theme. What about the other cues from the original show and especially the Sixties movie?

The voices. I felt that generally the voices were good. Not so sure about the main cast though: the Bat Holy Trilogy. As has been noted, Batman basically sounded too much like the crazy mayor from Family Guy.

Good bits were plenty though: I especially liked the TV dinner death trap and the climatic fight on the giant Penguin blimp.

Here's to more Batman 66 films (and a Wonder Woman 77 cartoon).

[GaryMF]

Just learned about this and rented it from iTunes last night. It was GREAT!

Loved the in jokes, the 3 Catwomen, Aunt Harriet implying they're gay, and reversing one of my favorite scenes from the series re: Batman and Catwoman: "What about Robin?" "I know... we'll kill him!"

Also when Batman starts to turn evil and basically calls out the Commish and O'Hara for the incompetents they are!

[AndyFish]

I am completely on board with Molly that the animation was just way too standard-- doing something to match the bright vibrant primary colors and adding some additional pop art elements would have been great. I thought the opening was probably the best part.

[John Mack]

Ok, so finally after a month, I sat down and watched the movie (thank you Andy) paying particular attention to the music. As expected, I was not shocked the original villains' cues were absent. But what did strike me as rather odd, was the lack of any type of musical continuity. The music was all over the place. A mish mash if you will. Apparently, the composers (3 of them) each set out to do their own thing. And it's bad. The original series had so much musical togetherness that it's hard to imagine what I heard in this cartoon. The composers, or the powers that be wanted to make the music their own. I get that. But, they ended up making nonimpressionist music, that sounds all the world to me like Muzak.
http://us.moodmedia.com/ga/muzak-backgr ... lsrc=aw.ds
To end on a positive note (pun intended ) my college lit professor always told me to end reviews with any possible positive points, the Batman Theme was fun to hear. The fight scenes utilizing it made the difference between kiddy fare and entertaining, take me back to my childhood fun. I suppose the music dream continues on over in my thread
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3005

[Lou Szabo]

We played it Christmas Day and my brother and I heard themes from various 60's TV shows. One was Lost in Space. I posted some of the others in the soundtrack thread. Did anyone else hear themes?

[AndyFish]

Great review John- I'm glad I'm not crazy in thinking the score left something to be desired, especially with THREE composers-- which actually might explain the trouble right?

Lou I didn't catch any musical reference to other shows, but if I watch it again I'll keep my ears open. Who knows, every ten years or so I watch Legends of the Superheroes again and that is downright terrible. This was brilliant by comparison.

[John Mack]

Thanks Andy. I listened with open ears and an open mind. It wouldn't surprise me that the Lost in space music is used given the space plot and a nod to the shared sets and sound stages when both series' were in production. The movie was quite ingenious with many "inside" fan type references, but IMO doesn't make up for a lack of cohesiveness where the music was concerned. Let me be clear here though, my family enjoyed the movie and are looking forward to the next installment.