The Return of the Caped Crusader

[daglob]

  ...Bat-rocket... 

[daglob]

And whirly-bats, they have whirly-bats!

[detourne_me]

I just checked out a trailer. Do their voices hold up OK?

[Silver Shocker]

^ I address this lower in my post, but TL;DR: Julie Newmar sounds way too old, but everyone else was great! 

If you're talking about the animated movie starring Adam West, Bat Ward and Julie Newmar. I actually saw that a few months ago and had been meaning to post my thoughts on it. I really enjoyed it! 

I was expecting it to just be a cute, quaint little movie that banked on nostalgia, but honestly I found it a lot more clever than I had any reason to expect it to be.

From poking fun at the various gadgets like the Anti-bat antidote and the Bat rocket that Batman didn't expect to use on a case (Then why do you have it?!) to wink-wink-nudge-nudge references to being thinking Bruce and Dick are gay, to Batman hallucinating three different looking Catwomen, there were just so many amusing bits that elevated this film.

That being said, the main plot of the film is the thing that really makes the movie, which I will put under the spoiler tag.

Spoiler

Batman goes evil and has a device that makes duplicates of himself, which he uses to take over Gotham City. Brilliant! Not only does it give Adam West the opportunity to ham it up villain style, and come off like a take that at other iterations of Batman for being too grim and gritty,  it provides ample opportunity for some great gags. The police force apparently only having two officers that Batman can just shoo out of the office. Replacing the mayor's nameplate on his desk with one marked "Mayor Batman" that he just happened to have.  A Batman dressed in drag walking a stroller in the street, A showdown with nearly every villain that ever appeared on the Adam West Batman show, complete with a studio camera with a "fight scene" setting that turned the camera on a Dutch angle. And probably my personal favorite, Adam West imitating quoting Micheal Keaton ("You wanna get nuts? Let's get nuts!") and The Dark Knight Returns ("This is an operating table, and I'm the surgeon!" Too bad he didn't quote Christian Bale! I found the ending with Joker and the others a bit unnecessary, as it kinda dragged the film out a bit in my eyes, but it was worth it for the shot at Dark Knight Rises ("Holy unsatisfying endings, Batman!")

West and Burt Ward sounded great, but unfortunately the sole negative to me (other than the complete absence of Batgirl) was Julie Newmar as Catwoman. She just sounds too old for the character now, making every line sound off, and making a scene where Catwoman is disguised as an old lady funnier than it was probably meant to be. The actors filling in for Penguin, Riddler and Joker were great though (the one for Joker runs the gamut though; his voice for Joker isn't always a good match for Caesar Romero, but his laugh is spot on). I'd also have liked to hear the actual Batman theme song complete with vocals, rather than just an instrumental, but I imagine there were probably rights issues (supposedly the Blu-Ray featurettes go out of their way to minimize direct references to the actual Adam West show) I also would have liked a reference to the wall-climbing gag from the show, complete with a celebrity guest star popping out the window.

I'd heard a review say this was the best Batman movie released this year (not that that's a hard bar to clear) and I'd have to agree. It's a shame that this got so overshadowed by Batman V Superman and The Killing Joke, because it really deserved to be on people's radar.

So yeah, for anyone on here who was looking forward to this, I really would recommend checking it out, because if you're anything like me you'll enjoy the heck out of it.

[daglob]

That's funny; I felt that Adam West's voice was a little too weak, while Julie Newmar's was fine. Nobody but Burt Ward really sounded much like they used to. The guys doing the Unholy Three did some things right, like The Joker's laugh, and The Riddler cheering "huzzah, huzzah". There were a lot of references to other Batman miscellany, like the whirlybats, and a sound effect that went "SPRANG!", and you didn't mention that the three different Catwomen included Lee Merriweather and Earth Kitt (RRAOOOoowrrrrr!).

And then here was The Batuisi... and the Catusi? Maybe some thing are best left in the '60s.

[detourne_me]

Oh, now I remember, I did watch this earlier this year! It is a shame about the song though. If it's a rights issue, that's really weird, I just bought Arkham Knight during the Steam Sale, and I noticed that during the Batman '66 races the official song plays and there are clips from the show in the background. Maybe video games fall under a different licence.