Batman: The Motion Picture Anthology 1989-1997 [DVD] [1989] [2005]

Product Information

WB followed up with the debut of Batman: The Animated Series on television in the fall of that year, synergizing with the home video release of the film. Danny Elfman's Batman Theme was utilized for the intro. Bigger, Bolder, Brighter: The Production Design of Batman & Robin • Maximum Overdrive: The Vehicles of Batman & Robin • Dressed To Thrill: The Costumes of Batman & Robin • Frozen Freaks and Femmes Fatales: The Makeup of Batman & Robin • Freeze Frame: The Visual Effects of Batman & Robin

A rebooted "DCU" Batman will star in an upcoming film titled The Brave and The Bold. The film will feature a new incarnation of Batman and feature Damian Wayne.Theatrical Trailers (SD) - Rounding out the disc-consistent features are each film's respective theatrical trailer. Featurette Gallery: "Beyond Batman" (SD, 44 minutes) - Here's another round of smaller featurettes, all concentrating on the production aspects. Again, this is drier stuff, and though it probably has the best of the behind-the-scenes footage on any of the four discs. Speaking of Poison Ivy, played by the wonderful Uma Thurman, I don't think I could've recommended a better actress. Her looks are versatile enough to have her pass off as a nerdy girl to an irresistible vixen whom men want to have a shot at (something some girls fantasize about growing up). The muscle man Arnold Schwarzenegger as Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze was also done very well. Like Jim Carrey, I can't see Schwarzenegger protraying as anyone else but The Terminator, but unlike Carrey, he pulled off that popular cinematic persona and reeled me in with his villainous character.

Batman broke house records at Grauman's Chinese. After the first weekend the studio ran a TV spot made of four or five aerial shots of empty beaches, empty streets, empty ball parks, with the question, "Where is everybody?" The payoff was a final shot of the Chinese theater swamped by huge mobs of people coming to see Batman. Ah, Hollywood. Batman pursues the two, and at the top of the dusty edifice, the two adversaries confront each other in single combat. When The Joker attempts an escape via a helecopter, Batman secures The Joker's leg to a heavy stone sculpture, causing The Joker to fall from the helecopter and plummet to his doom. Following The Joker's death, Commissioner Gordon unveils the Bat-Signal along with a note from Batman read by Harvey Dent, promising to defend Gotham whenever crime strikes again.Here's where things begin to go terribly awry. With Burton out of the director's chair, and Keaton declining to don the rubber suit, the search was on for a new team to helm the second sequel. Unfortunately, the choice of new director was Joel Schumacher, who may have made some good movies, but for me isn't really the best choice for a Batman movie. The initial result, 'Batman Forever,' is a pure reflection of his sensibility. It is a much lighter piece of confection than Burton's Batmans -- garish, over-the-top, and quite silly. Unlike the Burton pictures, the Batman concept is treated as a joke. The very first deadpan line from Batman (now a dead-faced Val Kilmer, his dimpled chin doing all the acting) is a lame one-liner about getting drive-thru food. It's as if the line was planned to be used in a later tie-in TV commercial. Batman's cave, his car and gadgets no longer attempt to be even remotely plausible, and the action scenes (endless punchouts) are mostly forgettable. Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight, which includes parts 1-3: "The Road to Gotham City,""The Gathering Storm," and "The Legend Reborn" The Dark Knight" changed all that with a decree that comic heroes need to be dark and brooding, a cross between film noir and Edgar Allan Poe. A flair for amusing morbidity must have been what led Warners to the doorstep of the wunderkind Tim Burton, an art school overachiever who turned unlikely ideas like Pee Wee's Big Adventure and Beetlejuice into hipper than hip hit movies. Burton brought high style and killer design skills to the 1989 Batman, a very nervous production with a confident director at the helm. Fans were concerned when Burton nominated his Beetlejuice colleague Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne, closet crimefighter, and wondered if their sacred DC comic book franchise would come down with an acute case of the cutes, Tim Burton- style. The End Is The Beginning Is The End by the Smashing Pumpkins • Foolish Games by Jewel • Gotham City by R. Kelly • Look Into My Eyes by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony

Columbia Pictures produced another 15-chapter serial with Batman and Robin this time going after a mysterious villain named The Wizard whose identity wasn't revealed until the end. Batman was played by Robert Lowery with Robin played by Johnny Duncan. SPECIAL FEATURES]: THE BAT, THE CAT AND THE PENGUIN, SHADOWS OF THE BAT: The Cinematic Saga of the DARK KNIGHT Pt.4 Dark Side of the Knight, BATMAN: The Heroes, BATMAN: The Villains, BEYOND BATMAN, Face To Face Music Video by Siouxsie and the Banshees. O'Donnell's Robin brings up an issue strongly associated with the Schumacher Batmans, and that's their purported homoerotic subtext. Subtext probably isn't the right word, what with the constant fetishistic visuals of rubber suits (with nipples, no less), car-commercial cutaways to details of vehicles as well as costumes, and a general design philosophy that isolates these musclebound heroes in hazy dark spaces cut up with laser lighting suitable for a '70s discotheque. When street thugs are needed, Batman Forever paints them in day-glo colors like extras from a KISS music video. Critics have been going after the supposed aberrant sexuality in costumed superheroes ever since Superman comics arrived, and there's no avoiding the usual blather about men choosing to live together to fight crime and secretly preferring each other's company. Batman Forever's focus on motorcycles does sometimes remind us of Kenneth Anger, so there's something to this; but the fact is that it's just cultural baggage associated with the Schumacher films' visual style. Batman Forever and Batman & Robin offer up the complimentary production doc galleries, and the fifth and sixth parts of "Shadows of the Bat," each running around 30 minutes. O'Donnell hosts a piece of promo fluff ("Riddle Me This: Why is Batman Forever?") on the third film, which also features seven deleted scenes that collectively lend some credence to the theory of a movie workshopped to death and dictated much more by studio notes and marketing directives than any sort of... oh, I don't know... script. SPECIAL FEATURES]: RIDDLE ME THIS: WHY IS BATMAN FOREVER?, SHADOWS OF THE BAT: The Cinematic Saga of the DARK KNIGHT Pt.5 Reinventing a Hero, BATMAN: The Heroes, BATMAN: The Villains, BEYOND BATMAN, DELETED SCENES, Kiss From A Rose Video by Seal.Anti-piracy warning - 00:12, Warner Bros Home Video clip - 00:12, Main Menu - 00:39, Feature film - 2:06:11, [SPECIAL FEATURES]: Theatrical trailer - 01:47 For the audio, it's crystal clear and it's a beautiful thing being that most of the actors speak in low-toned voices. You do get audio options besides the usual stereo such as Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound! This means you can take advantage of getting that theater-quality audio at the comfort of your own home, enjoying the realistic beauty of how crisp the sound of the films are. LEGENDS OF THE DARK NIGHT: THE HISTORY OF BATMAN, ON THE SET WITH BOB KANE, SHADOWS OF THE BAT: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight, BATMAN: The Heroes, BATMAN: The Villains. [MORE]: BEYOND BATMAN, BATMAN: The Complete ROBIN Storyboard Sequence, MUSIC VIDEOS. Batman Forever (1995) - Riddle me this, riddle me that, you'll find adventure on the wings of a bat! Brace for excitement as Val Kilmer (Batman), Tommy Lee Jones (Two-Face), Jim Carrey (The Riddler), Nicole Kidman (Dr. Chase Meridian) and Chris O'Donnell (Robin) star in the third formidable film in Warner Bros.' Batman series. Joel Schumacher directs and Tim Burton co-produces this thrill-ride of a movie that thunders along on Batmobile, Batwing, Batboat, Batsub and bold heroics. Hang on! Audio Commentary - Strangely, this is the commentary I was most looking forward to, as I really wanted to hear Schumacher's take on this much-maligned third sequel. Turns out he nearly won me over -- he is well aware of the distaste for his film, but passionate and funny about the choices he made. I give him props for admitting the weaknesses, including too many characters and too much of a concession to his garish, toy-line sensibilities. He also calls the Alfred subplot what he's "most proud of" in the film. This may be the best commentary I've ever heard for a film this bad.