Holy Guacamole Batman
The 1960s Batman show and the Batman movie from 1966 are often seen as zany, goofy, and campy productions that are almost embarrassing to watch today. Cheesy props, an incredible square and boring Batman, Robin saying “Holy something,” every few lines – the vision of Batman back then is a far cry from today’s dark, mysterious, smooth, can’t-do-anything-wrong Batman. Granted, what I just said has some minor exaggeration to it, but I think the point is clear. Today’s Dark Knight is not yesterday’s Batman, and that goes for the comic books, too. If you can just bear that in mind while watching this original Batman movie, it will be much more bearable. If you’re expecting the Batman from today, or even the 90s, you’ll be sorely disappointed.
The film stars Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin. When a yacht mysteriously disappears from Gotham Harbor, right before Batman and Robin’s own eyes, they know something is up. A visit to the commissioner reveals that Catwoman, Joker, Penguin, and the Riddler are all high profile criminals that aren’t under arrest. Through one of the silliest scenes of deducing the truth I have ever seen, Batman, Robin, the commissioner, and a police officer conclude that all four criminals had a hand in the odd occurrence that morning and something more sinister must be in the works.
With the help of the Batmobile, Batboat, Batcycle, Batcopter, and several other gadgets, the Dynamic Duo begin to track down the four villains who are working hard to put their egos aside to work towards a common goal. You would think that this goal would be something along the lines of millions and millions of dollars or domination of the world or something, but ultimately it boils down to a ransom of just one million dollars. Split four ways, even back then that wasn’t a whole heck of a lot for such a caper, but that’s beside the point.
The script lays on the cheese thickly, with a variety of cheesy lines and head-shaking scenes. The scene where Batman is trying to get rid of a bomb is just embarrassing. If you can laugh with it, great, but it’s hard to not just laugh at it. You should see it for yourself, but imagine Batman running with a type of bomb that I didn’t think made it out of cartoons – a black bowling ball type of bomb with a fiery fuse burning at the top. Batman runs around on a crowded pier, trying to find a way to get rid of the bomb but everything from a group of ducks to a marching band stops him for the better part of two minutes. Meanwhile he’s running with the lit bomb held up high over his head; it’s embarrassing, but just keep in mind that this era of Batman is quite different from what we’re used to today. I think it’s vital to keep in mind that Batman in the 1960s, (even) with this type of representation of Batman, was arguably more popular then than he’s ever been since, and likely ever will be. This rendition of Batman inspired millions to read comics and it made an awful lot of kids happy, which is what the intention was. For that, you can’t fault this film in the least.
Batman In Blu
I was surprised at how good this old film looked on Blu-ray. It’s a very colorful movie; just think about it: The Joker, Robin, The Riddler, their costumes alone are enough for at least one rainbow. Special effects, like the scene where Joker shocks Penguin and Riddler, and a red squiggly line surrounds them, really stood out too. Some of the effects are laughable, on a side note, but that doesn’t have anything to do with the visual quality on Blu-ray. Just look out for the infamous shark scene in the first ten minutes of the film, it’s, well, perfectly fitting for the film. That said, overall, this is a good looking release on Blu-ray. The 2001 DVD version was praised by many for its high quality transfer and while I haven’t seen that, I can say that this Blu-ray release performed better than a lot of much more modern films I have seen. The audio presentation impresses as well with a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Lossless track. All of Pows! Bangs! and Cesar Romero’s whooping Joker laugh sounded very good.
This Batman Blu-ray release comes loaded with plenty of extra features. I tend not to do this, but I will provide a bulleted list of what extras are included:
-Two Audio Commentaries: One commentary track has only Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward); this was an entertaining track and makes the film worth watching a second time in and of itself. The other commentary track features screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr.
-Isolated Score Track in DTS-HD MA (Lossless): Enabling this option will simply play the movie with the musical score only, no dialogue or effects. Not terribly useful.
-Batman: A Dynamic Legacy: Presented in HD, this twenty-eight minute long feature includes comments from several comic and cartoon historians, including one of the creators of the Batman Animated Series. Lee Meriwether also adds some comments. Basically, all of these folks comment on how important the film was, how big Batmania was back in the 60s, and some historical anecdotes about when they first saw Batman, etc. Plenty of movie clips and stills play throughout this feature.
-Caped Crusaders: A Heroes Tribute & Gotham City’s Most Wanted – These two features, both about twelve minutes long and presented in HD, are about the six main characters in the film. The comic historians from the Dynamic Legacy feature weigh in these two features with their comments as well.
-2001 Featurette – This sixteen minute feature presented in SD is from the 2001 DVD release and features Adam West and Burt Ward reminiscing about the film in two separate interviews (i.e., they’re not in the same room). As with the previous video features thus far, it’s entertaining and informative.
-Batmobile Revealed – Creator and Designer of the Batmobile, George Barris, spends six minutes in SD next to the original Batmobile talking about the history and making-of of this famous vehicle.
-Batmobile Interactive Tour – A neat HD interactive feature, the Batmobile is presented for your viewing. You can’t view driver’s cabin for some reason, but you can look at the four main sides of the vehicle and click on various parts of the vehicle for a description and even a quick demonstration animation for some items. I thought this extra feature was really cool.
-Batman on Location – This is a feature that plays while the movie is playing. It displays a neat map on the left side of the screen that shows, while the film is playing, where various scenes were shot, and even includes directions on how to get there. For example, the scene where the commissioner, an officer, and the Dynamic Duo figure out who’s behind the disappearing yacht takes place at a studio in CA, although I don’t recall its name. This feature shows you where it is on the map and provides directions from LAX. Some areas also include brief factoids and a vintage photo or two.
-Holy Trivia Track, Batman! – I love trivia tracks in films. The amount of trivia presented in this track seemed a bit on the low side, but it made the film worth watching again anyway.
-Trailers – The teaser and original trailer for the film, as well as a Spanish language trailer are included.
-Still Galleries – I didn’t expect much out of the Still Galleries, but I was wrong. Six different galleries offer users dozens and dozens of vintage photos to enjoy. All told, there are probably over a hundred photographs including ones from behind the scenes, the night the movie premiered with Batman and Catwoman in costume meeting and greeting all of the kids and fans, old posters from the film, production stills, and many other pictures of the cast, especially Adam West.
That’s quite a list of extra features, far more than you see with a typical release. Time to wrap up…
