Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders (2016)

[starri]

If you need to get the taste of The Killing Joke out of your mouth, Adam West, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar have just the thing for you.  There's going to be a one-night-only theatrical screening, a release to digital video the next day, and physical media about a month later.

Since we're also in the 50th Anniversary of the series, and given the success of the Batman '66 comic, this was only logical.  No, wait, that's the other show having a 50th anniversary.

[BetterButter]

Batman: Return Of The Caped Crusaders will have a very limited theatrical run

[millennium]

This is a dream come true.   The trailer looks a hell of a lot better than Killing Joke.    The Batman theme sounds great too. 

For years I've been saying they should do this with Star Trek, make new original series digital animation movies using the voices of the surviving actors.   In the world of animation, there's no such thing as too old.    Now Nimoy is gone, DeForest Kelley, Doohan ... the window is nearly closed.

Edited September 13, 2016 by millennium

[MarkHB]

Ironically enough considering the most recent comment in this thread, a sequel to this movie was announced at New York Comic-Con today!

ETA: Here's the official announcement video from NYCC!

[starri]

Apparently, it's pretty good.

[benteen]

I saw this at NYCC last week and it was REALLY good.  It's like the ultimate episode of the original series.  Still campy like the original series but even more tongue-in-cheek and knowing.  West, Ward and Newmar were great.  West and Newmar occasionally sound older which can't be helped but Burt Ward sounds exactly the same that he did 50 years ago.  It was a great deal of fun and myself and the audience was laughing throughout.

William Shatner as Two-Face is going to be awesome.  Back in the day, Harlan Ellison wrote a Two-Face episode for the original series and rumor has it that Clint Eastwood was going to play the role.  But it was rejected, likely because the character was considered too grotesque for the show.  Harlan's story was published last year for the Batman 66 comic.

[starri]

Finally got around to seeing it last night.  Enjoyed a bunch.  I probably need to find a way to use the phrase "Gotham deserves a boulanger..." into conversation.  The sight gag of Batman seeing all three Catwomen was pure genius.  The Whirly-Bats are one of my favorite things that have never made it into an adaptation before.  The dutch angle setting on the TV camera for the fight scene.

And this:  "I'll give up on one condition.  We run off to Europe, drink tea in a cafe, and live happily ever after."  "Holy unsatisfying ending!"  "Holy"."Wholly."  I get it.

I only had two real disappointments.  While the guy who did double-duty as both Riddler and the narrator did a really good job of sounding like both Frank Gorshin and William Dozier (especially the latter), the Joker only really had the laugh down and Penguin didn't have it at all.  And the music, beyond the theme, was a bummer.  There were such cool individual themes for each of the villains, and they didn't use them.

Batgirl in the sequel, pls.

[Lantern7]

Finally got around to seeing it. I don't consider Adam West to have played Batman strictly for laughs like Will Arnett and Diedrich Bader. That said, this was fun stuff. Batman turning into a Justice Lord, duplicating himself and taking over Gotham? Firing Alfred and putting Dick out on the street? Damn, Adam is fun as a bad Batman. And I dug all the lampshade-hanging, with shoutouts to Michael Keaton, Christian Bale and The Dark Knight Returns, and why Aunt Harriet was on the show to begin with. Aside from Julie Newmar sounding like a grandma, the weird dancing bits in the end, Mr. Freeze not needing a suit to live, and the profound disappointment that Stephen Colbert wasn't playing Riddler, this was a good way to kill about ninety minutes.

[Lantern7]

Here's a trailer for the follow-up movie.

[starri]

Boy does that present some ethical quandaries.

[Lantern7]

@starri: how do you figure? I think Adam West did his thing before he passed away. If DC/WB does a third movie, then they would be on shaky ground. Or do you mean the Evil Extractor? Bear in mind, nobody would have questioned it in 1966. And hey, we get Hugo Strange and what sounds like Dr. Harleen Quinzel.

[starri]

More that on the one hand, this is the final performance Adam West will ever give.

On the other, it means giving William Shatner money, and after recent events, I'm not in a hurry to do that.

[benteen]

Really looking forward to this one.  Adam West and William Shatner together again!

[DisneyBoy]

What has Shatner done?

[starri]

Been a jackass on Twitter.

Like, I know he's welcome to his opinions, and I can think of one really nice story about him, but it really doesn't blunt the way he chooses to say things. 

No judgment on anyone who doesn't agree with me, and I honestly haven't made up my mind about this one, but I'm not particularly enthusiastic about it, when by all accounts I should be. 

Or, as my husband said about the whole thing "Well, any residual feeling I might have had about when he dies is extinguished."