Blu Ray Review: The Dark Knight Returns Part I (2012) delivers a solid, engaging adaptation of its iconic source material.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns part I

2012
76 minutes
rated PG-13

by Scott Mendelson

I don't know if an animated adaptation of Frank Miller's groundbreaking satire was entirely necessary.  There is little ground in this 1986 graphic novel that hasn't been covered in other mediums or other comic book stories in some form or another, be it The Dark Knight Rises or the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Legends of the Dark Knight".  At heart, this project seems predicated merely on the idea of 'well, we might as well adapt it because we've adapted Batman: Year One.  But this new film, which covers the first two chapters of the four part story, is a genuine improvement over the prior Frank Miller adaptation.  It is less beholden to the source material and willing to make small changes for the sake of the film as a stand-alone entertainment.  The script is 90% faithful to the original, and the changes have an unusual effect of making the story feel less like an Elseworld (which it of course was) and more like a somewhat plausible 'What If?' final Batman story.

Celebrating Batman: The Animated Series 20 years later: The best episodes in Batman: TAS's 109 episode run.

This week will be the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Batman: The Animated Series. In its weird way, the show actually had three 'premieres'. The first episode, "The Cat and the Claw part I", debuted on Saturday morning, September 5th, as a quasi-sneak preview of sorts. The next day saw the official premiere, in primetime no less (Sunday night at 7pm) where Fox debuted the official pilot episode, "On Leather Wings". Then came the first official weekday episode, Monday afternoon at 4:30pm, which was no less than "Heart of Ice", which to this day stands as not only one of the best episodes of the series run, but a shining testament to all that Batman: The Animated Series did right both in terms of the Batman mythos and the entire medium of childrens' action shows. This is one of an ongoing series of essays detailing the long-term legacy of the Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski's groundbreaking animated saga. Today we discuss my all-time favorite episodes.  In short, here are ten of the (subjectively) best episodes in alphabetical order with my all-time favorite at the end.  Do enjoy... 

Celebrating Batman: The Animated Series 20 years later: As a parent, my least-favorite episodes became more valuable..

This week will be the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Batman: The Animated Series. In its weird way, the show actually had three 'premieres'. The first episode, "The Cat and the Claw part I", debuted on Saturday morning, September 5th, as a quasi-sneak preview of sorts. The next day saw the official premiere, in primetime no less (Sunday night at 7pm) where Fox debuted the official pilot episode, "On Leather Wings". Then came the first official weekday episode, Monday afternoon at 4:30pm, which was no less than "Heart of Ice", which to this day stands as not only one of the best episodes of the series run, but a shining testament to all that Batman: The Animated Series did right both in terms of the Batman mythos and the entire medium of childrens' action shows. This will be the third in a series of essays detailing the long-term legacy of the Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski's groundbreaking animated saga. Today we discuss the show as something I can share with my children, specifically my five-year old daughter.  I actually waited quite awhile to show her this series, purely because I wanted to absolutely make sure she was old enough to actually enjoy it.  The irony is that some of the very things and very episodes I didn't like when I was twelve years old are the things I now appreciate as a father.

Celebrating the legacy of Batman: The Animated Series 20 years later: The unsung heroes of Batman:TAS.

This week will be the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Batman: The Animated Series. In its weird way, the show actually had three 'premieres'. The first episode, "The Cat and the Claw part I", debuted on Saturday morning, September 5th, as a quasi-sneak preview of sorts. The next day saw the official premiere, in primetime no less (Sunday night at 7pm) where Fox debuted the official pilot episode, "On Leather Wings". Then came the first official weekday episode, Monday afternoon at 4:30pm, which was no less than "Heart of Ice", which to this day stands as not only one of the best episodes of the series run, but a shining testament to all that Batman: The Animated Series did right both in terms of the Batman mythos and the entire medium of childrens' action shows. This will be the second in what I hope are a handful of essays detailing the long-term legacy of the Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski's groundbreaking animated saga. Today we discuss the people involved in the show whose names have been somewhat forgotten in the annals of Bat-history.  In short, the show is more than just the brainchild of Bruce Time and Paul Dini alongside the vocal talents of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill.  Without lessening their accomplishments, let's take a moment to remember the others who made it the modern day treasure that it is.

Celebrating the legacy of Batman: The Animated Series 20 years later: Why Batman:TAS is still the best.

This week will be the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Batman: The Animated Series.  In its weird way, the show actually had three 'premieres'.  The first episode, "The Cat and the Claw part I", debuted on Saturday morning, September 5th, as a quasi-sneak preview of sorts.  The next day saw the official premiere, in primetime no less (Sunday night at 7pm) where Fox debuted the official pilot episode, "On Leather Wings".  Then came the first official weekday episode, Monday afternoon at 4:30pm, which was no less than "Heart of Ice", which to this day stands as not only one of the best episodes of the series run, but a shining testament to all that Batman: The Animated Series did right both in terms of the Batman mythos and the entire medium of childrens' action shows.  This will be the first in what I hope are a handful of essays detailing the long-term legacy of the Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski's groundbreaking animated saga. Today as we celebrate the first unofficial premiere, let me make this official pronouncement.  Batman: The Animated Series is the best interpretation of the Dark Knight Detective in any medium, ever. Yes, you read that right. Brilliantly written, flawlessly acted, gorgeously rendered and superbly crafted, Batman: The Animated Series is the best piece of long-form art concerning the character of Batman ever concocted.

Music of the Batman... 50 years of Batman themes!

Purely for fun, and purely because I was in the mood, I've compiled every relevant Batman musical theme since the 1960s.  One live-action TV show, three film themes, and four animated series themes. A few things of note.  First of all, that audio clip of Shirley Walker walking us through the Batman: The Animated Series theme is a treasure to behold, especially as she passed away several years ago (it's the last cut on the two-disc Batman: The Animated Series score collection, which yes I do own).  Secondly, and this is what inspired me to compile these in the first place, whatever misgivings you may have about Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, Elliot Goldenthal's music should not be discounted.  His rip-roaring, more overtly comic book-ish theme is still a joy to listen to, successfully combining the lingering darkness from the Burton films with the more traditional Caped Crusader heroics on display in Schumacher's films (the rest of the jazzy, offbeat music for Batman Forever is pretty terrific too). Thirdly, however powerful and effective the Hans Zimmer/James Newton Howard music may be for the Nolan Batman films, the themes are dreadfully challenging to hum, and I'd be lying if the Batman Begins 'action theme' didn't sound just a bit reminiscent of Jerry Goldsmith's theme to The Shadow (ironically best evidenced in this trailer for The Saint). Finally, despite the nine themes sampled below (and the fact that she's seen quite a few episodes of Batman: The Animated Series and Batman: The Brave and the Bold), my daughter considers the 1960s Batman television theme to be the only 'real' Batman theme song and gets pissed when I hum anything else.  To be fair, I'm not exactly in a rush to show her Batman Returns or The Dark Knight (although she could probably handle Batman & Robin just fine).  Please enjoy and share your thoughts below.  What's your favorite Batman music?  Is it still Elfman above all else or has another later theme supplanted it?  What music do you hear when you think of Batman?

Scott Mendelson

Watch/Enjoy: A pretty terrific Batman: The Animated Series/The Dark Knight Rises trailer mash-up.

By virtue of available technology, the best trailer mash-ups are done through animated films and TV shows.  Four years ago, we got a number of Dark Knight trailer-mash-ups using clips from Batman: The Animated Series, and thus it is so again with The Dark Knight Rises.  What's most impressive about this mash is the sheer variety of footage it uses, as this came from someone who owns a box set of the series and scoured through all 85 original Batman: TAS episodes (plus a few bits from the redesigned New Batman Adventures, mostly from the Batman/Superman vs. Joker/Luthor epic "World's Finest").  Sad to say, I could probably tell you where each and every moment in the above trailer comes from, down to the episode title and general plot outline of each episode in question.  If you want to see how it matches up with the actual trailer, check out a comparison after the jump.

Scott Mendelson

Feast your eyes on Benjamin Andrew Moore's awesome 'History of the Bat-Suit'.

This chart of Batman's various batsuits from 1939 to today is beyond impressive.  The artist's name is Benjamin Andrew Moore.  HERE is his site and HERE is his Twitter handle.  Click on the picture to 'embiggen'.  No more commentary, other than that I'm enough of a Batman nerd to confirm the accuracy of nearly every quote he uses, and in some case can tell you what story they came from.

Scott Mendelson