My brother in North Carolina found this on Topless Robot, and I have to say I’m speechless. Long before Lynda Carter, the same people who made the campy 1960s version of “Batman” shot a pilot for a show which would have featured another DC Comics character. Don’t watch this clip. I’m warning you; don’t watch this clip. Serious mental problems may result.
(There’s about 10 or 15 seconds of black before the clip actually starts.)
NOT REALLY A SPOILER ALERT: As the brother who recommended this to me pointed out, it makes reference to a plot point or two — but I haven’t yet seen “The Dark Knight,” and I don’t think this does anything to spoil it for me.
Here’s some promotional video for “Batman: Gotham Knight,” about which I blogged last night:
I missed the first 15 minutes of “Batman: Gotham Knight” while watching Vandy beat Auburn (!). I will have to look for a rebroadcast, or maybe even buy a DVD.
This was a feature-length anthology of six short animated Batman tales, each the work of a different Japanese director and involving various combinations of American writers, including David Goyer, who co-wrote the story for “The Dark Knight.” Each one is done in a different style. Bruce Wayne, for example, does not look quite the same from one segment to another — even though Kevin Conroy provides his voice in every segment. (Conroy was the voice of “Batman: The Animated Series” in the mid-1990s.) It was apparently released on DVD over the summer to tie in with “The Dark Knight.” It is excellent. It is also TV-14-V and not for young children, so I’m not sure how I feel about it being on the Cartoon Network.
The segments stand alone but also have interwoven plot threads. All of them take place in the same early period of Batman’s career documented by the Christian Bale movies; James Gordon is a lieutenant, not the police commissioner.
A unique and surprisingly-complex project, worthy of its source material.
[imdb]1117563[/imdb]
Jeffrey Overstreet alerted me to this cool new “Dark Knight” trailer being released today …. April 1.
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I’d wanted to see “Batman Begins” since it was in the theatres several years ago, and never got around to it. Recently, I told my father I wanted to borrow his DVD so that I could at least see the movie before the sequel, “The Dark Knight,” later this year. Dad called me yesterday afternoon after noticing the movie on FX’s Sunday night schedule, and I watched it last night. I was delighted. So here, because absolutely no one asked for it, is my three-years-late review:
I loved Tim Burton’s 1989 movie “Batman,” but “Batman Begins” is a better, more faithful depiction of the character. The Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher films tended to have more memorable villains than heroes — Jack Nicholson, after all, got top billing in the first one. And the production design was sometimes too impressive — the movies seemed to take place in some sort of depressing, surrealist theme park. Schumacher lightened up Burton’s bleak vision but wandered into campiness while doing so.
“Batman Begins,” by contrast, is all about Bruce Wayne and Batman and how the two are intertwined. The cast is fantastic — Christian Bale and Gary Oldman especially, but also (of course) Liam Neeson, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. Linus Roache, the prickly new ADA on “Law & Order,” was so likable as Bruce Wayne’s father than I hated to see him go. Katie Holmes (who will be repaced by Maggie Gyllenhall in “The Dark Knight”) was even OK. The look of the movie is just fanciful enough to pay tribute to its comic-book roots but just realistic enough to allow you to suspend your disbelief from time to time.
“The Dark Knight,” of course, will be more of a challenge, because of The Joker. The Joker, by his very nature, commands attention. Will Heath Ledger be able to make the role his own, or will everyone be sitting there in the theatre thinking about Nicholson? And will The Joker steal the movie away from Batman?
It will be tricky, no doubt, but Christopher Nolan did such a fantastic job directing “Batman Begins” that I have high hopes for the sequel.