Up until this point, I haven't had any direct experience with 1966's Batman TV series. I've seen the references, the memes, and all the talk on the show, but I've yet to fully experience it in any capacity. I'm probably not alone in that department, it came out in 1966 after all, I wasn't born until 29 years later. Surfice to say, not even the greatest of memes could have prepared me for what I'd gotten myself into with a movie 50 years later. Well, let's see where this rabbit hole goes.
Without spoiling how the events happen. The idea of the story for this movie is a simple premise. "What if 60's Batman became more like modern Batman, but in the 60's setting?" The way to pull it off? Joker, Catwoman, Penguin and Riddler concoct one of the most over the top villain plans I have ever seen considering the end goal. With the basic premise being what it is, you can't help but look at the movie and think "This should not work, this is a doomed hodgepodge of a project", and yet it somehow almost completely works. You can see the seeds of Modern Batman in it, but its still the 60's Batman silliness controlling the show, thanks to things like the Bat Anti Antidote among other classic insane Bat Gadgets, cringe inducing (by today's standards in any other context) 60's style writing, and what I'm dubbing the Bat Dance. The team went out of their way to make it as close to the original show in terms of style.
Presentation wise, the only differences between the original show and the movie is that the movie is 50 years younger, and is animated. It's clear the animators put in a lot of care and detail into the location designs, making it feel like a show in the 60's with little things like the Batcave being quite barren compared to other Batcaves, in line with the original show. Traps like being turned into a TV Dinner (I don't blame you if you don't know them, I don't either), the prison all the villains are sent to and more all feel in line with the 60's style. The soundtrack is basically what the old show's soundtrack would sound like remastered, which I'm not complaining, this was a time when the soundtrack didn't need to be ambience. The only problem I have with the movie isn't even the movie's fault, for time is a cruel mistress. The actors returning to reprise their roles often make the characters sound far older then they really are, with the biggest example being Catwoman. Unfortunately, there's not much that can be done about a 50 year age gap, and I'm not going to bring a movie down because an actress reprising her role from when she was 33 is now 83.
I know this review is short, but there's not much I can say on it due to the fact that this genuinely has to be seen to be believed. I don't know how, but they somehow managed to make Adam West's (rest in peace) Batman live in the modern age. Now to see if WAG can pull it off again with Wonder Woman. Up next from me, I want to go over some of the Comic Con news (take a guess, its not movies), but then after that, time to let the Jump Man jump again before his world trip. Mario gets another dual review, Super Mario 3D Land, and Super Mario 3D World.
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