Pow! Sock! Bam! Batman is back!
‘Holy homage, Batman!’ Fans of the 1960s TV series will have a blast with this lovingly crafted animated adventure featuring the voices of original stars Adam West, Burt Ward and Julie Newmar.
Every bit as camp, colourful and cheerfully hokey as its predecessor, Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders pits Gotham City’s doughty crimefighters Batman (West) and Robin (Ward) against their most iconic adversaries, the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler and, of course, Newmar’s purring Catwoman.
The plot is reliably silly (it revolves around the theft of a replica ray), a peg on which to hang all those tongue-in-cheek delights devotees of the TV show will remember – the alliterative dialogue; terrible puns and bafflingly cryptic clues (which Batman solves in an instant); the ridiculous Bat-gizmos and gadgets; and the priggish moral lessons worthy of an after-school special (Batman even pauses at one point to give Robin a ticking off for jaywalking); plus copious fight scenes peppered with every comic-book ZAP! BAM! POW! you could possibly want.
West’s Batman does temporarily go over to the dark side here after exposure to Catwoman’s personality-altering Batnip, but we’re a world away from Christian Bale and Ben Affleck’s dour incarnations of the Caped Crusader. Altogether now, Der-ner der-ner der-ner… BATMAN!!!
Certificate PG. Runtime 78 mins. Director Rick Morales
Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders available on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from Warner Home Video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXjpUSrqi3M
