BATMAN: RETURN OF THE CAPED CRUSADERS (2016)

Studio:       Warner Bros. Animation
Director:    Rick Morales
Writer:       Michael Jelenic, James Tucker
Producer:  Michael Jelenic
Stars:     Adam West, Burt Ward, Julie Newmar, Jeff Bergman, Sirena Irwin, Thomas Lennon, William Salyers, Lynne Marie Stewart, Jim Ward, Steven Weber, Wally Wingert

Review Score:

---

Summary:

Batman and Robin team with an unlikely ally after their greatest adversaries attack Gotham City using a dangerous replica ray.

---

Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

The Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler, and Catwoman publicly proclaim their return to conducting crime in Gotham City by impersonating the band Hector and the Hoe-Daddies and taking over the Gotham Palace television variety show hosted by Miranda Monroe. After offering an alibi to Aunt Harriet, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson sneak away from Wayne Manor to answer the Bat-Signal as Batman and Robin.

Batman and Robin meet with Commissioner Jim Gordon and Chief O’Hara at Gotham City Police Headquarters. From a clue left by Riddler, Batman and Robin deduce that the four villains intend to strike at Acme Atomic Energy Laboratory.

Joker, Penguin, Riddler, and Catwoman infiltrate the lab and steal the replica ray, a device capable of scanning an object and creating an identical copy. Batman and Robin interrupt, inciting a fight with the villains and their henchman.

Catwoman briefly seduces Batman and the criminals escape during the distraction. Batman and Robin pursue Joker’s crew in the Batmobile, but Riddler uses the replica ray to put a giant pothole in their way, allowing the villains to escape.

Batman puts tinfoil left behind by the criminals into the Bat-Analyzer and discovers that their secret hideout is the Fitzsimmons TV Dinner Factory. Another fight ensues when Batman and Robin confront the villains in their lair, with Catwoman using a spray to knock out and capture the Dynamic Duo.

Batman and Robin wake to find themselves tied to an oversized TV dinner tray on a conveyor belt headed for a giant oven. Catwoman scratches Batman’s face with her Bat-Nip poison intended to brainwash Batman. However, Batman is unexpectedly able to resist Catwoman’s wiles. The villains leave Batman and Robin trapped, but the heroes manage to work their way free.

Batman begins behaving strangely in both of his personas, chastising Gordon and O’Hara as well as firing Alfred Pennyworth as his butler for not preventing Aunt Harriet from snooping around the study.

Unable to find the villains anywhere in Gotham City, Batman and Robin conclude that they went to space as stowaways on a Belgravian rocket headed for a secret international space station. Believing that the villains intend to use the replica ray to duplicate Earth, Batman and Robin head for the space station in their Bat-Rocket.

Joker, Penguin, and Riddler turn on Catwoman because they believe she is soft on Batman. The three villains force Catwoman out of an airlock, but Batman rescues her.

Batman, Robin, and Catwoman confront Joker, Penguin, and Riddler inside the space station. Everyone is shocked when Batman displays uncharacteristically violent tendencies, donning brass knuckles and brutally beating the three villains into submission. Meanwhile, Catwoman flees in an escape pod.

Back on Earth, Batman keeps the replica ray as his behavior grows more worrisome. Bruce snaps at Aunt Harriet, kicks Dick out of the mansion, and stops responding to calls from police headquarters, leading to criminals overrunning Gotham City.

Batman takes over the city, relieving Commissioner Gordon, Chief O’Hara, Mayor Linseed, and others of their duties and replacing them with duplicate Batmen.

Dick realizes that Catwoman’s Bat-Nip is actually taking effect on Batman slowly. Robin goes to see Catwoman at her club and is briefly captured. However, Robin and Catwoman agree to work together to administer an antidote to Batman since it is turning Batman eviler than Catwoman intended.

Robin and Catwoman take the Catmobile to the Batcave to confront Batman. Catwoman successfully administers the antidote, but Batman reveals that he previously took an anti-antidote. Robin and Batman battle in a utility belt showdown before Batman knocks Robin and Catwoman unconscious.

Robin and Catwoman wake dangling over a nuclear silo. Batman leaves them to descend into the silo’s radioactive steam. After the steam envelops Catwoman and Robin, Robin reveals he anticipated Batman’s move and took the precaution of spraying the two of them with Bat Anti-Isotope spray for protection.

Disguised as inspectors, Robin and Catwoman infiltrate Gotham State Penitentiary and free Batman’s enemies so that they can help battle the multiple Batmen. Joker, Penguin, and Riddler are left as prisoners, but they disintegrate shortly after Catwoman, Robin, and the other inmates leave.

Batman holds the city hostage by taking over the Gotham Palace television show and rigging everyone’s TV antennas to explode if they change the channel or turn off their sets. Catwoman, Robin, and criminals including Egghead and King Tut invade the studio for an epic showdown. However, the duplicate Batmen defeat the escaped inmates and subdue Robin and Catwoman.

Champagne is delivered to Batman and he drinks it to celebrate his victory. Batman discovers that he unwittingly drank an antidote capable of bypassing his anti-antidote, which turns out to have been a failsafe plan executed by Alfred under Batman’s direction. The other Batmen suddenly disintegrate due to molecular instability.

Batman realizes that every preceding event had been part of an elaborate distraction by Joker, Penguin, and Riddler. Joker spiked Catwoman’s Bat-Nip with laughing gas potion to delay its effect. Meanwhile, the three villains created duplicates that were imprisoned while the real Joker, Penguin, and Riddler robbed the museum of priceless artifacts.

Batman, Robin, and Catwoman have a final confrontation with Joker, Penguin, Riddler, and their goons on top of Penguin’s blimp. Batman and Robin defeat the main villains as Catwoman prepares to escape with the museum pieces. Batman pleads with Catwoman to turn herself in. Catwoman says she will only give up if Batman kills Robin and runs away with her to Europe.

The blimp suddenly banks and Robin gets a hold of the loot bag. Catwoman dives off the blimp and disappears into a smokestack.

Bruce, Dick, and Alfred host a birthday party for Aunt Harriet at Wayne Manor to keep up appearances. Bruce and Dick make an excuse to leave abruptly when the Bat-Signal appears in the sky.

---

Review:

You don’t need a review to tell you what you need to know about “Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders.”  You only need the first two minutes of the movie.  If your face isn’t immediately locked in an ear-to-ear Joker grin upon hearing the plunger-trumpeted warbles of Batman’s familiar theme while animated art recreates classic comic book covers over opening credits, your nostalgia meter is improperly tuned to feel the full effect of the film’s astronomically high fun factor.

It’s still 1960-something in Gotham City.  The somewhat-soviet nation of Belgravia and the USA are locked in a contentious space race.  Billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne is busily encouraging the ballet studies of his teenage ward Dick Grayson.  And letterman-jacketed local teens are politely fired up for a performance by Hector and the Hoe-Daddies on everyone’s favorite TV variety show, “Gotham Palace.”

Unfortunately for the studio audience, as well as for the Dynamic Duo, the Hoe-Daddies have been hijacked by none other than the mocking mountebank of malice, the black-hearted bearer of a billion bumbershoots, the prince of perverted puzzles, and the dominatrix of deviltry herself.  That’s The Joker, The Penguin, The Riddler, and Catwoman for anyone unversed in the mouthful metaphors of this Batman and Robin’s characteristically colorful conversations.

It seems these top four fiends of Batman villainy are conspiring to steal an experimental replica ray with which they plan to create a duplicate Earth.  That’s not their endgame, however.

Impersonating a mop top Beatles band is only the first step setting in motion a dastardly diabolical scheme featuring all of the signature staples that made the 1966 Batman TV series a charming camp classic.  This means plenty of ridiculously oversized setpieces, vertical wall-climbing sequences, impossibly absurd repellent sprays, and of course, bad guys being hit so hard that words describing their impact spontaneously materialize in the air.

“Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders” is the antidote for any fan lamenting that live-action Batman movies are too grim, gritty, or dark.  For better or for worse, here is the brighter Batman who memorably made his mark on the mainstream with go-go dancing, greasepaint mustaches, and exploding sharks, brought back to life in vibrantly animated fashion.

This is a brilliant format for revisiting that era by having Adam West and Burt Ward take up cape and cowl for an unexpected installment of their series as cartoon versions of heroes who were caricatures to begin with.  West and Ward are engaged and energetic for their age, giving as much gusto as they’ve got to the Caped Crusaders in voice-only form as they did onscreen half a century earlier.

Julie Newmar’s Catwoman doesn’t have the same spark of spryness, but what are you going to do?  Supporting actors put panache in the presentation required to keep up the pep.  Steven Weber’s voice is unrecognizable as Alfred and the men tasked with taking up the mantles of Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith, and Frank Gorshin come as close as anyone can in both sound and style.

Animation is also appropriate for the movie’s mood of weird whimsy and sly silliness.  Scripting puts a tongue in its cheek without straying far from being smart for what it sets out to do as simultaneous homage and parody.  Aunt Harriet’s humorous ‘Ace and Gary’ insinuations are so precisely veiled for instance, you can’t be completely certain if the screenplay is actually going there or not.

I’m not sure how much a scene of Batman admonishing Robin for nearly jaywalking is in keeping with the spirit of the 1966 series versus being a hindsight wink at the show’s relative absurdity.  Tone is additionally jostled a bit by a villainous turn for a brainwashed Batman occupying the movie’s back half, coming close to being uncomfortably off balance when he pretties up his foes’ faces with a set of brass Bat-Knuckles.

Brief hiccups are nothing that can’t be squelched by cameos from King Tut and Egghead or several stereotypically spot-on scenes of countdown cliffhangers where our heroes have to outwit a giant TV dinner tray trap or radioactive steam from a nuclear silo.  About the only thing stopping “Batman: Return of the Caped the Crusaders” from being a complete retro riot of campy comic entertainment is a “same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel” VO from a disembodied narrator.

Not that we need a reminder to tune in for the “Batman vs. Two-Face” follow-up film.  We don’t necessarily need “Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders” to remind us what made the 1966 series so special either, but I’m certainly glad we have it anyway.

Review Score:  85

---