Since no one has mentioned it, This movie has one of my favorite audio commentaries of all time. (And I loves me a good commentary) It features Adam and Burt having a great time watching and enjoying the goofiness of it all. Trust me, it’s more fun than watching just the film.
I saw this movie when it came out. I remember the 10 year old girl in me was still swoony over Batman and Robin but the more intelligent portion of my mind (which was still many years from achieving dominence) was thinking, “Huh…?”
At least Catwoman had really, really cool boots!
There are some great subtle bits in the movie too.
two spring to mind…
In the nightclub with Miss Kitka Bruce is holding a huge brandy snifter of… Milk. He’s even rolling it in the glass.
Robin reports from the park in which he is near the Benidict Arnold Monument.
And who can say today’s detectives could solve anything better than the Dynamic duo.
“That Shark was pulling my leg”
“The Joker!”
“It all happened at Sea… see? C for Catwoman!”
“It all adds up to a sinister riddle. Riddler? The Riddler.”
I was attending university at the time and I will tell you that literally 100s of people would gather in the lounge of the dorm I was in to watch one of the three color television sets when Batman was on. Townies would come to the dorm to take part in the entire experience
No one scheduled a class at that time. You would bribe friends to save you a good spot in front of the set (fights were known to break out over good spots). All of us would chant the “bop”, “smash”, “grunts” as they appeared on the set during the fight scenes.
It was delightfully camp and great, great fun for college students. By the time the actual movie came out, the whole passion had passed and as I remember it did rather poorly at the box office.
TV
For those who want to see it again, you can find this Batman movie on DVD for the low, low price of $5.99 at Best Buy and Target. And it has the hilarious commentary by Adam West and Burt Ward, as mentioned by DrMemory.
I like my Batman best “animated-series style,” gruff and grim and mysterious, who can beat anyone if he’s prepared, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get a kick out of this movie.
Say… when is teh West series ever going to make it to DVD???
Sadly, Fox and Warner Bros. can’t get together on how to divide the revenues (since one owns the character and the other the rights to the series). It’s been this way for a while.
Zev Steinhardt
One of my favorite parts about the movie was the fact that they didn’t do everything exactly right. When the dehydrated world leaders were mixed up, re-sorted, and re-hydrated, they were “mixed-up” still.
My guess is it’s because “Get Smart” started the year before.