10 Amazing Facts About Batman Returns

[Music] one of the most prominent villains in the Batman mythos is without a doubt the penguin whom in his career has been described as the gentleman criminal thanks to his tuxedo top hat and a monocle there has always been a level of sophistication surrounding this enigmatic villain he has no superpowers and notifying trace except for his long nose however when Tim Burton's Batman Returns came out in 1992 fans were given a new version of the character a vile and disgusting version played by Danny DeVito a version of the character whom wasn't a bank robber but an abandoned infant who grew up in a sewer and became a circus performer a perverted ruthless creature you don't really think he'll win do you the character put McDonald's into meltdown who were making Happy Meal toys for the movie they were repulsed by the fact that the penguin had green slime coming out of his mouth I mean after all how can we sell burgers when we're promoting a character who vomits up green slime Batman Returns was ahead of its time thanks to its dark graphic nature and visuals it almost has a dark twisted fairytale feel about it for all those who can't remember Batman Returns and there seems to be a lot who can't it is the second Tim Burton directed Batman movie starring the legendary Michael Keaton as Batman but seriously no one seems to talk about this movie everyone remembers the original 1989 Batman movie and the Joel Schumacher Batman movies with their bat nipple awfulness and of course the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy but how often does Batman Returns get discussed basically the movie got criticized when it first came out for being too dark and too mean-spirited but is the movie all that bad could it be that the movie was just missing stood and dare I say it ahead of its time after all we're now living in a day and age where all superhero movies have to be really dark and brooding and thus could it be that Batman Returns is really drastically underrated well today we will try to discover this as we look into 10 amazing facts about Batman Returns The Forgotten Batman movie definitely not the best Batman movie but to me the most fascinating so let's check it out [Music] [Music] number ten annette bening was originally cast as Catwoman one of the most memorable aspects of Batman Returns was Catwoman played deliciously by Michelle Pfeiffer in her almost SMN Catwoman suit [Music] however Pfeiffer wasn't the original choice for Catwoman in fact Annette Bening was cast in the role and ready to go only she had to drop out of the project on the account that she fell pregnant in the movies early stages of production actress Sean young really wanted the part and lobbied for it and even turned up for an audition in a homemade Catwoman costume but it was Pfeiffer who was eventually given the role and you've got to give her props as apparently wearing her costume was utter hell as it was so tight it would often suffocate her as she could only be filmed saying several lines at a time until she would be on the verge of passing out yeah number nine the original script was about finding hidden treasure before Burton got on board with the project the movie was called Batman 2 and the main focus of the story would have been about the penguin and Catwoman teaming up to find hidden treasure that was buried under Wayne Manor yeah that's right the main motivation of the movie was hidden treasure but this is only the start of how weird the original script was as in the script we also would have seen the penguin freeze in Gotham City which is actually a story arc they used for the atrocious Batman and Robin only in that film it was mr. freeze who freezes Gotham the movie was also to feature the character Vicki Vale and was going to further explore her relationship with Batman and Bruce Wayne and at one stage in the scripts development it was even going to be revealed that the character max Shreck was in fact the Penguins brother is interesting also the eventual subplot where the penguin runs for mayor was inspired by two episodes from the 60s TV series which as with Batman Returns features the penguin running for mayor of Gotham City number eight the city of Gotham is designed after the city from the movie metropolis unlike the first Batman movie which featured a new our style of Gotham City which had a gothic look Batman Returns as Gotham City has a completely different look and feel and is very atmospheric as the city is literally given faces and bodies to the degree where Gotham City is almost a character in the movie Burton designed this variation of Gotham City on the 1927 silent movie metropolis and we even see some humanoid statues grabbing long handles which looks similar to the scenery seen in Metropolis also the character Max Schreck is named after the actor max rect who played Nosferatu in the 1922 silent movie if my life has a meaning that's the meaning number seven the movie was to introduce the character two-face remember how in the original Batman Billy Dee Williams is introduced as Harvey Dent but the movie doesn't actually do anything with him I mean come on guys you've got Lando Calrissian himself in your movie how could you not make this memorable well that's because Batman Returns was meant to be Harvey Dent's time to shine and bring about the arrival of his evil persona two-face remember the scene at the end of the movie where Catwoman electrocutes Max Schreck by kissing him while holding an electric taser to her mouth which actually sounds really messed up when I say it out loud well that scene was originally meant to feature Catwoman kissing Harvey Dent and the effects of getting half his face electrocuted is what causes him to become two-face which would have been an epic way to end the movie but instead we see the Max Schreck character getting fully burned and becoming Kentucky Fried Walken this makes me think that Harvey Dent originally had a big role in the original Batman Returns script I'm guessing the character was written out when Tim Burton got involved so he could focus on the max Shreck character instead of an original character purely created for the film which leads me to my next fact number 6 it's more of a Tim Burton movie after Burton directed the original Batman he was done with the character as far as he was concerned but on the account that the original Batman was such a mega hit Warner Brothers really wanted lightning to strike twice and were keen to get Burton on board heck even Michael Keaton took some persuading as he didn't like the idea of sequels Eva so in order to get Burton on board he was given more creative control and thus the movie definitely feels much more like a Burton movie it has his visual style and feel and further explores Burton's themes of freaks unable to adopt in the norm of society which is why characters such as the penguin were drastically changed from their origins in fact there are many parallels between the penguin character and Edward Scissorhands both grew up cut off from society with Edward Scissorhands he was in a castle in the sky but with the penguin it was in the sewer underground both are considered freaks because they have obscure hands and both characters get embraced by society and then out casted by the very society that once embraced them I mean come on even the clothes the penguin wears when he tries to be human looks similar to Edwards attire so I guess you could say that the penguin is like the evil version of Edward Scissorhands and thus Batman Returns may not be a great Batman movie but I think it's a great Burton movie number 5 they were supposed to be a Catwoman spin-off movie although superhero movie universe as a and practices nowadays in 1992 they were a rare phenomenon but it was indeed intended that following Batman Returns Michelle Pfeiffer was to return a Selina Kyle aka Catwoman for a spin-off movie and why not at that time Catwoman even had our own comic-book lineup hence the end scene of the movie where Catwoman is seen looking upon the bat-signal the movie ends in a way which is totally telling the viewer Catwoman will be back but sadly that's all we saw of this rendition of Catwoman and even more sad the project kept getting delayed and pushed back the Catwoman solo movie did eventually get made in 2004 in that god-awful Catwoman movie starring Halle Berry and trust me oh boy the less I say about that movie the better number for McDonald's hated the movie as mentioned in the intro McDonald's were no fans of Batman Returns on the account that McDonald's were going to do happy meal tie ins with the movie but after seeing the movie the fast-food chain went into panic mode and forth of the movie was way too violent and inappropriate to promote to kids in their happy meals so McDonald's pulled out and didn't want a bar of Batman Returns the irony of course being that Michael Keaton would go on to star in the founder where he plays a businessman who makes McDonald's a huge enterprise brand I just can't help but feel like had this happened nowadays the studio would just make cuts to appease McDonald's so I'm glad that they didn't and stuck to their guns number three Marlon Wayans was to star in the movie as Robin ever since 1989 s Batman Warner Brothers have wanted to introduce the character of Robin in the original script of 1989's Batman the Joker turns up in a festival Street circus when he causes the death of dick Grayson's acrobatic pair where the movie ends with Grayson moving in to Wayne Manor but Burton opted to remove that scene then once again in Batman Returns there was to be a circus scene where this time the penguin causes the poor Grayson family to fall to their deaths Warner Brothers were so determined to get Batman's trusty sidekick on the action Marlon Wayans was cast as the crime-fighting sidekick and even went as far as turning up to have wardrobe fittings for his Robin costume it definitely would have been revolutionary to have an african-american Robin back as early as 1992 so I'm kind of sad it didn't happen but once again Burton campaigned for Robin to not feature in the movie this is probably why the Robin character was added to the figurine lineup I always found it strange as he wasn't in the movie some into Webber's even claim that the figurine was originally black but got repainted white when releasing the lineup number two more casting shenanigans originally Warner Brothers wanted david bowie to play evil businessman max Shreck but bowie turned down the role and the part was given to christopher walken instead the irony being that this was the second time Walken accepted an acting job rejected by Bowie the first being the character max Zorin in the bond film a view to a kill in addition to that when it came time to casting the penguin John Candy Bob Hoskins Dean Martin Marlon Brando Christopher Lloyd and Dustin Hoffman were all considered for the role but faithfully don't either Vito got the role I saw her first and got a fly and on a side note the actor who played chip Max Schreck son Andrew Brian Huskey would go on to play lever face in the 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake he's the actor I mentioned in my lever face episode who badmouth the original lever face actor when he died you heard correctly ladies and gentlemen Matt strips son it's lever face number one the movie is given an Empire Strikes Back treatment I don't get internet movie fans they say they love the Empire Strikes Back because it's so dark and daring and has the bravery to see the characters go through turmoil but they then say they hate Batman Returns for the same reasons because it's too dark and daring and once again you see the characters going through some kind of trauma I believe that Burton took the Empire Strikes Back approach which is described by director Irvin Kershner as being the second symphony where the characters who we basically have grown to love get put through hell there are other similarities between the two movies both have a cold atmosphere and both features snow as it's a reflection on the icy in a turmoil of the characters and Batman Returns even had a watery ice logo which sadly was not used for the actual movie which I thought was a shame both movies are about the main heroes or in returns case hero going through a tough cold journey of self progression and both movies even end with a cliffhanger with characters facing into the abyss of what's to come with the viewer seeing the back of their heads in fact the ending of returns was quickly put together as it was added at the last minute and no that wasn't Michelle Pfeiffer's head but a stunt double but still I think Burton was trying to do for Batman what Kirchner did for the Empire Strikes Back and I think it's a shame that this vision wasn't embraced and I think it's a shame we never got to follow up Eva instead we got Joel Schumacher's onslaught of bright neon colors and bad humor sadly with Batman Forever the franchise had been dumbed down and had completely lost its intelligence simply because Batman Returns wasn't pandering and took risks out of fear but and then had to be made as if it was made for idiots and Batman wouldn't get the respect and dignity he deserved in live-action format until Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins well guys that was my look into Batman Returns although I don't think it's a perfect movie I do think it has merit and is very underrated and I also do believe that it deserves a second viewing so if you haven't seen it for a while then I say give it a second chance and if you haven't seen it at all then I say yeah definitely go and check it out it's worthwhile just keep an open mind and try to let go of all the popular negative criticism this movie gets and more importantly try not to observe it as a Batman movie per se but more like a dark Burton twisted fairy tale movie from the time when Burton was really really good anyway I'm minty and I'm off to play with my totally safe non violent McDonald's Happy Meal toys see ya [Music]

Channel: Minty Comedic Arts

Views: 500,196

Rating: 4.8577547 out of 5

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Id: 4MqnJxKpSl4

Length: 17min 54sec (1074 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 27 2017