I think it’s a safe bet to say that my primary exposure to the 60’s
Batman TV show is on the same level as most Millennials; that being, a
meme-level awareness of the show without really understanding why it was so
popular. I mean, good or not, it was undoubtedly influential as pretty much
everything about it, from the costumes to the action to the music, has been
satirised, spoofed and deconstructed in the decades since its original airing.
I bring this up because, as one of the
three
Batman-centric films released this year alone (possibly four, if you count Batman's cameo in
Suicide Squad), this one is most definitely
meant to appeal to that era of Batman’s history. Bringing back the old school
cast in vocal roles for an animated film, this particular feature is going to
be rather a strange outing. And yet, even with that in mind when I first
watched this, this feature would end up being even stranger than I ever could
have anticipated, in the best way possible.
Through an encounter with a time travel built by a
super-intelligent gorilla (because this is the world of comic books), Batman,
his closest allies and his greatest foes are all transported to the days of
feudal Japan. This is the kind of high-concept lunacy that makes for some of
the best Elseworlds stories and, as Sony/Marvel would end up showing months after this film’s initial release, there’s a lot of room in the market for
bonkers reimaginings of our favourite superheroes. And quite honestly, even if
for pure geek-out value, this is most definitely one to check out.
