Adam West and Burt Ward return to the iconic roles of Batman and Robin, providing voices for a new animated take of the classic 60's campy series, in which the dynamic duo face a ... killer quadruple ... of Catwoman, The Joker, The Penguin and The Riddler.
There are two main problems with this film. One is the story. Rather than being a coherent plot that builds to something, it's a case of several scenes leading to a fight, repeated three times. It feels like they wanted to make a series but there was insufficient interest so they reworked that together into something resembling a movie to salvage something from it and unfortunately, what they salvaged is a lacklustre affair at best.
The principle problem though is one of tone. It's never sure whether it's mocking the source material or reverential of it, so it undermines both and serves neither. There are a few decent references to other incarnations of the character sprinkled around this, but it really needed to go full parody or not exist at all.
The animation style is nice, a little reminiscent of "The Animated Series" at times, as well as the original series. West and Ward do well with the characters though Julie Newmar's unmodulating performance doesn't help lift the interest levels. The other three principle villains are wasted opportunities, obviously nobody could emulate the late stars that iconically played them, but they might as well be mute for all they add to this.
I was a fan of the series when the reruns aired when I was a child, but this tedious film takes two minutes of ironic enjoyment and stretches it well beyond breaking point.
There are two main problems with this film. One is the story. Rather than being a coherent plot that builds to something, it's a case of several scenes leading to a fight, repeated three times. It feels like they wanted to make a series but there was insufficient interest so they reworked that together into something resembling a movie to salvage something from it and unfortunately, what they salvaged is a lacklustre affair at best.
The principle problem though is one of tone. It's never sure whether it's mocking the source material or reverential of it, so it undermines both and serves neither. There are a few decent references to other incarnations of the character sprinkled around this, but it really needed to go full parody or not exist at all.
The animation style is nice, a little reminiscent of "The Animated Series" at times, as well as the original series. West and Ward do well with the characters though Julie Newmar's unmodulating performance doesn't help lift the interest levels. The other three principle villains are wasted opportunities, obviously nobody could emulate the late stars that iconically played them, but they might as well be mute for all they add to this.
I was a fan of the series when the reruns aired when I was a child, but this tedious film takes two minutes of ironic enjoyment and stretches it well beyond breaking point.