ANI-MOVIES, *Batman Vs. Two-Face

In his final performance, Adam West plays the campy 60's version of the Caped Crusader one last time in this special made-for-video movie. Batman Vs. Two-Face shows the premiere of the classic DC Comics villain in the "Dozierverse", although the character was planned for an abandoned episode featuring Clint Eastwood as the divided bad-doer. This time though, he's voiced by William-effing-Shatner, and modeled after the Captain Kirk take used in Filmation's Star Trek, who also did the original Batman cartoon.

Set sometime after Return Of The Caped Crusaders, Batman and Robin are asked to witness an experiment conducted by Hugo Strange(with a cameo by his assistant, Dr. Quinzel!), where he plans on extracting the evil from five of Gotham's worst villains. But the bad guys mojo proves to much for Strange's contraption, which spills out on to Harvey Dent, the local district attorney and Bruce Wayne's old college friend. Harvey now is a living half-Mr. Hyde as the new criminal called Two-Face. After a few crime sprees during the opening credits, Harvey is finally captured and physically restored to his old self thanks to plastic surgery. Despite his insane criminal activities, Dent is allowed to become the assistant D.A., just as King Tut and Bookworm each go on their own heists. Batman and Robin solve both cases, but realize that each caper dealt with duality, pointing to Two-Face being behind the whole thing. After confronting Harvey Dent directly, the Dynamic Duo aren't totally sure if he's the guilty party. Two-Face however emerges, captures them, and ties them to a giant coin. After deducing their true identities, Two-Face gets Hugo Strange to remake his device to transfer the evil from some villains he invited to bid off Batman and Robin's fate. Catwoman breaks out of jail though to rescue the Caped Crusaders, while Two-Face takes the bad-guy formula to spray all over Gotham. With most of the city now transformed into Two-Face versions of themselves, Batman and Robin take down the actual Two-Face, while Batman has a final confrontation with Harvey who is battling between his two personalities. Harvey eventually purges himself from Two-Face, and returns seemingly not knowing the Dynamic Duo's secret identities.

Batman Vs. Two-Face is slightly superior to Return Of The Caped Crusaders as it folds out more like a 3-part TV episode, where as the prior feature was like several comic book chapters bonded to single plot. The original voice actors are back, with Shatner doing a brilliant job as the duplicitous Two-Face, with shades of the mirror universe version of Kirk from Star Trek, also making for probably the most memorable portrayal of the character so far. There's a quick bonus on the Blu-Ray featuring a possible addition to Batman's rogues gallery, although given that there would be no way to produce another Batman '66 feature without Adam West, it doesn't seem likely that this will go anywhere. However, that shouldn't stop you from enjoying this film that honors both the 60's TV series, and the ongoing legacy of the "Bright Knight"!

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ANI-MOVIES, *Batman: Return Of The Caped Crusaders

After several decades of not playing the Dark Knight, Adam West finally returns with Burt Ward to voice Batman and Robin. This is a continuation of the original 1960s live-action Batman TV series, although leaving certain characters like Batgirl for no explained reason. West and Ward had also played the Caped Crusaders on the notorious Legend Of The Superheroes TV specials, The New Adventures Of Batman, and West portrayed Batman on the last few seasons of Superfriends, as well as recalling their experiences in the genuinely funny Return To The Batcave, but with the Batman '66 comics from DC raising interest in the campy mod show along with it finally releasing it on home video, Return Of The Caped Crusaders is the first part of a fitting climax to the Silver Age sensation.

Bruce Wayne and his youthful ward Dick Grayson discover that Joker, Penguin, Riddler, and the Julie Newmar version of Catwoman have all teamed up again to go on a crime spree. Changing into Batman Robin, the Caped Crusaders chase the villains after stealing a Replication Ray that makes copies of anyone or anything. After being captured, Catwoman tries using her "Batnip" formula to turn Batman bad, but doesn't work, and the Duo escape. Figuring the evil quartet have left Earth to an abandoned space station, Batman and Robin chases them with their Bat-Rocket, and rescue Catwoman after the other three literally kicked her out into space. One trio fights the other trio, and Joker, Riddler and Penguin are put in jail, with Catwoman escaping. Batman then starts acting more sterner, fires Robin and Alfred, and the Replicator Ray to create copies of himself to slowly take over Gotham. Robin realizes that Batman's change is due to Catwoman's Batnip, and teams up with her to stop Batman. The catty duo then bust nearly all the bad guys out of Gotham prison to take on Batman and his clones. The Bat-Men end up wining, but the real Batman is tricked into drinking an Anti-Batnip formula by Alfred. The now good again Batman realizes that the whole caper was a long con run by Joker, Penguin, and Riddler to pull a big museum heist. Along with Catwoman, they bust the crafty criminals, but with Catwoman apparently dying after trying to escape Batman along with the stolen goods.

This movie works as a great love letter to the original 60s cartoon series, but also mocking other incarnations of Batman, with references to works like The Dark Knight Returns and the Michael Keaton movies. Before its home video release, the film received a successful one night screening which helped spread word of mouth to make it a hit for old school fans and new. The story itself is slightly clunky, formatted in the way of a 3-part story from the last two seasons of the show, instead of a singular flowing plot. However, the quality of animation is up to par, and the inclusion of West, Ward, and Newmar is welcome return. The only major downside is that there is no reference whatsoever to Batgirl at all, possibly down out of respect to the original actress Yyvonne Craig passing away a previous to the film's release. Aside from that though, the Caped Crusaders return compels you to want to tune in to this Bat-Time!