Batman Returns: Difference between revisions

{{work}}

[[File:rsz_batman-returns.jpg|frame|''[[The Hero|The Bat]]. [[Anti-Villain|The Cat.]] [[The Big Bad|The Penguin]]'']]

 

{{quote|'''Batman:''' You're not the Mayor.

 

As alluded to above, this film was aggressively merchandised, with the characters appearing on everything from posters to beach towels. It also inspired a beautifully illustrated one-shot comic adapted by DC Comics editor Dennis O'Neill (with a cover painting by longtime ''[[Star Wars]]'' artist Dave Dorman) and ''two'' novel adaptations: one a more innocent and adventurous treatment by Andrew Helfer and the other [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|a much more cynical version]] by Craig Shaw Gardner. For the sake of thoroughness, tropes based on the comic and the two novels will be allowed on this page as well.

{{tropelist}}

* [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer]]: Young Oswald Cobblepot drifted through some rather large storm drains in his carriage as a child, before being found by some penguins. Several more scenes take in the icy storm drains under Gotham, and it's also apparent the Penguin had scavenged through sanitary sewers to get the material needed to blackmail Max Shreck. In the videogames on the Genesis, the penultimate stage is usually set in Gotham's sewer systems where Batman battles the Red Triangle Gang in sewage, and the toxic waste seemingly created by Max Shreck serves as a hazard.

* [[Badass Bookworm]]: As violent, sociopathic gang members go, the Red Triangle Gang also has some damn good ''mechanics''.

* [[Beautiful All Along]]: Dowdy secretary Selina Kyle goes through a near-death experience, trashes her apartment, and stitches together a vinyl suit to become the evil and sexy Catwoman.

* [[Big Bad Ensemble]]: Penguin and Catwoman both have largely separate agendas, and work together only briefly. Original character Max Shreck actually manages to hold his own against both of them; in fact, they fight, manipulate, ally and betray each other as much as they do against Batman himself.

* [[Big No]]: Selena Kyle, after coming home from a near-death experience and listening to her messages of her demanding mother and annoying beauty sales. It doesn't help that the latter was endorsed by the company, whose head just threw her out the window. Specifically, that it talked about how after she tried the pitch's perfume, her boss would want to arrange "A candlelight staff meeting for two...": the final straw that sends Selina over the edge and begins her transformation into Catwoman.

* [[Everyone Join the Party]]: The Red Triangle Gang is almost two dozen strong when they threaten celebrating Gothamites at the tree-lighting ceremony, but when Batman shows up, he manages to kill or incapacitate about a third of them. Then we see them regroup at Penguin's Arctic World hideout, and they've been whittled down to the single digits. By the time Penguin relocates to an abandoned office building that Shreck kindly provides him, the gang is small enough to huddle together in one corner of the room. But the next time they go out to the streets to riot, they've apparently been joined by at least a dozen or so new members, all of them costumed in the appropriate circus motif. For the rest of the movie, the gang then tends to fluctuate in size depending on Penguin's surroundings and whether his schemes are succeeding.

** It's more likely that those seen in the hideouts are the key members and lieutenants of Penguin, and those appear whenever they commit crimes are the footsoldiers who remain somewhere else. At the end of the movie, the only ones left to abandon Penguin when Batman is coming are Poodle Lady, Thin Clown and a handful of acrobats after Batman cleaned up most of them earlier.

* [[Evil Counterpart]]: The three antagonists represent the dark opposite of Batman's personas:

** The Penguin = The orphaned "freak".

* [[Wolverine Claws]]: Kind of. The Catwoman sports makeshift claws made from sewing implements. They are very long and quite painful.

* [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]: Really, you can't blame Oswald "The Penguin" Cobblepot for becoming the way he is today.

* [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl]]: Subverted when Batman targets the Poodle Lady on his batarang. Her poodle catches it and they both remove themselves from the fray. Catwoman uses this trope against Batman to get the drop on him. Batman quickly adapts and tells her to "eat floor" by their second encounter.

** But the most striking (no pun intended) example of a subversion has to be the brutal kidnapping of the Ice Princess. The Penguin barges into her tent just as the girl has finished applying her makeup, and manages to convince her that [[What an Idiot!|he is really a talent scout]]. Then, pretending to prepare to take the faux monarch's picture, he urges her to say "Cheese!" and then throws a stolen Batarang at her face so hard that it ''knocks her unconscious and causes her to bleed'' ([[Gory Discretion Shot|we don't actually see the blood]], but we do see Commissioner Gordon appearing on the news and holding up the stolen Batarang, which he says had the girl's blood on it when the police found it). So much for [[Beauty Is Never Tarnished]].... (on the other hand, when we next see the Ice Princess, [[Unexplained Recovery|her gash has completely healed]]).

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Dreamworks Animation]]

[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]

[[Category:Film]]

[[Category:Batman]]

[[Category:Christmas Movies]]