As well as his traditional adventures Batman sometimes teams up or takes on unusual characters, as in the following:
In 1964 Andy Warhol gave us the unofficial Batman Dracula, it's pretentious and crap, exactly what you'd expect from anything with the Warhol name on it! I could only find a really poor quality copy, which is probably the best way to see this steaming turd!
Batman took on Dracula in wait for it, Batman vs Dracula in 2005, the title says it all really.
Batman: Gotham by Gaslight see Batman transported back to Victorian London where there's a serial murderer at large!
Another unofficial release is Gay Batman, this came with the tagline "If Batman ever saves you in a dark alley, be careful, he may want more than a thank you!" part 1 in a series if you're interested!
Scooby Doo has cameos from everyone, including Batman! Scooby Doo & Batman was released in 2018.
You of course have the Lego movies as well which there seems to be a growing list!
There's probably more animated stories to come based the the amount of source material that's out there, including of course the DC Marvel crossovers, who wouldn't want to see Batman taking on the Hulk or Captain America!
Some of the best Batman films out there are actually animated, in my humble opinion, I'm not sure if it's because they are closed to the source material or just the fact that I've always loved animation. There's quite a few so I'm going to just highlight some of my favourites that I would recommend you give a watch, you wont regret it, promise!
Between 1992 and 1995 Batman: The Animated Series arrived and gave us the greatest Joker of them all, none other than Luke Skywalker! Over the 4 seasons and 85 30 minute episodes we saw the Caped Crusader, with the aid of Robin and Batgirl, battle all his infamous foes in a classic take on Batman story.
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was a feature length film based in the same universe as The Animated Series and sees Batman being framed for the murder of some mob bosses, could it be a nefarious plan by Luke Skywalker....sorry I meant The Joker?!
In 2003 Batman: The Mystery of Batwoman was released, this sets Batman on the trail of a masked vigilante who's methods tend to be quite severe.
A fan favourite series Batman: The Brave and the Bold aired between 2008 - 2011 see our hero teaming up with other heroes from the DCU, and there's a lot of them, some more obscure than others, which is nice.
Batman: Gotham Knight is an anthology, each story is directed by a different Japanese director with their own particular style, but all 6 stories are linked in some way. The stories are good and the animation is fantastic, cinematic at times and with a touch of Manga for some, a clever concept that works well.
2010 gave us Batman: Under the Red Hood, based on the 1988 graphic novel A Death in the Family, Batman has to use all his detective skills to hunt down a new threat to Gotham, his quarry is part vigilante part criminal kingpin, dare you lift the red hood???
The new Batman movie as I mentioned is said to be based on the graphic novel Batman: Year One, well in 2011 there was an animated version, check it out but may contain spoilers!
In Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Parts 1&2 we see an older Batman return to Gotham after being away for 10 years and there's a new violent movement on the rise threatening the relative peace.
One of my favourite Batman graphic novels is Alan Moore's The Killing Joke, and the animated version doesn't disappoint, great story, beautifully animated and also the return of mark Hamill as The Joker, what more could you want???
Another Japanese entry in the Batman saga, Batman Ninja sees Batman and his allies, as well as a few of his adversaries, transport back in time to feudal Japan, really it should have been called Batman Samurai but I don't want to get too picky, it's a blast anyway!
To celebrate Batmans 80th Hush was released, and it's a proper murder mystery based on the graphic novel of the same name, written by Jeph Loeb and the legendary Jim Lee!
This list has barely scratched the surface, there are loads more Batman animations out there, he also appears in a load of Superman animations as well as Justice League and Justice League Dark films, the extended DC Universe is huge, and there's a lot of crossovers.
I'm going to skip the animation films and series and come back to them later and just concentrate on live action outings for now, and I'll explain later why.
In 2005 Christopher Nolan gave us the first in the Dark Knight trilogy, starring Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader. I think these are all good films, but are flawed, and are very rewatchable but I'm not really a fan of Christian Bale, sorry if I hurt peoples feelings.
The Dark Knight (2008) has our hero face his most infamous and notorious foe, The Joker, played this time by Heath Ledger. We also get to see the origin story for Two-Face/Harvey Dent played by Aaron Eckhart, which I think was really well done. Rachel Dawes is played by Maggie Gyllenhaal instead of Katie Holmes, and I think it works a bit better. I don't want to seem insensitive but I think the film won more praise than it probably should have due to the sad passing of Heath Ledger, gone too soon.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) is the thrilling, over the top conclusion of the trilogy and we have Bale's Batman taking on his most formidable foe (SPOILER ALERT!), and I'm not taking about Tom Hardy's mumbling, barely comprehensible Bane but Marion Cotillard Miranda Tate (Ra's al Ghul's daughter, Talia!). Oh and don't forget Anne Hatthaway as Selina Kyle, Catwoman, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a cop who becomes one of the iterations of Robin are also in it.
2017 saw Justice League, a troubled production due to Zack Snyder having to hand over the production due to personal reasons, and apparently the end product wasn't Snyder's end vision, so next year we're going to see the fabled Zack Snyder Cut, which I'm looking forward to as I enjoyed the original cut! Affleck, Cavill and Gadot are back and this time joined by Jason Momoa's Aquaman and Ezra Miller's Flash.
I recently catalogued my DVD collection (amazing what you get up to during lockdown!) and I had a total of 18 different DVDs and box sets that contain Batman!
In 1966 the ABC network unleashed a twice weekly live action version starring Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin!
It's was bright, colourful, campy and hilarious and had some brilliant comedic performances
Between 1966 and 1969 ABC produce 120 episodes, as well of course Batman: The Movie!
It went quiet for a while and then in 1989 Tim Burton graced us with the excellent Batman, starring Michael Keaton (still one of my favourite portrayals of Batman) in the lead role and Jack Nicholson as The Joker, Burton gave us a dark gothic vision of Gotham, but still maintained it's comic book roots.
Things started to go downhill after the first 2, the studio wanted to change the direction of the franchise, Burton wasn't happy with that so Joel Schumaher took over the directing helm, and Keaton wasn't either so Val Kilmer donned the cowl, what a mess they made of them.
First we had Batman Forever, they tried to recapture the campy 60's feel, which worked then, but not so much in the 90's, and there were too many villains.
Next we had Batman and Robin, and another new Batman, George Clooney and the infamous bat nips! Again it just didn't work and there were too many characters, Robin's annoying and Batgirl is pointless, another fine mess Joel got us into to!
If you've never heard of the Eco Challenge before then let me enlighten you, it's an expedition endurance race covering normally 300 miles in 10 or so days, swimming, cycling, rafting, climbing running, hiking and sometimes crawling!
There were multiple events between 1995 to 2002 which took place in different ecosystems across the world including Utah, British Columbia, Australia, Morocco, Borneo, New Zealand, Argentina and Fiji.
Teams are made up of 4 competitors, though it was 5 to start with in the early days, from all over the world.
One of the rules to the earlier races was that you leave no trace that you'd ever been there apart from footprints.
I remember watching these super-humans for the first time many years ago and was absolutely amazed at the strength and endurance of these people, both of body and mind.
A new series has started on Prime, and it is just as tough, though there's probably a little bit more weepy backstories than I remember, but isn't that the way TV has gone, still really worth a watch, and check out some of the older ones linked above.
Just a final note, now I've finished it, the tend to ignore the European teams, probably didn't have weepy enough backstories!
Scott Pilgrim vs the World is 10 years old this year, but it might have been made a lot earlier, why wasn't it I hear you ask, well I'll tell you, Shaun of the Dead, because of the success of SOTDEdgar Wright decided he wanted to make the follow up, Hot Fuzz, before he started any other projects.
Scott Pilgrim was co-written, produced and directed by Wright, it was a bit of a passion project and based on the graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O'Malley.
The basic plot for those of you who haven't seen the film (WHY???) Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) falls for Romona Flower (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) but to date her he first needs to defeat her evil exes!
So ensues a rollicking adventure involving battling bands, strange super powers, fantastic music and visuals.
Fun Fact Time:
1. Scott Pilgrim was named after a song by Canadian band Plumtree, and you see Scott in the movie wearing a Plumtree t-shirt, the song is also on the soundtrack.
2. Michael Cera was Wrights first and only choice to play Scott after seeing him in Arrested Development.
3. Before the movie started filming the cast were each given a list of 10 secret things about their characters.
5. All the evil ex's are designated by number and their numbers will connected somehow on them, Todd is number 3 and 3 appears on his shirt, Roxy who's number 4 fights Scott in a club called 4, and Scott who isn't an ex wear a t-shirt with zero on it and drinks coke zero. Now you know this you'll watch the film and try and catch all the references, I did!
6. The only actors over the age of 30 in the film were the Vegan Police.
7. The four cast members in the band Sex Bob-Omb spent several weeks learning how to play together as a band, they all had to learn their instruments from scratch, apart from Cera who was already an accomplished musician.
8. Beck wrote the song Ramona, he also wrote the music for Sex Bob-Omb.
9. The script was finished before the graphic novel was completed so some of the film dialogue ended up in the graphic novel!
10. There is an alternative ending where Scott goes off with Knives, what do you think of that.
So give Scott Pilgrim an anniversary re-watch it still holds up.
Bolo Yeung, born Yang Sze in 1946 China, started martial arts training at the age of 10 and trained under several kung fu masters but Bolo also had an interest in bodybuilding.
He became Mr Hong Kong in a body building championship and held the title for 10 years and because of his impressive physique and martial arts skills he was cast as the baddie in several Shaw Brothers films.
He has appeared in over a hundred films and fought alongside and against some of the greats in the kung fu genre, the likes of Bruce Lee, Jean Claude Van Damme, Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan (picture above shows Bolo using Jackie Chan as a weapon against Bruce Lee!).
His most famous role was Bolo in Enter the Dragon where he played opposite Bruce Lee and John Saxon, still one of favourite fights of his and John Saxon.
Probably his next most famous role was Chong Li in Bloodsport, the supposed true story of Frank Dux being the first westerner to win the fabled Kumite.
Yueng went on to make a bunch of movies with the fake Bruce Lee, Bruce Le, these were varying in quality but fun.
I re-watched Inception last night after chatting to my mate Kazz, it's her favourite movie, it had been a while since I'd last seen it so it was almost like viewing it with fresh eyes.
The first thing I'd like to say is how well it's aged, it could have been made last year, I had forgotten a lot about the movie and as such it had me on the edge of my seat, though I did remember the dream within a dream within a dream bit so it was easier to understand.
You can read 100 different theories about the ending but here are a couple of points that are important:
2. The spinning top is not Cobb's totem, it's Mal's, the wedding ring is his, and he's not wearing the wedding ring, he only wears a the ring in dreams.
Result = Cobb gets his happy ending, but you're welcome to ignore Occam's Razor and follow the convoluted theories of fans and "experts", there are plenty!
3. Nolan's characters in the team were based on a film crew, Cobb the director, Arthur the producer, Eames the star, Ariadne the production designer, Saito the studio executive and Fischer is the viewer.
4. There are very few visual effects, where possible practical effects were used including that train, even though it wasn't a real train it was an 18 wheeler made up to look like a train.
6. Hans Zimmer used a slowed down version of Edith Piaf's song "Non, Je Ne Regretta Rien" as the main theme, the song is of course used as the "kick" to leave the dream.
8. Inception runs at 2 hours 28 minutes, Edith Piaf's "Non, Je Ne Regretta Rien" runs at 2 minutes 28 seconds, coincidence, nope, nothing is with Nolan.
9. In Yusuf's dream the licence plates on the car are marked with "The Alternate State" at the bottom.
10. Numbers appear and reappear throughout the film,
a. Arthurs totum, the die, always lands on 5, his fight scene in the revolving corridor takes place on floor 5
b. In Yuluf's dream the taxi is number 2053 and the train is 3502 (this is the same train that Cobb and Mal used to escape limbo)
c. The code "528491" the Fischer gave the team to open the safe pops up a couple of times, it's on the napkin the women gives Fischer in the bar, 528 is the hotel room number where the team sleep and 491 is the room number directly below it.
11. Cobb's wife Mal plays a classic femme fatale role in the movie, and as an aside mal in French means bad or sad.
12. Satoshi Kon's anime classic Paprika was a big influence on Inception, and it's well worth checking out and you see a lot of influential point within it.
Not only is today my birthday but this is also my 100th blog so I had to do something a little bit special, and it so happens that Doctor Who was first aired in 1963, on November 23rd, the day after JFK was assassinated, with an episode called An Unearthly Child, make of that what you will!
