Batman Returns
“Meow.”
Jack Nicholson’s much-praised Joker didn’t make a return appearance in Batman Returns,
but with Danny DeVito’s Penguin, Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman and
Christopher Walken’s Max Shreck lighting up the screen, the
ever-smiling one was hardly missed. Michael Keaton did return as the
title character, as did director Tim Burton, whose knack for exotic,
imaginative visuals continued in this Bat-sequel.
As the movie opens, two Gotham socialites (played by Paul Reubens and his Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
co-star Diane Salinger) drop their bad-tempered and hideously
disfigured baby into the nearest river, where the child is taken in by
a flock of Gotham Zoo penguins. Thirty-three years later, the child has
grown into The Penguin, and he wants to know why his parents abandoned
him.
The Penguin makes his Gotham debut at a Christmas tree lighting
ceremony presided over by tycoon Max Shreck, who has designs on
Gotham’s electricity supply. The Penguin and his gang of circus clowns,
strongmen, etc., kidnap Shreck and try to blackmail him into helping
find the deformed creature’s parents. Shreck has an even better idea,
mounting a PR campaign to get The Penguin elected mayor.
Shreck’s shy secretary Selina Kyle stumbles onto his evil plans,
and to silence her, Shreck pushes her out a high-rise window.
Miraculously, Selina is nursed back to life by a gang of stray cats,
who lick her wounds. The reborn Selina stitches together a black
leather costume and takes to the night as the sharp-clawed Catwoman.
Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne/Batman digs up the dirt on The Penguin’s
shady past, which puts him squarely on The Penguin’s hit list. Catwoman
joins forces with the bad-tempered Penguin, but at the same time, she’s
beginning to fall in love with Bruce Wayne, and she still wants
revenge on Max Shreck. When The Penguin sends an army of
missile-outfitted penguins out to destroy Gotham, the lines are drawn
for a four-sided climactic battle.
Even darker in spirit than the first Batman,
this sequel may have not been suitable for young children, but that
didn’t stop them from flocking to see their caped hero in action. Batman Returns was another mammoth success in the film franchise, which continued on in 1995’s Batman: The Animated Series brought the films’ “Dark Deco” look to the small screen, kicking off a new line of Batman cartoons that continues today.
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