Batman – no introduction needed here; he’s one of the most beloved superheroes to exist. He defends Gotham City from penguins with bombs, a sinister clown, and the man with the deadliest 20 questions – just to name a few. Parodies of him are all over from Darkwing Duck and Bartman.

Thanks to the success of Superman in 1978, it was no surprise that Batman would event find himself going to the big screen (for the second time) and facing against the evil Joker.

The atmosphere of 1989 Batman brought Gotham back to its’ dark and scary roots compared to the 60s Batman with Adam West.

For many born in a span from 1977-1985, this was the introduction to the dark knight, and if it was not this (given the PG-13 rating), then the early 90s animated series sure as hell gave the introduction to him and carried over the dark atmosphere that came back with Tim Burton’s Batman.

Gotham City is plagued by the Joker and his evil soldiers. Bruce Wayne, whose parents were murdered by the Joker years prior, takes this personal and tracks him down before he can cause ruination during a bicentennial ceremony.

Most of the first half (if I remember correctly) is more about the Joker and how he got his appearance. Batman in his outfit does appear early on, but until the second half he is seen mostly as Bruce Wayne. I will need to rewatch this as I only saw this a few times. Burton apparently wanted to get audiences to know who the hell the Joker is and where he came from first. This was repeated in Batman Returns. Because of this, I believe both Burton movies are more about villain origins and not exactly the dark knight himself.

The animated series isn’t the only one to have voices from Star Wars. Lando, Biggs, and Porkins all appeared in this.

Batman ends up killing people in this one.

The Joker’s appearance may have been used as an inspiration for his appearance in the animated series.

Believe it or not, Batman has the most screen time in his outfit out of most of the Batman movies (I will need to check other ones but I thought he had more time in Batman Returns).

Game adaptations were done by Sunsoft for the NES and Sega Genesis, both really great games.

The Joker here doesn’t seem as “funny” as he was in the 60s movie and in the animated series. Penguin in Batman Returns took over that element. I’m more familiar with the animated series as I remember seeing it somewhat on a common basis. I’ll tell you right now I prefer the 90s Batman series over that 60s one.

The church bells at the end sound like the ending of Ocarina of Time right after Link drops the master sword and Navi buzzes off. Though not as depressing as the ending to OoT.

Going back to church bells, the fight in the clock tower sounds like Basil vs. Ratigan from the Great Mouse Detective but that was the Big Ben.