In "Batman Returns," just before Batman removes his mask at the end, you see he is no longer wearing that black make-up around his eyes.

So dark. So very dark.

I am surprised that Batman's cowl tears so easily.

Selina Kyle must have a trashy pair of black plastic pants that we don't see. Even given how she cut that jacket into patches, there's not way the jacket alone provided enough material for a whole bodysuit.

As far as I can tell, Catwoman has strange temporal powers that would put Wesley Crusher to shame. After she has ripped open the gas line and stuffed aerosol cans in the microwave, she still has time to skip out of the room, slink out the emergency exit (which does not seem to be located in the microwave room), and cross the street by backflip before anything explodes.

When does Catwoman repair her costume between her last scene and the movie's end?

Penguin's big emperor birds are either on steroids or robots in disguise. Take it from someone who's seen penguins in their natural habitat in the wild-- no self-respecting antarctic bird can move that fast on land.

Penguin's henchgirl has obviously flunked "Estimation 101." She predicts that the penguin rockets when fired into the city center will kill hundreds of thousand of people. Let's start with the fact that the loaded birds waddle for only 2-5 minutes from Penguin HQ and continue with the fact that when they explode in the empty zoo above Penguin HQ, no one gets hurt. But what do you expect from someone named "Girl With Poodle"?

I am completely confused as to what Penguin was trying to accomplish with his torpedoed birds. When Batman seizes the control box, the villain wails in rage and acts momentarily defeated ,as if loathe to let the Bat blow up his precious birds. What does Penguin do two minutes later? He grabs the control and activates it himself!

What do y'all think?

When Batman plays back the penguin's voice
through the PA, he puts his fingers on the CD
and moves it while it's playing to make the
"rap scratch" noise. First, a CD would not make such a noise (being digital, it would
sound much different, like a corrupted
WAV file)and second, howcome
the sound did not go through the PA system?

Batman's black eye makeup disappears just before he rips off his mask.It's really one of those no-win scenarios for the director, because if he leaves it on, he'd just look silly , and if it suddenly disappears, as it did, people notice it.
Great film though, and the last good Batman film, before Mr.Schumacher took this well-done series and made a complete balls of it, IMHO.

Actually Kira, I remember a special that had a behind the scenes look at the making of Batman Returns. The shock troop penguins in the streets were real. How do you get them to waddle that fast and in the same direction? Simple. Don't feed them at their regular time, show up with a bucket of nice yummy fishies about two hours late, and walk away from them. They'll chase that bucket everywhere looking for dinner.

Hmm. OK. I guess the ones I saw weren't motivated enough. Which means that even in that parka I can't have been too scary looking.

Al Tootikan's Catwoman site lists these good nits:

"Selina's fall from Shreck's office window seems to have done her a world of good. Not only does she no longer need glasses to see, but she appears to have acquired super powers. When she is about to blow up Shreck's department store, she punches through a steel access panel to get to the gas canister! She survives two additional falls that would have killed ordinary mortals. Batman head-butts her with his armored cowl when he tries to rescue the Ice Princess, which only knocks her back a few steps. Later, when Shreck escapes from Penguin's cage, she yanks him out of the water effortlessly. Maybe that's what happened to her at the end of the movie. She moved to Metropolis and took over Supergirl's role.

Selina Kyle is an amazing seamstress. She takes a vinyl coat out of her closet and in the space of only a few hours, manages to fashion a latex catsuit that must use twice the material. Did she have other vinyl outfits, or is it incredibly stretchy? Did she make the boots, too? Or did she happen to have a pair of sexy lace-up boots with 5-inch spike heels in her closet? Finally, about those claws. She rummages through her sewing basket and comes up with a veritable swiss army knife collection of nasty-looking weapons!

When Catwoman mounts Batman on the rooftop, they look up and notice a sprig of mistletoe, which prompts Batman's "Mistletoe can be deadly..." line. My question is: Who would hang mistletoe on their TV antenna? Was the owner hoping to get a kiss from their TV repairman?

When Catwoman has Batman at her mercy, she comments, "Seems like every woman you try to save winds up dead...or deeply resentful." Who is she talking about? The Ice Princess? She and Penguin were responsible for her death. Vicki Vale? Catwoman doesn't know Bruce Wayne is Batman yet, so Vicki is just a former girl friend of Bruce's, as far as she knows. I guess she's talking about herself.

Catwoman falls into a truck full of kitty litter. Since when is kitty litter delivered by dump truck? Wouldn't the litter be in bags? Maybe it was used litter (Yech-h!). She examines her costume, which is torn where Batman zapped her with his napalm capsule. Later, when she meets with Penguin, the tear in her costume is missing.

Catwoman catches up with Max Shreck in Penguin's arctic hideaway. How did she find out its location? Batman had to use his radar scanner in the Batskiboat to zero in on it. (The scene where the outline of a giant duck appears on his radar screen is one of the funniest in the movie.) I suppose Penguin could have told her, but this seems unlikely. Maybe Catwoman's a better detective than Batman!

The very last scene has Catwoman popping up just before the closing credits. Her costume, or at least her cowl, is magically repaired, even though her whole costume was in tatters just a short time ago.

Finally, just where did she learn how to handle a bullwhip like that? It doesn't seem like the kind of thing the mousy Selina we meet at the beginning of the movie would take up. It took Michelle Pfeiffer weeks of intense training to
become adept with the whip. In fact, she got so good at it that she didn't need stand-ins for the whip-handling scenes. The scene where she lops off the heads of the mannequins was done in one take!"

>>"Selina Kyle must have a trashy pair of black plastic pants that we don't see. Even given how she cut that jacket into patches, there's not way the jacket alone provided enought material for a whole bodysuit"

I thought that the jacket was a long rain coat and could provide just enough material. Of course I have know idea where she got the spiked heels, the tight leather bodice or the bull whip from.

She got the whip from the sporting goods section in Shreck's

BTW...Catwoman doesn't land in a truck full of kitty litter....it's sand...probably to sprinkle on the roads due to the snow. However, some people use sand as a kitty litter subsistute (and vice-versa)

Comparions again 1960's Batman Vs this one....

Meredith Vs DeVito...(Penguin) Burgess Meredith wins (IMHO) as the Penguin...Meredith wins with the waddle!

Newmarr/Kitt/Meriwether Vs. Pfeifer....(Catwoman)
Pfeiffer..how can you lose when you're wearing skin-tight leather and carrying a whip?

IMHO, this film contains one of the coolest images of the Batman series.Namely, the first time we see Bruce, sitting alone in the study, the Batsignal shines in window, and he stands up, as we see the signal shining on the wall behind him. Too cool.
What was Schumacher thinking?

***Batman head-butts her with his armored cowl when he tries to rescue the Ice Princess, which only knocks her back a few steps***

Thats not a great example of her superpowers, remember in the first bat film, he head-butts one of the Jokers Goons and he is fine.

***just where did she learn how to handle a bullwhip like that? It doesn't seem like the kind of thing the mousy Selina we meet at the beginning of the movie would take up***

She had a boyfriend at the start of the film, he could have been into that sort of thing

I am a little confused, and had to see this one again... and after this one I saw the 3rd Batman and the others, and came up with an interesting pattern.

1)catwoman works for a bad guy who (I could be wrong about this) works for Bruce Wayne.

2)The Riddler works for BW. (or did)

3)Poison Ivy-employee of BW. (yes I know it was Wayne Enterprises, but the boss was Bruce Wayne.

I suppose you could say working for BW will drive you over the edge.

And one quick little question that always nagged at me.
why was it the creators; the all mighty creators had made Batmans origin right but seemed to fudge on most of his villians??

1)catwoman works for a bad guy who (I could be wrong about this) works for Bruce Wayne.

Max Shrek (my favorite character in the film, actually, ably played by Christopher Walken) didn't work for Bruce Wayne. They may have had business dealings, though.

When The Penguin jumps off the bridge and into the stream, he is seen later riding INSIDE the big yellow duck.

Where did THAT thing come from?

I wonder how the film would have turned out if Annette Benning (the producers' first choice for Catwoman) had followed through and done the film. (She had to drop out due to her first pregnancy by husband Warren Beatty.) Michelle Pfeiffer was a good if predictable choice to replace her. (IMHO, of course.)

Speaking of which, I was just reminded of something. Sean Young did the talk show circuit in 1991, lobbying for the Catwoman role. Her antics (including appearing on the shows wearing a Catwoman mask) probably did more damage to her once hot career than any film she did (even The Boost.)

I would have loved to have seen Sean Young playing catwoman.

I used to really like this movie, but after sitting through it again (maybe my fifth time), I like it somewhat less. I think it's pretty well the Penguin's fault, as I disliked his scenes more and more. He's always raging or drooling black goo, and it became tiresome very fast.
Penguin for mayor? I don't care how inept your mayor is (mine is an arrogant, power hungry doofus), but there's no way Gotham City would want a genetic freak like the Penguin to replace an elected official. It almost worked in the tv series because Burgess Meredith didn't look like a mutant and performed multiple heroic acts to make everyone think he was a crime-fighter. Devito's Penguin returned the Mayor's kid to the Mayor and that was it. Financial backing from Schrek or not, the Penguin was not a sensible replacement.

I liked Michelle Pffeifer's Catwoman scenes much more. That's what kept my interest in the film.
Even Chrtopher Wlaken's Max Schrek was more interesting, even if all I could hear was SNL's 'The Continental' character whenever he spoke.

I hate clowns. I dislike circuses. So what's the Penguin doing with a circus gang befitting the Joker (the so-called Clown Prince of Crime)? It wasn't a good fit to me. It would make as much sense as having a bike gang join the Penguin.

Sometimes the music was too clownish or circusy for me. Too much like Edward Scissorhands, and just sounded goofy.

How did the 'palebearer' penguins move the Penguin's body down the ramp into the water? They didn't push him or touch him in any way.

When Batman drives through the narrow alley, he has to blow off the whole left and right sides of the Batmobile. It looks as if the car was mainly just empty shell on either side, even though we've seen weaponry and grapple hooks shoot out from these supposedly hollow areas.

When he discovers the unit that's controlling his car, Batman smashes his fist through the floor and removes it. Firstly, Batman isn't superhuman-- YOU try and smash your fist through the bottom of your car where your gear shift is and see how easy it ISN'T! Secondly, how weak is this section of the Batmobile that he can even do that without super strength?

Was the recorded confession played enough to convince Commissioner Gordon and the public that Batman wasn't a menace? We know the Penguin controlled the Batmobile and caused that damage, but what makes anyone think that the public and Gordon will believe it?

I actually prefer 'Batman Forever' to this one, but still like this better than 'Batman And Robin'. 'Batman Begins' is in a class all it's own.

Not so original story from the Original Batman Series...


The idea of Penguin running for Mayor comes from the episode: "Hizzoner, The Penguin"

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quote:

He's (The Penguin) always raging or drooling black goo, and it became tiresome very fast.

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You've called Guiliani a 'ghoul', Adam; ever call Catwoman a 'zombie'? Here's a recent article from cbr.com about that possibility;

"Catwoman Is Basically a Seductive ZOMBIE in Batman Returns;
Evidence points to the idea that Catwoman in Batman Returns might actually be a zombie.
Batman Returns s one of the oddest iterations of Batman in cinematic history, in part due to its bewildering and unforgettable interpretation of Catwoman. Played by Michelle Pfeiffer, Selina Kyle starts the 1992 film as a meek secretary, only to be thrown to her certain death by her boss, the loathsome Max Shreck (Christopher Walken). But after hitting the ground several stories below, and being licked by cats, she picks herself back up and goes about her life, psychologically, but seemingly not physically, changed by the traumatic event.

The reviled 2004 film Catwoman capitalized on the event, indicating the cats bestowed Selina with magical powers that revived her. However, in Batman Returns, there's little indication of the cats being magical. Rather, it feels as though Pfeiffer's Catwoman is less a person or a magical chosen one. She's a zombie — a reanimated corpse seemingly immune to death.
The undeniable theme of the character Catwoman is that of duality, as she exists parallel to Bruce Wayne's Batman. Both have a civilian and costumed identity, and both develop an odd bond together based on that mutual understanding of one another. Additionally, Selina becoming Catwoman also represents the idea of death and rebirth. She casts off her old life of Selina Kyle and becomes a confident avenger.

However, the metaphor might be a little more than just a metaphor. When Selina crashes in Batman Returns, she falls from a great height. Granted, it can be argued that her fall is broken and slowed on the way down just enough where she could theoretically live. But as she lies there, she's convulsing and twitching, which is more akin to what happens when someone breaks their skull or snaps their neck on the way down, rather than just suffer a momentary concussion.
Despite this, there is an indication of postmortem lividity on her jaw shortly after her fall. postmortem lividity is when corpses start to change color in death as a result of gravity affecting the flow of blood. This occurs an hour or two immediately after death. This does not happen in living people because the heart exerts pressure on the blood that resists gravitational pull, so postmortem lividity could only happen if Selina is dead. Add to that her corpse-like, pale appearance throughout Batman Returns, and it seems logical that she might have died.

In fact, when Selina returns home, she turns her apartment into a ghoulish hellscape, complete with the sign "Hell Here," and she does not seem to suffer any permanent injuries from her fall. No broken bones, no pain, nothing other than superficial cuts. This seems impossible, though she later chalks it up to "Cats having nine lives," indicating that she lost one of hers in the immediate fall.
The question surrounding Selina's survival may be found in studying similar occurrences in other media. In the '90s movie adaptation of the comic book, The Crow, protagonist Eric Draven dies, but is revived by a crow and gains superpowers. Similar to how crows are used as psychopomps in The Crow, cats have often been associated with death and the transfer of spirits from one world to the next. The cats that flocked to Selina once she hit the ground could have resurrected her in the same way the crow did with Eric.
After Selina's cataclysmic fall, she continues to lose "lives" throughout the rest of Batman Returns, be it falling from heights into "kitty litter," or being shot multiple times by Max Shreck. The electrified kiss that fries her former boss does not seem to affect Catwoman at all, since she's alive at the end, seemingly unharmed.

This sort of superhuman endurance is impossible to explain. One can argue her falls are softened by other objects. However, her latex outfit is stitched together using a needle and thread. If a needle can pierce it, it probably isn't durable enough to resist bullets. This survival only makes sense if Selina Kyle isn't actually alive at all."