Hot Toys Announce Batman Returns License

Collector Freaks Forum

Help Support Collector Freaks Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
And that's a problem, isn't it? That's why I think we're all arguing about this in the first place. We all get caught up in some perceived notion of "canon" and history for freaking fictional creations.

We shouldn't be looking at these like comics, since when was that a mandate? How does a 75 year old character in a numbered "series" still remain a 20-30 year old looking character? Who wants to get caught up in all the "Earth One", "Year B", "Alternate Universe" crap? Every artist, writer, filmmaker, director, etc. creates their own interpretation, their own take of the story/character. That's how Batman works, that's how Batman has "lived" this long.


People can hate on Schumacher as much as he wanted, but even he got it right with his "I made my own living comic book, my own interpretation of the character". That's what everyone does and that's all it is.



As for what Burton said, yeah, I don't think Batman and Batman Returns are of the same world (which is nuts), but it's of the same series. The series of films that Burton and Co. created. I mean, can we really refute this, it was his movie?


BatmanReturns2.jpg

I don't know man. On the one hand you seem to be saying "YOU guys (who disagree with me that Burton and Schumacher are different series) are taking this fictional thing WAY TOO seriously, hey, it's just movies", and on the other hand, you have very long and detailed posts explaining why you believe what you believe (just as long and detailed as those of us who believe the opposite), then repeatly asking some form of "why is this even an argument?"

The part of your quote that I bolded is the most interesting to me though. You really don't believe Batman and Batman Returns are in the same world? Wow, I am honestly shocked by that since I figured it was practically universally accepted that they are. Is it because details of the look of the city set changed? Because the suit and Batmobile aren't exactly the same? Sorry if it sounds like I'm being facetious, I honestly am not trying to be...just really really interested in what makes you think the two Burton movies aren't in the same world.

Do you believe Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are in the same world?
 
As for what Burton said, yeah, I don't think Batman and Batman Returns are of the same world (which is nuts), but it's of the same series. The series of films that Burton and Co. created. I mean, can we really refute this, it was his movie?

Back to that quote, when Batman and Batman Returns are defined very specifically as the set of Batman movies by Tim Burton...of course Batman Forever and Batman & Robin do not fall into that set. They fall into the very specifically defined set of Batman movies by Joel Schumacher.

Just like saying Batman '89, Edward Scissorhands, Mars Attacks, A Nightmare Before Christmas etc are part of the very specifically defined set of movies by Tim Burton.

If that is what you were arguing all along, fine, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin are not Tim Burton movies.
 
I don't know man. On the one hand you seem to be saying "YOU guys (who disagree with me that Burton and Schumacher are different series) are taking this fictional thing WAY TOO seriously, hey, it's just movies", and on the other hand, you have very long and detailed posts explaining why you believe what you believe (just as long and detailed as those of us who believe the opposite), then repeatly asking some form of "why is this even an argument?"

The part of your quote that I bolded is the most interesting to me though. You really don't believe Batman and Batman Returns are in the same world? Wow, I am honestly shocked by that since I figured it was practically universally accepted that they are. Is it because details of the look of the city set changed? Because the suit and Batmobile aren't exactly the same? Sorry if it sounds like I'm being facetious, I honestly am not trying to be...just really really interested in what makes you think the two Burton movies aren't in the same world.

Do you believe Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are in the same world?


Okay, first, define a "world".

What is the world for Batman and Batman Returns. It seems like it's some real, logical, historical type of thing correct? Like, even though it's just a movie made by creative people and forces, there's a world beyond the intro and end credits? Is this correct?


I'm saying that notion is BS. Each thing is essentially it's own entity because it's not real. Can we be immersed in the world? Sure. But it doesn't make sense in terms of it's own universe, world, or continuity that a whole city changes, or Wayne Manor goes from an actual mansion to a model built bigature, or that a child goes from 1 to 10 in just a year, or John Mcclane just starts becoming invincible, or a director does his own revision and goes back and changes his own movies' universe and world with CGI and alterations as a means to connect them.
 
Okay, first, define a "world".

What is the world for Batman and Batman Returns. It seems like it's some real, logical, historical type of thing correct? Like, even though it's just a movie made by creative people and forces, there's a world beyond the intro and end credits? Is this correct?


I'm saying that notion is BS. Each thing is essentially it's own entity because it's not real. Can we be immersed in the world? Sure. But it doesn't make sense in terms of it's own universe, world, or continuity that a whole city changes, or Wayne Manor goes from an actual mansion to a model built bigature, or that a child goes from 1 to 10 in just a year, or John Mcclane just starts becoming invincible, or a director does his own revision and goes back and changes his own movies' universe and world with CGI and alterations as a means to connect them.

I get it, no one is here trying to claim Batman / Gotham etc is real (I hope). Not sure why you're trying to sidetrack the discussion into "don't you guys get it? it's fiction!". It's a discussion, on a collectible site, of the fictional world and/or worlds that the collectors here are fans of. (bold, italics and underlined...just so that you would know that I know it's fiction). If you're just going to suddenly dismiss the whole thing as "it's not real you guys, so there's no point argue about if it's connected or not" then there is no point to discuss any movie, or any book, or any videogame or anything that isn't based on a real life event. No point in even discussing the plot of movie within itself, nevermind any movies that came before or after it. After all, even if Batman '89 was the only Batman movie ever made, and there was no debate among fans over what happened next because there was no "next" to be seen...it still wouldn't be worth talking about because hey, it's not real, right? :dunno
 
But that's not my point at all.

If it was just the film making aspect and we didn't buy into the fictional world, there wouldn't be much point to all this would there? We couldn't get invested in the story. To be fair, I mentioned immersion didn't I? I know how important it is.

No, my point is about the ideas of the worlds of and between sequels. It never makes much sense because it isn't consistent (unless it's LOTR or Toy Story or something). I'm not playing the "it's fictional" card, even though it is. When the intro begins to when the credits roll, it's great to buy into it for 2 hours or 3 hours or what have you. For sequels though, it just doesn't work. The worlds aren't the same. My face can't just change and contort to the point where I look like a different person. My house, foundation, city doesn't just change into a completely different looking locale. In a year's time I age from 31 to 32, not 31 to 41. My personality and personal history doesn't change, I don't just wake up one day and decide to change my whole upbringing or make up.

That's the problem with thinking in a "world" or "universe" between/apart if sequels. Unless you look at it from purely a written story standpoint, which is idiotic when film is a visual medium.
 
Last edited:
Yes. Each film by definition is its own entity separate of anything else that may or may not tie into it. Even a trilogy like Nolan's is essentially three separate movies with loosely interlocking themes. One can either choose to view them separately or together. The same can be done with Batman thru Batman & Robin. You choose to view them separately which is fine, others may choose to view them together, which is also fine.
The problem is that Schumacher's "reinvention" is not wholly his own. It is not him coming to the character and creating his own unique version. His films are set firmly on the foundation previously established by Burton's films. They are linked for continuity purposes, that in Hollywood have little to do with storytelling and everything to do with maximising profits. By the time of Batman Forever, the Batman character and the Batman film franchise was worth too much to be completely reinvented. As such, Schumacher's vision had to be set within the basic parameters that Burton had originally set up with the '89 Batman film. Had Batman & Robin been better received, this franchise would have continued and we would never have gotten Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. If Nolan had come on board under these circumstances it would have been within the same basic parameters established in Burton's Batman as well.
I've read a lot of arguments that end up being apples to oranges in regards to the 90's franchise. The only like example is the James Bond franchise from Dr. No thru Die another Day. Actors changed, directors changed etc., etc. but every single film was a continuation of the same franchise that had been established with Dr. No. That same principle applies here.
 
Dear Hot Toys: this is what happens when you have people waiting to see the Michelle pfeiffer Catwoman sculpt for literally years on end. You get people arguing semantics and obsessing..... how 'bout showing us even a teaser. DO IT
 
:lol

Or that great Bond set of 23 (that has an extra disc insert for Skyfall).

The last three were "reboots" weren't they? What's the deal there? What happens in the future when Warner Bros. put's the three Nolan films in the same set with the Burton and Schumacher ones?




I don't even know what continuity and "of the same universe" even means in this case. These aren't "worlds", they're movies that are made at their own point and time with a number of things being poured into them other than story. IT'S NOT REAL. :lol


It's why so many times we see "meta" writing's in the script. Batman Returns isn't mentioning Vicki Vale, just to tie into the first one (Burton was vehmently against the idea of Returns being a "sequel" to Batman), it's mentioning it because the fans had a problem with Alfred letting her into the Batcave in 1989. It's meta. In the first X-Men, the yellow spandex thing isn't for the story or "world", it's a meta reference to the comics and how, I guess, ridiculous the filmmakers thought the comic suits are. When Bale Bruce Wayne mentions in the Dark Knight about not being able to turn his head and Fox states "it should do fine against Cats", it's meta.


So the Kilmer Batman experienced the same things the Keaton Batman experienced? Huh? How does that work. If "continuity" and "of the same universe" is the same, what's the explanation for him looking like a different person, THREE consecutive times? Before I'm jumped on, I know that's an "aesthetic", visual difference that doesn't stop it from being "story continuity", but then what about inconsistencies like the fact that Keaton Batman saw a different show (Footlight Frenzy). while the Kilmer/Clooney Batman saw a movie (Zorro). If this is the "same universe" and the "same continuity" then how does that happen? In my universe, I can't just be two people. It doesn't work that way. So it's a continuity error than? Right? Well how many continuity errors effect/destroy the continuity? Now, I acknowledge that The Dark Knight is the sequel to Batman Begins, but guess what? There's a glaring difference between the two and it ain't the city or Rachel Dawes changing. Jimmy Gordon is an infant/toddler in Begins but then one year later (in the stories, "universe") in the Dark Knight he's freaking 9 or 10 years old! How the hell does that work unless you make up some contrived BS to make it work? We shouldn't be thinking in "sequels" or "history" or "continuity" or "worlds" for these things. Just a 1989 film, a 1992 film, etc. etc...

Exactly.

And if we were all **** retentive about it, we could go into what is a "soft sequel" or a "direct sequel", etc.

The best thing to do is look at each film as it is based on it's own merits. I don't get this obsession of "grouping" things unless it's a book or a novel that are literally put together sequentially.

When I watch Die Hard, I'm thinking about Die Hard. When I watch Star Wars, I'm not thinking of how the prequels match up (and they don't). It's just stupid. They're sequels in the fact that they're made after each other, but they're not sequels in the idea of the "same universe", "same world", etc. Writers, directors, storytellers, filmmakers have different worlds they create to the point where they could easily be standalone.

The only one that doesn't really apply is Lord of the Rings, which were filmed back to back to back with the same cast and crew simultaneously. Superman II almost fit the bill before the Salkinds pulled the rug out from under Donner.

Okay, first, define a "world".

What is the world for Batman and Batman Returns. It seems like it's some real, logical, historical type of thing correct? Like, even though it's just a movie made by creative people and forces, there's a world beyond the intro and end credits? Is this correct?


I'm saying that notion is BS. Each thing is essentially it's own entity because it's not real. Can we be immersed in the world? Sure. But it doesn't make sense in terms of it's own universe, world, or continuity that a whole city changes, or Wayne Manor goes from an actual mansion to a model built bigature, or that a child goes from 1 to 10 in just a year, or John Mcclane just starts becoming invincible, or a director does his own revision and goes back and changes his own movies' universe and world with CGI and alterations as a means to connect them.


You have made this point many times (at least 3 times before the ones quoted above, and some of those more explicitly), and I feel bad for not addressing it until now.

For many of us, suspending disbelief when there are continuity errors is a small price to pay for the richness that is added to a story/character when you see it as part of something bigger. This is the fundamental reason for this disagreement, I think.

To illustrate: My personal favorite Star Wars movies are Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi. (Sorry to the hardcore fans. I realize that Empire Strikes Back is the better movie, just not my favorite.) Why? Because of the Anikin story. Seeing how he became Vader in Sith, and then how he completes his journey in Jedi - repenting, and bringing balance to the force, is very emotionally compelling to me. If I didn't see those films as taking place in the same universe, both of those films suddenly loose much of their meaning and impact.

Perhaps that's not the best example, but it's the first that came to mind.


You say that Lord of the Rings is the only movie series that takes place in one continuity? What about Back to the Future? Are all the references to events earlier in the series just "meta"?
 
No amount of discussion on the relationships of these 4 movies will ever change the fact that the latter 2 will always be viewed as the inferior of the 4.

Compare them all you want but they have already left their mark on history, and nothing is ever going to change that.

Tim Burton didn't give a crap about sellings Batman Returns toys, that's for certain. :lol

The toy company mafia must've squeezed the living **** out of the studio's nuts after witnessing Penguin biting another person's nose for the first time.

Good luck getting that past mom and dad at the toy aisle.

Therefore the behind the scene creative and marketing battles must've been epic for a product like BF/B&R to have been given birth.

Why WB decided to carry over a few aesthetics and actors from the first 2 is a mystery to me.

Recognition, name brand probably.

But if they internally hated Returns so much why keep anything?
 
Last edited:
To illustrate: My personal favorite Star Wars movies are Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi. (Sorry to the hardcore fans. I realize that Empire Strikes Back is the better movie, just not my favorite.) Why? Because of the Anikin story. Seeing how he became Vader in Sith, and then how he completes his journey in Jedi - repenting, and bringing balance to the force, is very emotionally compelling to me. If I didn't see those films as taking place in the same universe, both of those films suddenly loose much of their meaning and impact.
/QUOTE]

I guess that's one reason I completely reject the PT in my personal canon.

I felt nothing for Anakin. Even when he turned I felt nothing. I felt more bad for Obi Wan with that great bit of dialogue at the end. By time the third film came around I should have been completely invested in the Anakin character and it should have hurt to see him turn but Hayden Christensen is so terrible. Although, I don't know how much of it was his fault considering the dialogue and story was ridiculous.

And accepting some sort of repentance is made even more ludicrous knowing that he killed kids, oh I'm sorry, "younglings".
Sorry, but there is no coming back from that. Killing trained Jedi is bad but kids? **** you Ani.

So I disregard the PT in my personal canon.



Sent from my LG-E739 using Tapatalk 2
 
Oh, so the concept of starting over with a new vision didn't exist in the 90's? So this:

542108409_WUUNV-O.jpg


Would be in the same cinematic universe as this:

captaina.jpg


...right?

Seriously? Your strongest counter-example is a TV movie that no one AT THE TIME even knew about, much less people nowadays?

If so, you're pretty much proving my point for me.


Now where were they marketed and sold as the same continuity? :huh

I was there. It was a new Batman movie. It was the NEXT Batman movie. It wasn't a totally new series, it was the "THIRD" Batman movie.

The only connection I remember was Elfman's theme being used in the trailers (until later ones featured Goldenthal's score).

This has already been pointed out to you. Wayne's backstory with Jack Napier is important for his parallel storyline to Grayson's, otherwise his argument with Grayson makes no sense.

But reusing previous soundtracks from different films was commonplace, especially when the score wasn't finished.

Not previous soundtracks from an earlier movie series that was being rebooted.

Anyway, I included that magazine that had inserts of the movie from 1994 and 1995 from around the film. The director and writer are advertising it as a "re-invention" and something "new". Any time they mention Burton's first two it's always about how their's is strikingly different.

We've already discussed the politics behind the language they were using, and we've already established that everyone agrees the movies are different. That doesn't mean it's a different series and continuity.


I don't remember any "Batman: Trilogy" boxed VHS sets in 1996. Or "quadrilogies" or whatever the term is to describe a 4 film series until 2005.

Then your memory is faulty or you're ignorant of history. The trilogy was sold as a VHS box set, known as "The Ultimate Batman Collection," amongst other collections

Of course, now that I've pointed this out to you, I bet you'll conveniently ignore it among the other mountain of evidence that you're wrong :nana:

On another interesting note, for the longest time Begins was referred to as "Batman 5" by media and Warner Bros. even at the time it was known it was a "reboot". But that surely wasn't a sequel or a prequel, that was just Warner Bros.' fifth film in their Batman franchise that they own.

Your second sentence so succesfully invalidates any point of the previous sentence that I need say no more to address this point.

The last three were "reboots" weren't they? What's the deal there? What happens in the future when Warner Bros. put's the three Nolan films in the same set with the Burton and Schumacher ones?

This will never happen. Because they are two separate series.

I don't even know what continuity and "of the same universe" even means in this case. These aren't "worlds", they're movies that are made at their own point and time with a number of things being poured into them other than story. IT'S NOT REAL. :lol

You know what "world" and "continuity" means in the context of this argument. Your claim to ignorance isn't serving your point, it's just making you look like an ***.

When I watch Die Hard, I'm thinking about Die Hard. When I watch Star Wars, I'm not thinking of how the prequels match up (and they don't). It's just stupid. They're sequels in the fact that they're made after each other, but they're not sequels in the idea of the "same universe", "same world", etc.

Uh, yes they are. The Die Hard movies are very much the same story/universe/characters. The Bruce Willis of the fourth movie is the same Bruce Willis as the first movie. In fact, the third movie's plot depends on this fact.

The same goes for the Star Wars movies.

But you know this, you're just acting braindead because you won't admit you're wrong and so you keep digging yourself into a hole that is deeper and deeper.

If "continuity" and "of the same universe" is the same, what's the explanation for him looking like a different person, THREE consecutive times?

The same explanation for the fact that Rachel Dawes looks like a different person in two different movies. It's a ****ing MOVIE SERIES made within the constraints of REAL WORLD MOVIE PRODUCTION.

Oh wait, here's this gem of yours:

Now, I acknowledge that The Dark Knight is the sequel to Batman Begins, but guess what? There's a glaring difference between the two and it ain't the city or Rachel Dawes changing. Jimmy Gordon is an infant/toddler in Begins but then one year later (in the stories, "universe") in the Dark Knight he's freaking 9 or 10 years old! How the hell does that work unless you make up some contrived BS to make it work? We shouldn't be thinking in "sequels" or "history" or "continuity" or "worlds" for these things. Just a 1989 film, a 1992 film, etc. etc.

So you acknowledge that TDK and BB exist as part of the same story and continuity. Yet you also acknowledge that Rachel Dawes changes, that there are other continuity errors, and so forth.

So that should put to rest any arguments you have that certain differences amongst the older Burton/Schumacher films mean they are different series. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Give it up, man. You're wrong. Half of your points have been invalidated by us, the other half have invalidated themselves. Or is "Batman Forever" still a remake of "Batman Returns?" lol
 
No amount of discussion on the relationships of these 4 movies will ever change the fact that the latter 2 will always be viewed as the inferior of the 4.

There were only 2 Batman films prior to the Nolan trilogy. :D
 
Seriously? Your strongest counter-example is a TV movie that no one AT THE TIME even knew about, much less people nowadays?

If so, you're pretty much proving my point for me.

No, it isn't my strongest. In fact, it isn't close. It was just the first that popped in my head of the many examples that invalidate your point of no films "rebooting" during and before the 90's (which I actually even said, but I guess you ignored in your haste to reply). I also chose it because I have always wanted to post a pic of the Reb Brown Cap in a Batman thread. Bucket list item: Checked.

I also posted the 76 King Kong film... A reimagining of the original film (not a straight remake) that was not part of the original series of pictures. A reboot before there were reboots.

So yeah. They do exist.

Sallah
 
I guess that's one reason I completely reject the PT in my personal canon.

I felt nothing for Anakin. Even when he turned I felt nothing. I felt more bad for Obi Wan with that great bit of dialogue at the end. By time the third film came around I should have been completely invested in the Anakin character and it should have hurt to see him turn but Hayden Christensen is so terrible. Although, I don't know how much of it was his fault considering the dialogue and story was ridiculous.

And accepting some sort of repentance is made even more ludicrous knowing that he killed kids, oh I'm sorry, "younglings".
Sorry, but there is no coming back from that. Killing trained Jedi is bad but kids? **** you Ani.

So I disregard the PT in my personal canon.


Like I said, not the best example. I realize many dislike the PT. Although I agree that Christensen is not a terrific actor, his character arch worked for me. The younglings slaying was very deeply felt for me. I felt all the pain we were supposed to feel. Very dark stuff, and obviously not okay, but I can't agree that 'you don't come back from that'.


Anyway, relating to the subject at hand, you may reject the PT, but that doesn't mean it's not canon.
 
How about Jaws 3. Is that the same shark as the first 2 that got blown up? Or is it a totally new shark?

So apparently it's from the same family. A relative. In Jaws: The Revenge, the shark apparently has a vendetta against the Brody family for killing its siblings and swims all the way from Amity and pursues the family to the Bahamas, hence the tagline "This time it's personal."

10937244_800.jpg
 
Batserial_amazworld13_p28.jpg


Here is my unrequested opinion: a true sequel is one with the same director and leading actor. Everything else is a descent into seperate "eras" or "interpretations" up until the money earned from one film has nothing to do with the next film due to sheer amount of time or a major financial flop. That 1966 was such a direct translation of the television cheesefest aimed at kids is probably why 1989 Batman wasn't called anything other than a movie with no need to distinguish itself from its predecessor. There was also the matter of time. That 23 years comfortably seperated these movies meant there was enough space for a generational gap.

My personal outlook is that anything before that magic 23 year mark might qualify as a "reboot" where they essentially ask the same viewing public to adopt a completely different vision from the one they previously accepted or rejected. This is much easier to do if the original was a flop. By the time 1966 came around, no cared or probably remembered the 1943 serial and certainly by 1989 no one cared about 1960's Batmania enough to keep Burton's version from flourishing. 2005 was still a few years too soon to be called anything other than a reboot, but it was definitely a successful one and a testament to the skill of the director.

Like many other directors he wore out his welcome but honestly I'm probably good on Batman for another 23 years at this point. :lol
 
Seriously I'd like to see the Batman films continue ad infinitum. Let's face it, each new artist and writer to the comic books re-interprets the character, why not a Director and Writer? Burton had his fairy tale interpretation, Shumacher had his camp-60's homage and Nolan had his "real-world" go at the character. I'd love to see someone do a Dark Knight Detective interpretation, and an Arkham City interpretation, and so on and so forth. There will always be Batman movies and media and the character, his look, and his psyche, are going to be continuously re-imagined until the end of time.
 
Back
Top