Batman: The Movie

Even More Ridiculous Than You Remember

Face it. Your kids have so many choices of media to consume that they’ll never get around to watching any of the 1960s Batman television series. This may be your only chance to introduce them to the references and tropes you know all too well. The Bat-poles. The Bat-gadgets. Robin’s “Holy” exclamations. The sound effect title cards. The quacking of Burgess Meredith as The Penguin, and the cackling of Frank Gorshin (The Riddler) and Cesar Romero (The Joker). That theme music. If you haven’t watched it in years, you may laugh yourself silly, and gain new respect for Adam West’s comedic gifts (in the early 90s, Conan O'Brien and Robert Smigel wrote a television pilot for him). It’s hard to imagine Christian Bale trying to keep a smoking bomb away from babies, nuns, and a charity band. No Yvonne Craig, though, so there’s no knowing how your kids will ever develop a thing for Batgirl. —Chris Ereneta