Batman: The Animated Series- The Under-Dwellers

 "Leprechauns and Batmen. What's Gotham coming to?"

For the first time we have a new villain and no Batman lore other than Bruce himself and Alfred, still the mildly sarky early '90s version of the character- I'm still very much enjoying the banter between the two of them.

This is all a bit Dickensian, a bit Fagin, with a creepy "Sewer King", forcing ragged children to steal for him while using the rather enormous sewer gators to intimidate them. It's all rather unpleasant, if the real horror is sensibly downplayed, but it's a nice little tale, very well and subtly told. Michael Pataki, one of those Hollywood character actors who pops up everywhere, does a good job.

Are we going to get more episodes not so focused on the lore, then? This one certainly worked. I'm here for it.

I'm also continuing to enjoythe stylised Animation- of its time, yes, with obvious Japanese influence, but it quite rightl leads into the Tim Burton Gotham aesthetic, and that's how Gotham should look. I also continue to enjoy the clever ambiguity as to time period, with modern features mixed in with very 1940s-looking cars and fashions.

Several episodes in, and we're still slowly exploring what this series can do. I'm impressed.

The Amazing Spider-Man (1977 TV Pilot)

 "Maybe I wanna ask him where he buys his webs?"

I was expecting something corny and silly when I decided to watch the 1977 TV pilot with Nicholas Hammond; something not necessarily very good but fun to point and laugh at. I mean, look at the '70s hair and bell bottoms, right?

Except... this is actually a pretty solid, wll-written TV pilot with a strong script, impressively directed and with particularly impressive use of incidental music. Nicholas Hammond is a pretty good Peter Parker and, while the performances are a little kids' TV, I'm rather impressed with this.

Not that this is The Sopranos, of course, or that it necessarily aspires to be anything more than a bit of action and adventure. But the script is pacy and well- structured, with exposition nicely integrated into the action throughout and that familiar origin nicely, and quickly, done, with a glowing radioactive spider allowed to wander off and bite whomever else it so wishes.

We have Jonah, Robbie Robertson and Aunt May, although May and Peter's house is perhaps a little too large for a supposedly poor family. Spidey's wisecracking may be absent here, but the costume is good and Spidey's powers made to look cool. Hammond's Peter is endearingly dorky. He seems to get a love interest, Judy, so presumably no Mary Jane or Gwen Stacy. There's a comedy police detective, too, who works surprisingly well.

There are no supervillains, as such, as usul with 70s superhero adaptations, although one can see the argument that supervillains tend not to look good on screen. Yet the baddie we have here- a kind of evil mindfulness counsellor with the most 70s suit of all time- is pretty cool, using his 70s computer and hypnotised 70s martial arts people to hypnotise upstanding members of society into robbing banks. It's a solid, fascinatig plot, well-structured and exciting to watch.

This is far from the silly bit of low camp I was expecting, and certainly far better than that silly 60s cartoon. I'm impressed, and may blog the series at some point. This is good stuff.

Batman: The Spell of Tut & Tut’s Case Is Shut

The Spell of Tut

“Gosh, Batman! What are they dressed like that for?”

After a strangely underwhelming pre-titles it's time to jump with joy- King Tut, the first and still the bst original villain created for this series, is back. Not only does the wonderful Victor Buono chew the scenery as magnificently as ever but his, ahem, "Chief Apothecary" is none other than the splendid, and now sadly departed, Sid Haig- who, at this point, is a mere stripling in his twenties, a scary thought. With baddies like this, frankly, we simply don't care how unconvincing and obviously plastic the crocodiles are. Nor do we care about the so-so quality of the script; some performers elevate material just by being there.

Not only that, but we get the second instance of the Dynamic Duo encountering celebrities in a window while climbing, as you do. This time it's the Green Hornet and Kato, in a splendidly bizarre cameo. Yep; this episode features both Sid Haig and Bruce Lee.

The plot is nonsense, of course- scarabs in amber being revived to make a mesmerising liquid- but seeing Tut and his underlings performing an operation in surgeons' scrubs is just so damn fun and Buono, quite rightly, is hamming it up so much more. This is great.


Tut’s Case Is Shut

“On your knees, Helot!”

“You got the wrong Helot.”

“On your knees anyway!”

I've just noticed- the signature onomatopaeic fighty words are now on separate frames. Has this been the case from the start of the new season?

This episode simply carries on the fun. Never mind the rubbishness of the cliffhanger resolution; we get a mesmerised Chief O'Hara performing acrobatic feats on a flagpole several stories up while singing "Molly Malone". We get mesmerised acting from Adam West, with arms held out in front like a zombie. There is no way you can not love this.

We even end with a hilarious look at the camera by Commissioner Gordon. Batman episodes simply don't get any more Batman than this one. Brilliant.