BW Media Spotlight

“I miss having my own car.”

Unless your superhero was created with live-action in mind, and some of my favorites were, more often than not animation is the best place for superheroes, especially when they’re adapted from comics. The nature of animation, which I’m sure I’ll go into in Art Of Storytelling at some point, allows for a greater suspension of disbelief, which is what I love about comics and cartoons. It’s already removed from the real world unless they’re trying to go photorealistic that you can accept certain aspects of the science fantasy world of superheroes a lot easier. And yes, this includes Batman, as evidenced by the way live-action has approached the Dark Knight. Even the wackiness of the 60s series or the surreal Tim Burton movies still connect too much to real world, though not as much as the Nolan films. The serials betray this as well, while the Schumacher films highlight what happens when you throw common sense to the wind.

However, even with less disbelief to properly suspend you’d think the iconic nature of Batman could still be replicated in live-action more than Superman. This does not bear out to history however, as the best theatrical Batman film may well be Mask Of The Phantasm, the animated movie set in the DC Animated Universe. Professor Geek goes over all the mistakes the various live-action Batman films have made (though sadly doesn’t mention the serials).

Continue reading →