Batman (DVD)

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Audio:
"Batman" used an early Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, which still works well. The overall tonal balance is particularly natural, and sounds from the left, right, and rear speakers are subtle enough to embellish the listening experience without engulfing it. Bass and sonic impact are more than adequate, but don't expect the kind of spectacular sonics you will find in 2005's "Batman Begins." One of our more audiophile-minded readers will want to write in and tell us how the set's DTS 5.1 soundtrack holds up.

Extras:
It was about time Warner Bros. gave this movie a special-edition treatment after all these years. Disc one of the two-disc Special Edition contains the feature presentation; thirty-eight scene selections but no chapter insert; English and French spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles. In addition, you'll find a widescreen theatrical trailer and an audio commentary by director Tim Burton. Although Burton will never win any awards as a public speaker, his remarks are candid and enlightening in a sometimes halting, purely improvisatory way. Equally important, when he has nothing to say, he has the good sense to say nothing, something that doesn't seem to stop many other, more-loquacious commentators.

There isn't a lot the producers of any special-edition DVD can do (documentaries, featurettes, interviews, stills galleries, behind-the-scenes stuff) that we haven't seen done before, but the WB folks give it good shot, anyway, with a lengthy and varied assortment of bonus items. Disc two begins with "Legends of the Dark Knight: The History of Batman," a forty-minute documentary that takes us all the way back to the 1930s and is as much a history of the comic-book form as it is of "Batman." Next comes "On the Set with Bob Kane," two minutes of comments by the creator of "Batman." It's basically a short promo, but it's fun hearing from Kane, who died in 1998. After that is a series of three featurettes called "Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight," recounting the production of the "Batman" movies. They include "The Road to Gotham City," seventeen minutes; "The Gathering Storm," twenty-one minutes; and "The Legend Reborn," thirty minutes.

Following in order is "Beyond Batman," another gallery of short featurettes, six of them in all, taking us behind the scenes. These include "Visualizing Gotham: The Production Design of Batman," ten minutes; "Building the Batmobile," nine minutes; "Those Wonderful Toys: The Props and Gadgets of Batman," six minutes; "Designing the Batsuit," seven minutes; "From Jack to the Joker," ten minutes; and "Nocturnal Overtures: The Music of Batman," seven minutes. Each of the titles is self-explanatory, and as with all the groups of features, there is a "Play-All" link for easy access. Then, there are two more galleries: "The Heroes of Batman," including short chapters of one-to-five minutes on Batman, Vicki Vale, Alexander Knox, Commissioner Gordon, and Harvey Dent; and "The Villains of Batman," profiling the Joker and his henchman, Bob the goon.

Finally, there are three music videos by Prince: "Batdance," "Partyman," and "Scandalous," four-to-five minutes each; and "Batman: The Complete Robin Storyboard Sequence," a four-minute animated segment.

Parting Thoughts:
The "Batman" Special Edition is available individually or as a part of a big box set, "Batman: The Motion Picture Anthology 1989-1997," that also contains two-disc editions of Burton's "Batman Returns" (1992), again with Michael Keaton, a creepy affair I've never cared much for; Joel Schumacher's "Batman Forever" (1995), with Val Kilmer's Batman the best thing about it (Batman creator Bob Kane said Kilmer was his favorite actor in the role); and Schumacher's highly disappointing "Batman & Robin" (1997), starring a curiously bland George Clooney, that derailed the series for the better part of a decade.

We can be thankful for Burton's "Batman" for reinvigorating the idea of the superhero on the big screen and encouraging the series of "Batman" films that followed. Everyone will have his or her favorite "Batman" movies, to be sure, and for me they are the original "Batman" and the newer "Batman Begins," albeit for different reasons. Their commonalities, though, are what count: their dark tone and their strict adherence to the rules of the worlds they create. These movies are fun, exciting, resourceful, daring, and inspiring; and Burton's "Batman" is the template for all the superhero movies to come after it.