Batman's return

Movie
German title	Batman's return
Original title	Batman Returns
Country of production	USA , UK
original language	English
Publishing year	1992
length	126 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Tim Burton
script	Daniel Waters
production	Tim Burton, ; Denise Di Novi
music	Danny Elfman
camera	Stefan Czapsky
cut	Bob Badami , ; Chris Lebenzon
occupation
	Michael Keaton : Bruce Wayne / Batman ; Danny DeVito : Oswald Cobblepot / Penguin ; Michelle Pfeiffer : Selina Kyle / Catwoman ; Christopher Walken : Max Shreck; Michael Gough : Alfred Pennyworth; Pat Hingle : James "Jim" Gordon; Andrew Bryniarski : Chip Shreck; Michael Murphy : the mayor; Vincent Schiavelli : Organ grinder; Rick Zumwalt : tattooed muscle man;
synchronization

Batman Returns (Original title: Batman Returns ) is a film adaptation of the by Bob Kane created Batman - Comics from the year 1992 and the continuation of the movie Batman from 1989. The director was again Tim Burton , starring played Michael Keaton . It continued with Batman Forever (1995) and Batman & Robin (1997). The film opened in German cinemas on July 16, 1992.

action

The corrupt millionaire Max Shreck wants to build a gigantic capacitor in Gotham City under the guise of a power station to draw the city's energy. His plans are met with opposition from both the mayor and Bruce Wayne. In order to still be able to implement his plan, he teams up with the penguin , a man who, due to a genetic defect, has a deformed body and looks like a penguin. As a baby, the penguin was thrown into a river by his wealthy parents and their prams. He ended up in the city's sewers , where he lived underground for 33 years and founded a gang of criminals .

Shreck helps the penguin return to society. He wants to make him mayor so that he can build his “power station” with his help. Both of them mainly use the Red Triangle circus gang , which is supposed to weaken trust in the current mayor through looting and terror. Bruce Wayne tries to stop the duo in the guise of his alter ego Batman .

In addition to Shreck and the penguin, he also has to deal with the beautiful and dangerous Catwoman aka Selina Kyle. Kyle is Max Shreck's assistant. When she learns of the millionaire's plans by chance, Shreck tries to kill her by pushing her out the window. After falling out of the window, she gets up again, dazed, and goes home. There she sews a costume and transforms into Catwoman. She decides to take revenge on Max Shreck and sees Batman as an obstacle on this path.

After Batman attacked Catwoman in self-defense with acid and thrown it from a roof, Catwoman and the penguin come together because they both have the same goal: to destroy Batman. You plan to kidnap the Ice Princess and manipulate the Batmobile. Batman escapes, however, and manages to expose the penguin's true goals during one of his speeches to citizens. The penguin flees the angry crowd back into the sewers and plans to take revenge on Gotham City.

Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle fall in love while Batman and Catwoman fight each other. At Shreck's fancy dress ball, both recognize each other's dual identity. At the same time, the penguin unexpectedly appears at the ball and takes Shreck down to his secret hiding place. From there he plans the kidnapping and murder of all firstborns of Gotham City, which Batman prevents. Now Penguin goes to extremes and sends his army of penguins on Gotham City, armed with missiles, which is supposed to bring the deaths to hundreds of thousands. However, Batman manages to gain control of this army. He directed them against the hiding place of the penguin itself, which was badly damaged by the fire.

In a final confrontation, Wayne and Kyle show themselves without masks. Wayne is wounded by Shreck, who is electrocuted by Kyle (Catwoman loses the rest of her nine lives, with the exception of one). Shortly afterwards, the wounded penguin dies in a hopeless attempt to shoot Batman on the spot.

Wayne drives home through Gotham by night. A large shadow flits through an alley that resembles Catwoman. Wayne just finds her cat and takes it home with him. While his limousine drives along the streets, the believed to be dead Catwoman stretches towards the bat symbol of Batman, glowing in the night sky.

Origin and background

It wasn't until the Warner Bros. -Studio had granted Tim Burton artistic freedom, he agreed to express his vision in a second film adaptation of Batman - he had considered the first part as a failure. Batman author Sam Hamm had already completed work on a sequel to the hit film in 1990 , but Burton showed no interest in it: he had lost interest in characters like prosecutor Harvey Dent ( Billy Dee Williams ) and Bruce Wayne's girlfriend Vicky ( Kim Basinger ) and rejected the introduction of Batman's colleague Robin in principle. So Warner Bros. Burton's friend Daniel Waters (writer of Heathers , Hudson Hawk ) signed up for a second version of the script . This dropped the continued plot elements from Batman and conceived Batman's return as a stand-alone film in which the penguin and Catwoman make a pact against Batman.

After the story of the film became known through the media , Hollywood's main question was who will play Catwoman. Burton's favorites Winona Ryder and Lena Olin have already had engagements on other projects, and Sean Young had no chance against Annette Bening . However, when she became pregnant by Warren Beatty , the choice fell on Michelle Pfeiffer , who had applied for the role in 1988, when there were no plans for Catwoman . Without even reading the script, Danny DeVito signed ( Burgess Meredith and Dustin Hoffman had previously turned down the role of the penguin ). Pfeiffer's ex-boyfriend Michael Keaton signed up only a few weeks before filming began when he was offered a $ 10 million fee plus share for the repetition of his most famous role.

Under the direction of producer Denise Di Novi ( Edward Scissorhands ) , seven-month filming began in California and London in September 1991 . Warner Bros. had the 20-meter-high film sets built in eight halls as well as a pool for half a ton of fresh ice and over two million liters of ice water, in which more than 40 penguins romped about . The production costs for Batman's return were twice as high as those for Batman : the actors' fees alone cost $ 35 million, and the provision of the vacuum-tight Catwoman costumes amounted to an additional $ 600,000. In order to generate visible cold breath, huge devices cooled the halls to 15 ° C (the film is set at Christmas time). The use of the new Dolby Digital sound format for the first time was technically advanced . Burton's uncompromising attitude precluded the addition of pop music in this Batman production so as not to interrupt the gloomy mood. Only his favorite band Siouxsie and the Banshees were allowed to contribute their song Face to Face to a key scene.

The name Max Shreck of Batman's opponent portrayed by Christopher Walken is intended to remind of the German Nosferatu actor Max Schreck .

synchronization

The German-language dubbing was done by Magma Synchron , Berlin based on a dialogue book by Joachim Kunzendorf , who also directed the dialogue .

role	actor	Voice actor
Bruce Wayne / Batman	Michael Keaton	Joachim Tennstedt
Oswald Cobblepot / Penguin	Danny DeVito	Klaus Sunshine
Selina Kyle / Catwoman	Michelle Pfeiffer	Katja Nottke
Max Shreck	Christopher Walken	Norbert Gescher
Alfred Pennyworth	Michael Gough	Friedrich Schoenfelder
mayor	Michael Murphy	Norbert Langer
Ice princess	Cristi Conaway	Gaby Oppermann
Charles "Chip" Shreck	Andrew Bryniarski	Frank Kirschgens
Commissioner James Gordon	Pat Hingle	Manfred Petersen
Organ grinder	Vincent Schiavelli	Christian Mey
Josh	Steve Witting	Thomas Petruo
Jen	Jan Hooks	Marina Krogull

success

Like Batman, the appearance of Batman's Return was accompanied by a multimedia advertising campaign: Warner Bros. spent $ 20 million on advertising alone , while merchandising rights were granted to a further 130 companies such as Coca-Cola , McDonald’s and Nike . The plan worked: On the opening weekend, Batman's return brought in $ 48 million, breaking all records. But cautious film reviews and the accusation of cruelty to animals made headlines: PETA accused the production of inappropriate keeping of the penguins, animal trainer Gary Gero countered excellent feeding and excessive egg production as an expression of well-being. But against the negative press and summer hits like Basic Instinct and Brennpunkt LA - The pros are back , Batman's return could not prevail. Despite doubling the budget compared to Batman , Batman's return was able to achieve just under two thirds of the previous year's revenue (US $ 411 million) with US $ 267 million (worldwide cinema revenues).

Reviews

“The film shifts the emphasis to exposing the post-Freudian reality of cartoon characters and their behavior. The operatic production makes use of a cartoon-like, pointed design, which borrows its gigantic designs from Expressionism , Cubism and Nazi art . The director's perspective overlays the usual action and tries to psychologically deepen the comic characters. "

- Lexicon of international film

"With brilliant décor, miniature buildings worth seeing, cinematic allusions to Hauf and exciting camera use, director Tim Burton created great entertainment on a grand scale."

- Prisma.de