In the run up to Halloween, I wanted to talk about 2005’s direct to DVD movie The Batman vs Dracula, in which the Prince of Darkness goes toe to toe with The Caped Crusader. I hadn’t watched this film since it first came out, so it was interesting to revisit this film with fresh eyes.
Let’s highlight some of the more interesting elements of the film, the striking visuals, and try to gloss over some of the weaker elements (the plot!)
We’ll also talk about Batman’s history of battling vampires, and the times that Batman has become a vampire himself!
#TheBatman2004 #thebatmanvsdracula #dracula #halloween2004
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:24 Batman’s Vampire Foe: The Monk
1:18 Batman Vampire Trilogy
3:13 What’s the appeal of Vampires & Batman?
3:41 The Batman vs Dracula
4:46 The Contrived Plot
5:59 The Excellent Visuals
7:45 No Lasting Impact
8:28 The Batman Strikes 15
9:12 Closing Remarks
9:51 Self-Promotion
10:40 Next Time
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Music by @Katt Strike – listen to the whole track here: https://youtu.be/VKdA2lCjtas?si=pi0iWvL5bMCJupHL
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For whatever reason, the standars and practices department had it out for us on this show and even though Batman vs Dracula was a direct to video movie, they still wouldn't let us have as much leeway as the other DTVs that came before and after. I think they wanted us to cut the Joker blood bank scene or wanted us to not have the blood red for some reason (all of the guns on that show were these weird laser guns, probably for similar reasons). We ended up going with black blood like how Barry Windsor Smith made the blood in X-Men 205. It ended up making those scenes seem MORE extreme than if we just made it red like we were planning to
A crossover episode with Sasha from Casually Comics? We're eating good on Halloween!
That's why we love him
In btas Harley is in love with the joker but he treats her like dirt, but in the series the batman he actually is attracted to her.
No earthly medicine can cure a supernatural affliction!
I know you focus on DCAU characters & villains (primarily leaning towards BTAS), but I’d love to hear/watch your take on The Batman’s versions of those characters!
Looking forward to seeing the next 'The Batman' video; hopefully before the end of the year.
5:00: Wasn't it explained that Vicki Vale looked a lot like his late wife?
I mean, I relied on that explanation since I was a kid so it's likely that the movie did briefly explain it.
7:20: Or watched Son of Dracula(1943). That's where the name started to be known.
You could actually say the "Reflection" the Joker had could be just away to have a shot in the film with a
"I'm right here Batman" moment
I just want to say based on your community post that you said you were worried about this series of non BTAS-continuity videos underperforming, but there's honestly a lot to talk about with this series at this point. I would love to hear some of the more unique villains to this series analyzed with your style of villain analysis and I would also love to hear you talk about some of the extremely different versions of villains which branch out heavily from their BTAS counterparts.
loved this movie as a kid
"The Batman" Tv show gave us some good takes on some pretty popular and obscure characters. The Riddler was almost close of being perfect, till they have to keep him in the villain role. The Idea of two Clayfaces could been nice, but their battle and the lead up to their battle was disappointing given the short run time. Sadly, it's one of the few shows that did the Terrible Trio right.
One thing that's kind of interesting is that the version of the Werewolf seen in the comics is named Anthony Lupus, which is apparently Latin for "wolf". I get the feeling that Harley Quinn and Riddler aren't the only DC villains whose names are a play-on-words
I'm pretty sure this was my first experience with The Batman.
I actually really like Jeff Matsuda artwork, his work on Jackie Chan Adventures was amazing
I would love more The Batman Essays as it's the series I grew up with and I think it has a lot of interesting takes on those characters, especially after Btas. I love all of your videos and I find them extremely insightful so thanks a lot
This and along with mask of the phantasm is probably my favorite animated batman films.
I would love love LOVE to see you do more video essays on The Batman , it feels like there's definitely a niche for that kind of coverage.
As for Dracula himself, I think that one overlooked element about him is that he pretty much negates Batman's "superpower" of Prep Time. Maybe it's the fact that he's not prepared for a legitimate supernatural threat (the movie is theorized to be set at some point near the end of Season 1 or between Seasons 1 and 2, before Spellbinder appears as a mystical villain and at a point where it would explain why Batman is less skeptical about whether Solomon Grundy is a genuine undead or not), but Batman really does feel like he's in over his head for most of the film. It's a neat dynamic, and one that seemed to have been worked into D.A.V.E. during Season 3 (though via very different means) because it's just kinda rare for Batman media to have him at such a disadvantage.
As much as I prefer BTAS videos or the occasional dip into JL batman moments, I would be more than content to see more iconic villian breakdowns regarding The Batman series. I remember being too old for much of that series when it first came out, but in hindsight I really do appreciate some of the fresh takes they had like with the Joker or giving the Penguin much more of a status.
Tldr, if you make it, I'll probably watch it
I’d love to see more non DCAU content, especially Batman The Brave And Bold
This film made me want Dracula to become a recurring Batman villain.
Don't they jump through MORE hoops to make else-world stories; even Robin's origin is contrived 90% of the time.
I never liked that vampires don't have reflection. If the reason they don't have a reflection is because they don't have a soul, then why do inanimate objects have reflections? I think they should have reflections but it reflects the stage of decay the corpse is in
Did my comment about the trilogy get deleted?
So with the reflections, historically it's only "holy metals" like silver that don't reflect vampires thanks to being "unholy creatures" so if Bruce's mirrors are fancy enough it still works
I think the reason why dracula was planning to reserect his wife was do to grief. In his mind simple blood letting couldn't be done on her because i think she wasn't on either on the same power level as him and she was ashes at that piont, he needed to do particular soul swaping ritual to bring her back from the dead and he needs a sacrifice to help with that, but to him it can't be just anyone he can just simply sacrifice into a vessel, the sacrifice in question has to resemble his wife like near perfect to scale with. The problem with that is after his wife's passing he couldn't find one person who would've even slightly resembled her, in his time and plus he got killed during his time of grief.
So sometime afterwards after he was reserected by accident he wanted to take over Gotham and make it his new home after his old one kick him out in a sarcophagus.
But when he saw a video recording or broadcast of vicky old memories flooded back into him and he let his grief took over because this time in his mind he found the ideal sacrificle candidate he needed to bring his wife back from the dead.
As for the joker's reflection being able to appear in reflective surfaces, well he's really psychotic so by chance he be the exception to the whole thing of vampires at least the ones with supernatural powers always lacking reflections in mirrors and other reflecting surfaces.
The reflection makes sense because mirrors have silver behind them and that's why you can't see them. Silver IS a weakness for them as well and I don't know how that fact fell into obscurity.
My favorite line from that movie was vampire Joker asking Batman for ketchup as he's drinking straight from a blood pack.
I do like The Batman and would like to hear your thoughts on it. If I had to choose one topic, I would like to hear you talk about Ethan. In the show, he was genuinely a friend of Bruce Wayne, and we usually don't ever get that in the Batman stories.
Nice to see more videos on The Batman
Would love to see one on Ethan Bennett