Michael Keaton back on board as the Caped Crusader as Michelle Pfeiffer and Danny DeVito are even better in this one as Catwoman and the Penguin respectively. The film tells the tale of how the Penguin (DeVito), thrown into the sewer by parents after seeing their hideous baby and actually raised by penguins emerges as an unlikely mayor candidate for Gotham. Batman foils his plans to take over the city alongside wicked tycoon Max Shreck which eventually made Penguin retreat in the sewers to plot his revenge.
Meanwhile, Selina Kyle (Catwoman) starts going through a few life-changes, which leave her drinking lots of milk, catching small birds and that’s when she transformed herself into the cunning Catwoman.
Batman himself has certainly doesn’t seem to be Burton’s main focus as we get to see the origins of both Penguin and Catwoman, the background of the true identity Bruce Wayne is again left out of the movie. His dark side makes him in many ways a more interesting superhero than any others but it’s an aspect that Burton shows little time or attention to.
Cinematography (Gothicism)
In the films directed and produced by Tim Burton the most apparent characteristic is the visual style, the strange worlds and their stylized look have a design that is unique and recognizable. This style is most influenced by the German Expressionist films from the 1920’s, Tim Burton’s love for all things dark and bizarre has highly influenced the visual style of his films.
However the most interesting thing about these worlds created in Tim Burton’s films is that it’s not the bright cheerful land that is considered normal but the darker world that is normally associated with danger and horror that is used as the key with which to shift the audience view on the sunny and bright world as just a not real. In what is probably Burton’s darkest film Batman Returns there is almost no sunlight in the film and the brightest scene in the film is a scene with The Penguin. The film itself takes the traditional action hero film ingredients and mixes them with Burton’s dark and gothic visual style.
In Batman Returns for example, there is a scene in which the Penguin is introduced to his campaign managers. The brightly lit office interior filled with colourful balloons is from a different kind of reality than the stylized, gothic design of the rest of the movie.
Directors Signature (Split Personality)
The split world is one of Burton's regular themes, many of Burton's main characters have split personalities with one side living the normal world and the other half on the weird side but even in films with a static main character
Burton films are usually split into a normal world, which somehow never comes across as being either regular or attractive and a weird world, in which his characters feels more at home. This weird world is never understood by the normal side and the weird characters often long for acceptance by the other side but are always rejected and misunderstood in the end.
The most obvious examples of split personalities are to be found in the Batman Return is Batman and Catwoman are characters that create their own rules inside their own world by dressing up in costumes and thus displaying their alternative self. Rich, absent-minded playboy Bruce Wayne transforms himself into a grim, masked super-hero, secretary Selina Kyle turns into a latex wrapped avenger. Their only way to deal with reality is by changing their appearance and identity in order to play the game by their own rules and dress up in order to face the outside world.
None of the protagonists of Tim Burton films belongs in the normal world represented within the film, Burton's heroes create their own reality in which different rules apply. Characters like Batman and Catwoman are outsiders mostly because of their split personalities that are too complicated for anyone even themselves to understand.
Unnaturally Shaped Swirls
Another one of his visual signatures is the use of unnaturally shaped swirls which are probably most usually associated with Tim Burton, the most notable example of this has to be the curly hill in the graveyard in The Nightmare Before Christmas which unravels as Jack Skellington walks down it.
These on of a kind curls are seen a lot throughout the film in tree branches, fences and many other places, It is a recurring shape in many of his films especially in patterns on clothing and surfaces, like on the Martian’s costumes in Mars Attacks, and on the helmets worn by the warriors in Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes. This shape is used mainly to give a more eccentric feel to the scene and give it a bit more fantasy like impression.
Make up and Lighting
The makeup in his films is also unique to his style. The pale skin and the dark eyes and lips are seen in most of his films, It is used to add to the gloomy atmosphere and sometimes added to characterize different aspects of characters’ personalities. In Batman Returns the make up for the Penguin was in dark manner where the lips of Penguin was black and had a pale skin which was totally different then the cartoon character.
The Outsider
Even the repulsive Penguin in Batman Returns is characterized as a doomed tragic figure that somehow retains the sympathy as well as the horror of the audience, the real bad guy is the manipulative, cunning businessman Max Shreck who does have the respect of the community.
Camera Techniques
Colour
Colour is large part of Burtons camera style, he shoots subjects in a oversaturated and low saturated colour often in order to use the colour of the scene to help add to the Gothic mystery or dreamlike states that most of his stories like. This scene can be seen in the Batman Returns intro of the batman himself, where Gotham is shown in a dark tone and there will be a short scene where the penguin walking in the sewer.
Point of View
Burton enjoys employing point of view shots quite often in his movie and Batman was no difference, one in particular noticeable is when the Penguin addresses the his legion of penguins to attack Gotham city where the camera is clearly seeing something from the point of view of a character rather than serving as an outside eye. In this shoot audience is will have the view from the penguin’s perspective looking at the Penguin and some scenes audiences will have the view driving the bat mobile.
Dutch angle
The shot involves tilting the camera when shooting a frame in order to create a sense of tension, the result will show the shot will be on an angle rather than on a horizontal line. He uses the technique in both his movie and stop motion work. This particular shot can be seen thru out the Batman movie and one of the scenes is where Penguin will reveal his plan to kidnap the entire 1st born child in Gotham city.
The reason why choose this particular movie of Tim Burton is because of the darker version of Gotham and the characters involving throughout the movie, its not often in a superhero movie that much importance is given to a villain character.
Tim Burton made the audience feel sympathy for the Penguin as he was made into who he is know and the mysterious character of Bruce Wayne is always intriguing to see. The cinematography in this movie is simply amazing in the Gotham city is being shown in the screen, which eventually makes people think that we are living in a dangerous world.
In my personal opinion, this is a far more accomplished piece of work than Batman for many reasons, the music is used to greater effect, the plot is stronger and the subject matter is funnier in an extremely dark sort of way. Batman Returns is also the defining films of Burton’s trademark Gothicism and established his recognizable visual style which was later used in his film The Nightmare before Christmas.
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