Nostalgia Critic: 'What You Never Knew About Batman'

[Silver Nemesis]

Most of this is familiar to us Batman 89 scholars, but there were a few things I hadn't noticed before: namely the portrait of Thomas Wayne in Wayne Manor, and the thing about the helicopter taking precisely ten minutes to arrive. I also never noticed the mug shot of young Jack in his police file. That detail debunks the old fan theory about Bruce wrongly projecting Jack's identity onto that of his parents' killer.

[The Laughing Fish]

I do remember the mugshot of a younger Jack Napier in the police file. Which always bothered me how Bruce could never recognise Jack as his parents' murderer, until that "Dance With the Devil" remark. Especially since the other accomplice cried out "Let's go Jack!" during the flashback.

Maybe that remark was strong enough to awaken Bruce's repressed memories?

[johnnygobbs]

I do remember the mugshot of a younger Jack Napier in the police file. Which always bothered me how Bruce could never recognise Jack as his parents' murderer, until that "Dance With the Devil" remark. Especially since the other accomplice cried out "Let's go Jack!" during the flashback.

Maybe that remark was strong enough to awaken Bruce's repressed memories?

Isn't the mugshot of young Jack just a picture of Jack Nicholson rather than Hugo Blick?  That being the case it was probably taken some time after he murdered Thomas and Martha Wayne which is why Bruce couldn't remember his appearance.

Plus, it's not always easy for a child to remember a person's face many years later, even during as traumatic an incident as that but a distinctive line like "Ever dance with the devil...?" is surely going to stick, or at least be recalled if it ever comes up again.  It's such a unique phrase.

[Silver Nemesis]

Isn't the mugshot of young Jack just a picture of Jack Nicholson rather than Hugo Blick?

The main pictures are of Nicholson. But on the left side of the file, half obscured beneath some other documents, is a photo of Blick.

Plus, it's not always easy for a child to remember a person's face many years later, even during as traumatic an incident as that but a distinctive line like "Ever dance with the devil...?" is surely going to stick, or at least be recalled if it ever comes up again.  It's such a unique phrase.

Maybe that remark was strong enough to awaken Bruce's repressed memories?

Yes, I think that's the case. The Bruce Wayne in the Burton/Schumacher films is so emotionally damaged that he's blocked out a lot of his more traumatic memories. We see more evidence of this in Batman Forever with the Red Book subplot. Throughout Batman 89 and Batman Forever, Bruce is struggling to unearth his forgotten past so he can better understand the compulsion that's driving him in the present. By the end of BF, he's pieced it all together and is no longer haunted by those memories. He's finally free of the past, and his crusade as Batman – which until then had been a compulsion – instead becomes a matter of choice.

[DocLathropBrown]

What's funny is I'd noticed all of those, but I'm not sure the portrait is of Thomas Wayne, though I've no idea who else it could be. I always though the portrait looked like Alfred, which makes me laugh to think he has a portrait of himself in his room.

[Kamdan]

Kind of lame how all of these points are taken from the IMDb page. Talk about the laziest of ways to do research. I'm more appreciate of efforts that look beyond that, like actually reading old magazines that 1989Batman.com has been posting, along with reading the script and noticing the differences and such in there.

[Azrael]

Most of this is familiar to us Batman 89 scholars, but there were a few things I hadn't noticed before: namely the portrait of Thomas Wayne in Wayne Manor, and the thing about the helicopter taking precisely ten minutes to arrive. I also never noticed the mug shot of young Jack in his police file. That detail debunks the old fan theory about Bruce wrongly projecting Jack's identity onto that of his parents' killer.

Never noticed the belt. What a way to ruin an epic scene.

Of all the well known online critics, Doug Walker is maybe the biggest B'89 fan. Not sure about the sequel - he called it a guilty pleasure - but his most recent review opens with a lengthy Batman Returns homage.

[Kamdan]

Never noticed the belt. What a way to ruin an epic scene.

I may have noticed it once, but I didn't really care. The scene's not about the belt. It's about Batman reacting to The Joker not going up in flames with Axis Chemicals with that great pissed off look on his face that follows. I'm hoping the upcoming special edition of the film has some more of the trimmed material, like how The Joker was supposed to tell Batman through the bullhorn, "I'm going to kill a thousand people in an hour until you do!"

[The Dark Knight]

The Nostalgia Critic shtick is getting stale.

The belt dropping thing isn't even a mistake. How can it be? It may be a funny observation for some, but that's it. Planet Earth is based on physics. A belt dropping down isn't out of the ordinary or impossible. It's called the moment.

[Slash Man]

Wow, some of those actually did surprise me. A few more things I'll always see jumping out when I rewatch the film. I definitely like the continuity between characters (Jack Napier and Thomas Wayne). Just goes to show no detail is too small for Tim Burton.