Birds of a Feather

[The Laughing Fish]

As much as I appreciate Danny DeVito's Penguin as everyone else here, I tend to prefer BTAS' version of Oswald Cobblepot.

I know, one version is a depraved and freakish madman, while the other is much classier and closer to the comics. But I'll explain.

I was watching Birds of a Feather episode today, the one where Penguin is released from Arkham Asylum and is considered fit to rejoin society. Among high society, Cobblepot is seen as a joke, as Veronica Vreeland pretends to befriend him but is secretly planning to embarrass him for a prank. There are a few times in this episode where the Penguin looks awkward because of his unusual appearance, i.e. gulping down fish at the restaurant with Veronica, singing at the theater etc. Yet, Penguin seemed serious about reforming as an honest citizen, where he defends Veronica and himself from thieves, which left Batman surprised that he wasn't part of the gang.

Here's the difference between BTAS and BR. BTAS showed how Penguin wanted to be accepted among high society, and even began to fall in love with Veronica, but returned to crime when he learned that Veronica was using him for a joke, and such an elite social group would never accept him. In BR, Penguin was always a deviant who was manipulated by Max Schreck into starting a campaign to run for Mayor, but he always had bad intentions i.e. conspiracy to commit murder. I'd say this episode is just as sad as a Penguin story as BR was, perhaps more so. This dialogue sums it up nicely:

Veronica: Please Oswald! If it's money you want, I'll get you more!
Penguin: Shut up! All I wanted from you was a little friendship. That would've cost you nothing!

The best thing about the BTAS Penguin is he doesn't feel sorry for himself. He snubs whatever society - both rich and poor - think of him, and continues to think he's better than everybody else. You can say he goes a long way by the time he owns the Iceberg Lounge in TNBA, compared to when he was simply a crime boss involved in petty theft during BTAS.

[Slash Man]

From how I saw it, in Batman Returns, the Penguin actually warmed up to being mayor and seemed to put behind his vendetta against Gotham after being accepted. It was only after Batman ruined his reputation that he put his revenge back into motion.

The prime difference between the two Penguins is that Burton's Penguin is wicked to the core, whereas Timm's is more a victim who turned to crime. There's no point in arguing comic authenticity because the Penguin of Batman Returns was a product of Burton, although this episode actually links the two by showing their sympathetic side, and that they're not beyond redemption. Though the comic Penguin is a career criminal and not a psychotic monster.

[thecolorsblend]

Here's the difference between BTAS and BR. BTAS showed how Penguin wanted to be accepted among high society, and even began to fall in love with Veronica, but returned to crime when he learned that Veronica was using him for a joke, and such an elite social group would never accept him. In BR, Penguin was always a deviant who was manipulated by Max Schreck into starting a campaign to run for Mayor, but he always had bad intentions i.e. conspiracy to commit murder.

The Penguin kidnapped Schreck (a member of Gotham's 1%) to arrange his return to public life where he became a celebrity. His mind might've been on revenge but Schreck didn't have to do much persuasion to get him to run for mayor. "My name's not Penguin! It's Oswald! Cobblepot!" And the Penguin took the loss of his mayoral prospects pretty personally. "My name is not Oswald! It's Penguin! I am not a human being! I'm an animal!" So he views losing out on the mayorship as a loss of his humanity.

When he strikes back, he strikes against Gotham's 1%. We see no real indication that the 99%'s children are in much danger.

My point is that the Penguin in BR is just as obsessed with status and high society as BTAS. Burton simply gave him other fixations and peccadilloes too.

[The Laughing Fish]

Writer and comic book historian Scott Tipton claims Paul Williams delivered his best performance as Penguin in this episode while giving his critique about the character in BTAS and the studio-mandated Batman Returns influence.

Not every character would be as well translated to the series as the Joker and Poison Ivy. The series treatment of the Penguin was very much hampered by Warner Brothers' insistence that the character fall in line with the version of the character presented in Tim Burton's feature BATMAN RETURNS, that of Danny DeVito's sewer-dwelling mutant flippered freak.


However, the series producers and writers were clearly fans of the original, aristocratic mannered conception, with the resulting character being something of a mishmash, with the humpbacked, mutated Penguin speaking with the droll mannerisms of an intellectual, sophisticate. As a study in contrasts, it's somewhat effective, if not entirely satisfying. There's certainly no faulting the vocal performance, as 1970s actor/songwriter Paul Williams provides the perfect emotional tone for the Oswald Cobblepot, at once egotistical, charming, hateful and insecure. Williams' best performance comes in "Birds of a Feather,"(written by Brynne Stephens, directed by Frank Paur) in which Bruce Wayne's high-society pal Veronica Vreeland (played charmingly throughout the series by TAXI's Marilu Henner) invites the newly paroled Penguin to her latest function, just to create a buzz. When the Penguin, who has found the respect and adoration he's always felt he deserved, and has begun to fall for Veronica to boot, learns that he's actually the butt of the joke and is only included as a curiosity, his sense of betrayal and humiliation pours off the screen, thanks to the expressive animation and the power of Williams' performance.

Unfortunately, not every Penguin episode would be as well executed. Most of the others are fairly routine, such as the aforementioned "I've Got Batman in My Basement," which was strictly for the kiddies, and "Blind as a Bat," in which a temporarily blinded Batman must contend with the Penguin's theft of an experimental attack helicopter. Even the old chestnut of "Penguin steals the Batmobile" is revived in "The Mechanic," an otherwise decent outing in which the Penguin blackmails Batman's top-secret vehicle engineer into sabotaging the Batmobile. Actually, in the first series, the Penguin works much better in small doses, such as in "Almost Got 'Im," an amusing little gem of an episode by writer Paul Dini and director Eric Radomski in which Batman's enemies swap tall tales around a poker table about their close calls in killing the Caped Crusader.

http://www.blastoffcomics.com/2017/09/comics-101-october-2-2013-animating-batman-part-ii/

One may like or dislike the DeVito influence character design, but I reckon it's the design that's just as important in making Penguin more sympathetic in Birds of a Feather. A freakish, yet eloquent man who is made to look awkward by a snobbish high society makes it more impactful than a comic book accurate TBAS design could ever offer. But that's just my opinion.