Celebrating 25 Years Of Batman Returns: The 9 Best Moments From The Film

The Birth Of The Penguin

Batman Returns starts off at the beginning of Oswald Cobblepot’s story. After having a fight with Twinkles the house cat, the Cobblepots decide to throw their deformed infant son into Gotham River, because that’s what good parents do to naughty kids.

In what’s obviously a reference to the origin of Moses, a young Oswald floats down the river to an abandoned zoo, where a flock of penguins find and raise him as one of their own. How adorable of them, don’t you think?

It’s a tragic origin tale, which obviously invokes sympathy for Oswald being a social outcast. Furthermore, it shows us that humans do indeed suck and animals are much better at this wonderful thing called life. I mean, if penguins can be nice to a human being, why can’t we?

Selina Kyle’s Transformation

If the Internet forums and social media had been around in 1992, Burton would’ve been crucified for meddling with Catwoman’s origin story. Not only did he give her powers in the form of nine lives, but he also suggested that the Catwoman persona was a result of a dissociative identity disorder.

Considering the above, it does sound rather ridiculous and stupid, but somehow it worked really well in this film. When Max Shreck pushes Selina Kyle out of the office window and she becomes a sidewalk omelet, it appears to be curtains for her. However, a group of cats swarm her unconscious body and use their abilities to bring her back to the world of the living.

Reborn, Selina heads back to her apartment where she goes into full Charlie Sheen mode and trashes everything in sight. Then, she whips out the old sewing machine and kit and puts together the greatest black vinyl costume we’ve ever seen.

The ‘Hell Here’ neon light shot at the end of the scene is also a nice touch by Burton.