Despite being the 75th anniversary of Batman, I'm kind of surprised to see very little being done with the character from DC Comics, beyond planned projects for the non-anniversary future.
Yet there has been a positive resurgence in the 1960's "Batman" series, which will be seeing a long awaited DVD release in early November. And if that wasn't enough, one of the best reviewed and most well received comics of 2014, "Batman '66", is directly based, and proudly so, on the aforementioned.
And this isn't even including the upcoming one-shot “Batman ‘66: The Lost Episode”, based on an unproduced Two-Face episodes from the original Adam West series. No joke!
Oh, there's also "Gotham" on television...But prequels pain me, and I'd rather not waste time on the matter.
"Batman: The Animated Series" will always be my all time personal favorite, but I've been appreciating the 1966 from all the reruns I've recorded off cable in the three last two years. The first season is surprisingly good, with the smart satire, colorful camp, and generally being funny and thrilling, as all good adventure / actions shows should do. Though by the halfway mark in season two, the camp and 'kitsch' overshadowed the intelligent comedy and related action, despite some decent episodes here-and-there.
And the same could be said for a lot of the 1960's Godzilla films, though because Japan has a wonderful tradition of taking their monsters seriously, the Kaiju always kept their majesty and a sense of horror and awe in many of their films. In-between the nonsense involving Victory Dances and Minilla Walking Dreams, of course.
And it was during this Golden Decade of Japanese monster movies AND American fantasy television, that both the 'Light Knight' and The King of the Monsters were almost going to meet each other...In two separate movie projects?!?!
We all know about writer Shinichi Sekizawa's plans for "Batman vs Godzilla" in early 1966, which would have had Batman, Robin, and Commissioner Gordon, battling Godzilla with host of super vehicles. Mostly the ones already known to Batman fans, like the Batmobile and the Batcopter.
Though had Toho pursued the movie further, I'm confident other fantastical elements would have been included, like Maser Tanks and possibly more monsters and / or super-villains, outside Godzilla himself.
Plus, unlike the 1966 television series to shortly follow that same year, "Batman vs Godzilla" would have been a fairly (FAIRLY) straight faced affair.
Now "Batman Meets Godzilla" on the other hand...Oh boy!
Supposedly discovered through producer William Dozier's own production papers, there was ANOTHER planned crossover film, separate from the above mentioned Toho effort, entitled "Batman Meets Godzilla". And might have been the intended, but ultimately dropped sequel to "Batman: The Movie" (1966).
Information on "Batman Meets Godzilla" is quite recent, so I'm personally still suspicious to its authenticity. And hence why I started this thread, to get confirmation and second opinions from my fellow Kaiju fans and experts alike.
But from what's shared in the following links, one concept considered was a ‘Transistorized Female Godzilla’, used to lure Godzilla back to the sea, and away from Batgirl, whom he had become smitten with. But Dozier found that idea off-putting, going for a simple alternative of artificially created mating calls, instead of a robotic impostor.
Nice to know the Hollywood trend of blockbuster movie producers, dropping giant monsters for an unimaginatively cheaper...uh, I mean, 'more realistic' story salutation, isn't a recent problem.
So what do you, the readers think? Would you have loved to have seen these two crossovers been made? And is ‘Transistorized Female Godzilla’ the weirdest unmade Kaiju ever ()?
Reply in the comments below! Same Godzilla thread! Same Godzilla forum!
