Batman: The Movie Blu-ray

In its Blu-ray form, Batman has first and foremost been crafted for the fans of what is now looked on as the original tongue-in-cheek adaptation of a comic book to the big screen. The high-def transfer of this movie is quite authentic-feeling and pleasing, without being overdone or taking away the slightly grainy feel of the original film. Audiophiles will be psyched that the isolated music track (an industry first for Blu-ray), a jazzy score by Nelson Riddle, sounds simply glorious in 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio. For supplements, there are three new high-definition featurettes, all of which are fun. Best of all is the interactive 360 Degree Navigational Tour of the Batmobile, which allows viewers to pick one of the car’s sections and zoom in on its specific parts, giving a crystal-clear, close-up view of the detail that went into crafting the famed crime-fighting vehicle.

Shelf Talk: Like the TV show from which it spawned, Batman was quite popular in its day and still has a solid fanbase, mostly older fanboys (fanmen?) who are probably early Blu-ray adopters as well. They’ll be interested in checking this one out, as will the Batman fans of later generations, who came of age in the era of Batman films and animated TV series of the ’90s and beyond.