External link: Toy Armada with Aaron Archer

This week I thought it would be a good idea to highlight this great podcast called The Toy Armada. The show is hosted by "Protoman" and features Aaron Archer as its co-host.

Aaron was a toy designer at Kenner and Hasbro for many years starting in 1995 and has some great insights and behind the scenes stories. This episode he covers his work on Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. Give it a listen and subscribe for more episodes.

External link: Batman Forever trailer in 4K

Mindd Kidzag (who earlier in the year supplied the awesome scanned shooting script and schedule) has done it again! He's purchased a copy of the Batman Forever trailer and got Denis-Carl Robidoux to scan it at 4K resolution. 

Both the DVD and Blu-ray of course had the trailer on them but only in standard definition. It's wonderful to see the trailer in such clarity. Two bits that particularly stick out are the shot of Batman saying "Going down" and the shot of Val Kilmer standing up to the giant bat - both of which were deleted from the film.

Check it out below on the largest screen you can!

External link: Batman Forever Alleyway location video

I love videos on YouTube where people locate and revisit movie locations. It's so interesting to see how different places look without all the lighting, props, set dressing and actors. With Batman Forever there's only so many real locations to revisit because so much of the movie was shot on soundstages.  

Here's a very cool video from a YouTuber called Pat the Batman Fan who managed to track down the exact alleyway used in the sequences where Two Face and his goons chase Batman into a dead end. It's a fantastic, funny, fact filled video, check it out.

External link: I Read Movies Podcast covers Batman Forever by Peter David

One of the best podcasts that I've been listening to recently is I Read Movies in which host Paxton Holley breaks down all the changes from a movie compared to its novelisation. 

Novelisations are fascinating at times because 1) often authors are given licence to include their own material and 2) because they have to start writing so far in advance they will usually adapt the original script which can often differ from what gets shot.

Most recently Pax covered the Batman Forever novelisation by Peter David. If you've never read the book (which can be found as an ebook here) this is a nice way of finding out what's different.

Here's the link to the podcast. Be sure to check out his other episodes too, he's also covered Batman and Batman Returns by Craig Shaw Gardner.

https://ireadmovies.libsyn.com/batman-forever-1995-by-peter-david

External link: Batman Forever ebook at Retro Reading Time

I'm a big fan of the Peter David novelisation of Batman Forever. If you haven't read it you'll be pleased to know that some enterprising person has painstakingly converted it into an ebook that you can read on any tablet or computer.

Here's the link to the page https://retroreadingtime.com/the-constant-batman/

There’s also conversions of Batman (1989) and Batman Returns as well as a host of other movie, tv and video game novelisations. I've recently become a bit obsessed about reading novelisations and this website is worth it's weight in gold.

External link: The Bat Minute Podcast

If you're a fan of Batman Forever AND a fan of podcasts I hope you're aware that there's a something out there that combines both your interests!

Yes, it's called The Bat Minute - a podcast that covers each Batman movie one minute at a time.

The podcast is hosted by Jon Parker and Niall MacGowan who are joined by a series of guests. Each episode is around 45 minutes and is a fantastic balance of insightful analysis and warm humour.

One thing that's particularly nice is that it's not one long love-in. The guests range from fans who love the movie to people who have never seen to people who hate it. This really helps keep the podcast fresh.

I have to say I was only recently made aware of Jon and Niall's herculean effort. You see this podcast has already covered over 240 episodes - covering the first two Burton movies - and is currently around the 70 minute mark of Batman Forever.

Anyway, I highly recommend checking it out. They are releasing 3 episodes a week. If you can catch up, go for it, but the podcast is so accessible it's easy to jump right it on their current episode.

Here's the link:- http://thebatminute.com/

External link: Nygmatech Archives

I recently had an email from Daryl at Nygmatech Archives - a Facebook fan page that is also devoted to Batman Forever.

If you're a Facebook person this is well worth your time checking out. There's some very cool rare illustrations and promotional photos that get posted there.

The jewel in the crown though is the 1:1 replica of the Sonar Cowl with light up eyes and Kilmer mouth! There's a step by step photo of the work involved and it looks incredible.

Here's a link to the page:-
https://www.facebook.com/nygmatecharchives/

There's also an instagram page too:-

https://www.instagram.com/nygmatech_archives/

If any other Batman Forever sites want a shout out, please let me know. It would be great to pool our resources where possible.

External link: Fthismovie reviews Batman Forever

Surprised and pleased to see one of my favourite podcasts - fthismovie - has just done a podcast on Batman Forever.

Regular hosts Patrick Bromley and Adam Riske were pretty complimentary about it. I've got to agree with Adam Riske in particular - it may not be the smartest or most respectable Batman movie but it is the most fun.

Check it out here:-
http://www.fthismovie.net/2019/06/ftm-496-batman-forever.html?m=0

External link: Batman Forever - UK edits

Living in the UK, the version of Batman Forever I saw in the cinema was actually cut - quite significantly during Nygma's murder of Fred Stickley. It was only when I caught a bit of the film on TV in France that I realised some bits were missing.

Thankfully the Blu-Ray release in 2008 waived all the cuts and allowed UK fans to see the uncut version of the film. Here's a very thorough video detailing all the original cuts.

External Link: Prop newspapers from Batman Forever for sale

Fancy owning some bone fide props from Batman Forever? Check out these two newspapers that are available at Propstore.

Note the advert for Gotham Closets at the bottom of the second one. That's got to be a joke, right?

Anyway, here's a link to purchase them. 

Newspaper - Batman More Harm Than Good?

Newspaper - Riddler and Two-Face Terrorize-Gotham/

External link: The original Batman Forever website

It seems fitting that the first post of this website should pay tribute to the original Batman Forever website - www.batmanforever.com

Here is a link to an article explaining the impact of the website:-
https://thehistoryoftheweb.com/batman-forever-important-web/

I remember perusing this website back in 1995 on a friend's computer (who had this new fangled thing called the internet). It took about 10 minutes to load and would crash the computer anytime we tried to click on any buttons.

What I would give to be able to revisit it today.

Sadly, Warner Brothers took the domain and overwrote it with the Batman & Robin website. The Wayback Machine won't go any further than 1997 so it's currently lost in the mists of time.
https://web.archive.org/web/19971210070024/http://batmanforever.com:80/

I also owe a great deal of debt to James Sawyer whose amazing website 1989Batman.com inspired me to create this one.