Customer Reviews

Adventure of Batman & Robin: The Riddler [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Riddler is the villainous subject of this compilation of two episodes of Warner Brothers' Batman & Robin cartoon series. John Glover voices The Riddler and gives him the superbly intimidating air of the intellectual.

"If You're So Smart, Why Aren't YOU Rich?" tells the story of the Riddler's genesis. Bookish toy company employee Edward Nygma is cheated out of a fortune by his boss, corporate shark Mockridge. Vowing revenge, Nygma become The Riddler and kidnaps Mockridge, subjecting him as well as Batman & Robin to the torture of a lifesized version of The Riddle Of The Minotaur, a videogame that demands great intelligence in problem-solving - a trait that Batman uses against The Riddler. Nygma, though, escapes, and this leads to one of the finest moments of the series - as Bruce Wayne narrates, we see the terrified Mockridge with multiple doorlocks and a shotgun, going to bed even though he'll be lucky to get any decent sleep.

Eric Radomski directed this episode and is surprisingly critical of David Wise's script. True, the action has an over-the-top quality and features robotic creatures straight out of Ray Harryhausen (not really appropriate for the Batman continuity), but the animation is unusually good and the story has far too many strong points to be so easily dismissed.

The tape's second episode is less effective, but still has good moments as The Riddler "goes straight" and licenses himself to another toy company.

Warner Brothers again outdoes Disney and Hanna-Barbera with this entry into animation history.

Basically, the Riddler in the Dini-produced Batman animated series is an intelligent, creative person who gets little return from his creations exploited by major corporations. The irony of Dini's pulling off this story while Time-Warner was growing and soon to join with AOL is pretty funny. The stories are pretty solid, too. Of course, Batman gets to rely on his mental acuity more in these stories, and the humbling the Riddler gets at the end makes for a satisfying time.
Just a quick note here (I've added this note to other tapes in this series I have reviewed)--while I think the Dini-produced animated Batman has been one of the hallmarks of 90s animation, I do not advise buying the tapes in this series because they are not recorded in SP mode. You will get fuzzy pictures and sound. It is a shame that these excellent programs do not get the packaging they deserve.

This video is a great buy! Based on the award winning animated series, I reccomend this to all.
Includes Episodes:
"Riddler's Reform"
AND
"If you're so Smart, why aren't you rich?"

A nostalgic glimpse at cartoons before they became spoiled with VALUES and MORALITY. Hilarious, witty, and intellectual. I would highly recomend this video for children AND ADULTS. Aside from it having one of the most clever carbon-based life forms starring in it (The Riddler), I admire it's well developed art deco style that covers the streets of Gotham. In conclusion I give The Riddler: an A+!
Good for you Bruce Timm, you've done it again!

My fav in the series. Two Face was great but the Riddler added a great tuch. In the end The Joker Has a cameo appearance as one of the inmates.

This tape features one of the best episodes in the series and the other one is not that bad. I think that the Joker is the best criminal Batman has to deal with but this tape makes you wonder about that. The RIddler makes things interesting for our hero and even lets him go through a maze and has to solve riddles. Bruce Wayne must be a PHD or something..some of those riddles even got me stumped...but then again I'm not Batman...

"There was an office hya"says the Riddler disguised as Winnie the Pooh.Why does Batman look like a brick? and why does he walk like Adam Sandler??