One of the Greatest BATMAN Cartoons is Hiding in Plain Sight

And it’s not from the Batman: The Animated Series…

UPDATED 9/14/23: Filmation’s The Adventures of Batman premiered 55 years ago, on Sept. 14, 1968! Perfect time for this “reprint” from 2017, which has been updated slightly. Dig it! — Dan

I’ve been having a great time reviewing all of the 1968 Filmation Batman cartoons with John S. Drew over at his awesome Batcave Podcast.

In the most recent episode — which you can listen to here or here (or on iTunes or Stitcher) — we jumped into the full-length Partners in Peril, which works pretty dang well as a de facto sequel to the 1966 Batman movie.

Now, the inherent appeal of the Filmation cartoons is that they are cheesy and hokey. It’s really why I love them as much as I do. But every once in a while there’s an episode that rises above the clunky production values and stands as entertainment in its own right.

Partners in Peril is one of those episodes — 16 minutes of whiz-bang fun that manages to cram in just about every major Bat-character of the time: Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Joker, Penguin, Riddler and Catwoman, not to mention members of the supporting cast.

The set-up is standard Silver Age goofiness: Joker, Penguin and Riddler have a contest to determine who should run Gotham. Because that’s what supercriminals do. But the ultimate mastermind proved to be (SPOILER ALERT) Catwoman.

I don’t want to go into greater detail here because I really want you to hear what John and I say about it here. We had a great time and I think you will too. (We also talk about a separate short paired with it, The Underworld Underground Caper, featuring a rare Catwoman/Riddler team-up. That’s a kick too.)

Fans rightly look at Batman: The Animated Series and its successor, The New Batman Adventures, as the be-all, end-all of Bat-animation. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other diamonds out there.

So go dig out the newly remastered cartoon on Apple TV or pop in your Blu-ray and bask in it. And don’t forget to check out The Batcave Podcast too.

MORE

— The FILMATION BATMAN Index of Features and Podcast Episodes. Click here.

— The Most Unsettling BATMAN Cartoon of the ’60s. Click here.

Author: Dan Greenfield

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7 Comments

  1. I just found your blog with this article. I think it’s a shame that too many Bat-fans only seem to care about what happens from 1989’s Tim Burton Batman onwards. They miss out so many gems like this one.
    I definitely need to check this episode out, though. Thank you for suggesting me!

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  2. This show, the live action BATMAN series and the cartoon SUPERMAN series at the time definitely were good ads in that every time we were at the store I wanted BATMAN or SUPERMAN comics if I saw them. So DC being first on TV got me going to them before Marvel! Fun times!

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  3. “Partners In Plunder” was the name of this 1968 episode of “THE BATMAN-SUPERMAN HOUR” segment.

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    • The cartoon episode was “Partners in Peril.” “Partners in Plunder” was the title of a late-1964 comics story (cover-dated February 1965) featuring The Penguin. “Plunder” provided the blueprint for the first Penguin episodes of the 1966 Batman series (“Fine Feathered Finks” and “The Penguin’s a Jinx”).

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  4. It’s interesting that Warner released this on blu-ray but no sign of the Filmation Superman series on blu-ray, and will I live long enough to see Superboy released in any format?

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  5. I really loved this show as a kid.. and as an adult I still do the super campy goofiness of it at times just works… yeah yeah The Dark Knight but there are many versions of Batman.. this is Batman of Earth-77 lol

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Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Here’s One of the Coolest BATMAN-CATWOMAN Showdowns of the ’60s | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] episodes like From Catwoman With Love — and Partners in Peril before it (click here) – show just how much talent was in…
  2. The FILMATION BATMAN Index | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] — One of the Greatest BATMAN Cartoons is Hiding in Plain Sight. Click here. […]

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