In our first look back at the bizarre and unauthorised Batman films that have been produced over the years we concentrated on the 1960s productions from the Philippines. The decade may have been over but Batman's popularity continued, and so did the unofficial Filipino knock-offs...
1973's Fight Batman Fight stared famous Philippine actor and singer Victor Wood as Batman, Rod Navarro as the Joker, comedian Roderick Paulate as Robin, Lotis Key as Cat Woman and Pinky Montilla as Bat Girl. Yes, the whole Bat-family turns up to witness Batman go to hell to fight Satan (yes. Hell! Fight!! Satan!!!).
Obviously Batman was immensely popular in the Philippines, so much so his supporting characters got their own cinematic outings...
Talk about keeping it in the family, 70s Queen of Pinoy action movies, Virginia Gaerlanand and her real life son, Robin Aristorenas teamed up for the 1972 movie, Batwoman and Robin.
Little Robin Aristorenas was just 8 at the time when he made this! Clearly child labour laws were very different back then in the Philippines as in 1972 alone he not only co-starred in Batwoman and Robin, he also featured in three other Filipino productions; Central Luzon, the curiously titled Tarzan And The Brown Prince (guess which role poor Robin played?), and this...
Don't you just hate it when you have to wait three years or more for the sequel for your favourite superhero film? Well wait no more! Just two months (TWO MONTHS) after their first mother/son big screen outing, a sequel, Batwoman and Robin meet the Queen of the Vampires, was released. And production on it didn't even begin until after the first one was released! Madness!
A third film called Jonny Joker was produced in 1976 but it seems to have been completely lost.
Keeping it in the family seems to be the recurring theme here, as in 1989 a new unauthorised Filipino Batman film went into production, to capitalise on the soon to be released Tim Burton movie...
Now, as I say, Tim Burton's Batman had not been released so the main source of reference for Alyas Batman en Robin was the 1960s TV show. Starring comedian Joey de Leon and his son Keempee de Leon - who was at least older than poor Robin Aristorenas, Leon was 16 at the time of the film's production - the title may sound familiar as it's the same name as the first unofficial Philippines take on the Dark Knight from 1965, that we looked at last time.
If you thought any of the previous Filipino Batman adventures were weird - like fighting Satan, Dracula or teaming up with James Bond - then you, my friend, ain't seen nothing yet!
Picture this, a rulebook. Now picture that same rulebook being shredded by a thousand shredders, the shreds burnt to ashes, the ashes buried under concrete and anyone who ever had contact with said rulebook, shredders, ashes or concrete murdered, along with their kin, until the word rulebook doesn't even have the same connotation anymore. That is Alyas Batman en Robin.
As well as the dynamic duo, Alyas Batman en Robin features Wonder Woman, a dwarf dressed as Spider-man, a take on the Penguin called Chu-p-a-enguin, and the Joker who looks like this...
See that young woman bottom-left in the poster above? That's Vina Morales, the Filipino singer, who plays a version of herself. Why is there a famous Filipino singer in the film? Because there are musical numbers! Of course there are musical numbers...
(Do not miss the dancing dwarf Spider-Man at 1:24...)
Yes, for the finale, the whole family get together for an updated lyrical rendition of At The Hop.
Let us all be good.I'm guessing the line "let's be afraid of God" is a thinly disguised euphemism for "let's be afraid of DC Comics lawyers". And right they were to be afraid too, because the lawyers came-a-knocking and a lawsuit from DC Comics initially stopped the film being released. An agreement was finally reached and Alyas Batman et Robin premiered in the Philippines the Summer of 1991.
Let us not be bad.
Let's be good apart.
Let's be afraid of God!
Ahhh-ahhh let's believe in love.
Although it certainly started out that way, technically because of the agreement with DC it didn't end up being an unauthorised production, but Alyas Batman et Robin was certainly bizarre. I don't think anyone can argue with that.
Yet, as bizarre as it was, I'd take it over Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin any day!
Next time the world is our bizarre and unauthorised oyster as we widen the search for more unofficial Batman films.
Same Bat-time. Same Bat-channel.
Previously
Bizarre (& Unauthorised) 1960s Batman Films of The Philippines
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