To celebrate Batman’s 85th anniversary, DC is releasing a new 4K Blu-ray box set featuring 10 of the Caped Crusader’s memorable animated adventures. Showcasing the Dark Knight across multiple eras of animation, Batman 85th Anniversary Collection is available to preorder now ahead of its September 10 release date. It’s currently listed for $201 at Amazon and Target, but it’ll likely drop in price before launch. As a reminder, Amazon and Target do not charge for preorders until your order ships, at which point you’ll get the lowest price offered since placing your order.
$201
Batman’s 85th Anniversary Collection comes with a colorful slipcase and a 24-page commemorative booklet. The box set comes with 4K Blu-ray and digital versions of all 10 movies. So, which films are you getting? A pretty varied assortment of classic and modern Batman stories set in several different timelines:
- Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
- Batman Year One
- Batman: Assault on Arkham
- Batman: The Killing Joke
- Batman and Harley Quinn
- Batman: Gotham by Gaslight
- Batman: Hush
- Batman: Soul of the Dragon
- Batman: The Long Halloween
- Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham
This is a mostly good collection of Batman movies. The highlights here are obviously Mask of the Phantasm and Year One, while some of the other entries are fun popcorn flicks you can binge through like comfort junk food. Soul of the Dragon reimagines Batman as a ’70s-era martial arts master in a cheesy adventure film starring several other skilled DC fighters, Assault on Arkham is an action-packed dive into Rocksteady’s Arkhamverse that mostly focuses on the Suicide Squad, and Gotham by Gaslight puts a Victorian-era spin on Batman.
The Killing Joke, Harley Quinn, and Hush don’t reach the same heights, but they remain faithful the DC source material and are still worth watching.
This isn’t the first box set focused on Batman’s animated movies. To celebrate the Caped Crusader’s 80th anniversary in 2019, DC released an 18-film collection. That collection contains six of the movies featured in the new collection, but the 80th Anniversary Collection has standard 1080p Blu-ray discs. Batman 80th Anniversary Collection is on sale for $63 (was $90) at Amazon. Considering it comes with a dozen movies not found in the 85th Anniversary Collection, it’s worth checking out even if you preorder the new one. And if you’re wondering why you’re getting fewer movies with the new collection, it almost certainly stems from the fact that all of the movies in the 85th Anniversary Collection are already available on 4K Blu-ray today. Films such as Gotham Knight, Under the Red Hood, and Son of Batman aren’t available on 4K Blu-ray.
Interestingly, this year also marks the 35th anniversary of Tim Burton’s Batman movie. Starring Michael Keaton under the cowl, the film is still a haunting look at Batman as portrayed by Keaton and backed up by Jack Nicholson stealing all the scenes with his portrayal of the Joker. The 4K Blu-ray is currently available for $22, but for $50 you can get a 4K Blu-ray collection featuring four films: Burton’s Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, and Batman & Robin, all on 4K Blu-ray. You can also grab Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed Dark Knight Trilogy for a big discount at Amazon.
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