Which is your favourite version of Oswald Cobblepot, the Penguin? Meredith was a bit annoying and outlandish. No one laughs like that besides old ladies, and as for the exploding shark... DeVito’s Penguin was the most monstrous one ever: a deformed child abandoned by his aristocrat parents, returned to take vengeance upon the town that spurned him. Making him a near-deranged villain with plans to kill children was perhaps a bit too much, but Burton did a great job for his era of reworking campy costumed characters into creepy crazed ones (I see few people complaining about his Catwoman). DeVito was great and tragic, and these links prove it: Penguin - My Nose Could Be Gushing Blood - YouTube Penguin addresses his legion of penguins - YouTube Williams, and later Stiers, was the classic version from the comics, mixed with a bit of Burton’s film. He went from outrageous (trapping Batman in a birdhouse), to menacing (when he actually gets the drop on Batman), to actually sympathetic (being used by a socialite whom he falls in love with). He was perhaps the most loyal portrayal of the character ever, but faithfulness was expected with Timm and Dini in charge. Kenny was a little over-cartoonish, which is what THE BATMAN was going for I guess, but was utterly obnoxious and had no class at all. North was fairly good, but I couldn’t help laughing at his Penguin’s Cockney accent and his utterly pretentious facade (he pretends to be high-class when he’s not, and acts tough when he is rather cowardly). For me, it’s a close race between DeVito and Williams, but Williams comes out on top for portraying a more classical version of the Penguin.
Any of those Penguins are superior to the Batman Returns/DeVito Penguin. I hated that depiction of him. Turning him from a parody of mobsters and a man who tries and fails to have class into a walking baby with a big nose. God, I hated this depiction.
I liked Burgess Meredith's Penguin, if only because I'm fond of large ham villains and like a bit of color in my superheroes (although the Adam West show does overshoot the mark a lot) However of the ones I've seen, gotta give it to DCAU and big props to whoever thought of hiring David Ogden Stiers to voice him.
Burgess Meredith, all the way. Danny Devito was fine, in that Time Burton sort of way, but Burgess Meredith really captured the essence of the Penguin. Agreed with Gordon on the DCAU Penguin.
Danny DeVito was amazing and that's who I voted for, but I have to admit that I like the Arkham video games portrayal of the character the best.
I agree. Devito could have worked incredibly well for the Penguin, but he just became another Tim Burton weird villain/character. The only thing I liked about that incarnation was the "tragic irony or poetic justice" line. The same goes for the movie. If Batman and Robin didn't exist, Returns would be the worst Batman movie. My favorite version is the Arkham City version voiced by Nolan North.
Burgess Meredith WAS the penguin. and he was awesome. So i will have to go with him, followed by the animated series version, by Paul Williams. Both have done an amazing job as the character. and both are the versions i think of, when i think the penguin.
Campy as all hell Burgess Meredith is and always shall be my most favorite Penguin. I do not care if his laugh was incongruous he made for great comedy, great fun and great Penguin all the way around. So much so that I always envision the West era Penguin as the ultimate version of him and can't really see the Burton era as anything more than a very poor attempt at modernisation/fitting the character into the dark and gritty world of Burton's deranged psyche... I mean the world of Burton's Batman. Combine Meredith's performance with the classics Penguin Theme from BTAS and you'd have a recipe for an awesome bit of fun.
Arkham City. I would have went with the Devito but Batman Returns is just too disgusting in my books. and also wow who knew Nolan North can do that good of a Cockney accent.
But wasn't the Penguin always meant to be grotesque? DeVito took it to extremes, true, but the bile was the only really gross thing, everything else appeared to suit the Penguin right. I don't know about that LOL
My bros. I forget who it was who said it on this site, but I agree with them. "DeVito. Pervert Penguin is the best Penguin."
