It's an idea that's no doubt occurred to countless fans, but David Rose is the real human being (and real hero) who made it happen: the opening animation for the 1960s Batman television series remade in high definition and starring cartoon versions of Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and Gary Oldman from 2008's The Dark Knight. You know you've waited years to see this, so just go ahead. We'll be back after the cut.

David Rose is a graphic artist, animator and dedicated film fan. He puts all his prodigious talent to use in The DVD Shelf, a very well produced Web video series in which he discusses in-depth only films that he actually loves. Among them, Christopher Nolan's Batman opus The Dark Knight. Rose presents each episode of The DVD Shelf with professional quality motion graphics, clever editing and engaging narration. Even in the case of The Dark Knight, which regular CA readers know I've seen and talked about way more than is reasonable, I found myself drawn into Rose's presentation of the film. You can check it out on his website, Happy Dragon Pictures.

As for the Batman animation, Rose created the feature as a bonus video for his The Dark Knight episode of The DVD Shelf, and also because he was annoyed that the original Batman television show has yet to be released in high definition. He explained:

Have you ever wanted to see the classic 1966 Batman TV show opening credits sequence in high-definition widescreen? Me too! Sadly, this classic show has never been released to DVD meaning that any copies of the sequence that have circulated on YouTube are extremely low quality. So, since remakes are all the rage these days, why not do a remake of the classic theme with an updated look and a modern twist? Enjoy!

We enjoyed!

Along similar lines, Rose noticed that it's stupidly hard to find on YouTube the original 1987 title sequence for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, so he just decided to reanimate the thing entirely in HD (including the original credits font at the end!). We fully endorse this audacious philosophy of simply remaking from scratch all the out-of-print or otherwise unavailable things that Hollywood can't be bothered to reissue in high definition. Most impressive.

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