Tim Burton’s Batman was released 25 years ago.

Ryan looks back at how it overcame a media backlash to become a defining 80s blockbuster… Sure, the 30-year-old director had made feature films before namelyPee-Wees Big AdventureandBeetlejuice but those films were relatively low-budget.

Made outside the glare of public and Hollywood studio scrutiny.

Batman, on the other hand, was being put together with a blinding media spotlight trained on it.

He stands at an estimated five feet 10 inches tall and weighs in at 160 pounds or so.

Michael Keaton is no Sylvester Stallone.

If reports like those were derisive, the fan response was downright damning.

It was here that the enormity of what Burton had taken on hit home.

This one has been very difficult for me, the young director admitted toStarlogmagazine.

We were shooting six days a week.

Usually, if you have the weekend, you’re free to regroup a little bit.

There was absolutely no time to regroup.

Burton had to contend with 12-hour days of complicated shooting on vast, dimly-lit sets.

And the leading lady had fallen off a horse.

I dont think Mr Burton has any intention of making a serious Batman movie.

Although notably lacking Danny Elfmans score, the trailer worked: the response was rapturous.

Audiences were finally won over.Batmans extraordinary marketing assault had begun.

But surrounding that core is another story about journalists trying to find out Batmans true identity.

They are perfect as images.

Tell all your friends about me, Batman whispers to a terrified hoodlum on a Gotham city rooftop.

Lets get nuts!).

was one abiding question), this unlikely teaming turned out to be hugely successful.

TheBatmanteaser trailer, screened in 1989, summarised Burtons grand plan in the space of just 90 seconds.

The film was clearly different from the high camp of the Adam West television series.

The Bat suit, backlit and powerful-looking.

The oppressive darkness of Gotham City, with its smoke and iron girders.

The noirish, oppressive 1930s atmosphere.

And finally Jack Nicholsons Joker, his fixed grin failing to meet his dead, scheming eyes.

From a visual standpoint, production designer Anton Furst was key.

Burtons subversive humour is everywhere: a famous model, Jerry Hall, is left hideously scarred and masked.

Jack Nicholsons Joker has his own line in surreal humour (Never rub another mans rhubarb!)

but hes violent and plain evil, even when compared to the characters antics in the comic books.

Even after the hysteria of Batmania faded, BurtonsBatmancast a long shadow over the movie industry.

Echoes of Anton Fursts production design can still be seen in Christopher Nolans reboot,Batman Begins.

Against all odds, Tim BurtonsBatman,became the defining superhero film of the 1980s.