Danny DeVito famously played the Penguin in Tim Burton's Batman Returns, and his portrayal is at once the best and worst take on Oswald Cobblepot.

Danny DeVito's Penguin in Batman Returns is at once the best and the worst version of the famed DC Comics villain. Riding off of the cultural phenomenon of Batman in 1989, Tim Burton's Batman Returns arrived in 1992, but was a far more polarizing movie. McDonald's infamously had to cancel a Happy Meal tie-in to the film dues to protests over its dark tone, with the movie's very sinister portrayal of the Penguin being a particular point of contention.

The Penguin has been shown in many different Batman adaptations, such as Burgess Meredith's portrayal on the Adam West Batman show. Numerous voice actors have also portrayed the Penguin in various animated adaptations, with Robin Lord Taylor playing him on Gotham and Colin Farrell assuming the role in The Batman. Looking back on DeVito's version of Oswald Cobblepot, it shows just how bizarre Batman Returns really is.

While the reputation of Batman Returns has warmed over the years, it's still notorious as one of the most dreary comic book movies ever, even akin to a horror movie. Batman Returns showcases the Penguin as plotting to return to Gotham City and become Mayor, only to resort to a vicious quest for revenge when everything falls apart for him. As a revisit of Batman Returns shows, its version of the Penguin is both a fantastic and failed comic book movie villain.

Batman Returns Is The Penguin's Movie

While Jack Nicholson snagged much of the limelight in Batman with his portrayal of the Joker, Batman Returns is really a Batman movie in name only. The film opens on the infant Oswald being monstrously rejected by his parents and tossed in his carriage into Gotham City's sewers. As soon as DeVito finally appears as the adult Oswald, the movie's focus is very much on his story of returning to Gotham City.

Selina Kyle's story of becoming Catwoman, expertly realized by Michelle Pfeifer, doesn't quite absorb as much of Batman Returns' attention, but still runs parallel to Oswald's machinations. As the final lead character, Bruce Wayne is definitely a distant third with sizeable sections of the movie not featuring Batman at all. When he does show up, his portrayal is less heroic than in the first Batman, and more that of a shadowy, mercurial presence leaving just as quickly as he arrived. It may bear the Dark Knight's name in the title, but Batman Returns is very much a Penguin origin story with Catwoman also rising and Batman largely in the background.

The Film Is Conflicted In Its View Of The Penguin

While Batman Returns presents the Penguin as its main character, the movie itself seems quite unsure as to how it feels about him. Thrown away like garbage by his parents, Oswald's backstory is indeed horrifying, and the movie heavily emphasizes how tragic his life has been. Oswald's death scene is truly gut-wrenching, his emperor Penguins guiding his body to a watery grave reminding the audience of the connection and human warm Oswald never received. What complicates this is the fact that Oswald is also anything but a saint.

When Oswald succeeds in ingratiating himself back into Gotham by faking the rescue of the Mayor's baby, Batman Returns pulls back the curtain on how much of a sociopath he really is. Oswald's lechery is almost animalistic, and he's even persuaded to run for Mayor of Gotham by evil businessman Max Shreck (Christopher Walken) largely for the mistresses it would bring. Oswald also has a strong propensity for violent and murderous behavior, seen when he frames Batman for the murder of the Ice Princess and plots to slaughter the children of Gotham as revenge for his rejection. A similar point was made by YouTuber Film Brain on the movie being indecisive in whether sympathy for Oswald is deserved. Batman Returns ultimately has a very split view of Oswald as both a tragic villain and a vile predator who must be stopped, and he exemplifies everything great and flawed about the movie.

How The Penguin Shows The Flaws & Strengths Of Batman Returns

Batman Returns' polarizing reception in 1992 can be attributed to far more than the movie's extremely dark and depressing tone. Unlike Batman, Batman Returns is much less streamlined and more chaotic in its storytelling. It's a movie where no one really wins in the end, with Selina unable to accept a normal life with Bruce Wayne and living forever in the shadows as Catwoman. The movie's portrayal of Oswald personifies how much it simultaneously succeeds and drops the ball.

Oswald is hardly a protagonist in any sense, but he's ultimately a product of his inhumane treatment by his parents. Batman Returns can't truly bring viewers to Oswald's side, the Penguin far too much of a bloodthirsty, carnally-obsessed beast to even be positioned as an anti-hero. Still, the movie pulls a similar storytelling trick as Joker later would in 2019, inviting viewers to wonder what Oswald's life might've been like if his parents hadn't abandoned him with such icy indifference. Oswald was always destined for villainy as a result of this treatment, but like Arthur Fleck later showed, the rise of a psychotic monster might've been averted if his childhood had been different. Like the whole of Tim Burton's Batman Returns, the portrayal of the Penguin is a mix of conflicting elements that makes him, if nothing else, an unforgettable version of the character.

Batman Returns zig-zags so much from both strong elements and shortcomings that it's easy to see why audiences were so divided about the film in 1992. A Batman movie that's focused the least on the Dark Knight himself further demonstrates how novel an approach Burton was making with Batman Returns, whether one loves it or hates it. Moreover, the way the movie presents the Penguin is its real legacy. Batman Returns' Oswald Cobblepot is a man too far gone to be saved but whose humanity peaks above the surface just enough to have the occasional fleeting moment in the sun. For better or worse, Danny DeVito's iteration of Oswald Cobblepot in Batman Returns is like no other that has ever been. In pulling off the seemingly impossible task of doing the best and the worst version of the Penguin, DeVito's Oswald in Batman Returns makes it consistently worth returning to.

NEXT: Batman Returns' Original Opening Teased The Penguin's Plan