P.O.V. (Batman: The Animated Series)

POV is one of six Batman TAS episodes that was animated by Spectrum Animation Studio, Japan.

Plot

Detective Montoya and Officer Wilkes are speeding to a warehouse location where they are attempting to get the drop of a robbery that is about to take place. Once arriving, they notice the building engulfed in flames with Harvey Bullock lying passed out outside. Just then two criminals climb out a broken window and make their escape. Wilkes chases after them while Montoya heads inside the warehouse to see if anyone is left.

The story then skips ahead to the three of them being interrogated by Internal Affairs and Commissioner Gordon. They want to find out what went wrong, and Montoya blames Bullock for not waiting for them, while Bullock insists that they were late in arriving. Each of them are then asked to tell what happened, and Detective Bullock's flashback reveals he went into the building early in an attempt to get the jump on the criminals as they try to steal the money. Bullock accidentally kicks a can and this alerts them to his presence. After fighting some of them off, Bullock is attacked by a criminal wielding an axe. He makes the man miss, but the axe strikes a power box which sets off an electrical fire within the building that spreads rapidly. As the criminals make their escape, Bullock is left trapped in flames. Just as he is about to die, Batman swoops in and leads Bullock to safety outside. However, according to Bullock, he was the one who saved Batman after he cost himthe chance to catch the criminals.

Officer Wilkes is next to tell his side of the story. After arriving at the warehouse and chasing the two criminals down a dark alleyway, a car emerges from the back of a truck with the men inside it. The car speeds towards Wilkes as he tries to run away, but instead trips and falls over. Just as Wilkes is about to get it, Batman lands in front of him and causes the car to swerve and crash into the side of a building. Once of them men tries to escape, but Batman throws a batarang at the man, knocking him over. He then leaps over to the man, and according to Wilkes, the criminal mentioned the word "Doc".

Renee Montoya is the last one to tell what happened at the location. After heading inside the building, Renee encoutered two of the remaining criminals. One of them threw a suitcase of the money at her before charging at her with a drill in his hand. Renee was saved by Batman though as he dropped from the ceiling and knocked the two men out. Then, the roof began to collapse above them from the raging fires. Renee nearly got crushed, but Batman pushed her out of the way at the last second, himself trapped under the rubble.

Back at the GCPD, Hackle (the main interrogating them) doesn't believe any of their stories and orders for their suspensions immediately, with each of the officers turning in their badges and guns. On her way home, Montoya figures out that the "Doc" the criminal was referring to was talking about the "docks" near the water. Getting off the bus, this clue leads Renee to the Hathcock Shipping Company building where she finds Batman tied up and hanging from the ceiling. Using a lockpick, Renee opens the back door and sneaks inside.

Batman asks one of the criminals where their boss is, and one of them points to the ship located behing him. Feeling satisifed, Batman slips a knife out from under one of his gloves and cuts the rope suspending him from the ceiling. After knocking out a few of the guys, Batman attempts to free his hands from the rope when another one of the criminals pulls out a gun. Montoya is able to sneak up behind him and knock the guy out though. Suddenly, gunfire starts raining down upon them so Batman uses his grappling gun to fly them up to a crane not too far away. He tells Renee to stay while he goes back down to fight them.

Montoya uses the crane to drop a box down on top of three criminals attempting to attack Batman. Then, the leader of the group heads inside the ship as it begins to pull away from the pier. Suddenly a criminal behind Batman charges at him inside a forklift. Batman is able to knock him off of it though and then he takes control of the forklift himself. Batman runs it off of the dock, crashing it into the ship. It begins to take in water and soon crashes nearby. With the criminal boss attempting to escape, Montoya uses the crane claw to drop it down on him, trapping him inside.

With the criminal group stopped in their plans, Montoya, Wilkes, and Bullock all get their badges back from Commissioner Gordon as they are once again part of the Gotham City Police Department.

Behind the Scenes

In screencredits of this episode, Mitch Brian is the only person credited for the "story." But the original story for this episode was created by Sean Catherine Derek and Laren Bright [1]. Sean Catherine Derek and Laren Bright wrote the original script based on their story[1]. But BS&P didn't approve the script [1].

In Animato Magazine (Fall/Winter 1993 Issue #27), it says that "Altieri recalled the script was much more complex when he received it: "We cut out flashbacks to Montoya's youth when she was called a liar. And flashbacks to Bullock's youth when he was playing high-school football when his dad yells at him because he was using teamwork: 'Don't be a team player, be a star. Being a team player is for losers. Go out for Number One, Pal. The cuts necessitated the addition of an action fight scene at the end as Montoya tracks the criminals to a warehouse by the docks. BS&P had a fit because there was so much violence," said Timm. "I had to dance around it by explaining the difficulties created when we took out all those flashbacks. They had us make a number of changes. Originally, the scene where the driller is going after Montoya with the drill went on a lot longer. The guy chased her on top of a big pile of crates and he was ramming the drill into the crates. We got into a lot of trouble with that. (BS&P's) Avery Coburn said it was the most horrible rape fantasy sequence she'd ever seen. We agreed immediately to take that whole sequence out, but because it upset her so much, she really went to town on that whole episode[2]."

In Episode POV, the action fight scene at the end as Montoya tracks the criminals to a warehouse by the docks runs for more than 7 & a half minutes. The changes that were made to Montoya's version of the story run close to one minute. These scenes were added, because of the changes demanded by BS&P for the original script. So about 9 minutes of the original script (running time of POV- close to 21 minutes) were removed.

References

1. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0519609/trivia
2. http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/WF/batman/btas/backstage/animato/