Every Batman Movie Opening Scene Ranked From Worst To Best

Batman Returns offers up by far the least involved opening sequence of any Batman film, because it shows neither the Dark Knight fighting crime nor the villain raising hell.

Appropriately the weirdest Batman movie has the strangest and most unexpected opening of all, kicking off 33 years in the past with the birth of deformed baby boy Oswald Cobblepot.

However, Oswald's wealthy Gothamite parents Tucker and Esther Cobblepot (Paul Reubens and Diane Salinger) decide they can't abide an "abnormal" child and decide to throw him into the sewer by Gotham Zoo, where he drifts along until discovered by a family of penguins.

Crucially we don't actually see Oswald in any of this sequence, just the buggy he was placed in before being discarded in the sewer.

Nevertheless, this is a low-key, high-intrigue, and most peculiar way to reveal one of the movie's primary villains, immediately grabbing our attention while confirming Burton's signature visual splendour and, yes, Danny Elfman's magnificent choral musical score.