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Relevant since, as much as some would rather people not see the relevance, various industries can be like that, especially athletics, which, depending on the discipline, has actually ruined the fit bodies of gifted female athletes in the pursuit of making them "look good" and ignoring their destruction of the fitness that lets them perform and compete in the first place.
So many Hollywood women and men go to plastic surgeons to attempt to look younger. The surgery often makes them ugly. In Holly weird, you're only as good as you look.
Funny thing is in today’s era, her breakdown would have been delayed to at least her 50s/60s since she could have gotten the validation she desired through SM.
I felt bad for Calendar Girl, I mean she looks beautiful no matter what she looks like although I guess she doesn't want to see it because she has insecurities. Also she's not ugly at all especially after her face reveal without her mask.🥺💕
This is a great episode and one of the few good ones during this run. One thing that I don't like is the whole Calendar Girl angel. I get where they went with it, but it feels so random. The dates are more important to her. Which makes the Holiday part feel off. Like they needed the Calendar Girl angel just for her to leave clues behind to figure out who she is. I don't think she even attacked them on those dates. After hearing that Manikin story, that's who she should have been. It feels like it works better in specific parts and has a better look at her character. Thought, that's just me, and I could be way off on this one.
I wish we could have gotten an episode with Calendar Girl, Clayface, and Baby Doll together. All three were ruined by showbiz. Calendar Girl due to age, Clayface due to a disfiguring injury, and Baby Doll due to typecasting because of her appearance. All three have a legitimate beef with the industry, and there's any number of potential plotlines you could use to bring them together.
Babydoll especially has severe issues if self image and self worth, not to mention an unhealthy dose of body dysmorphia. It would take a deft hand but I could see that being a really solid episode if they paired up.
Agreed and I feel like they could absolutely give us a lesson on how we should be treating individuals and show how rotten the industry can be especially nowadays with Disney falling apart at the seams and Hollywood not learning anything about the past I feel like that could be a good episode which makes me question why they never teamed up eventually I mean surely they all have went to Arkham and have someone met each other once they realize that they had a common goal they decide to team up even better maybe they could even have a found family.
Fun fact: Sela Ward who voiced Calendar Girl was passed over for a Bond Girl because she was deemed “too old”, much like CG was booted when she became “too old” for the business.
@@sonofsuerafit's not lacking self awareness, it's bringing light to a very real issue women faced so the next generation (the kids watching the show) would see the injustice and once they grew up they wouldn't continue the abuse.
"She's beautiful." "She can't see that. All she sees are the flaws." That final exchange really cements just how top-of-the-game the writing and characterization of this show was most of the time.
I think Calendar Girl might be my favorite reinterpretation of a D-list character. Usually I roll my eyes when these sorts of changes are made - as there is generally no organic reason. This one makes *perfect* sense. A calendar girl is another name for a model, a model's enemy is time. She carries a scythe like a reaper - the one that comes for you when time runs out. She wears a mask - not just to hide her face but because the mask is flawless. Ageless. It is a layered presentation that sells a deeply disturbed woman's attempt to regain the spotlight through theatrical crimes.
@@Billy-bc8pk Oh yeah, these days, race and gender swaps are done for identity politics based brownie points with absolutely no in-cannon reason for them to exist, merely to push a poorly thought out ideology agenda. Here, it's not only makes narrative sense, it's VERY thematically appropriate from taking a cheesy themed villain such as Calander Man, mix him with a bit of Mannequin's real themes on women being mentally damaged from the obsession of external beauty standards in the beauty industry, and this is a character that I dare say is actually better than both the original Calander Man and even Mannequin.
@@Blokewood3Or it could be both, if she’s getting treatment in prison and has come to terms with her self worth she should be able to understand that she needs to serve her sentence to prove she’s worthy of being let back into society.
This is a gender swap that I think actually improves on the original. I also think it said everything it needed to, and is a great example of how a villain in a one-off episode can leave an impression (before they get repetitive)
It’s also an interesting reinterpretation of the concept, she’s “calendar girl” with an theme of “beautiful female celebrity” instead of being obsessed with holidays
Definitely a more interesting take than what we got with her male originator. Shame she never appeared in the tie in comics. I’ve been reading through those like crazy lately
She makes an appearance in the background of the last issue of Batman The Adventures Continue, but she didn’t have a significant role. It was more like a neat cameo for fans… which sort of sums up BTAC in general I guess!
The Arkhamverse did a pretty goddamn good job with Calender Man, how he hatched a plot to blow up a maternity ward on Labor Day, cannibalized a random family during Thanksgiving- it all sounds edgy to just read it, but if you watch the clips the VA kills it, really makes you think "Batman's no-kill rule is horseshit".
@@SerumLakeTo me, this is a villain that would be ripe for a redemption arc. Bruce could help her get help with her mental health and maybe she fights criminals who pray on innocent young women in the entertainment industry.
That's the entertainment industry in a nutshell Look at Harvey Weinstein He looks like somthing a cat barfed up but he of all people got the final say in who was worthy of being a lead in movies
But they are models.... They have been getting years worth of work for simply looking good... They don't complain when they get the attention but they complain when they stop getting it. Calendar girl's issues come from her own mind.
@@3katfox uhhh. your weinstein example is ridiculous. He had that job cuz he started it as a business. He didn't get it for looks. But models do get hired for looks and they enjoy the perks... Yet when it is their turn to "retire" they lose their minds, (from modelling or movies) cuz they are millionaires and can do other things if they want...
She may have only had 1 episode, but it was a good one. The only reason I would want to have seen her come back is if they showed her getting the help she needs, and making a genuine change for the best
@@SerumLake that's a damn shame. She was the kind of character who would beat be used (in my opinion at least) to tell a story about moving forward. She's not the kind of character who can really make that many unique plots. Harvey Dent works better for multiple stories because of his background and his personal connection to Bruce Wayne. Calendar Girl doesn't have those, so she can't have any reason for the writers to keep her in a bad situation.
She reminds me of one of the ghosts from 13 ghosts. The angry princess. A beautiful woman who could not see her own beauty and suffered a "botched" surgery. Offed herself but people still said she was the most beautiful woman in the world.
@@NinasimonemarieSome women place high importance and their self worth on their appearance and some don't. A lot of men place womens worth purely in their looks and it can severely warp said womens self image
I think Calendar Girl would make a great villain for a modern day low stakes Batman movie. With all the insane stuff going on with TikTok and Instagram, her story is far more relevant now.
Would be even grim if we took more inspiration from reality and she was also a child starlet who was also abused behind the set. And her abusers tossed her away when she was no longer fun for them.
Mean Seasons is criminally underappreciated. It tackles strong themes that are still relevant today. I also like the scene between Bruce and a okd employee who is about to be forced into retirement. Bruce tells him that he can continue to work for Wayne Enterprises for as long as wants. It was a sweet moment and one of the rare times that Bruce showed compassion in the New Adventures. Calendar Girl was a great antagonist. Like Baby Doll, I think she works well as a one shot villain, as her one episode in the series left an impact. It is sad that this obsession with youth still continues in the entertainment industry. No matter how hard you work or have many sacrifices you make, once you reach a certain age, the powers that be deem you useless and toss you aside for their new "toy". I didn't mean for my last comment to get that dark but episodes like mean seasons really brings out the passion in me. I can't wait to hear what you have to say about Gordon.
It even ages well with Batman Beyond in mind, especially since that show was, you guessed it, made because the execs wanted a younger Batman in the helm.
Practically everyone in my family who loves Batman loves this episode. I remember when I was little and was watching this episode. My mother always taught me the classic ‘Your worth does not depend on beauty’ and ‘It's what's inside it counts’. She always pointed to this episode whenever I felt insecure about how I looked, always saying “Remember that woman in that batman episode. She was still beautiful but the moment she thought something was wrong she thought she was ugly.” Funny enough my mother pointed to several batman episodes for life advice.
I loved the promo for "Model Students" a hard-hitting look and the trials of modeling school: "Don't cry, just because you didn't make the swimsuit issue." "Yeah. It's what's inside that counts." "I love you guys."
Another good one is from Beware the Gray Ghost: 'If you like to create things, don't think of what you made as not worthwhile. It might mean something to someone more than you'll know.'
We always found the moral of this episode so wonderful, to the point even Bruce learned something from it. The ending where the office worker isn't forced to retire anymore was quite a sweet one. We always love seeing Batman grow with his experiences.
It's silly how people see her as a victim when she's just a narcissist. She chose a career in an industry that was literally based entirely around superficiality and became embittered when it stopped working in her favor. A male who turned evil because he wasn't getting as much exposure would not be viewed nearly as sympathetically. The author of the video draws parallels between her and Clayface and Dolly but those two actually had crippling disfigurements that meant they couldn't live normal lives.
@@Infammo So you never watched the episode at all? Calendar Girl WAS deemed too old and was thrown out. If you watched the episode, you would know that Calendar Girl doesn't like having her face seen because she thinks she's ugly. If you want to bash Calendar Girl, don't do it here.
A lot of stuff in the New Batman Adventures seemed weirdly more sexualized than before. Like most of the bad guys get sexy girl minions out of nowhere (including Mr. Freeze, which to me makes the least sense) and then there's this villain, with her literal male stripper henchmen. It's an . . . odd trend, to say the least.
I think it was more the fact that broadcast standards were a bit less strict at Kids WB, so they were pushing things to see how far they could get. The “sexy henchgirls” for Mr Freeze were a reference to Batman and Robin - keep in mind that the film hadn’t come out while the show was in production, so they didn’t know that it was a going to bomb
@@SerumLake My stubborn headcanon is that most of the villains get their henchmen from bitter ex-workers in Gotham's adult entertainment industry. It's prolly not a good headcanon (lol) but what other pool are you going to draw from to get people who are both angry at society and also willing to wear ridiculous costumes aligned with the villains' aesthetic?
Great video as always! I find this episodes one of the darkest in the series, tackling some really heavy themes. But it also helps that the animation is gorgeous, the shot of Calendar Girl staring at the mirror is one of the most striking images in the show for me, and an absolutely perfect encapsulation of her entire persona and motivations.
Glad you enjoyed it, and I agree with your assessment of the video. The only low point for me is the random fight with the animatronic dinosaur, but I guess they needed some legitimate peril 🤷♂️
I suppose they never explicitly say that Batman took that dinosaur and put it in his cave, we just assume that’s how he ended up with one during the Batman Beyond era. The comic book version could still be correct 🤷♂️
I kind of wonder what a team up between calendar girl & baby doll would be like. Would calendar girl be jealous of baby because her signs of aging are far less noticeable ( at least to her)
I'm surprised you didn't mention the talented Sela Ward. Iirc, she used this role to exorcise her demons about not being marketable after a certain age despite still being youthful and charming even to this day.
The part about Manikin reminds me, oddly enough, of an episode of Spider-Man: The Animated Series: Season 4's "The Haunting of Mary Jane Watson". _Miranda_ Wilson was the lead actress in the same movie Quentin "Mysterio" Beck was doing special effects for, and was severely injured by the illegal mortar he used to amp up explosions in a bridge scene. Thrown off the bridge into the water, she washed ashore safely but hid so people wouldn't see the disfigurement the explosion caused. Her condition worsening due to lack of medical care, she was found by Beck, now well into his supervillain career (begun to gain revenge on Spidey for catching him and exposing his role in the disaster). Beck took Miranda to his lair under the movie studio, where he provided her with life support devices and various other computers and machines which he financed with money from his crimes. When the studio announced they were going to finish/remake the film and cast Mary Jane in Miranda's role, Miranda hatched a plan to steal Mary Jane's body, youth and beauty. She researched Mary Jane's personal history, then used Beck's tech to create a ghostly image of MJ's father to lure her into a trap. Spider-Man, with Mysterio's help (!), raced to the rescue--only for the body-swapping gizmo to be revealed as fake. What Miranda wanted was beyond Beck's abilities, but he went ahead and gave her the illusion of a body-swap device because the hope the plan instilled in her helped keep her alive--and because he'd fallen in love with her. Angered, saddened, and stunned by all this, Miranda triggered a self-destruct device which brought the complex down on herself and Beck, while Spidey and MJ escaped. 😊
This ending hit hard. I was a model in my late teens and early 20s, but this was in the early aughts when Kate Moss was the It Girl and everyone wanted models who were rail thin. So my agency told me that I had to "lose the beer gut", or else they would no longer represent me. ....I weighed 104 when they said this. Photographers, designers, and other fashion industry types would openly talk about me like a piece of meat. They would casually mention my big nose, thick waist, and short stature, annoyed that they'd have to edit those flaws out but they still wanted me cuz I was Czech and apparently Czech models were trendy at the time. My stomach and upper thighs were always photoshopped out of every photo spread I was in. Every, single, one. Now I'm 40, and I have never felt uglier. My fiance says I'm the most beautiful woman he's ever seen, but I just can't see it. My belly has only gotten bigger, my skin is showing signs of age, and I just can't see myself as pretty.
Thanks for sharing your experiences. It probably doesn’t mean anything coming from a stranger, but waist size doesn’t determine value as a human being. I’m sure it’s not easy to overcome the way you were conditioned to think, but hopefully the closing moments of this episode may provide you with some comfort.
But that is a load of crap. No woman is old and wasted away in their 30s or 40s. Even some in their 50s. I am in my 20s and I made out with a 40 year old woman in the parking lot at my job. Society has these expectations of what beauty for a woman is and it affects a woman’s self worth and self esteem. You getting out of your 20s doesn’t make you old.
@@francostevo9939yes and no. The women chasing the VIPs and 400 option guys do lose power over them when that age hits. At that age there are younger and prettier. Some do lose a lot of beauty some don't. Just harsh truth.
@@fabiourbano6404 that’s a load of crap. No woman is less attractive at 30s and 40s. I didn’t know that girls were sensitive about their age until my junior year in college. I have preferred older women since I was a teenager and I have recently developed an ulterior motive to dating older women. I wish to date them not only due to my attraction but to also give them a self confidence booster. A younger man like myself having an attraction to them and dating them will show them that they are desirable and know that they are attractive. As far as I see it: 2 birds 1 stone.
I can Empathise with Her. If She was a Real Person, I would Comfort her, Reinsure her, and Treat Her like a Human Being. Despite me being Younger than Her. [Currently 20YO]
Although it isn't as front and center as the episode's criticism of the fashion industry, I feel like the episode also did a great job of examining the evils of the plastic surgery industry. Throughout the episode we are continuously told that Paige had multiple plastic surgery procedures done. Based on how afraid she is of showing her face and the comments from people who knew her i.e. "they tugged where they should have nipped," we think that when her mask finally does come off we'll see something warped and unnatural. But that's not the case at all, she's just as beautiful as she ever was. Sadly, it doesn't matter because that isn't what Paige sees. While it's never outright stated I think it's pretty clear Paige has some form of body dysmorphia which is very common among people who have had plastic surgery. The industry feeds off of people like Paige, saying they can fix their "flaws" while simultaneously dwindling their confidence and pointing out new "flaws" with each visit. It's a vicious cycle where the patient is rarely ever truly happy with how they look until the point where they do look artificial and plastic.
How good does a Btas villain need to be to come about, in the BSA era for a single episode, and *still* leave an impression on the audience for its commentary on the medium?
@SerumLake I personally find it rather annoying that people put the bat rogues on such a high pedestal but overlook and dismiss the other dc rogues. This is mostly dc fault for overexposing the bat rogues and putting them in everything (especially if the rogues are Joker and Quinn). I like the Batman villains, but I feel that the other dc villains are justvas great and deserve more opposition to be flesh out more and not treated like bloody jobbers!.
Hecking love this character, so mysterious. It's inspired me on what if we re-build some characters, like, The Riddler. Make him in all black, with cape and hood, and add this white mask with big bloody red or light-green bloody mark on whole face...
I do like the rebuilding on old characters like Riddler for example. Here's how I would rewrite Riddler: Have him be an aspiring poet writer that implements riddles in his wirting. And make him want the fame and acknowledgement on his work which he slaved to get. He tries approaching many companies to get his riddle poem book to be published and after a long time it does, he briefly gets the fame and acknowledgement until a cliche young adult novel gets published and takes his book's place. This extremely infuriates the Riddler but he tries to one up the book but it becomes a cycle that no matter what future riddle book he publishes, some other book/novel one ups his work. This causes the book publishers to cut the deal with the Riddler, essentially firing him. As his work just isn't popular enough. Which is what causes him to snap and become the Riddler, who wants the world to acknowledge that his work is worth something to the public.
This show didn’t pull any punches with their villains. Baby doll is one of the little known best. An evil little girl is a common trope, but her character is just so sad and pitiful and actually makes sense to exist in reality
On the question of if it was a cathartic experience for the crew of Batman to work on it, given the fact that she was voiced by Sela Ward who was drawing attention to the issue of the entertainment industry’s obsession with youth and the damage it was causing at the same time I would say it probably wasn’t only cathartic but they knew it was cathartic.
So yeah this was a head of its time with the whole Metoo stuff especially with that crooked agent which Batman should have kicked his ass. Well Calendarman would have been the top 10 villains that should have appeared in the animated series and I never heard of the Mannequin before which she is very similar to the Wonder Woman villain Dr Cyber and the Ironman Madame Masque aka Whitney Frost At the end there on peoples worth I was thinking about another Wonder Woman villain called the Silver Swan as there are 3 of them I was going for the first one Helen Alexandros a 🩰 with a Homely appearance who get empowered by Aries as his Roman name Mars as I would have made a member of my version of the Injustice league along with the Golden Glider as the female members of the team as I think they would be like sisters as I think they would definitely both hate Wonder Woman because she got everything handed to her and never struggled like they did.
I always thought of Mean Season as somewhat a hidden gem in Batman TAS, and Calendar Girl was an excellent one-off villain who managed to play perfectly her role within such short screen-time. The final scene where she has a breakdown when unmasked despite still looking gorgeous caught me off-guard the first time I watched the episode as a kid (I expected her to actually be disfigured), but in fact it was the whole point of the story and what made ithe episode really stick the landing.
I honestly really resonate with this video and the character.I was bullied in middle school because I was considered "ugly" and of course this affected my self esteem.I slowly learned to love myself, until I got pregnant and gained some weight.I was fairly athletic in my 20's but after a pregnancy and almost in my 30's, I can say that I'm not so fit anymore.It might have not been a problem, but constantly having family and acquaintances telling you that "you got fat" is really not easy to deal with.And that is the problem with our society:you probably love your body, you MAY want to love your flawed body, but there are constantly people that want to see you down, either intentional or unintentional.And not only that, but most of these people think that what they are doing is good, because "by telling you, they are doing you a favor and so you should start losing weight".Honestly, as long as people didn't bother me personally, I never cared how they look, so why can't they do the same?
Great video! I was just thinking about what an excellent B-tier villain Calendar Girl was, and while her story was well executed I would have loved to see her pop up again in the future. There are plenty of “corrupt media” stories to tell, and having the character refashion herself into a kind of antihero crusader would have been fun.
Greedy people discarding someone they've worked with like trash once they've gotten their money's worth, that is an ironic message from a Batman show considering what Bob Kane did to Bill Finger.
I'm a former model and ballet dancer, and this analysis was very thoughtful. Thank you. I didn't expect to be so moved by an algorithm-selected video essay on an obscure Batman character! 😢😊
I wish he had talked more about how the show explored age not just in the model and similar industries, but there are scenes where Bruce was at work and was also thinking about his own ageing, even checking his hair for grey in the car, and changing the mandatory limit of retirement at 60 at his company. I thought it was really nice how the show worked the idea of aging in general not just to models and how harsh that is, but also in office jobs. I also thought it was funny and interesting that the man who was being made to retire, when he found out he could keep working if he wanted he ripped off his wig in celebration, it was interesting he felt the need to appear younger so he could possibly keep his job just like calander girl was seeking youth
Calendar Girl was one of my favorite villains who appeared in one episode. She had a great theme representing different festive days of the year. They should bring her to the comics.
No lies, this episode stuck with me longer than any other Batman episode. CG's rage and desperation for approval all swirl together into a very relatable concept. I'd have loved to see her return one more time, but at least her episode was good.
fun fact each weekday comes from norse gods in sweden it goes tors dag it literally translates to thors day and Wednesday is onsdag meaning oden every day is based on norse gods even christmas comes from norse mythology thats why everyone says yuletide it just means jule tid which means Christmas time it's impressive how much comes from norse mythology
7:44 I agree with this as an adult, but I’m not going to lie, as a kid I always preferred the episodes when Batman has a sidekick over him solo. Probably was in the best interest as a kids show to include Robin and Batgirl as much as possible.
@@SerumLake Oh yes, a very good way. I thought she was very creative with how she kept changing her costume with a different holiday theme. And I felt the twist at the end where it was revealed that all of her "disfigurement's" where in her mind.
As much as I hate these villains in The Batman series I can identify with them! Sometimes I especially identify with baby doll but calendar girl!? Well all I know for certain is that beauty isn't everything! And I kept saying to my father that money isn't everything either because well? About what happened at Disney world the people who work there are getting really greedy and I don't like it a bit! I really wanted to go to Disney world again and go everywhere there just like I did with my elder sister and my brother-in-law back in the year 2014! But it wasn't until now that I'm disappointed that I can't go to Disney world because it's extremely expensive and also I can only go to one land in Disney world once during my vacation which is why I really want the people who work there to redeem themselves! And one thing is for sure I can never ever ever give up hope! My father told me something about that though he told me that sometimes hope can be deceiving! But that's the one thing I like about the Green lantern it's the blue lantern that gave me confidence from DC superheroes because the Blue lantern power ring represents hope! Blue is my favorite color but there was another reason why I like it it's because it has the power of Hope and that's the one thing I don't want to give up! And I've learned something about that hope is like laughter they are very similar which is why I really need to stay positive if I'm ever going to believe in anything that might happen one day! But the one thing that bothers me is that there'll be no more Rocky and Bullwinkle nor even robot Jones nor even My Life as a teenage robot those cartoon characters that really helped me! Those cartoons were very dear to me sometimes I just wish they would be more like there will be more Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons only if they're not stupid or disturbing if you know what I mean like the ones from Prime!? And ever since June Foray died things were really different for me and Gilbert Gottfried is no more also I lost my mother ever since I lost the celebrities and my loved one everything has changed in me! But I am still hoping for the better that perhaps and only perhaps that there might be a new Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon that is so wonderful that it would bring tears of joy to everybody and who knows!? There might be a story about Rocky the flying Squirrel when he was about to find his family creatures of his own kind somewhere far away from frostbite falls perhaps! I may not have the rights to the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons but that's why I wanted to make my own comic strips in my own sketchbooks for everyone to see and for everyone to understand how I felt about them so very much!😢
obviously, the ending is what makes this episode. up until the last minute, we have no idea what she looks like, and one character in the episode who speculates about it, assumes she's been disfigured by plastic surgery. so we are lead to believe that's the case, or something like that has happened, only to find out it's all in her head and she's in fact a beautiful woman. so it suddenly becomes a psychological episode. it's a 20 minute-build up to that "face reveal" and to Batman's words.
I feel like so many have to face this exact issue, not the part about being used up from age, but even the youth having to worry about there looks constantly. It's sad when people view themselves as ugly or monsterous just because somebody else said it.
Thanks for doing this one, man! I never knew about the Mannequin! If I were in charge of new Batman movies, I'd TOTALLY include her! PS: Fun fact, Donna Day of Donna Day Fashions was voiced by 'Tippi' Hedren, the star of _The Birds_
I remember watching brave and the bold and wondering where was calendar man in the 90s series did some research and turns out they spun him into this chick
I don't know, I could kinda see Calendar Girl as a hired sidekick to Calendar Man(or a different woman, either a sister, niece, or a daughter of his taking on his mantle)
She was seen in Batman The Adventures Continue, a recent tie-in comic, still wearing her mask, in one of the cells. This implies that she did not recover 😞
Modern Calendar Man sure is a marked improvement over his campy past self. Hell, would even want the Arkhamverse iteration to reappear, alongside Victor Zsasz, in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's Metropolis so to have the long belated chance in "pacifying" them permanently. 7:14: Pray the Huntress offed him in the interim. Spare the courts, get the gun (err, crossbow, in her case). 7:19: Cue Batman Beyond, which at most subverted the flaws shown by this deliberate act of "all that is young and glitters is NOT gold". By the way, shame you didn't mention the fact that CG's voice actress, Sela Ward, was supposed to be a Bond girl for the otherwise excellent GoldenEye, except she was turned down for being, yep, "too old". During the time the episode got produced and released, she was leading a protest campaign against the very Hollywoodian notion all around, but I'm not sure how things went three decades on as of this comment's writing. Sidenote: Am glad the Commissioner Gordon of the DCAU doesn't appear to be in a relationship with one Sarah Essen. Not that she's a bad character, mind you, but it's just that, personally, am not a fan of that angle of Gordon in iterations like the Millerverse, as much as Batman x Batgirl hurts the DCAU.
What is the problem with Gordon being happy? DCAU is vastly different from Miller comics, so I see no reason why the creators could not play with the idea of Jim getting a girlfriend at least for one story. Also modern Calender man is boring. He is a rip off of Lecter, spends half the time stuck in his prison cell and his visual appearance is bland! At least the original incarnation had more charm and was more memorable. Batman Beyond actually proved that a "young" Batman can work if written well. The fact that Bruce was his mentor and still treated with respect certainly helps
@@zemox2534Well, I can only say one thing: am not fond of James Gordon being an adulterer against his otherwise faithful wife. With that in mind, I really hope said wife actually died naturally or on an unfortunate accident/assassination attempt, not removed via divorce. But then, to each our own on how we definitively feel about the fictional characters we know and love.
Body dismorphia is handled fairly well in a few Batman media releases. This character and Two-Face in The Dark Knight Returns are some of the best examples.
It’s hard to see how she was a villain especially her face at the end of the episode where Batman explained how she saw the flaws with her reflection in the glass just in genuine pain
The tragic part about most of Batman’s villains is that they aren’t all evil, they are just like us, but are broken on the inside and can never be fixed. It’s lucky that Batman sees past their flaws and focuses on whatever humanity they have left and shows them compassion when they weren’t shown any at all It’s funny how the victims are right in front of you the whole time. People like Roland Dagget, Rupert Thorne, Ferris Boyle and these executives only care about money and power and don’t care about people like Paige or Victor Fries or Harvey who they use or step on or hurt or discriminate against . It’s funny how the “victims” turn out to be the villains
I had B312 as a kid, my first ever Batman comic. Of course, I was a little kid so I thought I was seeing Batman getting his butt kicked by a series of bad guys and only catching this one guy in the lousy red-and-white costume at a trainyard at the end.
It really is sad and disgusting that there is a “magic number” in the industry where they consider a woman is no longer beautiful once they hit it. And even though she wanted to get revenge on the people who ruined her modeling career, Calendar Girl still highly valued their opinion and appreciation at the end of the day. Even with her gorgeous face, her age made her think she is a shriveled up old woman with an unwanted face
Amusing coming from an industry that,let's face it,do you really want to see actors and actresses who once did love scenes still doing that sort of stuff when they're in their 70's?.Look at Diane Keaton,she should be a director now or an acting coach for a new generation of actresses.Like Ann Coulter once pointed out how when they're young they all go on about the artistic value of nude scenes in movies.Then,once they get older and work dries up we're supposed to feel sorry for them.Live by the b*****,die by the b*****.I get the message of the episode though.
At least the Chippendales Henchmen are loyal. At least they come off as that from what I remember. Maybe they were in a similar boat as Calendar Girl? Who can say?
You could even say the same with Baby-Doll's henchpeople, who actually STAYED when the murder-suicide dynamite was readied alongside her former co-stars.
While watching this, it just occurred to me that Page being under the delusion that she's disfigured while in reality there's nothing wrong with it might have been inspired by a similar scene in the Dark Knight Returns, when Two-Face is revealed to have a completely clean and unscarred face, but he's under the delusion that his face is now completely scarred.
Special shout out to my first Member, @davidhuber8793
Don't forget that members get unique emojis (like the Harley Heart above), custom profile icons, exclusive community content, priority reply to comments, and (best of all) early access to my weekly video essay!
Oh hey what's that creepy music track playing in the background?
@@GhostPlanetFilms it’s an original track by @kattstrike - hope you like it!
thanks!@@SerumLake
Other than Bullwinkle Moose, you are the only person I've ever heard mention St Swithen's Day/
The ending always hits me hard when she thinks she's ugly not realizing how beautiful she still is. How the industry warped her sense of worth.
Relevant since, as much as some would rather people not see the relevance, various industries can be like that, especially athletics, which, depending on the discipline, has actually ruined the fit bodies of gifted female athletes in the pursuit of making them "look good" and ignoring their destruction of the fitness that lets them perform and compete in the first place.
This series will continue to be timeless and relevant more and more each day
So many Hollywood women and men go to plastic surgeons to attempt to look younger. The surgery often makes them ugly.
In Holly weird, you're only as good as you look.
Funny thing is in today’s era, her breakdown would have been delayed to at least her 50s/60s since she could have gotten the validation she desired through SM.
@@lowtierbrad I don't know. The internet can turn on you in a heartbeat so not sure in today's standards.
I felt bad for Calendar Girl, I mean she looks beautiful no matter what she looks like although I guess she doesn't want to see it because she has insecurities. Also she's not ugly at all especially after her face reveal without her mask.🥺💕
This is a great episode and one of the few good ones during this run. One thing that I don't like is the whole Calendar Girl angel. I get where they went with it, but it feels so random. The dates are more important to her. Which makes the Holiday part feel off. Like they needed the Calendar Girl angel just for her to leave clues behind to figure out who she is. I don't think she even attacked them on those dates. After hearing that Manikin story, that's who she should have been. It feels like it works better in specific parts and has a better look at her character. Thought, that's just me, and I could be way off on this one.
Amazing video!
I wish we could have gotten an episode with Calendar Girl, Clayface, and Baby Doll together. All three were ruined by showbiz. Calendar Girl due to age, Clayface due to a disfiguring injury, and Baby Doll due to typecasting because of her appearance. All three have a legitimate beef with the industry, and there's any number of potential plotlines you could use to bring them together.
It’s sickening either way, they all deserved better with how much they sacrificed and suffered.
Babydoll especially has severe issues if self image and self worth, not to mention an unhealthy dose of body dysmorphia.
It would take a deft hand but I could see that being a really solid episode if they paired up.
Agreed and I feel like they could absolutely give us a lesson on how we should be treating individuals and show how rotten the industry can be especially nowadays with Disney falling apart at the seams and Hollywood not learning anything about the past I feel like that could be a good episode which makes me question why they never teamed up eventually I mean surely they all have went to Arkham and have someone met each other once they realize that they had a common goal they decide to team up even better maybe they could even have a found family.
And it also feels like the criticism is landing on deaf ears.
Ain't a showbiz a bitch?
Fun fact: Sela Ward who voiced Calendar Girl was passed over for a Bond Girl because she was deemed “too old”, much like CG was booted when she became “too old” for the business.
They said "We want Sela but Sela from 10 years ago" to her.
Talk about lacking self-awareness
@@sonofsuerafit's not lacking self awareness, it's bringing light to a very real issue women faced so the next generation (the kids watching the show) would see the injustice and once they grew up they wouldn't continue the abuse.
No wonder she wass chosen for this role. It fits so damn well and she knew the pain.
Irony
"She's beautiful."
"She can't see that. All she sees are the flaws."
That final exchange really cements just how top-of-the-game the writing and characterization of this show was most of the time.
The episode was a little slight for me, but that last line is still a banger that redeems it.
Yeah, that’s a perfect line
And the sad part is that there's women like that IRL. More often than anyone think.
Yess
@@okamijubeimadonna
I think Calendar Girl might be my favorite reinterpretation of a D-list character. Usually I roll my eyes when these sorts of changes are made - as there is generally no organic reason. This one makes *perfect* sense. A calendar girl is another name for a model, a model's enemy is time. She carries a scythe like a reaper - the one that comes for you when time runs out. She wears a mask - not just to hide her face but because the mask is flawless. Ageless. It is a layered presentation that sells a deeply disturbed woman's attempt to regain the spotlight through theatrical crimes.
Agreed. One of the few swaps done right.
@@Billy-bc8pk Oh yeah, these days, race and gender swaps are done for identity politics based brownie points with absolutely no in-cannon reason for them to exist, merely to push a poorly thought out ideology agenda.
Here, it's not only makes narrative sense, it's VERY thematically appropriate from taking a cheesy themed villain such as Calander Man, mix him with a bit of Mannequin's real themes on women being mentally damaged from the obsession of external beauty standards in the beauty industry, and this is a character that I dare say is actually better than both the original Calander Man and even Mannequin.
Honestly it makes me wonder how it would work if she took Julian Day's place in some modern interpretations like Long Halloween or the Arkham games.
I'd like to believe that why we didn't see her in the series anymore is because she got past those feelings of hers and found worth in herself again
I hope so.
She does make a brief appearance in Batman The Adventures Continue, which suggests she didn’t overcome her issues 😔
Or she's serving a long sentence for kidnapping and attempted murder.
@@Blokewood3eh, since this is Gotham, I guess she's just get sentenced to Arkham instead of prison
@@Blokewood3Or it could be both, if she’s getting treatment in prison and has come to terms with her self worth she should be able to understand that she needs to serve her sentence to prove she’s worthy of being let back into society.
This is a gender swap that I think actually improves on the original. I also think it said everything it needed to, and is a great example of how a villain in a one-off episode can leave an impression (before they get repetitive)
It’s also an interesting reinterpretation of the concept, she’s “calendar girl” with an theme of “beautiful female celebrity” instead of being obsessed with holidays
@@victormagoco9752 It also works since modeling work is influenced by seasons and, of course, many models do calendar shoots.
Definitely a more interesting take than what we got with her male originator. Shame she never appeared in the tie in comics. I’ve been reading through those like crazy lately
She makes an appearance in the background of the last issue of Batman The Adventures Continue, but she didn’t have a significant role. It was more like a neat cameo for fans… which sort of sums up BTAC in general I guess!
The Arkhamverse did a pretty goddamn good job with Calender Man, how he hatched a plot to blow up a maternity ward on Labor Day, cannibalized a random family during Thanksgiving- it all sounds edgy to just read it, but if you watch the clips the VA kills it, really makes you think "Batman's no-kill rule is horseshit".
@@SerumLakeTo me, this is a villain that would be ripe for a redemption arc. Bruce could help her get help with her mental health and maybe she fights criminals who pray on innocent young women in the entertainment industry.
It's kinda ironic: old people firing younger people for being too old.
That's the entertainment industry in a nutshell
Look at Harvey Weinstein
He looks like somthing a cat barfed up but he of all people got the final say in who was worthy of being a lead in movies
But they are models.... They have been getting years worth of work for simply looking good... They don't complain when they get the attention but they complain when they stop getting it. Calendar girl's issues come from her own mind.
@@ThatGuy-tx4vm
Your screen name suits you. You are indeed THAT guy.
@@3katfox uhhh. your weinstein example is ridiculous. He had that job cuz he started it as a business. He didn't get it for looks. But models do get hired for looks and they enjoy the perks... Yet when it is their turn to "retire" they lose their minds, (from modelling or movies) cuz they are millionaires and can do other things if they want...
@@ThatGuy-tx4vm
Keep proving my point
I feel very silly for thinking that Paige was a pun on a calendar page
That also works!
There's also Bettie Page, the most famous pin-up girl.
"All she can see is the flaws."
Batman summed it up nicely.
She may have only had 1 episode, but it was a good one. The only reason I would want to have seen her come back is if they showed her getting the help she needs, and making a genuine change for the best
Based on her cameo appearance in Batman The Adventures Continue (where she can be seen in one of the cells) I don’t think things got better for her 😞
@@SerumLake that's a damn shame. She was the kind of character who would beat be used (in my opinion at least) to tell a story about moving forward. She's not the kind of character who can really make that many unique plots. Harvey Dent works better for multiple stories because of his background and his personal connection to Bruce Wayne. Calendar Girl doesn't have those, so she can't have any reason for the writers to keep her in a bad situation.
She reminds me of one of the ghosts from 13 ghosts. The angry princess. A beautiful woman who could not see her own beauty and suffered a "botched" surgery. Offed herself but people still said she was the most beautiful woman in the world.
The 13 ghosts of Scooby Doo?
@@موسى_7 no.
I still have a fear of tubs after that movie tbh
But why is a woman’s worth determined by her beauty?
@@NinasimonemarieSome women place high importance and their self worth on their appearance and some don't. A lot of men place womens worth purely in their looks and it can severely warp said womens self image
I think Calendar Girl would make a great villain for a modern day low stakes Batman movie. With all the insane stuff going on with TikTok and Instagram, her story is far more relevant now.
Would be even grim if we took more inspiration from reality and she was also a child starlet who was also abused behind the set. And her abusers tossed her away when she was no longer fun for them.
I think TAS writers really do their homework on mental illnesses especially with Calander Girl whom definitely shows signs of Body Dismorphic Disorder
Mean Seasons is criminally underappreciated. It tackles strong themes that are still relevant today. I also like the scene between Bruce and a okd employee who is about to be forced into retirement. Bruce tells him that he can continue to work for Wayne Enterprises for as long as wants. It was a sweet moment and one of the rare times that Bruce showed compassion in the New Adventures.
Calendar Girl was a great antagonist. Like Baby Doll, I think she works well as a one shot villain, as her one episode in the series left an impact.
It is sad that this obsession with youth still continues in the entertainment industry. No matter how hard you work or have many sacrifices you make, once you reach a certain age, the powers that be deem you useless and toss you aside for their new "toy".
I didn't mean for my last comment to get that dark but episodes like mean seasons really brings out the passion in me.
I can't wait to hear what you have to say about Gordon.
It even ages well with Batman Beyond in mind, especially since that show was, you guessed it, made because the execs wanted a younger Batman in the helm.
Practically everyone in my family who loves Batman loves this episode. I remember when I was little and was watching this episode. My mother always taught me the classic ‘Your worth does not depend on beauty’ and ‘It's what's inside it counts’. She always pointed to this episode whenever I felt insecure about how I looked, always saying “Remember that woman in that batman episode. She was still beautiful but the moment she thought something was wrong she thought she was ugly.”
Funny enough my mother pointed to several batman episodes for life advice.
I loved the promo for "Model Students" a hard-hitting look and the trials of modeling school:
"Don't cry, just because you didn't make the swimsuit issue."
"Yeah. It's what's inside that counts."
"I love you guys."
Then your Mom was awesome. Not only good at advice, but also not afraid to use well written super hero stuff as a source. Best mom ever.
Another good one is from Beware the Gray Ghost: 'If you like to create things, don't think of what you made as not worthwhile. It might mean something to someone more than you'll know.'
We always found the moral of this episode so wonderful, to the point even Bruce learned something from it. The ending where the office worker isn't forced to retire anymore was quite a sweet one. We always love seeing Batman grow with his experiences.
Spoilers: Poor Calender Girl.....She got dropped because of her age and she could no longer see herself as pretty....😢
Silly execs had no idea how much the people like MILFs.
Maybe this is how male athletes feel when they get told that they're too old to join a team, despite being at peak condition.
It's silly how people see her as a victim when she's just a narcissist. She chose a career in an industry that was literally based entirely around superficiality and became embittered when it stopped working in her favor. A male who turned evil because he wasn't getting as much exposure would not be viewed nearly as sympathetically. The author of the video draws parallels between her and Clayface and Dolly but those two actually had crippling disfigurements that meant they couldn't live normal lives.
@@Infammobro has no empathy
@@Infammo So you never watched the episode at all? Calendar Girl WAS deemed too old and was thrown out. If you watched the episode, you would know that Calendar Girl doesn't like having her face seen because she thinks she's ugly. If you want to bash Calendar Girl, don't do it here.
A lot of stuff in the New Batman Adventures seemed weirdly more sexualized than before. Like most of the bad guys get sexy girl minions out of nowhere (including Mr. Freeze, which to me makes the least sense) and then there's this villain, with her literal male stripper henchmen.
It's an . . . odd trend, to say the least.
Bruce Timm's influence, easily put. Would explain Mr. Freeze's 180 from the SubZero movie to "Cold Comfort".
I think it was more the fact that broadcast standards were a bit less strict at Kids WB, so they were pushing things to see how far they could get. The “sexy henchgirls” for Mr Freeze were a reference to Batman and Robin - keep in mind that the film hadn’t come out while the show was in production, so they didn’t know that it was a going to bomb
@@SerumLake
My stubborn headcanon is that most of the villains get their henchmen from bitter ex-workers in Gotham's adult entertainment industry.
It's prolly not a good headcanon (lol) but what other pool are you going to draw from to get people who are both angry at society and also willing to wear ridiculous costumes aligned with the villains' aesthetic?
This is why I don't think American and Japanese cartoons should be shown to children. Pahlavanan and Shekaristan are what I will show to my children.
I think the hot henchwomen is a carryover from the Adam West BATMAN, where that was the norm.
Great video as always! I find this episodes one of the darkest in the series, tackling some really heavy themes. But it also helps that the animation is gorgeous, the shot of Calendar Girl staring at the mirror is one of the most striking images in the show for me, and an absolutely perfect encapsulation of her entire persona and motivations.
Glad you enjoyed it, and I agree with your assessment of the video. The only low point for me is the random fight with the animatronic dinosaur, but I guess they needed some legitimate peril 🤷♂️
@@SerumLakeAnd an explanation for how the DCAU Batman got it... although the tie-in comics make this fact more muddy.
I suppose they never explicitly say that Batman took that dinosaur and put it in his cave, we just assume that’s how he ended up with one during the Batman Beyond era. The comic book version could still be correct 🤷♂️
I kind of wonder what a team up between calendar girl & baby doll would be like. Would calendar girl be jealous of baby because her signs of aging are far less noticeable ( at least to her)
I'm surprised you didn't mention the talented Sela Ward. Iirc, she used this role to exorcise her demons about not being marketable after a certain age despite still being youthful and charming even to this day.
The part about Manikin reminds me, oddly enough, of an episode of Spider-Man: The Animated Series: Season 4's "The Haunting of Mary Jane Watson".
_Miranda_ Wilson was the lead actress in the same movie Quentin "Mysterio" Beck was doing special effects for, and was severely injured by the illegal mortar he used to amp up explosions in a bridge scene. Thrown off the bridge into the water, she washed ashore safely but hid so people wouldn't see the disfigurement the explosion caused. Her condition worsening due to lack of medical care, she was found by Beck, now well into his supervillain career (begun to gain revenge on Spidey for catching him and exposing his role in the disaster). Beck took Miranda to his lair under the movie studio, where he provided her with life support devices and various other computers and machines which he financed with money from his crimes. When the studio announced they were going to finish/remake the film and cast Mary Jane in Miranda's role, Miranda hatched a plan to steal Mary Jane's body, youth and beauty. She researched Mary Jane's personal history, then used Beck's tech to create a ghostly image of MJ's father to lure her into a trap. Spider-Man, with Mysterio's help (!), raced to the rescue--only for the body-swapping gizmo to be revealed as fake. What Miranda wanted was beyond Beck's abilities, but he went ahead and gave her the illusion of a body-swap device because the hope the plan instilled in her helped keep her alive--and because he'd fallen in love with her. Angered, saddened, and stunned by all this, Miranda triggered a self-destruct device which brought the complex down on herself and Beck, while Spidey and MJ escaped. 😊
She's beautiful!
"She can't see that anymore. All she sees are the flaws" -Batman
Haunts me.
"Not JUST a horndog." Haha, love it.
This ending hit hard. I was a model in my late teens and early 20s, but this was in the early aughts when Kate Moss was the It Girl and everyone wanted models who were rail thin. So my agency told me that I had to "lose the beer gut", or else they would no longer represent me.
....I weighed 104 when they said this.
Photographers, designers, and other fashion industry types would openly talk about me like a piece of meat. They would casually mention my big nose, thick waist, and short stature, annoyed that they'd have to edit those flaws out but they still wanted me cuz I was Czech and apparently Czech models were trendy at the time. My stomach and upper thighs were always photoshopped out of every photo spread I was in. Every, single, one.
Now I'm 40, and I have never felt uglier. My fiance says I'm the most beautiful woman he's ever seen, but I just can't see it. My belly has only gotten bigger, my skin is showing signs of age, and I just can't see myself as pretty.
Thanks for sharing your experiences. It probably doesn’t mean anything coming from a stranger, but waist size doesn’t determine value as a human being. I’m sure it’s not easy to overcome the way you were conditioned to think, but hopefully the closing moments of this episode may provide you with some comfort.
I think you're beautiful 😊😊😊😊😊❤❤❤
I remembered i first watched as an adult BTAS fully and as a grown woman who her 20s were getting away...the episode hit hard.
But that is a load of crap. No woman is old and wasted away in their 30s or 40s. Even some in their 50s.
I am in my 20s and I made out with a 40 year old woman in the parking lot at my job. Society has these expectations of what beauty for a woman is and it affects a woman’s self worth and self esteem. You getting out of your 20s doesn’t make you old.
@@francostevo9939yes and no. The women chasing the VIPs and 400 option guys do lose power over them when that age hits. At that age there are younger and prettier. Some do lose a lot of beauty some don't. Just harsh truth.
@@fabiourbano6404 that’s a load of crap. No woman is less attractive at 30s and 40s. I didn’t know that girls were sensitive about their age until my junior year in college. I have preferred older women since I was a teenager and I have recently developed an ulterior motive to dating older women. I wish to date them not only due to my attraction but to also give them a self confidence booster. A younger man like myself having an attraction to them and dating them will show them that they are desirable and know that they are attractive. As far as I see it: 2 birds 1 stone.
@@francostevo9939 you are not understanding the point. The point is for marriage not "fun".
@@fabiourbano6404 what are you talking about?
The way she used accessories and fireworks as weapons was awesome.
I can Empathise with Her.
If She was a Real Person, I would Comfort her, Reinsure her, and Treat Her like a Human Being.
Despite me being Younger than Her. [Currently 20YO]
Although it isn't as front and center as the episode's criticism of the fashion industry, I feel like the episode also did a great job of examining the evils of the plastic surgery industry. Throughout the episode we are continuously told that Paige had multiple plastic surgery procedures done. Based on how afraid she is of showing her face and the comments from people who knew her i.e. "they tugged where they should have nipped," we think that when her mask finally does come off we'll see something warped and unnatural. But that's not the case at all, she's just as beautiful as she ever was. Sadly, it doesn't matter because that isn't what Paige sees. While it's never outright stated I think it's pretty clear Paige has some form of body dysmorphia which is very common among people who have had plastic surgery. The industry feeds off of people like Paige, saying they can fix their "flaws" while simultaneously dwindling their confidence and pointing out new "flaws" with each visit. It's a vicious cycle where the patient is rarely ever truly happy with how they look until the point where they do look artificial and plastic.
How good does a Btas villain need to be to come about, in the BSA era for a single episode, and *still* leave an impression on the audience for its commentary on the medium?
I know, right? Batman villains tend to hit harder (emotionally speaking) than the other shows’ villains
What about Toyman from STAS or Vandel Savage in the hereafter episode from JL?
@@zemox2534 they’re good too. Not better than the best BTAS villains though.
@@zemox2534 Also good/ impactful, but the significance of Calendar Girl is she’s makes an impression even within the Batman Rogues Gallery.
@SerumLake I personally find it rather annoying that people put the bat rogues on such a high pedestal but overlook and dismiss the other dc rogues. This is mostly dc fault for overexposing the bat rogues and putting them in everything (especially if the rogues are Joker and Quinn). I like the Batman villains, but I feel that the other dc villains are justvas great and deserve more opposition to be flesh out more and not treated like bloody jobbers!.
Hecking love this character, so mysterious.
It's inspired me on what if we re-build some characters, like, The Riddler.
Make him in all black, with cape and hood, and add this white mask with big bloody red or light-green bloody mark on whole face...
I don’t know about that but I did thought of Scarecrow looking like the Killer in Nightbreed and Ezekiel Rage from Jonny Quest
I do like the rebuilding on old characters like Riddler for example.
Here's how I would rewrite Riddler:
Have him be an aspiring poet writer that implements riddles in his wirting. And make him want the fame and acknowledgement on his work which he slaved to get.
He tries approaching many companies to get his riddle poem book to be published and after a long time it does, he briefly gets the fame and acknowledgement until a cliche young adult novel gets published and takes his book's place. This extremely infuriates the Riddler but he tries to one up the book but it becomes a cycle that no matter what future riddle book he publishes, some other book/novel one ups his work.
This causes the book publishers to cut the deal with the Riddler, essentially firing him. As his work just isn't popular enough.
Which is what causes him to snap and become the Riddler, who wants the world to acknowledge that his work is worth something to the public.
This show didn’t pull any punches with their villains. Baby doll is one of the little known best. An evil little girl is a common trope, but her character is just so sad and pitiful and actually makes sense to exist in reality
On the question of if it was a cathartic experience for the crew of Batman to work on it, given the fact that she was voiced by Sela Ward who was drawing attention to the issue of the entertainment industry’s obsession with youth and the damage it was causing at the same time I would say it probably wasn’t only cathartic but they knew it was cathartic.
So yeah this was a head of its time with the whole Metoo stuff especially with that crooked agent which Batman should have kicked his ass.
Well Calendarman would have been the top 10 villains that should have appeared in the animated series and I never heard of the Mannequin before which she is very similar to the Wonder Woman villain Dr Cyber and the Ironman Madame Masque aka Whitney Frost
At the end there on peoples worth I was thinking about another Wonder Woman villain called the Silver Swan as there are 3 of them I was going for the first one Helen Alexandros a 🩰 with a Homely appearance who get empowered by Aries as his Roman name Mars as I would have made a member of my version of the Injustice league along with the Golden Glider as the female members of the team as I think they would be like sisters as I think they would definitely both hate Wonder Woman because she got everything handed to her and never struggled like they did.
I always thought of Mean Season as somewhat a hidden gem in Batman TAS, and Calendar Girl was an excellent one-off villain who managed to play perfectly her role within such short screen-time. The final scene where she has a breakdown when unmasked despite still looking gorgeous caught me off-guard the first time I watched the episode as a kid (I expected her to actually be disfigured), but in fact it was the whole point of the story and what made ithe episode really stick the landing.
Such a great review! Calendar Girl is one of the most realist and sympathetic Batman villains (as is the Manikin).
I honestly really resonate with this video and the character.I was bullied in middle school because I was considered "ugly" and of course this affected my self esteem.I slowly learned to love myself, until I got pregnant and gained some weight.I was fairly athletic in my 20's but after a pregnancy and almost in my 30's, I can say that I'm not so fit anymore.It might have not been a problem, but constantly having family and acquaintances telling you that "you got fat" is really not easy to deal with.And that is the problem with our society:you probably love your body, you MAY want to love your flawed body, but there are constantly people that want to see you down, either intentional or unintentional.And not only that, but most of these people think that what they are doing is good, because "by telling you, they are doing you a favor and so you should start losing weight".Honestly, as long as people didn't bother me personally, I never cared how they look, so why can't they do the same?
Great video! I was just thinking about what an excellent B-tier villain Calendar Girl was, and while her story was well executed I would have loved to see her pop up again in the future. There are plenty of “corrupt media” stories to tell, and having the character refashion herself into a kind of antihero crusader would have been fun.
Seeing Calendar Girl break down, and beg not to be looked at, was a bit sad.
Greedy people discarding someone they've worked with like trash once they've gotten their money's worth, that is an ironic message from a Batman show considering what Bob Kane did to Bill Finger.
I'm a former model and ballet dancer, and this analysis was very thoughtful. Thank you. I didn't expect to be so moved by an algorithm-selected video essay on an obscure Batman character! 😢😊
I wish he had talked more about how the show explored age not just in the model and similar industries, but there are scenes where Bruce was at work and was also thinking about his own ageing, even checking his hair for grey in the car, and changing the mandatory limit of retirement at 60 at his company. I thought it was really nice how the show worked the idea of aging in general not just to models and how harsh that is, but also in office jobs. I also thought it was funny and interesting that the man who was being made to retire, when he found out he could keep working if he wanted he ripped off his wig in celebration, it was interesting he felt the need to appear younger so he could possibly keep his job just like calander girl was seeking youth
Calendar Girl was one of my favorite villains who appeared in one episode. She had a great theme representing different festive days of the year. They should bring her to the comics.
She was my favorite am still watching the series am sad she only shows in one
No lies, this episode stuck with me longer than any other Batman episode. CG's rage and desperation for approval all swirl together into a very relatable concept. I'd have loved to see her return one more time, but at least her episode was good.
fun fact each weekday comes from norse gods
in sweden it goes tors dag it literally translates to thors day
and Wednesday is onsdag meaning oden
every day is based on norse gods even christmas comes from norse mythology thats why everyone says yuletide it just means jule tid which means Christmas time it's impressive how much comes from norse mythology
7:44 I agree with this as an adult, but I’m not going to lie, as a kid I always preferred the episodes when Batman has a sidekick over him solo. Probably was in the best interest as a kids show to include Robin and Batgirl as much as possible.
Her appearance definitely had an impact on me.
In a good way, I hope!
@@SerumLake Oh yes, a very good way. I thought she was very creative with how she kept changing her costume with a different holiday theme. And I felt the twist at the end where it was revealed that all of her "disfigurement's" where in her mind.
Her stilled mask is also a gem.
I deal with really terrible body image issues so this episode hit really hard
As much as I hate these villains in The Batman series I can identify with them! Sometimes I especially identify with baby doll but calendar girl!? Well all I know for certain is that beauty isn't everything! And I kept saying to my father that money isn't everything either because well? About what happened at Disney world the people who work there are getting really greedy and I don't like it a bit! I really wanted to go to Disney world again and go everywhere there just like I did with my elder sister and my brother-in-law back in the year 2014! But it wasn't until now that I'm disappointed that I can't go to Disney world because it's extremely expensive and also I can only go to one land in Disney world once during my vacation which is why I really want the people who work there to redeem themselves! And one thing is for sure I can never ever ever give up hope! My father told me something about that though he told me that sometimes hope can be deceiving! But that's the one thing I like about the Green lantern it's the blue lantern that gave me confidence from DC superheroes because the Blue lantern power ring represents hope! Blue is my favorite color but there was another reason why I like it it's because it has the power of Hope and that's the one thing I don't want to give up! And I've learned something about that hope is like laughter they are very similar which is why I really need to stay positive if I'm ever going to believe in anything that might happen one day! But the one thing that bothers me is that there'll be no more Rocky and Bullwinkle nor even robot Jones nor even My Life as a teenage robot those cartoon characters that really helped me! Those cartoons were very dear to me sometimes I just wish they would be more like there will be more Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons only if they're not stupid or disturbing if you know what I mean like the ones from Prime!? And ever since June Foray died things were really different for me and Gilbert Gottfried is no more also I lost my mother ever since I lost the celebrities and my loved one everything has changed in me! But I am still hoping for the better that perhaps and only perhaps that there might be a new Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon that is so wonderful that it would bring tears of joy to everybody and who knows!? There might be a story about Rocky the flying Squirrel when he was about to find his family creatures of his own kind somewhere far away from frostbite falls perhaps! I may not have the rights to the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons but that's why I wanted to make my own comic strips in my own sketchbooks for everyone to see and for everyone to understand how I felt about them so very much!😢
obviously, the ending is what makes this episode. up until the last minute, we have no idea what she looks like, and one character in the episode who speculates about it, assumes she's been disfigured by plastic surgery. so we are lead to believe that's the case, or something like that has happened, only to find out it's all in her head and she's in fact a beautiful woman. so it suddenly becomes a psychological episode. it's a 20 minute-build up to that "face reveal" and to Batman's words.
This episode is a core memory of mine, thank you for covering it!
Tuesdays is Mar’s Day if you listen to how the Latin speakers like French, Italian and Spanish say the days of the week you’ll you’ll understand
Society needs to change. We need to stop telling people what is or isn’t beautiful.
Funny they gave one of the executive's she kidnaps the last name Day. Like Julien Day, the Calender Man.
I wish we had seen more of her, she’s way more interesting than Calendar Man and she has himbo minions!
Her villain origin is every BBL girl story
Now please do a video on calander woman's polar opposite in the show roxie rocket
She’s on the list!
I feel like so many have to face this exact issue, not the part about being used up from age, but even the youth having to worry about there looks constantly. It's sad when people view themselves as ugly or monsterous just because somebody else said it.
Thanks for doing this one, man!
I never knew about the Mannequin! If I were in charge of new Batman movies, I'd TOTALLY include her!
PS: Fun fact, Donna Day of Donna Day Fashions was voiced by 'Tippi' Hedren, the star of _The Birds_
Another cartoon based on reality! Geez we get more reality from cartoons than we do with reality Tv shows.
I remember watching brave and the bold and wondering where was calendar man in the 90s series did some research and turns out they spun him into this chick
I don't know, I could kinda see Calendar Girl as a hired sidekick to Calendar Man(or a different woman, either a sister, niece, or a daughter of his taking on his mantle)
The saddest truth of this, this has always been an ongoing outcome.
Such shame she just appeared in dcau, wish we know her fate in justice league
She was seen in Batman The Adventures Continue, a recent tie-in comic, still wearing her mask, in one of the cells. This implies that she did not recover 😞
This is why I abhor influencers: appearances made such massive fussed over make pathetic narcissists of everyone.
Modern Calendar Man sure is a marked improvement over his campy past self. Hell, would even want the Arkhamverse iteration to reappear, alongside Victor Zsasz, in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's Metropolis so to have the long belated chance in "pacifying" them permanently.
7:14: Pray the Huntress offed him in the interim. Spare the courts, get the gun (err, crossbow, in her case).
7:19: Cue Batman Beyond, which at most subverted the flaws shown by this deliberate act of "all that is young and glitters is NOT gold".
By the way, shame you didn't mention the fact that CG's voice actress, Sela Ward, was supposed to be a Bond girl for the otherwise excellent GoldenEye, except she was turned down for being, yep, "too old". During the time the episode got produced and released, she was leading a protest campaign against the very Hollywoodian notion all around, but I'm not sure how things went three decades on as of this comment's writing.
Sidenote: Am glad the Commissioner Gordon of the DCAU doesn't appear to be in a relationship with one Sarah Essen. Not that she's a bad character, mind you, but it's just that, personally, am not a fan of that angle of Gordon in iterations like the Millerverse, as much as Batman x Batgirl hurts the DCAU.
What is the problem with Gordon being happy? DCAU is vastly different from Miller comics, so I see no reason why the creators could not play with the idea of Jim getting a girlfriend at least for one story.
Also modern Calender man is boring. He is a rip off of Lecter, spends half the time stuck in his prison cell and his visual appearance is bland! At least the original incarnation had more charm and was more memorable.
Batman Beyond actually proved that a "young" Batman can work if written well. The fact that Bruce was his mentor and still treated with respect certainly helps
@@zemox2534Well, I can only say one thing: am not fond of James Gordon being an adulterer against his otherwise faithful wife. With that in mind, I really hope said wife actually died naturally or on an unfortunate accident/assassination attempt, not removed via divorce.
But then, to each our own on how we definitively feel about the fictional characters we know and love.
Body dismorphia is handled fairly well in a few Batman media releases. This character and Two-Face in The Dark Knight Returns are some of the best examples.
I remeber seeing that episode during my childhood and remember when they took her mask and she freaked out I was like: "Huh?"
It’s hard to see how she was a villain especially her face at the end of the episode where Batman explained how she saw the flaws with her reflection in the glass just in genuine pain
This is one of my favorites episodes
It’s one of the better TNBA episodes, for sure!
Would love to see her and Harley in a cell together working on her body dysmorphia.
no mention of robo dinosaurs... too bad
It can be said that Batman is the most logical character and closest to reality
free Palestinian
4:21 we could use her in live action, Beware the Batman seasons 2-3
6:19 I love how there's somehow enough space between the hood and the engine for a folded-up adult man.
Thanks!
You’re welcome! Hope you enjoyed the video
7:18 Harvey Weinstein in a Nutshell:
i will marry calendar girl as my wife
I adore this rendition of the evil calender
its true a lot of times I feel like that to so thank you bat time for making miss Page Monroe.
The tragic part about most of Batman’s villains is that they aren’t all evil, they are just like us, but are broken on the inside and can never be fixed. It’s lucky that Batman sees past their flaws and focuses on whatever humanity they have left and shows them compassion when they weren’t shown any at all
It’s funny how the victims are right in front of you the whole time. People like Roland Dagget, Rupert Thorne, Ferris Boyle and these executives only care about money and power and don’t care about people like Paige or Victor Fries or Harvey who they use or step on or hurt or discriminate against . It’s funny how the “victims” turn out to be the villains
The sad part is that Calender Girl's situation is still relevant in the age of influencers.
If Baby Doll and Calendar Girl ever teamed up, Baby would have some words about her.
I had B312 as a kid, my first ever Batman comic. Of course, I was a little kid so I thought I was seeing Batman getting his butt kicked by a series of bad guys and only catching this one guy in the lousy red-and-white costume at a trainyard at the end.
It really is sad and disgusting that there is a “magic number” in the industry where they consider a woman is no longer beautiful once they hit it. And even though she wanted to get revenge on the people who ruined her modeling career, Calendar Girl still highly valued their opinion and appreciation at the end of the day. Even with her gorgeous face, her age made her think she is a shriveled up old woman with an unwanted face
Amusing coming from an industry that,let's face it,do you really want to see actors and actresses who once did love scenes still doing that sort of stuff when they're in their 70's?.Look at Diane Keaton,she should be a director now or an acting coach for a new generation of actresses.Like Ann Coulter once pointed out how when they're young they all go on about the artistic value of nude scenes in movies.Then,once they get older and work dries up we're supposed to feel sorry for them.Live by the b*****,die by the b*****.I get the message of the episode though.
I don't understand how the calendar aspect connects to her previous life as a model. But all in all, she's a wonderful villain.
CG would leave calendar pages where the dates she got fired were circled.
She got fired in certain dates. Some happened to be holidays.
They were dates she got fired, but other than that I think she was trying to piggyback off of another villain due to her nonexistent confidence
@@aerodynamiccow3597Well, a "Calendar Girl" can also be another word for a pinup model. Maybe that's the idea behind it?
Paige was beautiful, and still is, but her soul was consumed by studios, executives and beauty.
At least the Chippendales Henchmen are loyal. At least they come off as that from what I remember. Maybe they were in a similar boat as Calendar Girl? Who can say?
You could even say the same with Baby-Doll's henchpeople, who actually STAYED when the murder-suicide dynamite was readied alongside her former co-stars.
I suspect that she has worked with them as a model. Or maybe they were fans of hers?
@@SerumLake4:54 - she did work with at least two of them, if this screenshot is anything to go by.
Good eye!
While watching this, it just occurred to me that Page being under the delusion that she's disfigured while in reality there's nothing wrong with it might have been inspired by a similar scene in the Dark Knight Returns, when Two-Face is revealed to have a completely clean and unscarred face, but he's under the delusion that his face is now completely scarred.
0:43 gangle after her comedy mask was broken by Jax for the 55th time
Calendar Girl just needed a Long John Silver (Treasure Planet) in her life.
The blonde himbo looks like Kobra from Mortal kombat decption.