It has taken almost a decade for Warner Bros. to finally release a deluxe edition of Tim Burton's first mega-successful blockbuster Batman flick, so now that it's here, how does it stack up? Could it possible live up to expectations? The answer is a resounding and joyous "Yes!" This two-disc special edition release is just what any film geek ordered -- the transfer is stunning and the bonus materials deliver hours of drool-inducing material. Despite all its bells and whistles, though, at the heart of this release lies the 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. It's a crying shame that the folks at WB didn't update the presentation of this film sooner. The previous edition is an utter failure by today's standards and, needless to say, the digital picture remastering and combination of 5.1 Dolby and DTS tracks make for a truly new experience for the viewer. The movie disc comes complete with a Tim Burton commentary that finds the filmmaker scatterbrained as ever, but it's a solid and insightful commentary nonetheless. The real goodies come in the form of the documentaries and featurettes, adding up to over two hours of material dedicated to the various departments of this colossal production. Possibly the most interesting tales are those that present the film's decade-long road to production, spearheaded by a professor who happened to be the first to teach a comic book course at a university (just one of the little-known facts that abound on the bonus disc). Also included is a 40-minute special on the Batman mythos in the comic books that features interviews with past and current creators including Frank Miller and Alex Ross. Packed into the rest of the edition are three music videos from Prince, some smaller featurettes on each main character and character creator Bob Kane, and a surprising storyboard scene that features an early appearance by Robin that was cut (made even cooler by the vocal stylings of Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy doing the voices of the Joker and Batman, respectively). It's a bit of a disappointment that the discs don't include the heavily rumored deleted scenes, but you can bet that they're being saved for some kind of "Ultimate Edition" down the road. For now, you can't get any better than this release, compounded by the similar treatments done to all three later Batman films and, of course, Batman Begins, which was obviously the marketing strategy for waiting so long to finally unleash these stellar editions onto the scene.