''Batkid Begins'' is a 2015 American

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

co-produced (with Liza Meak), co-written (with

Kurt Kuenne Kurt Kuenne (born October 24, 1973) is an American filmmaker and composer. He has directed a number of short and feature films, including ''Rent-a-Person'', the YouTube film ''Validation'', described as "a romantic epic in miniature", and the do ...

) and directed by

Dana Nachman Dana Nachman is an independent documentary filmmaker based in Northern California. She has written, directed, and produced six feature documentaries including the 2020 film Dear Santa and the 2018 Pick of the Litter and ''Witch Hunt'', ''The Human E ...

. The documentary follows Miles Scott, an American child and cancer survivor. His wish was to be " Batkid", a sidekick of the eponymous

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

superhero

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

. Once the request went out, thousands of volunteers, city officials, businesses and supporters rallied to turn

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

into "

Gotham City Gotham City ( ), or simply Gotham, is a fictional city in the Northeastern United States that serves as the primary city appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. It is best known as the home of the superhero Batman and his List ...

" – the fictional home city of Batman, on November 15, 2013, for one of the largest and most elaborate Make-A-Wish projects ever staged. The film was released by

Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film studio and distribution arm of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group division of Warner Bros., both of which are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex ...

on June 26, 2015. It featured footage shot live by John Crane Films on Batkid Day. John Crane also served as executive producer for the film.

Cast

* Miles Scott as Batkid / Himself * Eric Johnston as

* Philip Watt as

Riddler The Riddler (Edward Nigma, later Edward Nygma or Edward Nashton) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang, and debuted in ''Detective Comics'' #140 in O ...

* Mike Jutan as

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

* Sue Graham Johnston as Damsel in Distress * Joel Zimei as Lou Seal * Or Oppenheimer as

Catwoman Catwoman is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, she debuted as "the Cat" in ''Batman (comic book), Batman'' #1 (spring 1940). She has become one of the superhero Batman' ...

* Ron Oppenheimer as

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

* Nick Scott as himself * Natalie Scott as herself * Ryan Scott as himself *

Ed Lee Edwin Mah Lee (May 5, 1952 – December 12, 2017) was an American politician and attorney who served as the 43rd Mayor of San Francisco from 2011 until his death in 2017. Born in Seattle to Chinese American parents, Lee was a member of the D ...

as Mayor of San Francisco * Greg Suhr as Chief of Police * Naomi Kyle as herself * Patricia Wilson as Executive Director * Chris Taylor as Deputy Editor *

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, five Grammy Awards, and has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards and a Tony ...

as himself * Ama Daetz as Newscaster

Release

The film premiered at the

Slamdance Film Festival The Slamdance Film Festival is an annual film festival focused on emerging artists. The annual week-long festival is held in Los Angeles in late February and is the main event organized by the year-round Slamdance organization. The organization ...

on January 24, 2015. On March 12, 2015,

New Line Cinema New Line Productions, Inc., Trade name, doing business as New Line Cinema, is an American film production, film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, a division of the Major film studios, ...

acquired the film, with its parent

distributing. The film was released by Warner Bros. Pictures on June 26, 2015.

Reception

''Batkid Begins'' received positive reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has a rating of 82%, based on 60 reviews, with a rating of 7.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Sweet and unabashedly sentimental, ''Batkid Begins'' is an uplifting look at a selfless act that brought a city together." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a score of 63 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

References

External links

* 2015 films 2015 documentary films American documentary films New Line Cinema films Documentary films about children with disabilities Documentary films about cancer Documentary films about San Francisco Documentary films about fandom Batman in other media Films shot in San Francisco Warner Bros. films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language documentary films {{arts-documentary-film-stub