I love how the end recontextualizes when she was telling the model that she was another tragic victim. She already sees every person in that line of work as a tragic victim and she only sees flaws in the appearance
I like to think that she actually sympathized with the model a little, knowing exactly what she was going to go through just to make it in the industry and that line she said to her, almost makes it sound she's trying to warn her to get out before the industry spits her out.
“All she sees are the flaws.” And yet her face is flawless. She’s fed so much into her own negativity that she even sees flaws that aren’t there to the naked eye. Calendar Girl is such an underrated villain. She’s such a dark message on how far down the modeling industry can drag someone. Not to mention how much she does with the whole calendar motif.
as someone who left the modeling scene she screams to me. you get tricked into seeing flaws that no one else can see. she is a victim of that, i think. eaten by modern beauty culture. old batman has a lot of criticisms of our society with its villains
I totally agree with everything you stated. It's a sick and twisted industry that destroys young women natural beauty to being something of a desire eye candy for the eyes of it objectors.
For a villain that centers around beauty, I first thought Calendar Girl’s costume was a little too plain, even with the accessories and changing colors. However, I think that might’ve been on purpose because what started drawing me in was her overall charm in her character. She’s quite witty with her play on words and seasonal gimmick. She had a touch of sass befitting any sort of classic “villainess.” It makes me wish I could see more of her!
I think it sort of plays off of one thing I have noticed from watching Modeling videos. A lot of them say to wear plainet clothes if you go in for an audition so it doesn't distract from your face and walk. I think Calender Girl is sort of playing off that here. She wants the mask to be the central focus of her costume, her lack of a face.
@@DeadManWalking-ym1ooif it was for budget they wouldn't have gone so hard on the scarecrow redesign. Sometimes a simple/more plain design works better.
I really love that throughout the entire time, we think her face was deformed in some way. That is until we see her face and realize she didn't have anything happen to it. She was manipulated and destroyed by societal's pressures of 'beauty' into believing she wasn't beautiful. Batman villains were always so tragic to me. It's a shame that modern versions of Batman don't show this side of Batman anymore. I miss when he was compassionate, loving, and related to his villains. I miss Kevin Conroy, may he rest in peace. It will never be the same without him.
I know. I was surprised when the mask came off, actually saying "She's gorgeous" (or something along those lines, I was a kid and it was two decades ago).
Yes this is the episode i most remember as a kid. I always thought she was a monster or her face was desfigured in some horrible way and then they take of her mask she was so beautiful. I rember even watching that episode with my dad and when i ask him he say he was suffering from mental health. Now as an adult i understand it.
Twilight Zone; Eye of the beholder. Though it doesn't very much reference it. As much as it takes it for a spin around the same block. Shes beautiful by everyone's standards, in the TZ episode, shes considered disfigured by society due to a different beauty standard.
Man, I had forgotten how dark/sad this show was at times. Calendar Girl is a beautiful woman, but like Batman says, "she only sees flaws" in her appearance.
i can already imagine the people she kidnaped picking on every miniscule or imaginary flaw in her looks. again and again and again next thing she knew she was neurotic and one accident, scandal or even just momentary mental break and she was hitting the bricks. in already poor state of mind spiraled.
@@ricardooquendo3843 That's interesting 😎That encounter that damaged his face must have had psychological effects on him if he only sees his face burned after it's been fixed.
“Yes, I was gorgeous once. I had everything. I used to be a face. I used to be _the_ face. Until you destroyed me. Destroyed my career. I tried to get it back. For 10 years I starved, sweated... subjected my body to surgery after surgery, and for what? Days became weeks, weeks became years... until my time ran out. Now, I only have one holiday left to celebrate: The Day of the Dead. And you're going to celebrate it with me.” - Sela Ward as Calendar Girl.
There’s something about that line that’s especially dark to me because while it obviously implies that she was intending to kill the people who hurt her. It also kind of implies that once she ended their lives, she intended to end her own.
@@callmek186In the modelling industry, all it takes is a younger model with a fresher face to replace you. At best you get 3 years out of your modelling career before they move on to someone new, supermodels who make history are few and far between.
@@s4juno693 calendar man fuckin sucks. A lot of writers tried to elevate him to a better character. Hell they even gave him immortality at some point but he still sucks. The best he ever was is in the arkham games but thats because he's barely in it and they made him creepy.
Honestly body dysmorphia is fucking insane. You can be extremely attractive, have everyone tell you you are attractive, and even have moments of being able to "see it" but 99% of the time you just look at yourself in the mirror or a photo or even feel your body move a certain way and it fills you would dread. Calendar Girl valid af
@@reginaldforthright805hey buddy, not everyone can be as blessed as some of us who are delusional in THE GOOD way (believing we're always hot even when we're not).
"Strange isn't it? Dinosaurs have been dead for millions of years, yet they still get parts in movies? It hardly seems fair..." Her words cut deep when you think about her motives.
That "It hardly seems fair..." hit weirdly hard when I first heard it, the voice actress did such a good job, you can hear Calendar Girl's resignation and bitterness at an industry that chewed her up and spat her out, you can almost understand her turn to villainy. I still love hearing it. The twist at the end was always fantastic as well, someone so mentally anguished by their industry, they don't even see themselves as beautiful anymore.
Sela Ward, who voices Page adds a nice meta-reference to Calendar Girl here, she was lined up to be the bond girl for Golden eye, despite Pierce being 42 at the time and Sela younger at 39. The Casting Director said "What we really want is Sela, but Sela ten years ago." Which led Sela to do the documentary "The Changing Face of Beauty" which focused on how the obsession of youth in the media affects women. It's clear Sela really tapped into no doubt her own frustrations and experiences playing Page here, and its one of the things that makes the episode still hold up today. The way it explores how media eats up and destroys bodies, emotions, self-esteem in its pursuit in focusing on impossible standards of youth, beauty and of course making money.
Your comment made me curious, but I can't find the documentary you mentioned. I can find plenty of references to it, but not the documentary itself. Do you know anywhere it's available?
@SpudHead same here, its too hard to find now. Not even Amazon looks like it can sell a dvd copy. We are now at the times where even tv programs, like books, are finite and limited.
@@spudhead169 Afaird i don't mate, looks like its a hard thing to find these days. Best luck is someone uploads it to TH-cam via VHS taping or it gets released years later.
I've left a message on one of Sela's recent Facebook posts asking if she knows a way to get it. She's very popular though so it's probably going to get lost in all the other comments.
Sela Ward was then, and still very much is, a beautiful woman. She would have been great in Goldeneye. I don't even remember who the Bond Girl actually was in that movie.
I would imagine "Monroe" is referencing Marilyn Monroe and how society treated her. In the 90s we got better at being aware of it and thanks to social media, we've gotten better at HIDING it.
Calendar Girl is a fascinating character, but I have to think that in DC comics, Calendar Man would be *really* ticked off at her for stealing his thunder. I could see a series of issues titled "Red-Letter Days" where Batman and his allies try to rein in the chaos and limit the collateral damage while Calendar Girl and Calendar Man escalate a series of date and holiday based attempts to kill each other off.
@@questoakley6978 They did have something similar: The War of Jokes and Riddles, where Joker went after Riddler for, essentially, biting on his style. That's where the meme "Kite-Man. Hell, yeah." comes from.
That would be cool. Changing Calendar Man into a Seven style murderer in Arkham felt like what this show used to do to guys like Freeze or Clayface. It made them incredible characters worthy of facing Batman
@@rexlumontad5644 Heh. You're not wrong, especially since Day of the Dead *was* the last holiday she intended on "celebrating". Damn, now I want someone to dub "Awaken" over one of (t)he(i)r entrances.
I honestly felt sorry for her. She used to be a model until she was tossed aside and eventually began to lose sight of how beautiful she still was anymore, only the flaws.
I know it's really messed up. I mean we have actors and singers that are double calender girls age still working. It's not right what they done to her.
@@allysanchez5630 it sucks that society places a lot on one's outer appearance. I remember when this episode was brand new all my dad wanted to do was punch calender girls former manager in the face for what he and the industry done to her.
4:16-4:33 In the end, it goes to show how hard and cruel the world of show biz can be. Her former agent even said everything went south as soon as she turned 30. And to me, that’s still pretty young. The point is she is beautiful. Even if she’s the only one who can’t see that.
Presently, I'm a fashion student in college and I can definitely say the fashion and beauty industries are too harsh towards women once they turn 30. To me 30 is still young 40 is kind of old but to me people aren't really old until 50. When it comes to the fertility concept 25 to I wanna say 35 is pretty much when biological clock starts ticking. Having children is easier for women in their 20s or 30s but it gets harder the longer one takes. Women in their 40s and 50s can still have kids but it's still difficult even with modern medicine. My mother didn't meet my dad until her late 30s and my parents had a hard time trying to conceive a child. I wasn't born until my mom had already hit 41. People also need to be able afford medical treatment that extends the biological clock. Also having a child in one's 20s or 30s is considered the perfect time because younger parents generally have an easier time handling kids.
@@supersonicfan7514 could be just a therapy session in Arkham Asylum where they try to do a mock play to get back the normalcy they once had. And then perhaps they lose it or maybe they get some progress.
I could actually see it happening: A director is doing a "documentary" about former actors turned criminals and interviews the three. But then one of them finds out that rather than portraying them as human beings, it has all the intended sympathy of a carnival freak show, so the three go on the warpath. They get stopped, not simply by Batman, but a group of the trio's fans who are just as upset as they are, but don't want to see their former heroes turn into monsters. You could even have the ending have a producer approach the trio afterwards and asks if they'd be interested in working on a new project together, where they play a team of crime fighters or secret agents. Clayface as the master of disguise who can go anywhere and be anyone, Calendar Girl as the sultry seductress who can pry secrets from anyone, and Baby Doll playing the role of a youthful tech genius, it certainly has a lot of potential. After all, if the trio have recognizable names and a dedicated fanbase, it could absoltely become a sleeper hit with a good team of writers.
This show produced so many scholarly lines. Like when Penguin said “society is to blame”. We create monsters by holding people to our standards and not giving people chances
Also, the Arkham games weren't around back when B:TAS was still running. Just a guess, though it is possible they couldn't get the legal rights to use the Calendar Man character.
@@alfredhinton8792 Credit where its due, if you're gonna do gender bent villaineses, this is really good. This is leaps and bounds ahead of my forever bad example, Lady Stiltman
A professor of mine who used to be in the Wall Street business, (dude's a monk now) told me about how a lot of these gorgeous starlets are pretty much insulted and psychologically abused behind closed doors by the people holding their strings. A lot of them come to believe that they're not pretty enough and they're not good enough, and they go to great lengths to maintain whatever beauty they might have, doing expensive things like plastic surgery and expensive make-up to hide their age. It kind of reminds me of what Calendar Girl said to that other girl-"Honey, you're never too thin and you're never too young." The media machine pretty much squeezes the youth out of many capable young women and leaves out what's left of them on the sidewalk like banana peels. It reminds me of what one Renaissance duke said about how kings use soldiers: "Kings use men like oranges, first they squeeze the juice and then throw away the peel." -Fernando Alvarez De Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba Replace the word "kings" with "Hollywood" and you get the same situation that many young women face in there.
An actor I knew one time once told me that Hollywood was a nest of vipers. Doesn't seem too far from the truth, sadly. People just want to make movies and make people happy, I don't know why the whole industry is filled with such evil, soulless people.
That's the main problem in Hollywood right now. Instead of appreciating the talented pool of actors and singers that are out right now, finding and marketing the "next big thing" is what's in vogue. They will chew people up and spit them back out once they fail to make a profit for a company. The glamorous image that is put out has to be constantly maintained, whether or not health issues and real life intervene. The stress that they subject performers to is unbelieveable.
As someone who grew up watching this show as a kid, I can definitely appreciate how nuanced it can be now that I’m an adult. Having seen just how common Page’s story has become, especially now in the Social Media Era, I can truly sympathize with her plight. I just thank every deity I know that standards of beauty are finally changing to become more inclusive than they used to be. It’s just a pity that Page didn’t get a chance to see it.
This is yet another underrated Batman villain. There already a Batman villain themed around calendars named "Calendar Man". He started out as a lame character when he was first introduced in the golden age of superhero comic books. They reimagined him into serial killer who commits murder on holidays and celebrates them in the most twisted way possible. DC comics obviously cared about the Calendar Man enough to bring him back to use him, albeit with an update only suitable for adults. Calendar Girl is suitable for kids. Why couldn't they bring her back as well?
Calendar Girl as a character sounds interesting as a niece of Calendar Man. Her insecurities can drive her to use tactics similar to Calendar Man since she would know him personally.
@@Tommy92gunner Well, this is the first time I ever heard of the Calendar Girl. I never seen this character before viewing the video. Honestly, you're right the more I think about it. However, what I want to know is why DC never used again. Do you know?
@@warrenbradford2597 What would she actually do? The character really has nowhere to go. Has no special abilities to make her a continuous threat. Sometimes one and done is a better for a character then coming back over and over.
Society likes to uses a person's looks until they don't have a use anymore. She might not have any scares, but Calendar Girl was humiliated and emotionally broken by her employers. Lots of models have this problem, like that pageant girl Calendar Girl threatened
@@VictorPerez-hg2ed People don't really get how mentally damaging the model industry can be. They put the models through hell to the idealized appearance. To quote Joker: You're only as good as they allow you to be"
@@nosfonader8792 can't argue with that logic my friend and here's a another from the clown prince of crime: do u know what separate the freaks from the normals just one rotten day to turn a normal person into a monster.
@@VictorPerez-hg2ed True, thing is it cannot be anything else. With that much money involved people learn to be vicious, law of the jungle and all that.
I saw this episode back in 1999 and didn’t understand why she made a big deal when the mask was off. When I was in college 2017, I was in French class and had to say our ages in French. The teacher said that it’s okay if you lie. I was confused when she said that. Two yrs later in statistics class, we were to use our ages to make a statistical equation and the professor said it was okay for the girls to lie about their age. I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence when two different professors said this. I eventually took “Sociology of ageism” class and saw this episode again for the first time since 1999 and brought it to my professor’s attention. I now knew why she made a big deal about her mask being removed; society’s definition of beauty corrupted her.
Pair that with, I suspect but can’t prove, depression and/or anxiety that went untreated, and it’s no wonder that, as Batman put it, “All she sees are the flaws.” She was definitely ahead of her time, because while her story is distressingly common, the rise of social media made us all more aware of it and unable to ignore it anymore. Which is why I’m relieved that a lot of modern standards of beauty are changing and becoming far less exclusive. …Or am I being too optimistic in that belief? I truly hope I’m not.
@@zacharyjoy8724 I would say that you are correct about social media bringing further to everyone’s attention but I don’t think it has been getting better for anyone because women’s self esteem about their age is widely common.
@@francostevo9939 Everyone has issues about their age. Nobody celebrates the 40 year old man living alone, the aging athlete nor the man who's lost a step. Youth often mock the older because from a biological standpoint they're reaching their prime while everyone older is past it.
"All she sees are the flaws" A good quote on perspective. Some see the glass half-empty. Some see it as half full. She's stuck in misery because she feed into her own negativity.
Into the negativity put into her by the industry. She didn't get that way on her own or by accident, she was made into this. Modeling and acting are CRUEL towards women especislly once they hit 30 and older. She was told so many times that she wasn't beautiful enough that it literally warped her ability to see reality to the point seeing her own face sends her into utter distress.
I'll always remember this episode. It's main villain is the same as a lot of other kids that I've known since high school. A.K.A. The beautiful people.
As someone who doesn’t conform to “typical” standards of handsomeness, I have to agree. Especially in middle school, when we’re all struggling with the madness of puberty. It took going to a new school-and eventually college-filled with other fun-loving nerds and geeks like me to get over it.
@@zacharyjoy8724 ikr it’s funny and half the people who thought they are better or lived off looks in school end up working for the guys or people they bullied
This is why I love batmans rogue, they all have some sort of mental health condition left unchecked which leads them to be villains. However in reality they are just people that needed help couldn't/didn't receive it and are acting out in ways that seems just, honest and fair for them.
God… i forgot how this show mixed actual things people feel like dysphoria/morphia and other mental issues that can occur and then you just have guys in stripper bowtie collars using guns and other sillier devices while shirtless. If i ever have kids i wanna find every last blasted episode in this just because its that good of a show.
I find it interesting her weapon of choice is mainly fireworks, something that is not only easily accessible but can disfigure victims. I guess the same can be said about surgery, both are something people glorify a lot yet has the power to horribly destroy if one step in the process goes wrong. After all her surgeries, which appear successful for the most part, her image of herself was so negative she thought she was as disfigured as a burn victim, and felt the need to make everyone else become one too.
Models are like fireworks too. The best looking fireworks take a lot of chemistry, powders, color tinctures, and can be very expensive and costly to produce. Yet they only shine and glow fabulously for a short time before they become grey ash and discarded for the next charge. And in the end all of it is toxic residue, the modelling industry is harsh, all it takes is someone younger and thinner and more attractive than you to be replaced.
@@cptboomerang6317 I actually saw a great PSA that really showed how it works. You see a girl in her underwear looking at herself in a mirror. She looks normal but she keeps pinching her belly and arms, clearly thinking she looks fat. Then the camera pans back and you see she is clearly anorexic just by seeing a bony arm and visible ribs. She is starving herself but still somehow thinks she is fat.
@@cptboomerang6317 in WAY over simplified terms, it's when you look at yourself (directly or in a mirror) and your brain rejects what it is seeing as "You". Think body horror. That's not your face. Not your skin. It doesn't fit right and you can't escape it. You're trapped in it. And your brain is pumping out distress chemicals because that's Incorrect(tm) and it wants you to FIX IT but you often CANT in any immediate way. But there are also lvls from "I don't like how I look" to "my reflection makes me literally want to be sick then harm myself" etc? It pops up a lot in the trans community for obvious reasons but can and DOES pop up pretty much everywhere? Especially with the big push for "you need to look like X to be accepted" you see in advertisements. Pretty sure I'm not explaining this the best but I hope it makes sense n was kinda useful?
This show changed how cartoons could be. It showed that cartoons could have adult or dark themes and still be entertaining. Then of course there was Kevin who literally changed the voice of the animated Batman forever
Batman Beyond took it further. Inque, Blight, Ian Peek, the Royal Flush Gang, Mr. Freeze, Payback, etc. All victims of circumstances that made them worse than they were before.
0:59 "She's just another tragic victim." Paige Monroe. Those words she said about that new female young model she let go were prophetic. She might come out bigger and badder than Paige Monroe when her career dries up.
Or worse, completely collapse into desperate insecurity, self-loathing, spinelessness, and possibly poverty. Sometimes when you throw someone to the ground and beat them, they can’t get back up, they just break.
I love how simple yet creative her design is, it's basically like a black canvas, change a few colours, add maybe a piece of jewellery or article of clothing and bam, done new season, all the while making far easier to animate, as the solid colours are easier to animate.
I love Batman cartoons because the show contextualised the characters. It shows why the villains are the way they are. Some struggled with mental issues, others with a tragic past. I felt that it does so brilliantly with characters like Baby Boll who struggled to feel loved and accepted. Calendar Girl is also a brilliant example, a woman who is plagued by self-esteem issues. Just a brilliant cartoon that is mature and full of layers like a good story should.
As someone in their 20's that is sick this really brings a tear to my eyes. At least she had her prime years, those of us at this age that have ilness feel like we are cut down at our prime and even if we do get better healthwise, it's still all downhill after 35. Aging rarely brings anything good from a physical point of view.😢
I really like Calendar Girl, the costumes and gadgets were creative, the way they incorporated the holidays into her theme was good as well. Shame they never used her in more DC projects.
It's too sad, on every account of how people are subjected to the 'ideals of beauty' that's already at such a high bar we destroy ourselves just to try and achieve it! I have only seen this episode after getting the DVD complete set, but can't help but be reminded of the many, MANY stories of what people go through because of this. In college, there's this poem called 'Barbie Doll' about a young woman who destroyed herself in life that she was only 'beautiful' in death. Another example was an episode of Bones, when they found the skull of a young woman who'd been murdered. She had so many plastic surgeries done that she COMPLETELY altered her face! When they finally ID'd her, she had been a survivor of a car wreck, but her picture was BEAUTIFUL and natural! It turned out she was murdered by yet ANOTHER woman who asked Booth if he saw her as 'beautiful', because she couldn't see it herself! Beauty is what you make of it, and you MUST learn to love yourself as yourself for others to appreciate your qualities as an individual! God bless!
I’m surprised that no one’s mentioned that her henchmen are her friends from when she was a model who stuck by her side even after she deemed “not beautiful”.
I give her credit for being committed to her name. Can you imagine how expensive it must be for her? Having multiple themed suits and weapons for each holiday of the year.
4:26 - 4:33: Thug life dialogue by Batman, supported by apt background score and a point for us to ponder about. Thanks to the creators for this episode.
What if Page, the Calendar Girl, is the long-lost daughter of Julian Day the original Calendar Man who is a serial killer, and she didn't even know him her whole life?
"All she sees are the flaws" Reminds me of someone I know...she used to call herself fat and to her that made her ugly; but she was the furthest thing from fat (trust me, I know what I'm talking about; I used to work at a Walmart). She had curves on her, yes, but she was healthy & easily the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life...she was even more beautiful when she became a mom. Haven't seen her in nearly two years but I really hope to see her again soon and that she finally got it through her head that she's far more beautiful than what magazines, television/movies, and society says.
Have you seen Jennifer Lawrence recently? She was hot as hell before she had her son. Now she's even hotter and has become a full on MILF. Those curves really filled out.
You know it’s funny, DCAU Batman learned redemption when he absolutely needed Harley Quinn and learned her motivation Here’s someone who was even more of a candidate for redemption but never got it
I think you have it backwards, DCAU Batman started out believing that redemption was possible for pretty much all of his enemies, but as the series went on he just got more and more jaded and disillusioned with the criminals he has to deal with on a regular basis getting more and more brutal as the years went on. by the time of Batman Beyond Bruce had completely given up on the idea that people can change for the better, his response to Mr. Freeze turning over a new leaf was to roll his eyes and count down the days before he became a supervillain again.
They should make an iteration where instead of one person, it’s a whole group. The Calendar Crew: Where each member wears a costume and have weapons based on the holiday they represent. That’d be interesting
Oh wow a clip from an old cartoon I liked featuring a niche villain with engaging comment session, hopefully it won't be tagged as "for kids" and proceed to be forgotten
Calendar Girl is far better than Calendar Man (the og as she’s a gender-swap version, and part of her character comes from Manikin) DC company should expand more on her. Unlike most of Batman’s foes, she’s motivated by vengeance and vanity. Don’t forget, she’s Batman’s most colorful enemy.
I like to think Gotham henchmen get paid more than ones in other cities because they have to put up with more of the "themed costume" nonsense instead of just wearing nondescript clothing you can carry some concealed weapon in, maybe some body armor on top. These poor guys are asking for pneumonia if they ever have to do a job in the winter. I suppose there's also a slightly higher rate of being randomly murdered by your employer too, but you kind of knew that was a factor before you took the job. Then again, my idea of a perfect Joker story involves him killing one of his henchmen at random and the rest of them beating him to death in retaliation. "You don't have any actual powers, you giggling idiot. It's not like you're an actual supervillain. There's six of us left and we didn't like what you did to Roy. We'll probably get a reward for this, honestly." And then just the sound of bones breaking and high-pitched Joker screams fading into a death rattle.
I thought the same thing too lol. My dad called them that when this episode was brand new. When I asked him what Chippendales was he said think about the beginning of that Pauly shore movie we have when he went to court.
@@rexlumontad5644 lol good one. Though I feel bad for the blonde guy since Bruce threw him at the car. Guy's probably paralyzed since the hood slammed down hard on him.
Batgirl: "She's beautiful!" Batman: "She can't see that anymore. All she sees are the flaws" I remember watching this episode when I was a kid. That ending made me realize cartoons aren't limited to silly slapstick humor, they can also tell more mature stories.
I love when they change a well known villain to a female when it feets,calendar girl is a good successor to the first male character i believe and very tricky as well! This new show is really good as i see preserving that dark tone from the classic series well done and happy new year to us all!
4:20 Dunno about you lads, but I feel real bad for Calendar Girl AKA Page Monroe (appropriate name), she's a really lovely woman, I saw this episode way back when I was a kid when it first aired and I still feel sad for her.
🎶 _"I love, I love, I love my calendar girl"_ _"Yeah, sweet calendar girl"_ _"I love, I love, I love my calendar girl"_ _"Each and every day of the year"_ 🎶 Couldn't resist.
Cacophobia - an intense fear of ugliness. People with this anxiety disorder may fear becoming ugly. Or they might have symptoms of panic and anxiety when they think about or see something ugly. Cacophobia is one of only a few phobias that are subjective instead of objective.
Body dysmorphia is insane- I literally cant stand looking at any reflective surfaces without my day being ruined- Ive been told I look good but i highly doubt we see the same person
0:55 "Honey! You're never too thin, and you're never too young." Paige Monroe. 1999 to 2023, I still remember those lines today. Tyra Banks. Kimora Lee Simmons Cindy Crawford. Naomi Campbell. Tyson Beckford. Antonio Sabato Jr. Elle Macpherson. Etcetera will agree with her..
This villain is like someone from the Twilight Zone. I’ve never seen this episode, so I thought that she had some kind of accident that disfigured her face. It’s one of the best reveals that I’ve seen in a long time. Still, it’s a little ironic for the show to make this point - when it draws almost all women with huge curves and tiny waists. And almost all the female villains are very seductive - whereas the male villains have very different personalities. However, to be fair, Batman and a lot of the men are unrealistically muscular.
BTAS did some incredible reimagining for villains and Calendar Girl is no exception. She is a little bit like Madame Masque from Iron Man, but the reveal at the end is just so powerful. That said the reveal does make her feel like she can only be a one off villain and the revamp of Calendar Man into a holiday themed serial killer just works better in the long run.
Gotta respect the grift that she deliberatly hired handsome goons and puts thought into her costume changes. I also like the fact she likes flirting with them.
Farrk. This reminds me of that horror movie when this girl goes on a murder spree all because she couldn't get a job and her friends and family said its because she was ugly but at the end she turned out to be a stunning girl😥
Even though Calendar Girl was only seen as “a pretty face”, she had some damn fine gadgets throughout this episode! The bombs, fireworks, bindings, and even controlling a robot Rex shows that she must be tech savvy in some capacity. It’s a shame that she didn’t get a chance to see her inner beauty
After this episode I was so glad that I never wanted to be a model. This is a very important lesson to teach everyone regardless of their gender. Everyone can relate to body issues. And the fact that they train people to look at their flaws and say it’s a bad thing, no one show think the job is worth it back then. So, I am glad or at least hope they change modeling agencies. Or at least train those who walk in to Love themselves. And tell them over and over. Because it hurts when you hear Page and how she tried everything that THEY a told her to do and it was never good enough now they created a vengeful woman who can see anything in herself but the flaws they pointed at her.
Smal detail: she paints her lips on her mask to match each out fit. The mask truly became her identity.
Oh, I didn't noticed!
That’s some eyes without a face levels of “the mask is your face” right there.
Where as Bruce is the mask while Batman is the true self
Well she's hot with or without that mask anyway!😘
That’s insane coordination
I love how the end recontextualizes when she was telling the model that she was another tragic victim. She already sees every person in that line of work as a tragic victim and she only sees flaws in the appearance
I like to think that she actually sympathized with the model a little, knowing exactly what she was going to go through just to make it in the industry and that line she said to her, almost makes it sound she's trying to warn her to get out before the industry spits her out.
@@silentwalker434 I can see that too
I think she was commenting on her own experience.
"I'm too young to die!"
"Honey, you're never too thin and you're never too young."
Briliant lmao.
“All she sees are the flaws.” And yet her face is flawless. She’s fed so much into her own negativity that she even sees flaws that aren’t there to the naked eye.
Calendar Girl is such an underrated villain. She’s such a dark message on how far down the modeling industry can drag someone. Not to mention how much she does with the whole calendar motif.
So in short she's hates herself ?
as someone who left the modeling scene she screams to me. you get tricked into seeing flaws that no one else can see. she is a victim of that, i think. eaten by modern beauty culture. old batman has a lot of criticisms of our society with its villains
I totally agree with everything you stated. It's a sick and twisted industry that destroys young women natural beauty to being something of a desire eye candy for the eyes of it objectors.
For a villain that centers around beauty, I first thought Calendar Girl’s costume was a little too plain, even with the accessories and changing colors. However, I think that might’ve been on purpose because what started drawing me in was her overall charm in her character. She’s quite witty with her play on words and seasonal gimmick. She had a touch of sass befitting any sort of classic “villainess.” It makes me wish I could see more of her!
I think it sort of plays off of one thing I have noticed from watching Modeling videos. A lot of them say to wear plainet clothes if you go in for an audition so it doesn't distract from your face and walk.
I think Calender Girl is sort of playing off that here. She wants the mask to be the central focus of her costume, her lack of a face.
@@rosesweetcharlotte I like that. If that's what they were going for here, then that's quite clever of them.
Maybe, since her modeling days were behind her and she considered herself ugly, she was trying to cover herself up completely to hide her "ugliness."
@@DeadManWalking-ym1ooif it was for budget they wouldn't have gone so hard on the scarecrow redesign. Sometimes a simple/more plain design works better.
They needed to show her butt more
I really love that throughout the entire time, we think her face was deformed in some way. That is until we see her face and realize she didn't have anything happen to it. She was manipulated and destroyed by societal's pressures of 'beauty' into believing she wasn't beautiful. Batman villains were always so tragic to me. It's a shame that modern versions of Batman don't show this side of Batman anymore.
I miss when he was compassionate, loving, and related to his villains.
I miss Kevin Conroy, may he rest in peace. It will never be the same without him.
I know. I was surprised when the mask came off, actually saying "She's gorgeous" (or something along those lines, I was a kid and it was two decades ago).
Yes this is the episode i most remember as a kid. I always thought she was a monster or her face was desfigured in some horrible way and then they take of her mask she was so beautiful. I rember even watching that episode with my dad and when i ask him he say he was suffering from mental health. Now as an adult i understand it.
I suspect no one in these comments has actually seen an episode of the twilight zone. Especially the one that the episode is directly referencing.
Very underrated part of Batman is how much he wants to help the villains
Twilight Zone; Eye of the beholder. Though it doesn't very much reference it. As much as it takes it for a spin around the same block. Shes beautiful by everyone's standards, in the TZ episode, shes considered disfigured by society due to a different beauty standard.
Man, I had forgotten how dark/sad this show was at times. Calendar Girl is a beautiful woman, but like Batman says, "she only sees flaws" in her appearance.
i can already imagine the people she kidnaped picking on every miniscule or imaginary flaw in her looks.
again and again and again next thing she knew she was neurotic and one accident, scandal or even just momentary mental break and she was hitting the bricks.
in already poor state of mind spiraled.
It's why it holds up so well. It's sill just as relevant today, as it was back then. More probably w/ Social Media & Photoshop.
Two face had a similar condition in the dark knight returns part 1. They finally fixed his face but he could only see his face burned and mangled
@@ricardooquendo3843 That's interesting 😎That encounter that damaged his face must have had psychological effects on him if he only sees his face burned after it's been fixed.
@@Phantom.Gaming64anyone would have a problem mental wise if they went through what Harvey did.
“Yes, I was gorgeous once. I had everything. I used to be a face. I used to be _the_ face. Until you destroyed me. Destroyed my career. I tried to get it back. For 10 years I starved, sweated... subjected my body to surgery after surgery, and for what? Days became weeks, weeks became years... until my time ran out. Now, I only have one holiday left to celebrate: The Day of the Dead. And you're going to celebrate it with me.” - Sela Ward as Calendar Girl.
Happy Death Day Happy Happy worst day, XDinary Heroes.
Womp womp
There’s something about that line that’s especially dark to me because while it obviously implies that she was intending to kill the people who hurt her. It also kind of implies that once she ended their lives, she intended to end her own.
They picked the right woman for the role.
Women am i right
0:54 "Honey, you're never too thin and never too young." I felt that. Also, I like she uses explosives and clothing as weapons.
What does that line imply exactly? I have my hunces but mostly riddled with doubts
@@callmek186She's bringing up how in modeling a woman is always criticized for age and weight
@@callmek186In the modelling industry, all it takes is a younger model with a fresher face to replace you. At best you get 3 years out of your modelling career before they move on to someone new, supermodels who make history are few and far between.
Feliz 4 de julio🇺🇸
She really made the whole calendar theme really look badass
And in a way better way than the callendar man killer version
And of course she made an epic and ironic finale with attempting to take their lives on the Day of the Dead
@@SmolTerribleTornado Oh yeah I definitely agree. I really like how she incorporates it into her style
It's kinda a double meaning two what with a calendar girl being a model
@@SmolTerribleTornadonah, callendar man still better
Damn her gimmick is actually really cool. I love her themed arsenal. Compelling villain.
She handled being a holiday themed supervillain better than the silver age Calendar man.
But what about Calendar Man?
@@s4juno693 calendar man fuckin sucks.
A lot of writers tried to elevate him to a better character. Hell they even gave him immortality at some point but he still sucks. The best he ever was is in the arkham games but thats because he's barely in it and they made him creepy.
@@maosama3695Calendar Man may suck, but his highlights for me was in Batman the Brave and The Bold. Where he does get superpowers thanks to Bat-mite
@@zeldagameryt4018Calendar King
Honestly body dysmorphia is fucking insane. You can be extremely attractive, have everyone tell you you are attractive, and even have moments of being able to "see it" but 99% of the time you just look at yourself in the mirror or a photo or even feel your body move a certain way and it fills you would dread. Calendar Girl valid af
In product industry its also happening right now. Hard works not respect in this days. Only this stupid hype... popularity
Pure narcissism. Save your sympathy for those who merit it.
@@reginaldforthright805 Really weird to look at a geniuene mental health issue and say "pure narcissism" but okay dude
@@reginaldforthright805hey buddy, not everyone can be as blessed as some of us who are delusional in THE GOOD way (believing we're always hot even when we're not).
@@reginaldforthright805such as who?
"Strange isn't it? Dinosaurs have been dead for millions of years, yet they still get parts in movies? It hardly seems fair..."
Her words cut deep when you think about her motives.
Kinda puts the Jurassic Park franchise in a bad light. 😅
I don't get it
@@Sun-God2her career is dead/replaced and she never get appear in movies anymore unlike dinos
Except dinosaurs don't get parts in movies. Not real dinosaurs -- just cgi/robots that looks like dinosaurs. Big difference.
@@michaelsong5555 It applies to animals used in movies
That "It hardly seems fair..." hit weirdly hard when I first heard it, the voice actress did such a good job, you can hear Calendar Girl's resignation and bitterness at an industry that chewed her up and spat her out, you can almost understand her turn to villainy. I still love hearing it.
The twist at the end was always fantastic as well, someone so mentally anguished by their industry, they don't even see themselves as beautiful anymore.
Not only she had beauty but personality as well, those witty remarks of hers was something.
Sela Ward, who voices Page adds a nice meta-reference to Calendar Girl here, she was lined up to be the bond girl for Golden eye, despite Pierce being 42 at the time and Sela younger at 39. The Casting Director said "What we really want is Sela, but Sela ten years ago." Which led Sela to do the documentary "The Changing Face of Beauty" which focused on how the obsession of youth in the media affects women. It's clear Sela really tapped into no doubt her own frustrations and experiences playing Page here, and its one of the things that makes the episode still hold up today. The way it explores how media eats up and destroys bodies, emotions, self-esteem in its pursuit in focusing on impossible standards of youth, beauty and of course making money.
Your comment made me curious, but I can't find the documentary you mentioned. I can find plenty of references to it, but not the documentary itself. Do you know anywhere it's available?
@SpudHead same here, its too hard to find now.
Not even Amazon looks like it can sell a dvd copy. We are now at the times where even tv programs, like books, are finite and limited.
@@spudhead169 Afaird i don't mate, looks like its a hard thing to find these days. Best luck is someone uploads it to TH-cam via VHS taping or it gets released years later.
I've left a message on one of Sela's recent Facebook posts asking if she knows a way to get it. She's very popular though so it's probably going to get lost in all the other comments.
Sela Ward was then, and still very much is, a beautiful woman. She would have been great in Goldeneye. I don't even remember who the Bond Girl actually was in that movie.
I’m surprised but also impressed that they had goons dressed so provocatively. Honest breath of fresh air
One those goons was in the henceman bar in the Batman and Harley Quinn movie, dancing with another guy.
Yeah halfway to being male strippers lol.
Yesss l
Think they were cold? Talking in the break room like "can't we at least wear shirts it's fall and like 40°f out there..."
Don’t need to wrap up when you are so hot.
This entire episode was ahead of it’s time. Describes our society with social media so well.
"ALL SHE SEES ARE THE FLAWS"
These issues were around back then too, just without social media.
@@i-yell-a-lot4906 4:21-4:28 who feels sorry for her real face?
I would imagine "Monroe" is referencing Marilyn Monroe and how society treated her.
In the 90s we got better at being aware of it and thanks to social media, we've gotten better at HIDING it.
@@abduljah9355 They definitely were not as prevalent, so the original comment stands in this case.
Calendar Girl is a fascinating character, but I have to think that in DC comics, Calendar Man would be *really* ticked off at her for stealing his thunder. I could see a series of issues titled "Red-Letter Days" where Batman and his allies try to rein in the chaos and limit the collateral damage while Calendar Girl and Calendar Man escalate a series of date and holiday based attempts to kill each other off.
I need batman story where the villains try to snuff eachother out for having similar branding and I need it now
Imagine if they ended up getting romantically involved instead. That'd be pretty funny
@@questoakley6978 They did have something similar: The War of Jokes and Riddles, where Joker went after Riddler for, essentially, biting on his style. That's where the meme "Kite-Man. Hell, yeah." comes from.
That would be cool. Changing Calendar Man into a Seven style murderer in Arkham felt like what this show used to do to guys like Freeze or Clayface. It made them incredible characters worthy of facing Batman
as far as Calendar Girl goes....Calender Man would love a date.... get it... date.... get it?.... thank you..
The smugness on her chippendales henchman always cracks me up. As if they're winning at life by doing this, or something.
they livin their best lives.
@@supermixiegold twitch simps be like
@@supermixiegold I can only see them as Pillar Men
@@rexlumontad5644 Heh. You're not wrong, especially since Day of the Dead *was* the last holiday she intended on "celebrating". Damn, now I want someone to dub "Awaken" over one of (t)he(i)r entrances.
@@MusicoftheDamned That'd be awesome
Characters like this deserve more.
Characters like her need to be looked upon more. At this point people get the same treatment as her didn’t they?
Think about how cold Warner Bros. is, to abandon their projects in our flesh and blood
I honestly felt sorry for her. She used to be a model until she was tossed aside and eventually began to lose sight of how beautiful she still was anymore, only the flaws.
I know it's really messed up. I mean we have actors and singers that are double calender girls age still working. It's not right what they done to her.
@@slanetroyard92 yeah. Also, I heard Calendar girl and her voice actress Sela ward have something in common
@@allysanchez5630 society is really messed majority of the time.
@@slanetroyard92 huh. you said it.
@@allysanchez5630 it sucks that society places a lot on one's outer appearance. I remember when this episode was brand new all my dad wanted to do was punch calender girls former manager in the face for what he and the industry done to her.
4:16-4:33 In the end, it goes to show how hard and cruel the world of show biz can be. Her former agent even said everything went south as soon as she turned 30. And to me, that’s still pretty young. The point is she is beautiful. Even if she’s the only one who can’t see that.
30 years old is young, yet women are constantly told that 30 is pretty much the end of your life. Unfortunately, so many of us believe it.
she isn’t the only one who can’t see that. this is an issue that has always affected women for years
@@woopeeallan I don't know why you think 30 year olds can't get pregnant. Or even into 40s and 50s.
@@woopeeallan Look up just how defective sperm is from older men.
Presently, I'm a fashion student in college and I can definitely say the fashion and beauty industries are too harsh towards women once they turn 30. To me 30 is still young 40 is kind of old but to me people aren't really old until 50. When it comes to the fertility concept 25 to I wanna say 35 is pretty much when biological clock starts ticking. Having children is easier for women in their 20s or 30s but it gets harder the longer one takes. Women in their 40s and 50s can still have kids but it's still difficult even with modern medicine. My mother didn't meet my dad until her late 30s and my parents had a hard time trying to conceive a child. I wasn't born until my mom had already hit 41. People also need to be able afford medical treatment that extends the biological clock. Also having a child in one's 20s or 30s is considered the perfect time because younger parents generally have an easier time handling kids.
Man, an episode with her, Clayface and Baby Doll would be awesome.
Titles like…
“Showstopper” or “Curtain Call”
A former model and two former actors. Seems like a fitting team-up. Albeit a random one.
Missed opportunity
@@supersonicfan7514 could be just a therapy session in Arkham Asylum where they try to do a mock play to get back the normalcy they once had.
And then perhaps they lose it or maybe they get some progress.
I’m sure they’d be good friends. Probably bond over their tragic backstories and how they miss being famous.
I could actually see it happening: A director is doing a "documentary" about former actors turned criminals and interviews the three. But then one of them finds out that rather than portraying them as human beings, it has all the intended sympathy of a carnival freak show, so the three go on the warpath. They get stopped, not simply by Batman, but a group of the trio's fans who are just as upset as they are, but don't want to see their former heroes turn into monsters.
You could even have the ending have a producer approach the trio afterwards and asks if they'd be interested in working on a new project together, where they play a team of crime fighters or secret agents. Clayface as the master of disguise who can go anywhere and be anyone, Calendar Girl as the sultry seductress who can pry secrets from anyone, and Baby Doll playing the role of a youthful tech genius, it certainly has a lot of potential. After all, if the trio have recognizable names and a dedicated fanbase, it could absoltely become a sleeper hit with a good team of writers.
This show produced so many scholarly lines. Like when Penguin said “society is to blame”. We create monsters by holding people to our standards and not giving people chances
How ironic that society demonise so many for failing to achieve impossible standards when society itself displays such cruelty
Thank you for putting this together! Such a unique villain. I'm obsessed with the idea of her themed attacks/gimmicks
Not unique. She’s a gender bent because the real calender man is lame. And Arkham calender man is creepy
@@alfredhinton8792 Damn straight.
Just another genderbent sexualized ripoff.
Also, the Arkham games weren't around back when B:TAS was still running. Just a guess, though it is possible they couldn't get the legal rights to use the Calendar Man character.
@@right_hand_power7960 calender man from the long Halloween is also creepy whom I presume Arkham’s was based on
@@alfredhinton8792 Credit where its due, if you're gonna do gender bent villaineses, this is really good. This is leaps and bounds ahead of my forever bad example, Lady Stiltman
A professor of mine who used to be in the Wall Street business, (dude's a monk now) told me about how a lot of these gorgeous starlets are pretty much insulted and psychologically abused behind closed doors by the people holding their strings. A lot of them come to believe that they're not pretty enough and they're not good enough, and they go to great lengths to maintain whatever beauty they might have, doing expensive things like plastic surgery and expensive make-up to hide their age. It kind of reminds me of what Calendar Girl said to that other girl-"Honey, you're never too thin and you're never too young."
The media machine pretty much squeezes the youth out of many capable young women and leaves out what's left of them on the sidewalk like banana peels.
It reminds me of what one Renaissance duke said about how kings use soldiers:
"Kings use men like oranges, first they squeeze the juice and then throw away the peel." -Fernando Alvarez De Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba
Replace the word "kings" with "Hollywood" and you get the same situation that many young women face in there.
An actor I knew one time once told me that Hollywood was a nest of vipers. Doesn't seem too far from the truth, sadly. People just want to make movies and make people happy, I don't know why the whole industry is filled with such evil, soulless people.
@@louthegiantcookieBig money attracts those kinds of people. Or big money corrupts people.
I don't think it's limited to young women. Or young people in general.
That's the main problem in Hollywood right now. Instead of appreciating the talented pool of actors and singers that are out right now, finding and marketing the "next big thing" is what's in vogue. They will chew people up and spit them back out once they fail to make a profit for a company. The glamorous image that is put out has to be constantly maintained, whether or not health issues and real life intervene. The stress that they subject performers to is unbelieveable.
That’s pretty much why I don’t wanna be an actor.(well that and other reasons like how overly political Hollywood is but that’s beside the point).
Calendar Girl, Baby Doll, and Clayface have the perfect tragic backstories of the series.
Each of them are driven mad because of their appearance.
As someone who grew up watching this show as a kid, I can definitely appreciate how nuanced it can be now that I’m an adult. Having seen just how common Page’s story has become, especially now in the Social Media Era, I can truly sympathize with her plight. I just thank every deity I know that standards of beauty are finally changing to become more inclusive than they used to be. It’s just a pity that Page didn’t get a chance to see it.
I just love how campy her whole shtick is. Brought a fun, semi-modern twist to the old calendar man gimmick
This is yet another underrated Batman villain. There already a Batman villain themed around calendars named "Calendar Man". He started out as a lame character when he was first introduced in the golden age of superhero comic books. They reimagined him into serial killer who commits murder on holidays and celebrates them in the most twisted way possible. DC comics obviously cared about the Calendar Man enough to bring him back to use him, albeit with an update only suitable for adults. Calendar Girl is suitable for kids. Why couldn't they bring her back as well?
Calendar Girl as a character sounds interesting as a niece of Calendar Man. Her insecurities can drive her to use tactics similar to Calendar Man since she would know him personally.
You don't know her at all if you actually think that my guy, those two are NOTHING alike.
@@Tommy92gunner Well, this is the first time I ever heard of the Calendar Girl. I never seen this character before viewing the video. Honestly, you're right the more I think about it. However, what I want to know is why DC never used again. Do you know?
@@warrenbradford2597 What would she actually do? The character really has nowhere to go. Has no special abilities to make her a continuous threat. Sometimes one and done is a better for a character then coming back over and over.
@@DesignIncase You have a point there. Better to be forgotten than to be hated. She is still such a masterful classic villain, though.
Society likes to uses a person's looks until they don't have a use anymore. She might not have any scares, but Calendar Girl was humiliated and emotionally broken by her employers.
Lots of models have this problem, like that pageant girl Calendar Girl threatened
Man the fashion industry can be really murderous and cruel. And especially to the innocent.
@@VictorPerez-hg2ed People don't really get how mentally damaging the model industry can be. They put the models through hell to the idealized appearance.
To quote Joker: You're only as good as they allow you to be"
@@nosfonader8792 can't argue with that logic my friend and here's a another from the clown prince of crime: do u know what separate the freaks from the normals just one rotten day to turn a normal person into a monster.
@@VictorPerez-hg2ed
True, thing is it cannot be anything else. With that much money involved people learn to be vicious, law of the jungle and all that.
@@Raximus3000 yes I agree with u on that one my friend.
*All she sees are the flaws* - saddest line in the whole episode
I saw this episode back in 1999 and didn’t understand why she made a big deal when the mask was off. When I was in college 2017, I was in French class and had to say our ages in French. The teacher said that it’s okay if you lie. I was confused when she said that.
Two yrs later in statistics class, we were to use our ages to make a statistical equation and the professor said it was okay for the girls to lie about their age. I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence when two different professors said this. I eventually took “Sociology of ageism” class and saw this episode again for the first time since 1999 and brought it to my professor’s attention. I now knew why she made a big deal about her mask being removed; society’s definition of beauty corrupted her.
Pair that with, I suspect but can’t prove, depression and/or anxiety that went untreated, and it’s no wonder that, as Batman put it, “All she sees are the flaws.”
She was definitely ahead of her time, because while her story is distressingly common, the rise of social media made us all more aware of it and unable to ignore it anymore. Which is why I’m relieved that a lot of modern standards of beauty are changing and becoming far less exclusive.
…Or am I being too optimistic in that belief? I truly hope I’m not.
@@zacharyjoy8724 I would say that you are correct about social media bringing further to everyone’s attention but I don’t think it has been getting better for anyone because women’s self esteem about their age is widely common.
@@francostevo9939 True, and it’s still annoying. But can we agree that progress IS being made, however slowly?
@@francostevo9939 Everyone has issues about their age. Nobody celebrates the 40 year old man living alone, the aging athlete nor the man who's lost a step. Youth often mock the older because from a biological standpoint they're reaching their prime while everyone older is past it.
@@scribbles1424 No Woman isn’t beautiful just because of her age. A women’s age should not be a used to determine beauty
"All she sees are the flaws" A good quote on perspective. Some see the glass half-empty. Some see it as half full. She's stuck in misery because she feed into her own negativity.
Today she would likely be diagnosed with body dysmorphia.
Into the negativity put into her by the industry. She didn't get that way on her own or by accident, she was made into this. Modeling and acting are CRUEL towards women especislly once they hit 30 and older. She was told so many times that she wasn't beautiful enough that it literally warped her ability to see reality to the point seeing her own face sends her into utter distress.
Surprising how that simple costume design works both stylistically and narratively so well
I'll always remember this episode. It's main villain is the same as a lot of other kids that I've known since high school. A.K.A. The beautiful people.
Yea and most of them probably peaked or let themselves go happens alot
Funny how you were the only one to take this differently, jediknight38.
As someone who doesn’t conform to “typical” standards of handsomeness, I have to agree. Especially in middle school, when we’re all struggling with the madness of puberty. It took going to a new school-and eventually college-filled with other fun-loving nerds and geeks like me to get over it.
@@zacharyjoy8724 ikr it’s funny and half the people who thought they are better or lived off looks in school end up working for the guys or people they bullied
@@judai24 Yep! Nerds rule!
This is why I love batmans rogue, they all have some sort of mental health condition left unchecked which leads them to be villains. However in reality they are just people that needed help couldn't/didn't receive it and are acting out in ways that seems just, honest and fair for them.
The people who wrote this episode are amazing. What a tragic story.
God… i forgot how this show mixed actual things people feel like dysphoria/morphia and other mental issues that can occur and then you just have guys in stripper bowtie collars using guns and other sillier devices while shirtless. If i ever have kids i wanna find every last blasted episode in this just because its that good of a show.
I find it interesting her weapon of choice is mainly fireworks, something that is not only easily accessible but can disfigure victims. I guess the same can be said about surgery, both are something people glorify a lot yet has the power to horribly destroy if one step in the process goes wrong. After all her surgeries, which appear successful for the most part, her image of herself was so negative she thought she was as disfigured as a burn victim, and felt the need to make everyone else become one too.
Models are like fireworks too.
The best looking fireworks take a lot of chemistry, powders, color tinctures, and can be very expensive and costly to produce.
Yet they only shine and glow fabulously for a short time before they become grey ash and discarded for the next charge.
And in the end all of it is toxic residue, the modelling industry is harsh, all it takes is someone younger and thinner and more attractive than you to be replaced.
This tackle close to home seeing shows on how that even the heroes and villains have similar problems
So basically she has body dysmorphia?
Also just realized her name is mash up of Betty Paige and Marilyn Monroe. Fitting.
Never heard of body dysmophia but I can guess what it is based off of the subject
@@cptboomerang6317 I actually saw a great PSA that really showed how it works. You see a girl in her underwear looking at herself in a mirror. She looks normal but she keeps pinching her belly and arms, clearly thinking she looks fat. Then the camera pans back and you see she is clearly anorexic just by seeing a bony arm and visible ribs. She is starving herself but still somehow thinks she is fat.
She was used for her looks and cast aside, years of that kind of abuse will cause you to only see the flaws my guy.
@@cptboomerang6317 body dysmorphia is an illness that is a perceived flaw in a persons appearance.
@@cptboomerang6317 in WAY over simplified terms, it's when you look at yourself (directly or in a mirror) and your brain rejects what it is seeing as "You". Think body horror. That's not your face. Not your skin. It doesn't fit right and you can't escape it. You're trapped in it. And your brain is pumping out distress chemicals because that's Incorrect(tm) and it wants you to FIX IT but you often CANT in any immediate way. But there are also lvls from "I don't like how I look" to "my reflection makes me literally want to be sick then harm myself" etc?
It pops up a lot in the trans community for obvious reasons but can and DOES pop up pretty much everywhere? Especially with the big push for "you need to look like X to be accepted" you see in advertisements. Pretty sure I'm not explaining this the best but I hope it makes sense n was kinda useful?
This show changed how cartoons could be. It showed that cartoons could have adult or dark themes and still be entertaining. Then of course there was Kevin who literally changed the voice of the animated Batman forever
Kevin Conroy is amazing in this! And reading about his life, it is really easy to see where he was drawing inspiration from.
Batman Beyond took it further. Inque, Blight, Ian Peek, the Royal Flush Gang, Mr. Freeze, Payback, etc. All victims of circumstances that made them worse than they were before.
She's like a villain who takes her henchman out of the Playboy franchise.
Why isn't there more of her?!
True
0:59
"She's just another tragic victim."
Paige Monroe.
Those words she said about that new female young model she let go were prophetic. She might come out bigger and badder than Paige Monroe when her career dries up.
Or worse, completely collapse into desperate insecurity, self-loathing, spinelessness, and possibly poverty. Sometimes when you throw someone to the ground and beat them, they can’t get back up, they just break.
I love how simple yet creative her design is, it's basically like a black canvas, change a few colours, add maybe a piece of jewellery or article of clothing and bam, done new season, all the while making far easier to animate, as the solid colours are easier to animate.
Wow this was a beautiful episode. I forgot the storytelling and tragic villains Batman had. Omg I love this show
Bruce Timm made some good stop from The early 90's to the 2010.
I love Batman cartoons because the show contextualised the characters. It shows why the villains are the way they are. Some struggled with mental issues, others with a tragic past. I felt that it does so brilliantly with characters like Baby Boll who struggled to feel loved and accepted. Calendar Girl is also a brilliant example, a woman who is plagued by self-esteem issues. Just a brilliant cartoon that is mature and full of layers like a good story should.
Would agree that the new batman adventures is the continuation and the last season of batman the animated series
She was an awesome villain, she should have been added to the comic canon as an official character.
Maaaaaaan that line "You're never too thin, you're never too young" hits different these days
She fits the calendar’man’ villain in the methods operated, even if her motivation is different, it is similar enough to crime the calender way.
The ending was sad 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
It’s cartoons like this that educate us more than most schools.
@@Aggression-hc3yp Amen to that
As someone in their 20's that is sick this really brings a tear to my eyes. At least she had her prime years, those of us at this age that have ilness feel like we are cut down at our prime and even if we do get better healthwise, it's still all downhill after 35. Aging rarely brings anything good from a physical point of view.😢
I really like Calendar Girl, the costumes and gadgets were creative, the way they incorporated the holidays into her theme was good as well. Shame they never used her in more DC projects.
It's too sad, on every account of how people are subjected to the 'ideals of beauty' that's already at such a high bar we destroy ourselves just to try and achieve it! I have only seen this episode after getting the DVD complete set, but can't help but be reminded of the many, MANY stories of what people go through because of this. In college, there's this poem called 'Barbie Doll' about a young woman who destroyed herself in life that she was only 'beautiful' in death. Another example was an episode of Bones, when they found the skull of a young woman who'd been murdered. She had so many plastic surgeries done that she COMPLETELY altered her face! When they finally ID'd her, she had been a survivor of a car wreck, but her picture was BEAUTIFUL and natural! It turned out she was murdered by yet ANOTHER woman who asked Booth if he saw her as 'beautiful', because she couldn't see it herself! Beauty is what you make of it, and you MUST learn to love yourself as yourself for others to appreciate your qualities as an individual! God bless!
I had 100% forgotten her. But yeah i agree with Barbara, she's good on the eyes.
I’m surprised that no one’s mentioned that her henchmen are her friends from when she was a model who stuck by her side even after she deemed “not beautiful”.
I give her credit for being committed to her name. Can you imagine how expensive it must be for her? Having multiple themed suits and weapons for each holiday of the year.
you only get one shot at vegeance, of course you gonna dress for it
4:26 - 4:33: Thug life dialogue by Batman, supported by apt background score and a point for us to ponder about. Thanks to the creators for this episode.
What if Page, the Calendar Girl, is the long-lost daughter of Julian Day the original Calendar Man who is a serial killer, and she didn't even know him her whole life?
"All she sees are the flaws"
Reminds me of someone I know...she used to call herself fat and to her that made her ugly; but she was the furthest thing from fat (trust me, I know what I'm talking about; I used to work at a Walmart). She had curves on her, yes, but she was healthy & easily the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life...she was even more beautiful when she became a mom.
Haven't seen her in nearly two years but I really hope to see her again soon and that she finally got it through her head that she's far more beautiful than what magazines, television/movies, and society says.
👍
Have you seen Jennifer Lawrence recently? She was hot as hell before she had her son. Now she's even hotter and has become a full on MILF. Those curves really filled out.
2:50 So THATS where he got the Tyranno in the bat cave.
Only saw so much of that animated series, never remembered Calandar Girl
You know it’s funny, DCAU Batman learned redemption when he absolutely needed Harley Quinn and learned her motivation
Here’s someone who was even more of a candidate for redemption but never got it
I think you have it backwards, DCAU Batman started out believing that redemption was possible for pretty much all of his enemies, but as the series went on he just got more and more jaded and disillusioned with the criminals he has to deal with on a regular basis getting more and more brutal as the years went on.
by the time of Batman Beyond Bruce had completely given up on the idea that people can change for the better, his response to Mr. Freeze turning over a new leaf was to roll his eyes and count down the days before he became a supervillain again.
They should make an iteration where instead of one person, it’s a whole group. The Calendar Crew: Where each member wears a costume and have weapons based on the holiday they represent. That’d be interesting
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Ugliness too
@@joey6058 You could say that
And she didn't consider herself "beautiful"...
@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 Not anymore she doesn't
Oh wow a clip from an old cartoon I liked featuring a niche villain with engaging comment session, hopefully it won't be tagged as "for kids" and proceed to be forgotten
I love how they arrive posing like Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask, and the fact that her henchmen both look like and dress Chippendale Dancers.
Calendar Girl is far better than Calendar Man (the og as she’s a gender-swap version, and part of her character comes from Manikin) DC company should expand more on her. Unlike most of Batman’s foes, she’s motivated by vengeance and vanity. Don’t forget, she’s Batman’s most colorful enemy.
So she recruits her minions from the Gotham Chippendales?
I like to think Gotham henchmen get paid more than ones in other cities because they have to put up with more of the "themed costume" nonsense instead of just wearing nondescript clothing you can carry some concealed weapon in, maybe some body armor on top. These poor guys are asking for pneumonia if they ever have to do a job in the winter.
I suppose there's also a slightly higher rate of being randomly murdered by your employer too, but you kind of knew that was a factor before you took the job. Then again, my idea of a perfect Joker story involves him killing one of his henchmen at random and the rest of them beating him to death in retaliation.
"You don't have any actual powers, you giggling idiot. It's not like you're an actual supervillain. There's six of us left and we didn't like what you did to Roy. We'll probably get a reward for this, honestly."
And then just the sound of bones breaking and high-pitched Joker screams fading into a death rattle.
I thought the same thing too lol. My dad called them that when this episode was brand new. When I asked him what Chippendales was he said think about the beginning of that Pauly shore movie we have when he went to court.
@@slanetroyard92 I see those 3 henchmen of Calendar Girl as Pillar Men
@@rexlumontad5644 lol good one. Though I feel bad for the blonde guy since Bruce threw him at the car. Guy's probably paralyzed since the hood slammed down hard on him.
@@slanetroyard92 Or the guy had a "My back!" like Tobey Maguire!Peter Parker after he landed on the car's hood and walked away with a little pain.
0:55 DAYUM! She went hard on that line😂😂😆
Batgirl: "She's beautiful!"
Batman: "She can't see that anymore. All she sees are the flaws"
I remember watching this episode when I was a kid. That ending made me realize cartoons aren't limited to silly slapstick humor, they can also tell more mature stories.
I seriously wish there were more episodes of calendar girl, common DC do more on this beautiful villainess
Yeah, I wish she ate least got to appear in one more episode
I love when they change a well known villain to a female when it feets,calendar girl is a good successor to the first male character i believe and very tricky as well! This new show is really good as i see preserving that dark tone from the classic series well done and happy new year to us all!
4:20 Dunno about you lads, but I feel real bad for Calendar Girl AKA Page Monroe (appropriate name), she's a really lovely woman, I saw this episode way back when I was a kid when it first aired and I still feel sad for her.
Okay but the full body ,figure hugging ,monochrome fit, with the jet black hair and the mask, is soo good
🎶
_"I love, I love, I love my calendar girl"_
_"Yeah, sweet calendar girl"_
_"I love, I love, I love my calendar girl"_
_"Each and every day of the year"_
🎶
Couldn't resist.
She was one of my faves, definitely one of the best but sadder characters they created
The toughest judge you have to convince is yourself.
Gotham city is the only place where a bunch of Chippendales dancers can be driving around with a giant fan and no one things it odd.
Cacophobia - an intense fear of ugliness. People with this anxiety disorder may fear becoming ugly. Or they might have symptoms of panic and anxiety when they think about or see something ugly. Cacophobia is one of only a few phobias that are subjective instead of objective.
Body dysmorphia is insane- I literally cant stand looking at any reflective surfaces without my day being ruined- Ive been told I look good but i highly doubt we see the same person
This is like a twilight zone episode with the pig people... batman series def was one of a kind
She is a gender bender of a Batman villain, Calendar Man. It's possible, though not definite, that they couldn't get the rights to use Calendar Man.
Professor Pyg?
All these brilliant calendar puns. But here's another. When she gets angry at them, her henchmen probably think it's just that time of the month.
0:55
"Honey! You're never too thin, and you're never too young."
Paige Monroe.
1999 to 2023, I still remember those lines today.
Tyra Banks.
Kimora Lee Simmons
Cindy Crawford.
Naomi Campbell.
Tyson Beckford.
Antonio Sabato Jr.
Elle Macpherson.
Etcetera will agree with her..
This episode is up there with Batman in my Basement.
This villain is like someone from the Twilight Zone. I’ve never seen this episode, so I thought that she had some kind of accident that disfigured her face. It’s one of the best reveals that I’ve seen in a long time.
Still, it’s a little ironic for the show to make this point - when it draws almost all women with huge curves and tiny waists. And almost all the female villains are very seductive - whereas the male villains have very different personalities.
However, to be fair, Batman and a lot of the men are unrealistically muscular.
That lyric, "Another Season..." was the song Circe was singing at the Cabaret in Justice League Unlimited.
Calendar Girl is based on a forgotten Batman villain named Calendar Man who is obsessed with dates and had a tragic backstory!
Her male side kicks are hilarious ☠️
I forgot about this character. So great. We need to see more cosplay and figures of her!
The New Batman Adventures truly had some of the most haunting storylines. Very unsettling and deep.
BTAS did some incredible reimagining for villains and Calendar Girl is no exception. She is a little bit like Madame Masque from Iron Man, but the reveal at the end is just so powerful.
That said the reveal does make her feel like she can only be a one off villain and the revamp of Calendar Man into a holiday themed serial killer just works better in the long run.
Gotta respect the grift that she deliberatly hired handsome goons and puts thought into her costume changes. I also like the fact she likes flirting with them.
Farrk. This reminds me of that horror movie when this girl goes on a murder spree all because she couldn't get a job and her friends and family said its because she was ugly but at the end she turned out to be a stunning girl😥
Even though Calendar Girl was only seen as “a pretty face”, she had some damn fine gadgets throughout this episode! The bombs, fireworks, bindings, and even controlling a robot Rex shows that she must be tech savvy in some capacity. It’s a shame that she didn’t get a chance to see her inner beauty
After this episode I was so glad that I never wanted to be a model. This is a very important lesson to teach everyone regardless of their gender. Everyone can relate to body issues. And the fact that they train people to look at their flaws and say it’s a bad thing, no one show think the job is worth it back then. So, I am glad or at least hope they change modeling agencies. Or at least train those who walk in to Love themselves. And tell them over and over. Because it hurts when you hear Page and how she tried everything that THEY a told her to do and it was never good enough now they created a vengeful woman who can see anything in herself but the flaws they pointed at her.
Bruce Timm! The use of his style just changed cartoons forever!
""All she sees is the flaws""
As a child i never really understood her motives but now as an adult i understand her insecurity
This unlocked a core memory for me, thanks for posting