1) Yes, if you just look at the pictures, Robin has always been Batman lite. For the last twenty years however, both Dick and Tim have differed dramatically from Batman is storyline and personality, the things that make movies great.
I believe if Grayson is done right, then Robin becomes an afterthought, hardly even necessary beyond being a nod to the comics.
2)
Because I've never seen martial arts at a Circus, there's no reason for me to believe that circuses have martial arts masters. The Martial arts masters I know (okay, just the one) don't consider their Art a performace art, and only use it as such at Martial arts shows.
Furthermore, martial arts training does not a vigilante make. Batman has the training necessary to fight groups of men with firearms... Grayson could not possibly receive that at a circus, and thus, a vigilante career for someone with his lack of experience, size and protection would certainly end in quick if not immediate death, just as if you or I ran out in the worst part of town at night trying to 'catch criminals.'
And that's just random drug addicts, to say nothing of actual organized crime, like the mob.
And if people would let go of the notion that Dick has to be Robin in the same movie or year that he meets Batman, then they would almost certainly come up with a story that makes much more sense than a redundant Batman, or a kid going out and taking out the mob with circus training. Perhaps we should just send our police to the circus... or better yet, their kids.
