Batman Unlimited: Animal Instincts

Gotham City is being attacked by 'animal' villains with animal robots. Penguin, Cheetah, Man-Bat, Killer Croc, and Silverback call themselves Animalitia. Penguin has created the robots and the tech with help from Dr. Kirk Langstrom. Batman, the Flash, Green Arrow, Nightwing, and Red Robin oppose them.

This seems to be a random group of villains connected by a superficial characteristic. Even after the reveal, it's still not relevant why these are all animal-based villains. Without a good explanation, this is nothing more than a gimmick. They are really the zoo crew. The animation is ok. The premise just bugs me. Not bugs me. Animals me.

Obviously this isn't the best Batman movie ever but I wasn't expecting it to be. I expected it to be a decent animated Cartoon Network style movie, and that's what I got.

The story is decent enough but the action/fight sequences could be better. Also, at times it felt like there was too many characters. Penguin wanted to destroy everyone so he could be rich, but that doesn't make any sense because there's no point in being rich if you're the only one on earth.

The only reason I gave this entry to the DC animated universe a five is because it's Batman. That's it. What we have here is a futuristic Gotham with the ol' good guys against the ol' bad guys scenario. The basic plot has the Penguin recruiting many of the animal super-villains--Cheetah, Silverback, Killer Croc, among others--to help pull off a heist of, ahem, cosmic proportions. Naturally, the good guys have to stop them and you can guess the rest.

First, the good points. Decent music, fast moving, some good fight sequences.

And now, the bad. The animation looks like it's been scaled down significantly. I'm not expecting Pixar. I am expecting something decent. This wasn't. Batman's suit (light blue) hearkens back to the late 1960's take and it doesn't suit (no pun intended) this day and age. His gold get-through-the-force-field suit reminded me of some lousy Japanese anime...double ungood.

As for the script, again, while War and Peace ain't on the menu, this makes Jack and Jill Go Up the Hill read like a masterpiece. Cheesy, poor humor, poorer lines...the one good thing was the voice cast that did what they could with their parts. I miss Kevin Conroy doing the voice of Batman. He had the bearing. His replacement sounds like a slightly younger version of him, but with no depth.

The actress doing Cheetah sounds like a whiny child, and I got zero sense of menace behind any of the baddies. Not their fault, really; 'twas the script that done 'em in.

Finally, all the old stereotypes of animals being what they are were trotted out, and quite frankly, that kind of thinking should have gone out fifty years ago.

I heard this direct-to-DVD effort was to sell toys. My only question is: How many? Nothing wrong with selling goods to the kiddies, but this video is an insult to any comic book/cartoon fan.

This movie has a style that is different from most, if not all Batman movies so far. It is quite a bit lighter, brighter in the less serious sense. So if you're open to see something a bit different, you'll enjoy it. If you are hoping to see something that goes along with the previous Batman movies, you might feel that your expectations aren't met.

Had this movie tried to merge its colorful, somewhat more cartoony style with a serious, dark narrative that is usually a common thing to expect, given that it plays in Gotham, it would have failed to do so and felt really out of place. Instead it takes events a bit less serious, mixing well written, witty dialogue that has some quite entertaining moments with a story that is simple, but serves its purpose, resulting in a combination that works - if you're open to see these kind of things (and don't expect to be surprised by intricate plot-twists - other reviews pick up on this). That also makes this movie quite easy to stomach for the younger audiences. Style, story and dialogue have been chosen to work together, which is nice to see.

The animation quality is very much acceptable and up to the task, voice acting is very nice! No complaints there. The soundtrack is also good.

Enjoyed!

This is one of several Batman Unlimited movies that also went hand in hand with a short lived television series of the same name.

What sets them apart from the rest is the setting, the franchise is set in the future and has minor tweaks on the usual DC characters.

In this one we see Batman, Green Arrow, Red Robin, Flash & Nightwing take on The Penguin, the super villians working for him and his army of mechanical animals.

I really didn't like the setting, I'm very much not into this whole alternate universe thing. Top that off with this being very kiddie friendly and despite it being an award winning effort I was hardly impressed.

I do like the concept of the Animalitia (Animal Militia) but some childish writing really ruined it for me.

The Good:

Cheetah was great

The Bad:

Nightwings hair, really?!

Not keen on the future setting

Dialogue is laughable in places

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I found myself wondering how the DC Universe would have looked if they chose Manbat over Batman

Batman doesn't look at explosions

The Penguin has a fear of penguins, who knew?