Batman Unlimited: Istinti animali

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.

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.

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.

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?

I don't typically publish reviews, but after seeing so many negative reviews on this release I wanted to set the record straight. I grew up on Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Justice League, and the like, and have delved deeply into every DC Animated feature released since. True enough, this is not the dark, grim, graphic and violent Batman that our generation is accustomed to; but, in fairness, it's not meant to be. This film is meant for kids and their parents to enjoy together, and in that sense, I think it's awesome. I'll even go a step further, and say that this the first animated Batman film in quite awhile that I would say is kid-friendly for all age groups.There's action, there's comedy, there's loud noises and character development and robots and superheroes and just about everything a young batman enthusiast could ever want. If you're expecting Christopher Nolan's introspective take on the Batman or Scott Snyder's detail-oriented writing skill, you're looking in utterly the wrong place. But if you're looking for a fun, family adventure with the Bat Family, Green Arrow, and The Flash, look no further than this installment. Glad to hear that there's a sequel on the way!