Chase Me

Title pretty much says it all; Catwoman rescues Bruce from a dull party by robbing him, commence rooftop chase. Pretty straightforward and it's a showcase for their playful relationship.

But I don't know what they were thinking with that score, which ranges from easy listening to bossa nova. It's off-putting and completely out of place.

6/10

This animated short was included on the Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman DVD. It's actually better than that movie, although that's not saying a lot. The "plot" here is basically that Bruce Wayne, bored at some swanky party, happens upon Catwoman robbing a safe. He quickly changes into Batman and gives chase. He pursues her across Gotham on rooftops and on vehicles before ending up at the zoo. It's not a bad idea for an artistic little short but the execution is lacking. This is done in the style of the later Batman cartoons, not the classic Batman: The Animated Series. So Catwoman weirdly has blue skin. Never figured out why they did that. The whole thing is without dialogue and has a jazz soundtrack throughout. It isn't my favorite genre but I've heard some jazz tunes that would have been better suited for this. The music here does not feel like it was done originally for the short, nor does it fit well. It doesn't match the images on screen which kind of undermines the concept. Oh well, at least they tried.

This six minute short is mostly animated in the style of the popular long running Batman television series and it certainly benefits from that.

The one major difference is the lack of dialogue and sound effects, the soundtrack is entirely musical which makes quite memorable.

It tells the brief story of Batman chasing Catwoman across Gotham after he catches her rifling through a safe. That's basically it, but what more could they do with such limited time?

Well animated this is quite a neat little short, really not sure about the choice of music but I guess it fits well with the Batman setting.

Fun harmless little short, just be aware of the lack of substance.

The Good:

Animation style

Finale is quite interesting

The Bad:

Music grinded a little bit

Things I Learnt From This Short:

Selina needs a tan

'Chase Me' is absolute proof that a decent soundtrack can make a film. Unfortunately this is not a positive comment in regards to this Batman short, where the laid back jazz track does its utmost to derail a silent tale that has the potential to be brilliant. Credit to the production team for attempting a new approach to the scoring of a Batman film and taking a step away from the orchestral Gothic that has become a staple of all recent efforts, but this misses the mark by a long way.

The story itself is quite brilliantly told, remaining not only coherent but very watchable despite the score's attempt to wring it of all tension. The superb imagery that we have come to expect from the Batman cartoons is the reason I give this 4 stars rather than 1. Never has a cartoon series used shadow, blacks and reds as well as this. Here is a short that could have had real gravitas and could have been a memorable entry into the Batman cannon, if only for a decent tune!

Millionaire Bruce Wayne is at a party and is having a quiet moment to himself at the window when lots of young women flock to him and try and get him to dance with them. He slips away downstairs but finds his safe being emptied by none other than Catwoman! She escapes but he quickly gets into character and Batman is in pursuit.

This DVD extra is a mixed bag but yet deserves credit for what it tries to do even if it doesn't really work. Visually the film is good and indeed it is this style that attracted me to watch what I originally dismissed as a children's cartoon. The animated series and films may not have the dark material I still want but at least they are not the day-glo hell that Joel Schumacher was handsomely paid to create (or "spew-forth" to use the correct terminology). In this regard the film flows really well and is quite exciting; the audio however is another matter.

The score is a light jazz affair that at different points of the film - interested me, annoyed me, delighted me. It interested me because it was different, because it seemed a brave and experimental step to score Batman using anything other than Gothic orchestration. It annoyed me though because at times it jarred badly with the images on the screen. This combined with the lack of sound effects made it feel a bit like some kid's poor job of putting a score on the top of an existing video. However it worked at the start and the end so I'm wondering why they didn't try to do something to make it work better during the action in the middle section.

Visually it is impressive and I did enjoy the style and the flow, but it is broken up by the lack of effects and the soundtrack. A nice try that deserves credit for using jazz instead of Gothic music but it does feel like a track has been plonked down onto the film rather than the film has been scored.