Batman and Nightwing are forced to team with the Joker's sometimes-girlfriend Harley Quinn to stop a global threat brought about by Poison Ivy and Jason Woodrue, the Floronic Man. It's silly, really. This reminds me of when people hated sequels to the Monkey Island PC game because they recalled the second in the series as being some kind of serious epic, rather than a game that had spitting contests and dancing skeletons.<br/><br/>As an avid fan of Batman: The Animated Series – who actually bothered to watch more than the first five episodes or a single movie – I can recall plenty, PLENTY of Harley episodes that were tonally compatible with this film. Check out the first part of the "Holiday Knights" episode as just one example! People forget that the Animated Series Batman was by the Warner Bros animation crew responsible for Freakazoid, Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures, and the likes. And as dark as it could sometimes be, it was still aimed at a younger audience.<br/><br/>There was ridiculousness involved like Riddler's giant television scene, the quirky maze with the flying robotic hand, the various deathtraps each villain could come up with, and absolutely anything involving the Mad Hatter. And people forget. For some reason, there's this cloudy, fogged, and absolutely incorrect view that the average spod on the street has that Batman: The Animated Series was the animated equivalent of The Dark Knight Returns. That's simply not the case. At all.<br/><br/>The Animated Series take was one of a softer Batman; a Batman who was able to sympathise with the plight of his villains; a more human Batman who had vulnerabilities and a sense of humour. There's actually a term amongst old comic book fans for what these people like, 'Batgod.' It's used derisively as it's something that fans, like myself, just don't enjoy. The hardcore, hyper-conservative Batman with a steel chin that could take on Doomsday after he'd beaten Superman into the ground. That's an incredibly boring, dull, one-dimensional take on the character if ever I saw one. Boring people love it, though.<br/><br/>And that's the thing, you love that take on Batman if you're a bit boring.<br/><br/>Batman of The Animated Series was always an amalgam. A very human Batman from the '70s/'80s before things got cloyingly dark; A silly, campy Batman who had to struggle against deathtraps, of the '60s; A Batmaan that could be silly and have a sense of humour, from the '60s; And a Batman that was very much the Warner Bros. Animation team's own creation.<br/><br/>So this one isn't for the boring 'Batgod' audience. This one is for those of us who're real, long time fans. Not the kind of 'fans' who watched a single movie or a few episodes of something here or there, but those of us who've been following Batman since the '60s through all of his transformations. This is a Bat-fan's Batman. A funny movie that was worth watching. Harley came into her own once she was out from under the Joker's shadow. Unlike most Batman movies, this one is a little lighter and has a huge humor factor. Definitely worth seeing!
Einchr replied
356 weeks ago