Film and TV are saturated with superheroes these days, so it is refreshing when something comes along that is a bit different.  Batman Ninja is a welcome, new take on the Batman mythos that brings the Caped Crusader to feudal Japan.

SPOILERS BELOW

Gorilla Grodd builds a time machine that transports the occupants of Arkham Asylum back in time, where Batman discovers that his enemies, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Deathstroke, Two-Face, and Joker (along with Harley Quinn), have become warlords controlling different regions of the land.  Upon arriving, Batman loses his modern crime-fighting tools and must adapt to his surroundings.  He reunites with the rest of the Bat Family and enlists the help of a bat-themed ninja clan to stop the villains from changing history.

The movie’s greatest asset is the character designs and animation style.  So much modern animation looks the same, but Batman Ninja has a style that is uniquely its own.  The characters not only have an anime influence, but the movie also pulls from other Japanese art styles to create some stunning sequences.  I hope the DC Animated movies continue this by releasing movies with radically different styles.

The stellar voice cast did a brilliant job bringing the characters to life.  Tony Hale is typically known for playing sidekick characters like Buster Bluth and Gary Walsh, but his comedic timing makes for a strangely perfect and creepy Joker.  It is also a testament to Yuri Lowenthal and Fred Tatasciore’s voice acting abilities, as they both pulled double duty in this movie, and I never would have noticed, if I did not look it up.

I really enjoyed the film, but I did have an issue.  I felt like the movie could not decide if it wanted to be a feudal Japan anime or a mecha anime.  Either option would have been great, but by merging the two, it kept bumping me out of the movie.  Despite that, the action sequences looked spectacular, no matter what style they were in.

Distributor: Warner Bros.
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