It’s only May and DC/Warner Bros have released their sixth animated movie of the year, two from their Original Movie series, two Lego movies, a cross-over movie between Scooby-Doo and retro animated series Batman: The Brave and The Bold, and now anime movie Batman Ninja.
The film sees Batman, as well as a number of his allies and adversaries, transported back in time and halfway around the world, ending up in feudal Japan. The caped crusader quickly discovers that all the others have been in the land of the rising sun for two years already, with each of the villains setting themselves up as warlords. Each controlling a different region, and fighting for control of the others.
After he discovers Nightwing, Red Robin, Red Hood and Robin have formed a resistance with a clan of ninjas dedicated to a very specific prophecy about a man from the future who dresses like a bat liberating Japan, he then forms an alliance with Gorilla Grodd, the villain responsible for the whole time-traveling fiasco.
By this point the already bonkers film takes a nosedive off the deep end, becoming more and more ludicrous as the minutes tick on by. Taking what was already a cool idea, inserting Batman and his foes in a completely new environment, which when done with more subtlety, like Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, can be something spectacular. A much simpler story would have been far more effective.
It’s a narrative that would have been much better suited to a limited series, ten episodes or so, as nothing is really explored within the 85-minute runtime, things like, how did Robin wind-up with his own monkey sidekick? or what has Catwomen been doing during her two years in Japan?
There’s also far two many characters, most of which are not even necessary. It seems like Takashi Okazaki, creator of the acclaimed Afro Samurai, came up with lots character designs, which for the most part are pretty cool, and the filmmakers didn’t want to waste them so just shoehorned them into the movie.
It would have also benefitted from sticking to one style of animation, at points it’s a standard DC animated movie, then it's more reminiscent of a videogame, and in the middle there’s a section where the film resembles a minimalistic watercolour. The quality of the animation also fluctuates somewhat, at times it’s spot on, but at others it looks more like cut scenes from a <Playstation 2 game.
All in all Batman Ninja is a great idea poorly executed, instead of being something wonderful it becomes one of the worst animated movies DC has to offer.
Have you seen Batman Ninja? What was your verdict? Let me know in the comments below