Reaction & Review | Batman Ninja

Welcome, one and all, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna be closing out this edition of "Tales of the Longbox" by taking a look at an animated film from 2018. That movie is "Batman Ninja".

Now, I know two things about this movie. The first thing I know about it is the overall premise. Basically, it's what would happen if you take one of DC's top characters, and it's villains, and you set it all in ancient Japan? Well then, you get this movie. Now, I originally thought that this might've been an Elseworlds Tale, but that thought got shot down for two reasons. The first one being that the Elseworlds imprint was discontinued back in 2005. And the other reason is that there is a manga adaptation of this very story that was released in the same year that this movie came out. Now I have not read the manga itself. However, if this movie is any good, I may have to track down the manga and give it a read at some point.

Now, the other thing I know about this movie is something that people have commented on a lot about, which is the animation. And a lot of people have said mixed things about this movie's animation. They either say that it looks ugly and janky as shit, or they say that it's a rather unique style of animation that is breathtaking and help's enhance the movie quite a bit. Now, I remember seeing a trailer for this movie a couple of years ago, but I couldn't really tell you if I liked the animation or not. I was more focused on the content of the movie itself, and it made me kinda interested in checking it out.

Well tonight, I finally get my chance to see whether or not this thing is actually any good. I'm hoping that it is, because I generally like a lot of DC's direct-to-video animated films. Well, most of them anyway. But I'm not gonna get into that here. I'm just curious to see if this movie is gonna take a rather odd premise and make it work. And the only way I'm gonna find out, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Batman Ninja.".

12 minutes later

Guys, I am really liking the set-up for this movie. The fact that Batman's villains have become feudal lords of ancient Japan and are trying to unify the land together is really sorta interesting. I'm kinda hoping that this movie will be able keep this story interesting for the remainder of it's run.

3 minutes later

Whoa, wait a second here! So Alfred was in the Batmobile before Grodd's time travel machine sent everyone back to ancient Japan? I'll ignore the fact that Alfred's been, possibly, wearing the same outfit since being time-traveled into ancient Japan. But what I want to know is what the fuck was Alfred doing in the Batmobile to being with? Did Bruce bring it with him when he went to confront Grodd? Or was it just sitting at the Batcave the entire time while Batman was away? I'm really curious about this, guys, and I'm hoping that this movie will attempt to explain some of this.

5 minutes later

Holy shit, is that Bane?! And he's also a freaking sumo wrestler in this universe as well. That's actually really cool! And it kinda fits Bane's character, seeing as how he's tied into wrestling and all, what with him originally being presented as a luchador. Nonetheless, I really like the attention to detail with what they're doing with Bane here. It really is cool.

16 minutes later

You know, guys, I'm really digging the art style for this movie. Just about every character looks really good here. The one character, though, that I'm very conflicted on is Gorilla Grodd. I think it's because of his fur. Something about it just doesn't look right to me. I'll try to answer that when I eventually review this thing. But for now, I'm just gonna have to get use to his questionable design. Perhaps maybe it'll grow on me, but I'm not sure if it will.

14 minutes later

OK, I have a REALLY dumb question here. And I know it's a very trivial thing to be bringing up, but I have to ask this. Why does Poison Ivy have pink hair? If memory serves, her hair is usually red. So why does she have pink hair? Did she have always have that before she was sent back to ancient Japan? Or is it because when she got sent back to ancient Japan, her hair turned pink during this era? Again, I totally understand it's a really stupid point to bring up, and it has nothing to do with the overall movie, but it's just something that I'm curious about is all.

16 minutes later

So, all the bats have formed together to become an even giant version of Batman. Admittedly, I don't think it's as impressive as the giant monkey I saw earlier. But still, it looks pretty cool. I'm kinda impressed by that.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Batman Ninja". Let me go ahead and shut the film off...OK. I kinda how like the movie ends with these pretty cool-looking comic panels. I'm going to assume it's the aftermath of what happened after everyone got back to their own timeline. But anyway, as for the film itself, I'm...kinda surprised. I actually wound up really liking this thing. I wasn't sure if I was going to, what with the premise and the animation, but I actually did quite like it.

So now, I actually have to talk about this movie. Let's start this off with the writing. As I mentioned before, the premise is, basically, what would happen if you take Batman and his gallery of characters, and you set them in ancient Japan. And admittedly, I wasn't really sure if this premise was going to work. The reason why I say that is because I remembered one other movie that featured both time travel and the setting being in ancient Japan. That movie was "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3". And, well, let's just say that it didn't exactly work with Turtles 3. Now, you're probably wondering why I brought up the time travel bit? Well, that's actually part of the framing device for this movie. Because Grodd ended up creating a time machine that was able to send everyone that was involved in this movie back in time to ancient Japan. And for Grodd's reasoning that doesn't get explained until much later on in the movie, he wanted to, pretty much, take over Japan and rewrite history with apes taking over instead of humans. Now how exactly he's going to accomplish this is something that I won't spoil for you guys here. But that is one part of the story that is being played here. As I mentioned earlier, the other Batman villains have taken over certain areas of ancient Japan as part of a feudal war that went on back during that era of Japan. And of course, Batman ends up meeting his other comrades such as Robin, Nightwing, Red Hood, Catwoman, and Alfred. Alfred is the only one that looks the same, save for a small ponytail he adopted on the back of his head. Still not totally sure WHY he was in the Batmobile before he got sent back into ancient Japan, but whatever. It's not a huge deal, overall.

Since I just mentioned Alfred, why don't we get into the characters. And I want to start with Batman. Because in this movie, he has to learn on how to adapt with the times. And what I mean by that is when he first gets into an encounter with the Joker, his gadgets are not as effective in combat. Such as when Joker was controlling his robot known as the Arkham Castle, he's able to crush Batman's gadgets, and even the Batmobile that was made during this time. And later on, Batman realizes that he has to become this legend that the ninjas, during this era, hold him up to, which is pretty much a god. Yeah, in this movie, there is a ninja clan that resembles Batman, and they need him to lead their clan in order to save ancient Japan from evil. And Batman definitely gets the most development in this movie. The supporting characters here are also pretty decent, too. Unfortunately though, most of the villains get the shaft in this movie. The only villains who get the most screen time are Joker, Harley Quinn, and Gorilla Grodd. Anything involving the other villains is sort of a missed opportunity. I mean, you got villains such as the Penguin, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, and even fucking Deathstroke. I really thought that this movie was gonna explore more on these characters, seeing as how they are stuck in ancient Japan. But unfortunately, they are, pardon the pun, criminally under-used here. And they don't really have much screen time in this movie. Most of it, like I said, is focused on Joker, Harley Quinn, and Grodd. Grodd was a pretty good addition to this movie. However, unsurprisingly, Joker and Harley Quinn are the two characters who mostly outshine Grodd. And yeah, I'm not gonna lie, I'm one of those who's getting sick and tired of seeing those two in everything nowadays. However, I am not here to bitch about that. I will say that both of them are very effective in this movie, I just sorta wished we would've gotten to see more of the other secondary villains in action. At least we got to see Bane in this movie. Though admittedly, I'm questioning why he was even in this thing to begin with? Since he was never brought up from before the time travel story began, nor is he ever even mentioned again after his short fight with Batman concludes. Which makes me wonder if even got back to the present at all, or if that was just his ancestor or some such shit?

Whatever. Point is, the under-utilization of the villains are definitely the weakest point of this movie. Beyond that, however, the writing here is still pretty good. And I still really liked how they were able to incorporate the Batman universe within the time setting of ancient Japan. So overall, I really liked this story, minus the villains being sorta weak here. What isn't weak, however, is the acting. The acting in this movie is stellar. Like, everybody here turns in a really good showing. Several mentions that I want to bring up are Roger Craig Smith as Batman, who also voiced him in Batman: Arkham Origins. Grey Griffin, who I believed also voiced Catwoman in Batman: Arkham City. And the other honorable mention I want to make is for Tom Kenny. Tom Kenny is, pretty much, a voice acting legend. He voices the Penquin in this movie. And it's also the exact same voice he provided back when he voiced him during "The Batman" cartoon from the mid-2000's that ran during the Kids' WB era. Personally, I always really liked Tom Kenny's portrayal of the Penguin. It's just kind of a pity that he doesn't have very many lines here. However, that isn't really his fault. Still though, overall, the acting here is great. I can't really pick out a bad voice actor that may have phoned it in. Which is a good thing, even if some of their characters didn't get enough screen time to shine. So yeah, the acting here is really solid from the entire cast.

Now let's talk about the animation. And this is, at least to me, definitely going to be the deciding factor for anyone who's curious about this movie. I said at the start of this that there are those who really liked the unique style of animation in this movie, and there are those who completely despise it. And for the latter response, I can totally see why you would think that. Because the animation is in no way perfect. There are certain moments where the animation is kinda janky. Now mind you, I personally think that the animation looks really good for this kind of movie. Most of it is done in CG, and about 15% of the movie has 2D animation. I'll talk about the 2D animation in a bit, because I have something to say about that. But for the most part, the CG models on most of the characters, and their movements, look really solid. The only one that looks really questionable is Gorilla Grodd. I hinted at it earlier, but there was something off about Grodd's fur that didn't entirely sit right with me. And after really thinking about it, I believe the problem with his fur is that it's overly detailed. And it kinda comes off as rather chunky and kinda shit, really. And I compare that with his appearances in the "Justice League" animated series. Where he was all 2D, and he looked great there. But in this movie, not so much. Now admittedly, I did start to get use to his character model later on as the movie continued, but it is something that will definitely throw you off, especially if you're not comfortable with this style of animation. That being said, there are a few moments where the animation looks a little bit wonky, such as when some characters are talking to each other. One example I can think of is with Grodd and Joker as they were talking with each other at one point, which definitely looked the worse out of the bunch. However, I will say that the CG animation for this movie is miles better than the crap that was shown in the "Berserk: Golden Age" trilogy. Where those movies had to mix in both traditional animation and the cell-shaded CG, and they looked HIDEOUS, mostly the latter than the former. However, this movie is mostly just working in the CG, and it does look really good.

There is one more thing that I want to comment on in regards to the animation, which is the usage of 2D animation. As I mentioned earlier, this movie has very little usage of 2D animation. Again, I would estimate about 15% of it is 2D animation. In most cases, it's used for background characters moving, and a close-up shot of Joker and Harley Quinn. And that stuff is mostly fine. But then, there's a scene in this movie that changes the animation style we'd seen up to this point into something that was rather...bizarre. Now, I will not spoil this scene for you guys. I will say that it involves the Red Hood, Batman, and two characters who look very much like Joker and Harley. So, what exactly is my issue with the animation during this scene? Well, have you guys ever seen or heard of a movie from Studio Ghibli called "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya"? It's based off a REALLY old Japanese story called "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter". The movie itself was odd, to say the least, but that's not my point. My point in all this is that I want you to imagine the art-style and animation from that movie, but it's incredibly rougher and somewhat out of place in this movie. Now the character models are perfectly fine in this sequence, but the animation just looks awful. Now admittedly, maybe it's because I was one of those that wasn't a fan of the art style from "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya". But at least the animation for it was still pretty good. But for this scene, the implementation of the animation just looks really rough. And it's mostly on the characters who look like Joker and Harley Quinn. Their animation during this bit just looks bad with their movements, and I had to question why they chose to do this style of animation for that sequence? Was it because of a stylistic choice? Was it because someone in the animation department was a really big fan of "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya" and they wanted to work in some of that kind of animation for this sequence? I don't know, but it just doesn't look right to me. Now I know some people will disagree with me on this part, but I just found the animation during that sequence to be pretty bad for the most part.

Sound-mix here is mixed perfectly fine. The score here is also pretty good. And seeing as how this movie is set in ancient Japan, it would make sense to have some music that would resemble this era in history. And they got that down in spades. Now mind you, none of it is amazing, but it definitely works for this movie. So, I can say that the music here, overall, is pretty good.

So, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "Batman Ninja"? I'm able to say yes, provided (and this is a BIG provided, mind you), that you are able to get into this style of animation. Because that's really the big deciding factor, overall, for this movie. If you are able to get into it, then what you have is a pretty cool story with superb acting. However, I cannot guarantee that you will like the animation, or even the art style. And if you're not able to, then it's best that you avoid this thing the best you can. It's not often I'm able to recommend a movie or not based solely off the animation, but given how much people have talked about it, it's really hard for me to not make it the deciding factor. Myself personally, I was able to get into it for the most part. But again, that's just me. If you are a fan of DC Comics, and you want to see an animated movie of theirs that's something a little different, then I would probably recommend this thing, at least for a single viewing experience. And if you liked it enough, then I would be able to recommend buying it on DVD or Blu-ray. As for myself, I really did enjoy this thing. And I'm probably gonna be watching it again at some point. So yeah, this thing is definitely going into my DVD collection where it's going to join a bunch of the other DC animated films that I have lined up next to each other. And speaking of which, I'm gonna go and watch one of them right now. I think I'll go and watch "Batman: Under The Red Hood". It's been a while since I last watched that one, so I'm gonna go and do that next.

And with that, guys, we come to the end of this edition of "Tales of the Longbox". Overall, not too bad, all things considered. But next month is gonna be even more interesting, seeing as how I'm gonna be starting a brand new themed marathon entitled "Full Moon vs. Troma". And that one's gonna be unpredictable, to say the least, because I have no idea of what I'm getting myself into for most of those movies. But anyway, guys, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.