Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (Dir: Curt Geda, 2003).
Mystery of the Batwoman is a tricky movie to synopsise without revealing too much plot and thereby giving away the mystery at its core. Suffice to say a new crime fighter is in Gotham City; the Batwoman has co-opted the caped crusader’s look and high tech style of battling the bad guys, piquing the interest of the Batman aka Bruce Wayne who is less than happy sharing the skies with this ambiguous anti-hero. Bruce makes it his mission to unmask the new bat on the block as do fan favourite felons the Penguin, Bane and mob man Carlton Duquesne whose weapons smuggling operation is the focus of Batwoman’s vigilante vengeance.
Since the turn of the 21st Century Warner Bros. Animation has, seemingly, been churning out made for the home market adaptations of DC Comics titles to create the DCAU (DC Animated Universe) to run concurrent but separately from the bigger budgeted live action DCEU (DC Extended Universe) series of cinematic movies. When Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman hit video and DVD shelves in 2003 the idea of feature length superhero movies was still a relatively fresh idea, with …Batwoman only the third title in the burgeoning series.
For DC and Warner Bros. it is easy to see the thinking behind these movies. The glory days of critically acclaimed blockbusters Batman (Tim Burton, 1989) and Batman Returns (Tim Burton, 1992) were now a decade ago and the franchise reviving Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan, 2005) was still a couple of years away. Batman as a viable live action cinematic endeavour was effectively killed by the lacklustre performance of Batman & Robin (Joel Schumacher, 1997); an overtly camp and kitschy affair that failed to capture the imagination of critics and audiences alike. Warner did, however, have an ace up it’s sleeve in the form of the superior Saturday morning cartoon Batman: The Animated Series (1992-95) and its successor The New Batman Adventures (1997-99). These, along with the equally well received Superman: The Animated Series (1996-2000) convinced Warner execs that feature length animations were the most viable direction to take the ailing franchise.
A theatrical release had already been granted to Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (Eric Radomski & Bruce Timm, 1993) a spin-off from Batman: The Animated Series which, despite a disappointing box office, received excellent reviews and quickly garnered a devoted cult following. Encourage by the positive reception a straight to video sequel followed in the form of Batman & Mr Freeze: Subzero (Boyd Kirkland, 1998). Sales of ...Subzero were healthy enough to see production of a further feature Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (Curt Geda, 2000), which effectively saw the beginning of the series in earnest.
While the Saturday morning cartoons had seen the series adopt a moodier atmosphere more sympathetic to the contemporary comic books, especially in comparison to Schumacher’s cinematic caped crusader, they had still retained a family friendly aesthetic. This was also true of the early animated features, although the series would soon largely abandon the kid friendly approach with increasing graphic violence, sexually suggestive scenes and some unfortunate misogyny. Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman somewhat represents a transitional period for the franchise; more adult in tone, but nothing particularly troubling for older children or young teens.
I will be honest with you, I’ve never really been a reader of superhero comics so I am no expert on the DC characters and the universe they inhabit. I have, however, seen a few of the DC movies, animated and live action. As a layman my opinion my opinion may count for little, but I gotta say, I enjoyed Mystery of the Batwoman and consider it one of the stronger DCAU entries. From a technical standpoint, the 2D animation is clean and surprisingly fluid for a non-theatrical production. It is also far more appealing than later 3D animated films in the series, some of which look positively ugly to this animation fan. The voice work is stellar; Kevin Conroy is, perhaps, the actor who has best embodied the Dark Knight, while the legendary David Ogden Stiers as the Penguin proves equally adept at playing comic book villains as he is mechanical timepieces.
Plot wise, writers Alan Burnett and Michael Reeves have crafted a story that gets a little convoluted but essentially remains compelling throughout the movie’s short 75 minute run time. The mystery at its heart is kinda predictable but its denouncement still provided a twist I hadn’t foreseen. ...Batwoman is decidedly lighter in tone than much of the DC cannon, with a little love action for Bruce thrown in amongst the beating up bad guys. I’m sure many would blanch at this but I honestly feel it adds a little more depth and dimensionality to seemingly perpetual bachelor Bruce.
Like I said, I am no Dark Knight devotee but, for what it’s worth, I enjoyed Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman. Granted, those deep into DC lore won’t necessarily agree with my opinion and why should they? For casual fans, however, while I wouldn’t necessarily recommend you seek it out with any great purpose; if you happen across it, it is certainly well worth a look!
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