Good idea lost in the noise

An absolute waste of money

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I give it points for having action from the beginning to the end. It doesn't set up anything fancy either, it is all in a futuristic Gotham where robots, lasers, tractor beams are all easy to get. But then everything else is just dumb.The animation is simplistic, the characters are one dimensional and the plot of the story is completely idiotic. Penguin has an army of robotic animals and, together with his band of animalistic villains, he wants to destroy Gotham in order to get enough gold to live happy and wealthy. Wait what? There is nothing in that story that makes any sense.In the end, as another commenter noted, it is just a 70 minute commercial for a toy line. But hey, so was Lego Movie, and it was awesooome nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah naaaah naaaaaah. This plain sucks.

Batman-lite. For all those with kiddies who might have been traumatised by the recent spate of morbid Dark Knight flicks, this should provide a much sanitised breath of fresh air.No-one dies. There's plenty of jokes, mostly courtesy of the Caped Crusader's colourful support team of heroes. And the violence is on the same level of a Saturday morning cartoon. All in all, it's the perfect film to introduce them to arguably DC comics most popular superhero, without having to tolerate weeks of crying and bedwetting afterwards.The only other factors worth mentioning are the new futuristic setting for Gotham City (which helps it stand out from most previous reimaginings of Batman) and the radical new design for the Penguin, who now resembles a cyborg more than a deformed old man. At least it makes him a more formidable adversary for Bats, though.Personally I prefer a more noir-ish setting for the Dark Knight, but as long as other versions of his mythos are entertaining enough, I can live with the occasional concession to his younger fans. Not bad at all. 6/10

Review batman unlimitedRemember those 1970s and 80s cartoons that were created just to con kids into buying toys? Well the trend is back, and Batman is jumping on the bandwagon. Sporting a brighter coloured new suit, a colourful supporting cast and equally multi coloured villains, BATMAN UNLIMITED: ANIMAL INSTINCT is based on the recent colourful toy line by Mattel. So colourful.You all know the drill: hero team vs villain team. In this case, heroic Batman and pals vs the evil "Animalitia" in a citywide caper that sets the "kindness to animals" campaign back by a decade or so. The Penguin, Silverback, Cheetah, Manbat and KillerCroc are evil and want to.......no cheating now, that would be a spoiler. They want to do crime, so enter Batman N Pals Nightwing, Robin, Green Arrow and the Flash. Each one sporting a sharp pointy new look with "cool" spiked hair and diamond sharp chins. Not exactly a kid friendly toy design but.........kids seem to like this sort of thing.A lighter tone and story for Batman can work if done well (see BRAVE AND THE BOLD). Unfortunately this is not done well. Whether intentional or not, the script sounds like it fits right in with the worst episodes of the 80s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sans the pizza. They might as well have left the pizza in though because the script is cheesy as heck. Jokes aren't funny, humour feels out of place, but the excellent cast do a fantastic job with the sub par material at hand. Roger Craig Smith reprises his role of Batman after having played the character in some of the "Arkham" series of video games. I like his batman voice. Almost like a young Kevin Conroy. What I did not like was the horrible character design of Batman (or most of the characters for that matter). Looking like some bad Gatchaman cosplay made with Power Ranger pyjamas, this new batman design is hilarious! The supporting cast ain't any better either; Everyone looks "stretched" and I already mentioned the silly hair. Everyone gets a cool weapon or gadget and the "money shot moment" where they get to show it off, while daddy gets another toy to add to junior's "Christmas wish list". Maybe it's not the production team's fault for the silly designs. Blame Mattel.It is the production team's fault for the sub standard art and animation. Characters barely have any shadowing or shading on them except in the extreme close-ups, just lazy flat colouring otherwise. The backgrounds have this techy futuristic vibe that reminds me of BATMAN BEYOND but they are equally flat and look worse off than Batman Beyond's lower quality episodes. The animation is barely better with its inconsistent nature. You have scenes that are smooth moving, an easy feat thanks to the simplistic artwork. But you have a good number of scenes that look like a flash animated internet browser game. Robot animals don't transform much less "melt" from animal to motorbike. And i absolutely hate that cheapskate tactic of blurring key frames to create the illusion of movement! Some parts seem to be drawing from the worst excesses of Japanese anime with the speed lines and freeze frames, just more lazy animation at work.Just because kids don't mind doesn't mean you give them animation on the cheap. If JLA TRAPPED IN TIME was the new millennium's "Superfriends", then BATMAN UNLIMITED is this decade's rehash of the 1970s "adventures of Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder". With production values of a TV series episode, perhaps this movie would be more suited as a pilot for a Saturday morning cartoon. Compared to other direct-to-video animation, this is ignorant fun for kids and a Cheesy, sub-par curiosity for adults who yearn for the nostalgic days of cartoons that sell toys.

Bad bad so very bad.I am a huge batman fan and watched every piece that has come from the franchise so far. This lackluster monstrosity to the batman name should have never been made.Watching the trailer it seemed like a great way of doing a new take on the batman. It failed. The plot was ridiculous in points (beyond normal superhero film levels), characters were boring and I am struggling to come up with one positive point except the animation was good about 30% of the time.Do not watch this and making your children watch this is child abuse.