Do you know what I love most about children? It’s not that whole being innocent compared to adults that gets most of us older people feeling down, it’s that they don’t care about licensing. Not. At. All. If you’ve never had the pleasure of sitting down to play with a five-year-old, they have no qualms about Spider-Man throwing down with G.I. Joe or Darth Vader. I grew up in the late ’80s/early ’90s when TMNT and Batman both ruled the airwaves of Saturday morning cartoons and in my free time, you would’ve found me sitting in my room playing out what-if scenarios that would pit them against or working with each other. Needless to say, I was geeking out beyond what any adult should when the animated film adaption of the somewhat recent Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book crossover was announced. Now, I grew up on Batman: The Animated Series, and found the most recent Batman animated release Batman Ninja to be… lacking, to say the least. How does this release stack up for me as somewhat of a Batman snob? Let’s dig deeper.

The story follows the comic book mini-series from a few years back almost play-for-play. For the uninformed, it finds Shredder and his Foot Clan visiting Gotham City to team up with Ra’s al Ghul while the turtles are hot on their trail. Taking cues from any crossover in the history of time, Batman and the turtles end up meeting, fighting it out, and then teaming up as you’d expect. As far as the story goes, it’s an extremely predictable journey that is fun nonetheless.

For the first half of the film, I struggled to enjoy it, not because anything is obviously terrible in any way, but due to the fact that the tone is literally all over the place. It’s as if the team at DC couldn’t decide on who they were making this film for. One second, there are body parts being ripped apart limb from limb (in line with some of the more mature animated films recently released by DC such as The Killing Joke), and the next there are some jokes made by the Half-Shelled heroes that are clearly aimed at the younger market. This remains a constant throughout the film and until you sit back and turn on autopilot, it will likely impact your enjoyment of the material.

Overall, the animation style finds a home somewhere between the classic ’90’s iteration of the Batman series and some of the newer, more kid-friendly offerings. I can’t fault DC for going this route, but I wish they would’ve pushed the entire film further into the mild body horror style that is prevalent for a good portion of the middle act. There are a number of spine-tingling scenes that feature some of the Caped Crusaders more prominent rogues and obviously, their mutated versions. Much like the comedy found in the writing, these visuals often start off strong and peter out slowly afterward, all due to the visual style or the route the characters’ design. The abominations that Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, or The Joker turn into are downright hideous and do their respective characters justice… and then we get Bane and Mr. Freeze lumbering in like the animators couldn’t figure out anything more original.

The TMNT find themselves remade to fit the Bat-verse as well, each having specific physical traits that make them stand out amongst the group outside of the color/weapon differences a number of other outings have used. This, as well as a few prominent scenes, cements certain elements of this film as some of the best we’ve seen from DC since the days of Mask of the Phantasm. Late into the movie there is a battle in which Leonardo is seething with rage, and it translates extremely well thanks to small details such as the look in his eyes, the angle of his head, and the way his large fingers roll up his sword leading up to the attack. These small snippets make me long for what could’ve been if the same attention to detail and style had been used throughout the film because honestly, this pushes the boundaries of a PG-13 animated film. It’s not the mild cursing that does so, it’s the brutal violence that made me wince at times, because the action pulls no punches.

The voice cast is a nice mix of old and new. I was a bit saddened to learn that Kevin Conroy (the voice of Batman for my generation) was not donning the cape and cowl, although Troy Baker fills in as a respectable replacement pulling double duty as Batman and The Joker. Making her triumphant return as Harley (as well as Poison Ivy) is Tara Strong, who like Conroy, will always be Harley to me. While none of the other names are standouts to me (Tom Kenny and John DiMaggio are both in it as well), they do an apt job of selling the story and keep the action rolling.

Even though it fails to meet the extremely high bar set forth by some of the past films under the Batman moniker, Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles offers a fun look at what would happen if the Dark Knight clashed with the Teenage Mutants. With moments of brilliance and a tone that aims to draw in viewers from all generations, this isn’t one to be missed. Let’s just hope if any repeat encounters are in our future, they get the tone nailed down.

8 out of 10

Pros

• Great Crossover Full of Dumb Fun
• Some Creepy Body Horror Elements
• Troy Baker as Batman/The Joker
• Great Action Scenes

Cons

• Tonally All Over The Place
• Some Lackluster Animations
• Some of the Oozed-DC Villains Look Ridiculous

Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was directed by Jake Castorena. It was released digitally on May 14th, 2019. The film was not provided to us for viewing.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth your time, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great movie that you can feel confident about paying money to see in theaters or at home. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate movies, please let us know.

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