Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman

I just finished watching 'Batman: The Mystery Of The Batwoman' on Cartoon Network, and was very pleasantly surprised! The franchise hasn't strayed from the Original's concept of telling a story well while keeping the tension going. 'Mystery' is every bit as good as the first 'World's Finest', that featured Batman and Superman fighting the Joker and Lex Luthor! The artwork, detail and sense of era (Love the 1940s Architecture and cars!) are splendid. The characters, solid. Especially Carlton and Katherine Duquenes. The plot, fairly straightforward. And the mystery and mystique of Batwoman is well kept. There's just enough action. Right where it is supposed to be. Bane makes a surprising and admirable appearance. Though his voice really should be Ricardo Montalban's. The Penguin is just as slippery, sly, and cowardly as ever. It's also nice to see Bruce Wayne having a little fun, without the Cape and Cowl. Big explosions. Cool Mini-Jets. Huge cliffhanger ending. What more could you want?

This is an okay Batman movie. The mystery is good and surprised me when it was at an end around the climax of the movie. Batwoman is cool and is not afraid to shoot the badguys and blow all their stuff to pieces. And it's funny how her suit looks like the Batman Beyond suit. Was Bruce so marked by her to design a suit after it? Haha, joking aside, the animation styles was my least favorite thing about the movie. Why? It is too bright for my liking and it took the character designs from The New Batman Adventures and they are already a big reason why I didn't enjoy that series as much as Batman: TAS. The backgrounds also seemed rather flat at times. So don't expect a Mask of the Phantasm quality, but a decent Batman mystery movie.

Before the real Batwoman became part of the DC universe we had the Mystery of The Batwoman where Batman discovers a new vigilante and being the worlds greatest detective sets about trying to identify her. The antagonist? The Penguin and a special guest appearance by Bane who is just beyond ridiculous. I can never take him seriously with a hispanic accent and that mask, yeesh! That should have pushed it up to a 15 by itself! This is clearly aimed at fans of the original Batman television series and appears very much the same, with a less grumpy than usual Batman, a very young Robin and a non-broody family friendly vibe. One for fans of the television series only I'd say. The Good: The "Mystery" pay off is quite good The Bad: Penguin looks weird, almost as if he's animated differently Bane looks like he's come straight from a BDSM club Things I Learnt From This Movie: I want one of Penguins umbrellas