I've been a big fan of DC's animated features for about 10
years now. I've found each and every one of them to be worth seeing and highly
entertaining with the best of the lot being some of the among the most
impressive animated superhero tales I've ever seen. Even the occasional misstep
(such as inserting a salacious sexual angle into their animated adaptation of THE
KILLING JOKE) wasn't enough for me to dislike the film.
So last night I finally caught up with last year's BATMAN
AND HARLEY QUINN animated feature and was immediately happy to see that Bruce Timm
was involved. Timm is the creator of Harley Quinn from back in the Batman the
Animated Series days and to learn he was one of the guiding forces shepherding
this tale to this screen made me confident it would be solid work. For my tastes,
Mr. Timm could continue doing Batman the Animated Series sequel films like this
for the next 40 to 60 years and I would be a happy man.
The first thing I noticed is that the title is a little off.
In actuality this is a Batman, Nightwing and Harley Quinn story which for me
makes it even more interesting. Continuing the dynamic from the animated series
between Batman and the first Robin now grown into his 20s as Nightwing adds a
large amount of fun to those already established characterizations that I
really enjoyed revisiting. The humor in the story is well handled for the most
part, with only the fart joke being out of place.
The choice of villains was well done as well with Poison Ivy
and Jason Woodrow a.k.a. The Fluoronic Man working to turn the world into a
planet inhabited only by plants. This eventually involves Swamp Thing but not
the Swamp Thing most fans might be used to seeing. This is the Earth Elemental
Swampy more concerned with communing with the Parliament of Trees than the
mucky protector of the innocent forest travelers.
The PG-13 nature of things allows for some stronger than
average language and an amusing (and inevitable) sexual encounter between Dick
Grayson and Harley. Her comments about this lustful connection stimulate
several memorable, very funny lines. And stick around through the credits to
learn how a semi-reformed Harley will earn her place in society going forward.
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