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REVIEWS - THE BATMAN VS DRACULA
The Batman vs. Dracula
Original Release Date - October 18th, 2005 - Direct-to-Video
Gotham City is
terrorized not only by recent escapees Joker and Penguin, but by the
original creature of the night, Dracula! Can Batman stop the ruthless
vampire before he turns everyone in the city, including the aforementioned
super villains into his mindless minions?
Reviews by Bird Boy
Media by Bird Boy |
Credits
Executive Producers Alan Burnett, Sander Schwartz, Benjamin Melniker,
Michael Uslan
Supervising Producer Duane Capizzi, Micahel Goguen
Producer Jeff Matsuda, Linda M. Steiner
Associate Producer Kimberly A. Smith
Casting and Voice Direction by Ginny McSwauin
Music by Thomas Chase Jones
Editor Margaret Hou
Sequence Directors Seung Eun Kim, Sam Liu, Brandon Vietti
Written by Duane Capizzi
Directed by Michael Goguen
Animation Services by Dongwoo Co., LTD., D.R. Movie Co., LTD.
Voices
Rino Romano as The Batman / Bruce Wayne
Peter Stormare as Dracula
Tara Strong as Vicky Vale
Tom Kenny as The Penguin
Kevin Michael Richardson as The Joker
Alastair Duncan as Alfred
Additional Voices
Jeff Bennett
Richard Green
Neal Ross
James Sie |
Review
On October 18th, Warner Home Video will release the first
Direct-To-Video feature for the popular The Batman animated
series. Skeptics wondered how it would stand up both against the
show itself as well as the rich history of the Dracula legend. You
don’t need to be skeptical anymore.
What we get from this movie eclipsed anything that I could have
imagined. I expected small amounts of blood due to the Dracula
legend, but was met with much more than a “small” amount; I expected
a reincarnation of Dracula’s legend, but was instead given the
Vampire basics, which work surprisingly well with shows tone. On top
of that, I also got a really solid story with lots of excellent
animation, storyboarding, writing and characters. But, I’m getting
ahead of myself…let’s start at the beginning.
The opening to the film is the credits; a simple black backdrop with
production crew names, ominous music and rain and thunder sound
effects echoing in the background. This helps set the mood for the
rest of the show incredibly well; it’s almost always pitch black and
the music continues it’s dark undertones throughout the entire
movie.
The movie immediately opens to Arkham Asylum, where an inmate
strikes a deal with The Penguin to split a stash of millions hidden
in Gotham Cemetary; he'll split it fifty-fifty if he can help him
escape. Apparently this inmate also
asked the same of Joker and within seconds of this revelation, the
alarm sounds in Arkham: Joker’s escaped.
The Penguin escapes in the ensuing Arkham madness and confronts
Joker who was on his way to the money stash himself. A knocked out
Penguin and a battle with The Batman and Joker, we’re taken back to
a Penguin wading through sludge to the Gotham Cemetery where the
movie really starts to pick up. This is where Penguin stumbles upon
Dracula’s tomb and accidentally brings him back to life upon
slitting his hand on his umbrella knife (“I’m bleeding!” Penguin
shrieks; I yelled a similar “He’s bleeding!” as the blood began to
drip down his hand) as he attempts to open the tomb. The blood drips
onto Dracula’s heart and his body immediately starts regenerating.
Back at The Batman / Joker fight, we see Joker fall into the water
and become violently electrocuted due to joybuzzers in both of his
palms. The shrieking screams are rather disturbing; you already
begin to get a sense that this isn’t just an extended episode of
The Batman; this is a much darker than anything we’ve seen on
the show.
Within these first few moments of the movie, we see Dracula pounce a
Cemetery guard and bite his neck, invigorating his body to a higher
strength than the single drop of Penguin’s blood gave him. Penguin’s
put under Dracula’s mind control and the stage is set for the rest
of the movie.
Dracula’s history is given in a nutshell; when he was killed in
Transylvania, they moved his body to another location, far from
Transylvania: Gotham City. This explains how he got there, but it
doesn’t really explain how Dracula knew that if the was dead. It’s
never told, but it has to be a given otherwise you have to put
Gotham in Budapest for Dracula to exist in a Gotham City cemetery.
The rest of the story goes deeper: a search to cure Dracula’s
victims instead of just killing them with sunlight or garlic gives
us a look at the scientist in The Batman, as well as his oath not to
ever kill, something he feels guilt over after seeing The Joker
“die”. And the final fight between Dracula and The Batman was more
than just a “showdown”; it doesn’t let up and it’s incredibly
intense.
If you’re wondering how they explain vampires to the general public
of Gotham City, it’s all wrapped up in a neat bow. After being
cured, the Lost Ones remember nothing but what happened before they
were bit. Everything is blamed on The Penguin who “put the Lost Ones
under a state of hypnosis”. I like the fact that they kept the
Dracula matter between only Vicky Vale, Penguin, Alfred and The
Batman; it just seemed like a tighter way to end it than the public
freaking out about vampires.
Vicki Vale is introduced as the love interest for the movie after
only about ten minutes or so. An interview between Wayne and Vale
starts the romance cogs moving, inviting her to a Wayne Manor
exposition and another date at Wayne Manor on Saturday. Her
character is fleshed out more over the movie, seeing that she cares
for Bruce, but is never really sure if he feels the same. Vale is
later used as a sacrifice to bring back Dracula’s original bride,
Carmilla Karnstein; we see her body decaying as her life force
brings back Carmilla and it’s added to the already growing stack of
disturbing images to come from the film.
One thing about Vale’s character that I loved was she didn’t find
out that Bruce was The Batman; this is something stereotypical of
feature-length Batman movies, with the love interest finding out in
the end. The fact they avoided this makes it all the more enjoyable.
After Vale, we see Dracula’s minions, or the “Lost Ones.” I can’t
help but think about The Lost Boys whenever they’re mentioned
and they’re certainly as freaky looking as the vampires in The
Lost Boys. Fast-moving, deep and dark eyes and a set of teeth
that would scare any small child, they’re pretty disturbing the
first time you see them. They gang up on The Batman and it’s a
really intense fight; yet another sign this movie isn’t what anyone
originally thought.
Unlike the Lost Ones, Count Dracula is able to hide his disturbing
face; his “normal” face is a pale, but handsome and angular, giving
off hints of a distinguished member of high society. His vampire
form is even more disturbing than the Lost Ones; deeper eyes,
sharper fangs and a penetrating gaze. It’s all quite scary when you
first see it.
One disappointing bit about Dracula is his transformation into a
bat; it’s implied in one scene, but we never see it again.
Considering the gorgeous animation this show has, I can only imagine
the transformation he undergoes; a shame we won’t ever see it.
All of the fights in this movie are on the “epic” scale; a showoff
in the graveyard between Batman and the Gotham SWAT, which include
laser-sight rifles that literally dance across The Batman’s body as
he dives and runs from the officers. Dracula taking out the guards
one by one in the darkness (hearing only the “swoosh” of his cape
and brief whimpers from the officers as they go down) and the fight
with The Batman across Gotham’s rooftops, which ends with Dracula
nearly defeating The Batman. These scenes aren’t even half of what
the rest of the movie gives, however.
I’m sure some have heard of the “blood bank scene” between a Vampire
Joker and The Batman. While you expect packets of blood in cabinets,
this blood bank is literally dozens of shelves with thousands of
vials of blood. We see Joker take six or seven at a time and drain
them into his mouth; later, we see the shelving fall down and begin
raining blood all over the scene, splattering the floor and hitting
Joker in the face. Joker drops to the floor to lap up the blood and
The Batman takes this to his advantage and knocks Joker out with a
garlic bomb.
The final fight between the Lost Ones and The Batman is great as
well; despite them ever closing in on The Batman, he is able to fend
them off with smoke bombs and his antidote. Despite what you may
think after seeing this fight, it does get more intense, as the
final fight between The Batman and Dracula expertly shows.
I’ve honestly never seen such intense fighting and…well, violence in
any form of animated Batman. The first part of the final Dracula
fight we see The Batman taking a severe beating by our vampire
baddy. This continues until The Batman triangulates his position in
Dracula’s lair and realizes that The Batman cave is not far off.
Blowing out a rock wall, The Batman takes the fight to the Batcave.
He takes quite a beating here, barely able to stand. A fake-out of
Alfred “killing” Dracula (which, to my relief, was a fake-out; if
Alfred killed the main villain of the movie, I’d be pretty
disappointed) follows, but the antidote that The Batman made for the
Lost Ones doesn’t work on Dracula. As Dracula himself says, “you
can’t cure a supernatural infliction.”
The coolest (and most surprising) part in the film is how Dracula is
finished off. Turning on a device that Bruce Wayne’s company had
devised that stored energy from the sun (something we see earlier in
the movie to set up its existence in the end), The Batman unleashes
it upon Dracula, literally frying his skin and setting him on fire.
While in excruciating agony, The Batman delivers a final blow to
Dracula which breaks his body apart; bones go flying and a
still-smoking skull rolls across the floor.
Like I said before—this isn’t the movie anyone was expecting. This
is incredibly violent and surprisingly bloody for what’s supposed to
be a “kids” movie. On top of these fights, there is a dream
sequence, which shows the night Bruce Wayne’s parents died, echoing
gun blasts and an appearance by a vampire version of The Batman.
I quite honestly wouldn’t recommend this movie to a younger audience
unless you’re planning to watch the film with them and reassure them
that it’s just a cartoon; the Lost Ones are undeniably disturbing
and scary and the sheer amount of blood that we see rivals anything
that I’ve seen in any animated Batman.
The movie is enjoyable from the minute it starts till the minute it
ends. As I mentioned before, it feels like a movie and not just an
extended episode—I can’t stress this enough. Forget what you
perceived when watching the trailer for this movie; what we get in
the end is nothing like this. Perhaps I’m exaggerating it all and am
simply running off of the general shock that this movie gave. After
a third viewing, however, I can tell you it loses very little of
it's intenseness.
With the movie out of the way, it’s time to focus on the other
elements of what make it up.
First is the animation: something that has always been the shows
strongest point, it’s carried over to the movie. The directing gives
the darker tone of the movie some excellent animation; from
Dracula’s cape envelopment to his burning flesh at the end, the
movies animation never faults or wavers.
The music by Thomas Chase Jones echoes the show with its
recognizable musical notes, but it also brings about a darker tone
of music as well. At times it sounds almost like something from
Batman Begins (especially the music during the end credits) and
it fits the Dracula mythos well. Lots of violins to be had
throughout the movie, it definitely carries the movie. Had Thomas
Chase Jones taken a different route, it would no doubt be a
different movie.
The voice actors are familiar to fans of DC animation. Tara Strong
(Batgirl from BTAS/TNBA, Raven from Teen Titans)
voices Vicky Vale and excellently so; a soft, young voice is exactly
what the characters image portrays and the voice fits perfectly.
Peter Stormare as Dracula was a bit of brilliant casting as well.
While he’s not as well known yet, those who saw the 2005 film
Constantine will remember him as playing an awesome Satan and
fans of Prison Break will no doubt be familiar with his John
Abruzzi character and voice. He does a great version Dracula and
thankfully without the thick accent that we often see the character
with in movies. Perhaps the best moment Stormare gave as Dracula was
his shaky voice while eating the beef tartar in the Wayne Manor
scene. It showed how much Dracula loved the smell and taste of
blood.
Rino Romano gave another great performance as Bruce Wayne and The
Batman. Combined with Strong and Stormare, the movies voice actors
enhanced and brought the story and animation to a whole other level.
After all of this praise, you’re probably wondering if there was
anything wrong with the movie. I have no problem with pointing out a
shows weak points, but the fact is…this movie just doesn’t have that
many.
While this movie is awesome in almost everyway, the only negative
point is the puns that are pretty much the sole responsibility of
The Penguin and The Joker. Without them, I realize that the movie
would be even darker in tone and would be even less fit for kids. It
helps keep the movie from being overly depressing.
The only thing in the movie I wish they would’ve left out was The
Joker’s belch after drinking the six or seven vials of blood in the
blood bank. True, the scene was already pushing the limits and the
burp certainly didn’t make it as dark, it would just been a perfect
scene had they left it out.
In the end, the negatives barely register in the grand scale of
things. The movie has an excellent story, great dialogue (sans
puns), amazing animation, perfect voice actors and a score that
keeps up and enhances them all. There’s very little not to like
about this film. Whether you’re a The Batman fan or not (and
even if you despise The Batman but love the Batman
character), you owe it to yourself to see this. I’m sure the puns
will annoy some more than they did me, but this movie can really
change your opinion of this incarnation of Batman.
At the very least, give this film a rent. A few key scenes are worth
the rental fee alone and you may just end up buying it, whether on
October 18th or the gift-set release (with two PVC figures of The
Batman and Dracula) on November 22nd.
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