Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (2003)

Remember Mask of the Phantasm? That was a good movie. Well, this is not that. The plot here is that a new costumed vigilante has shown up in Gotham. She's wearing a costume similar to Batman's and I guess we're calling her Batwoman. So Batman has to figure out who she is. Thankfully we have female suspects coming out of our ears so it shouldn't take long.There is so much off about this I don't know where to start. First thing, I hate the "New Batman Adventures" animation style and character designs but I could overlook that if it was the only flaw. It's not. The music is terrible. There's a distinct lack of atmosphere throughout. The whole thing is weirdly upbeat, despite the subject matter of revenge against criminals. Bruce Wayne spends a lot of the movie smiling. But why shouldn't he when he's the object of desire for all the jailbait in Gotham? Which brings me to the grossest parts of this movie. First, you have barely legal Batgirl being interested in Batman which is just all kinds of wrong. Then you have another girl whose age is not stated but she is at most early '20s. She becomes the love interest for Bruce. What was the obsession with giving Bruce a hot young girlfriend in this? If they thought they were being progressive by creating these female characters and making them such a big part of the plot, here's a thought: how about romance having nothing to do with it? Was it impossible for them to do this clichéd plot without making it even more clichéd?The story is weak. I didn't care who Batwoman was as the mystery wasn't that intriguing to begin with but I was able to figure it out pretty quickly. It's so obvious it's insulting. Penguin, quite possibly the lamest of all of Batman's classic villains, is a poor choice to use here. He's so yawnworthy they have to bring Bane into things to try and introduce some actual menace to the plot. The worst part of the movie is that it's terribly dull. If it's not the worst of the animated Batman films, it's near the bottom.

SPOILERS.What do you get when you remove the subtly, the artistry, and development and pacing of "Batman: The Animated Series"? You get this.The art is more flash than substance here; even though the animation of the 1992 series wasn't always up to standards, it still felt better suited. The opening looks cheap and like it was a rushed tact-on addition.The writing is amateurish and makes clichés of all the characters we came to love. It's pretty bad when the best line 20 minutes in is a throw-away line by Alfred reading Dennis the Menace in the newspaper. It takes more than another 20 minutes before a good scene comes again.Speaking of menace, the menace of Thorne is gone. The Penguin is reduced to a mass arms dealer and not the artsy Shakespearian fiend previously known, and another actor takes over voicing. Batgirl is turned into a clichéd young woman love interest. Even black people are a little clichéd here. And what's wrong with Kevin Conroy's voice?Composer Lolita Ritmanis, whom contributed great efforts to B:TAS and S:TAS, seems to not have been inspired by this either, as the music doesn't hold a candle to the previous series and is sorely cheapened by being made with synths instead of an orchestra. Also, it lacks the class of earlier Timm efforts.Everything is rushed and it doesn't breath, it doesn't flow properly, and there's no investment; it just goes by the motions. I cringed several times.And if that weren't enough, the special ends with a terrible song.Just a terrible effort.

good batman film which is animated this is about penguin and Rupert Thorn developing hight Tc laser guns then a mysteries new vigilante that calls herself bat women is trying to destroy all of the weapons and the factory before more get made and a lot of other plans against evil and things turn a lot worse than it has ever been before and bane comes to help penguin kill bat women. and everyone is thinking it could be Cathy Duncan.this whole film is action packed all the way through and a lot of cool fight scenes in it. overalls its great for kids not really a good film for at least 11+ my score is 8/10 buy this for little kids and watch it with them

"Batman: The Mystery of the Batwoman" is about as entertaining as animated Batman movies get.While still true to the feeling of the comic books, the animation is done with a lighter spirit than in the animated series. Bruce Wayne looks much like he has before, but now he appears somewhat less imposing. The Dick Grayson Robin has been replaced by the less edgy, more youthful Tim Drake Robin.Kevin Conroy, as usual, invokes the voice of Batman better than most live action actors.Kelly Ripa did a much more decent voice-acting job than I was expecting.As in the live action Batman films, the movie lives or dies based on the quality of the villains. My all-time favorite, the Penguin, is here. His design is sleeker than it has appeared before, hearkening more to the Burgess Meredith portrayal of the '60's than the Danny DeVito portrayal of "Batman Returns." David Ogden Stiers is the perfect choice for the Penguin's voice. The Penguin is finally portrayed as a cunning sophisticate, just as he most commonly appears in the comics. Hector Elizondo's voice creates a Bane who's much more memorable than the forgettable version in "Batman & Robin." And finally, Batman has a descent mystery to solve, putting the "Detective" back in "Detective Comics" (that is what "DC" stands for, after all.) The revolution to the mystery is a delightfully sneaky twist.The score adds to the mysterious ambiance of the movie. It sounds like a mix between the score from "Poirot" and the score from "Mission: Impossible." All in all, it's more entertaining than your average cartoon.