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Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman is a 2003 American animated superhero film based on The New Batman Adventures (1997-1999). Released in the U.S. in October 2003, the film was produced by Warner Bros. Animation[2] and is the fourth film in the DC Animated Universe.
| Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman | |
|---|---|
Promotional poster
| |
| Directed by | Curt Geda |
| Written by | Michael Reaves |
| Story by | Alan Burnett |
| Based on | Batman created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane |
| Produced by | Margaret M. Dean |
| Starring |
|
| Edited by | Margaret Hou[1] |
| Music by | Lolita Ritmanis |
Production | |
| Distributed by | Warner Home Video |
Release date |
|
Running time | 74 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Batman and Robin face a brand new mystery; a new heroine, Batwoman, has arrived in the city, whose identity is a mystery. While she claims to fight for justice, Batwoman forsakes Batman's code to never take a life. Batman must figure out who she is, while stopping the Penguin and Rupert Thorne from selling illegal weapons to the fictional nation of Kasnia. The two villains employ gangster Carlton Duquesne to provide protection.
Batman, with Robin, sets out to stop Batwoman from making mistakes as she tries to take out the villains and as he encounters numerous twists, setbacks, and apparent false leads in determining her true identity. Bruce Wayne, Batman's alter ego, also becomes romantically involved with Kathy Duquesne, the crime boss' daughter.
In addition to Kathy, Bruce is introduced to two other women who, as his investigation into the Batwoman's true identity continues, seem to fall well into suspicion: Dr. Roxanne "Rocky" Ballantine, a new employee of Wayne Tech, who seemingly but briefly forms a bond with Tim Drake, Robin's alter-ego, and whose technology development Batwoman uses against Penguin; and Detective Harvey Bullock's new partner Sonia Alcana, who seems to know too much about the weapons being smuggled by the Penguin and Carlton Duquesne. With Carlton unable to stop Batwoman's raids on the facilities used to hold the various weapons, the Penguin calls Bane for additional support to ensure that there are no more losses as a result of the Batwoman.
Not long after Bane's arrival in Gotham, it is revealed that there is not one, but three Batwomen, all of whom were the women suspected by Batman. Kathy and Sonia met taking art classes at college, and Sonia and Rocky were roommates; and they all harbor grudges against the Penguin, Thorne, and Carleton Duquesne: the Penguin had framed Rocky's fiancé Kevin, Thorne had bankrupted Sonia's family, and Carlton Duquesne's war with a rival gang got Kathy's mother (his wife) killed. They had taken turns posing as Batwoman to remove suspicion on any one of the three: Rocky invented Batwoman's gadgetry with Kathy's funding; and Sonia invented the Batwoman persona as a tribute to Batman, who had saved her life nine years earlier and inspired her to become a police officer.
Kathy plants a bomb in the ship taking the weapons into international waters for the exchange – but not before Bane unmasks her. Kathy and Batman narrowly escape as the bomb goes off, while Carlton forsakes his ties to Thorne and the Penguin to save his daughter's life, and Bane falls into the Gotham River. Sonia takes the fall for the Batwoman operation, resigns from the GCPD, and decides to leave Gotham. Batman gives Sonia evidence that he discovered which helps clear Rocky's fiancé. Carlton agrees to testify against Thorne and the Penguin. After reconciling with her father, Kathy drives off with Bruce.
Cherie performs the single "Betcha Never" in the Iceberg Lounge as herself.
Despite that the majority of returning characters retain the same designs from The New Batman Adventures era, the character animation is brighter and more lively than from the series. Rupert Thorne was featured in the original show Batman: The Animated Series, but not in The New Batman Adventures. As such, the animators had to create a new appearance for him specifically for this film; he is streamlined and seems to have lost some weight compared to his previous appearance. The animation was outsourced to DR Movie.[3]
Paul Williams, who voiced Penguin in the animated series, did not reprise his role in this film. The character was instead voiced by David Ogden Stiers. The reasoning behind this decision was Alan Burnett deciding to experiment with a different voice, and bring more of a threatening ambience to the character. Interestingly, Bruce Timm, who was not involved with this film, mentioned he wouldn't have recast Williams, but that he nonetheless respected Burnett's decision.[4]
This film also marked the final performances of Bob HastingsasCommissioner James Gordon, and John VernonasRupert Thorne before their deaths in 2014 and 2005 respectively, as well as being the overall final film for Hastings.
Series writers Alan Burnett and Michael Reaves wrote the script. The film also shows further continuity with previous Bruce Timm-developed Batman shows: Barbara Gordon's romantic relationship with Bruce Wayne is coming to an end, Dick Grayson has left Gotham to fight crime in BlüdhavenasNightwing, and Robin and Batgirl are older than their depictions in The New Batman Adventures, but have not yet been forced to quit in the wake of the flashback events in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker as the film is set before those events.
The US DVD release of Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (October 21, 2003) included the bonus short silent film Chase Me. Chase Me is a 2003 American direct-to-video animated short film also based on the animated series The New Batman Adventures. The silent film was produced by Warner Bros. Animation, and follows Batman as he chases Catwoman across Gotham City. The chase sequences are accompanied by a soundtrack mix of a quiet piano score, and jazz style score that plays up the chase.
The film was written by Paul Dini and Alan Burnett and was directed by Curt Geda. It was co-produced by Geda, Burnett, Margaret M. Dean, Benjamin Melniker, and Batman-producer Michael Uslan. The score is by Lolita Ritmanis.
Chase Me is also included as part of the main feature on video streaming sites such as Amazon Video.[5]
The soundtrack album, composed by Lolita Ritmanis, produced by John Takis and mastered by James Nelson was released on March 29, 2016, by La-La Land Records. Bonus tracks and the score to the animated short "Chase Me" were also included.[6][7]
Chase Me
Bonus tracks
The film holds a 60% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[8] DVD Talk rated the film as 3.5 stars of 5 stars as "Recommended".[9]
