Batman and Harley Quinn Review and WTF Bruce Timm??

Oh, Bruce Timm, what has happened to you? Champion of my childhood; the brainchild of Batman: The Animated Series (Batman: TAS). Now, the villain behind not one, but two terrible animated Batman movies. What happened? Have you contracted the same virus as Frank Miller? Is there a certain lifespan of Batman creativity that stops after the '90s? If only I could peek into that confused head of yours and see if there is a loose wire. I could fix it, and all would be right with the world. We could have good Batman stories instead of what we have now.

Remember good animated Batman shows/movies?

Batman TAS was an instrumental television show in establishing and memorializing the Batman universe for years to come. Not one person who grew up in the early/mid nineties could say they didn't know about the show.  Even with the repetition of villains, the show never got repetitious. It was fresh, exciting, and each episode was  told in a very surprisingly mature way, despite it being geared toward children. I mean, go back to any of the Mr. Freeze episodes and you'll see just how well they deal with tough subjects like a loss of a loved one.

A tragic villain with just enough grey area in his thinking to make you feel sorry for him.

Bruce was also responsible for Batman Beyond, which dealt with the teenage crowd pretty well. The episodes were more relate-able, the combat was way more brutal, and the futuristic vibe really helped capture young audiences. Not to mention, the futuristic suit and batmobile led to some pretty cool gadgets and episodes. Even the movie, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, was an instant classic. It was not only a great detective story, it also made a really great connection back to Batman: TAS.

The Joker can never die!

You could see the impressive track record he built up. But recently, this track record has been sullied with large blemishes.

Let's start with the animated film adaptation of The Killing Joke. 

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The graphic novel? Once again, revered to be one of the best comics found in the Batman universe. If you haven't read it, you really don't know Batman. A short read, but definitely shows the insane mind of Batman's most iconic villains.

The film? Atrocious. The Batgirl prologue story where she is basically has a crush on Batman and they get romantically involved was out of left field and very, very awkward. Not to mention, it was sexist and forced. There didn't need to be more story to make Batgirl's incident any less horrifying. There didn't need to be romance in this movie. There was already two forces at play: Batman realizing that the Joker is unintentionally (or intentionally) getting closer to figuring out Batman's secret identity and that Batman's relationship with Jim Gordon could be compromised when/if Jim finds out his daughter is Batgirl. There didn't need to be another layer to this problem. Especially not one dreamt up by a forty-year old man with left over raging teenage hormones.

The first thirty minutes are as cringeworthy as a rejected proposal at a basketball game. 

This blight on an otherwise pretty solid DC animated universe showed me that there was a reason for Bruce Timm to only do Y7 cartoon shows. It gave him a box that constrained him to focus on story and characters rather than trying to prove to everyone he was mature and edgy. I wish he was still in his box. Boxes can be good sometimes.

You would think they would look back at the criticisms of what ruined an otherwise sure shot hit. I mean, how could you mess up a fan favorite that bad? But they didn't. Nope. Instead they took literally everything bad about the The Killing Joke film and padded that mess out to a feature length film. I give Batman and Harley Quinn (BaHQ). Never have I wanted 70 minutes back so badly.


Nothing could save this movie. Even bringing back the Batman: TAS cast couldn't help it. Funny thing is that they couldn't bring back the original voice actress for Harley Quinn and the new actress takes...well...some getting used to. Sadly, I never did, and since the whole movie is technically about her, it was constantly a pain to listen to.

This is why I hate peas.

The story is simplistic at best. Save the world from Poison Ivy's and Floronic Man's (yeah, I don't know who he is) plan of turning everyone into plants. I guess they are trying to save the world since humans are destroying it. What better way then to make everyone plants? Besides a blatant, ham-fisted monologue about climate change and how humans emit greenhouse gasses as justification for enslavement, there really isn't any other plot development in the movie. Harley Quinn is thrown into the mix because she is Poison Ivy's friend, so she would know where Ivy is. Of course, this is the natural solution. Instead of using his vast intellect and unmatched detective skills, he just elects to phone a friend for the plot progression.

Bruce Timm's "edginess" continues in this little adventure. Scantily-clad women, panty-shots, fart jokes all come into focus here. And there's not one time where I didn't feel embarrassed watching this movie. There's even a full cover of "Hanging on the Telephone" by Blondie (which was actually pretty good but it was sooo out of place). I don't mind a light-hearted Batman story, but you even light-hearted stories can still be compelling. I won't even go into the relationship between Nightwing and Harley either.

Supposed to be an homage to Kingdom Come but done horribly, horribly, wrong...

Don't forget that the script itself is terrible. Here you have an all-star cast reprising their roles and yet I felt that in every scene you could hear each VA's eye roll. There's even a scene about magical yams. And not those Kendrick Lamar yams, either. What the hell are those yams even? Why do yams let you travel into trees? Why is the Swamp Thing even in this movie if he doesn't do a damn thing? Yes, these are the questions you may ask yourself when watching BaHQ. 

I was like Nightwing the whole time during the movie. 

Something is seriously messed up in the Warner Brothers animation department. I was onboard for a while but these bumps may have thrown me off their hype train. And these two outings have given me a different opinion of Bruce Timm as well. I'm going to give their next graphic novel to animated film, Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, a shot before throwing in the towel.