Dollar Tree Cinema: Batman Ninja

“Batman Ninja” (2018)
Starring Roger Craig Smith, Tony Hale, Fred Tatasciore, Grey Griffin
Directed by Junpei Mizusaki
Written by Kazuki Nakashima; English screenplay by Leo Chu and Eric S. Garcia
Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, and for some suggestive material

I've spotted more than a few animated DC movies on the shelves at Dollar Tree. Many years ago, I would have eagerly snatched all of them up without a second thought because comic book-based movies and shows were rare and high-quality productions even rarer.

Nowadays there's an embarrassment of riches, and I just haven't seen most of DC's animated offerings. Some of that's because I'm not all that keen on R-rated cartoons, but mostly it's because there's just too much to keep up with.

But “Batman Ninja” looked like it would be a standalone and potentially offbeat entry for another installment of #DollarTreeCinema. And with “The Batman” in theaters, this seemed like an opportune time to give it a shot.

I suppose I could have gone to see the new film – it looks good, and I've heard nothing but positives so far. Nevertheless, I just can't get that excited about it.

I think it's because we've seen a dark, brooding, up-and-coming Batman before. And we've seen all these villains too. I get that these are new interpretations, and for all I know, Matt Reeves, Robert Pattinson and company have delivered a fantastic version of the Caped Crusader. I wasn't crazy about a lot of what Zack Snyder did, but at least Ben Affleck's grizzled, weary Batman as the de facto leader of an expanding world of superheroes wasn't something we'd seen on the screen before.

Plus three hours and a movie ticket or just under 90 minutes and a buck?*

“Batman Ninja” was made by an all-star Japanese creative team, with a script by Kazuki Nakashima (known for an anime show called “Kill la Kill”), character designs by “Afro Samurai” creator Takashi Okazaki and directed by “JoJo's Bizarre Adventure” producer Jinpei Misuzaki. (I am not particularly familiar with anime, so Google and this article from TimeOut.com, plus video from a New York Comic Con panel included in the DVD's special features helped me piece that together.) Suffice it to say, this wasn't made by people trying to ape anime style.

I figured this would be a version of Batman's story retold as a period piece, but, nope, this starts out at good old Arkham Asylum, where a slightly more armored up than usual Batman is attempting to stop a plot by Gorilla Grodd, of all people (primates?). Grodd's “Quake Engine” goes kablooey and the heroes, villains and asylum disappear.

They wind up in feudal Japan, and Batman's the last to arrive. Everybody else has been there for a while, some as long as two years. Joker, Deathstroke, Penguin, Poison Ivy and Two-Face have taken control of swaths of the country, while Catwoman and Alfred have been waiting for Batman to appear. Meanwhile Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin and a Robin I can only presume is Damian have allied themselves with a ninja clan guided by a prophecy that tells of a foreign ninja wearing the mask of a bat who will come to restore order to the land. (Anybody else getting “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III” vibes?)

With the clan backing them up, the heroes form an alliance with Grodd to take down the Joker but are shocked when Grodd betrays them. A shaken Bruce Wayne acknowledges he can't rely on the time-displaced technology destroyed in his first clash with Lord Joker and commits to adopting the ways of the ninja before leading them into battle.

I only just noticed the horses have masks.

All these characters come together with trained monkeys and bats and giant robotic structures that move about and fight in a finale so crazy it might best be described with a vulgar term for the excrement of our title hero's mascot.

In hindsight, I probably should have gotten the full effect by watching “Batman Ninja” in the original Japanese. That's not to take anything away from the American vocal cast, although the animation wasn't done with their language in mind, so at times it was reminiscent of watching the old dubbed-in-English Godzilla movies (I get a similar feeling when video lags on Zoom calls). I don't know if a language switch would have helped an exchange like Joker laughing that razor-tipped fans are bad for the environment as he slices through tree branches to get at Batman and Batman responding with “You're the one who keeps throwing them.”

Some aspects of the story are a little hard to swallow, but that may just be my lack of familiarity with anime. At times, it reminded me of when otherwise normal human folks started flying around in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” I do know they're from different countries; I just mean I'm not familiar with the cultures/genres where certain elements that seemed out of place to me originated.

I'm usually a sucker for giant creatures and/or robots fighting, but these moving castles tested my suspension of disbelief/ At least it's revealed that Grodd was influencing their construction as part of his wheels-within-wheels manipulations. And when (spoiler alert) Grodd's trained, armored monkeys and the ninja clan's drill team of bats combine to form a kaiju-sized Batman just because, it was almost as implausible as some of the car stunts in the “Fast and Furious” movies. But, as in that series, it looked cool.

The fights between normal-sized folks that followed almost seemed anti-climactic. And yes, the comic book purist in me was a little irked that Joker seemed to be a match for Batman in hand-to-hand or sword-to-sword combat. But not enough to rate this a “StuckInAMoment” tag.

Otherwise, the characters were pretty true to their archetypes, except the youngest Robin, who I still hesitate to call Damian. He was a pretty happy-go-lucky kid, excitedly chatting with a primate sidekick named Monkichi. He's nowhere near as snarky and arrogant as Damian, which nobody calls him. Also Alfred's fixation on food and recipes goes a bit far.

“Batman Ninja” moves along briskly, assuming its audience has a basic working knowledge of the characters. A subplot involving Joker and Harley losing their memories could have been explored further but it was an interesting aside while not sidetracking an efficient story.

Overall, it's a fun movie, with a striking style, and definitely a change of pace for the Batman.

* - I'll watch it, probably sooner than later. I'm not judging the quality of the movie at this point, just my own interest level.