"Batman Ninjia"

We've seen Batman do just about everything. We've seen him in 19th century London, we've seen him as an older man coming out of retirement in a corrupt future, we've even seen him take on Superman and live to tell the tale. Though we've never seen Batman as a samurai. 

Starting off in modern day Gotham City at the infamous Arkham Asylum, Gorilla Grodd (Fred Tatasciore) has gathered some of Gotham's worst of the worst, The Penguin (Tom Kenny), Two Face (Eric Bauza), Deathstroke (also played by Fred Tatasciore), Poison Ivy (Tara Strong) and of course Harley Quinn (also played by Tara Strong) and The Joker (Tony Hale) to be the first to use a time travel devise that they can use to rewrite history, but when Batman (Roger Craig Smith) crashes their party, everything goes wrong and he suddenly finds himself in ancient Japan.

There he discovers that The Joker has taken control over one of the providences while the other villains excluding Gorilla Grodd have their respected areas that they control with plans of taking over as much as they can from the other. Reunited with allies like Alfred (Adam Croasdell) and Catwoman (Grey DeLisle, credited as Grey Griffin) they find other allies that have made the trip, Nightwing (also played by Adam Croasdell) Red Robin (Will Friedle), Robin and Red Hood (both voiced by Yuri Lowenthal) along with a clan of ninjas loyal to the long foretold "Batman" that would come free their land. 

With almost no modern technology to aid him, Batman must reinvent himself to the time period brushing up on new skills while bringing his knowledge to the table to rise up over The Joker and gain back the time machine to return them home and set history back on track.

This film stands out from all the other DC animated motion pictures in a class of its own. The animation capturing the look of ancient Japan art while giving it the classic angles and fights one might expect from a martial arts movie. The costumes portrayed with each character putting them in the time period while capturing the essence of the familiar personalities of the characters seemed to reinvent them while remaining true to who they were. Along with some dramatic action and plays on the cultural myths of magic that makes it a graphic battle. While innovative, it may lose some of the DC fans with its over-the top plot twist that is not usually expected in the Batman franchise, though it gets a four G.M.Star rating with me for its imagination and portrayal of Japanese cultural pieces.

⭐⭐⭐⭐