

Batman Unlimited: Animal Instincts is the strangest Batman series yet. It isn't as bad as Beware the Batman but it also isn't as good as some of the other Dc Animated features that were released. The whole premise of the film is The Penguin has released these mechanical animals and has fooled Gotham into believing that these androids are to benefit people by doing extraordinary things the average human can't but all along these robots are also teamed up with Killer Croc, Cheetah, Silverback and Man-Bat.

The film starts out pretty well with Batman testing what seems to be the Batman Beyond costume but I can't understand why they chose to make Gotham something futuristic with flying cars and mecha robots, then it hit me, one scene in particular had a flying police car that was folded up just like the DeLorean from Back to the Future. As I continued to watch this film things started to make sense, this Batman had everything kids of the 80's loved, its not only a mixture of Batman but it also holds hints of Thundercats, He-Man, Back To The Future 2 and even Gi Joe. It gets a little ridiculous that they have Transformers: Beast Wars stuff going on and treating any character that isn't Batman as a second rate superhero. I mean seriously this animated feature has so much nostalgia tied up into it I could have swore I see Silverback using a scouter that Vegeta used in Dragon Ball Z.

It surprising that director Butch Lukic took so many liberties with these characters after all he has worked on storyboards from everything from The Real Ghostbusters all the way to Ben 10 Alien Force. The costume designs for the heroes such as Red Robin, Flash and Nightwing looked terrible and the design on Batman's chest was something out of Earth 2 Thomas Wayne's Batman and it would have been more interesting to see Batman using the suit he started out with in the beginning of the film.

There are some really good parts to this feature Green Arrow and Bruce Wayne's connection is excellent. Hearing Roger Craig Smith reprise his role as Batman from Arkham Origins seems a little better in this film than the game, also a surprising addition to the film is Dana Snyder who is best known as Mastershake from Aqua Teen Hunger Force does a great job as The Penguin.







Then there one of my favorite Batmans of all time steps down from playing Terry McGinnis and jumps into the Nightwing suit and I must say Will Friedle brings something special to every voice he does and this feature is no exception.



To sum everything up Batman Unlimited:Animal Instincts isn't a complete waste of time if you like wasting time, but it isn't the Batman animated feature we needed or would even want, the characters all seem like Elseworlds versions of themselves and Batman changes his costume so much it feels like a running advertisement for a toy commercial just like the cartoons of the 80's, each villain and superhero feels as if they were made based off previous episodes of classic 90's cartoons and although characters like Green Arrow, Flash, Nightwing and Batman portray the characters pretty well everything else falls flat from costume designs all the way to the sub par story line that makes you wonder what happen to that hour and 20 minutes of your life.