Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Batman Ninja Blu-ray Movie Review

Batman Sengoku style

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson May 13, 2018

While Batman Ninja (2018) is the twentieth Batman animated feature, it is perhaps the first title in the DC franchise to fully incorporate anime in its design palette. Although a team of Japanese animators brought anime to 2008's Batman: Gotham Night, this latest entry displays a heavy dose of manga in its animated images. The Movie Sleuth's Michelle Kisner has noted that the film combines both cel-shaded CGI models and hand-painted style 2D backgrounds. The fact that Batman Ninja uses a variety of colors and period details owes to its shifting locales starting in Gotham City (very, very briefly) and Feudal Japan.

The narrative begins on a rainy night in Gotham at Arkham Asylum where Batman and Catwoman are confronting Gorilla Grodd and his Quake Engine, a large time displacement teleportation machine. Catwoman inadvertently touches a gear on the Engine, causing Batman and her to be sent back in time six hundred years to Japan during the Sengoku period. Batman lands in the middle of a village where he is promptly attacked by a cadre of the Joker's henchmen carrying lances. After that fracas, Batman can hardly catch his breath before he learns that several of his arch-villains are occupying provinces throughout the country, including Penguin, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Deathstroke, and Bane (whose morphed into a sumo wrestler!). Lord Joker is the ringleader with Harley Quinn and him assuming imperial refuge in Arkham Castle. Catwoman/Selena Kyle has also made the trek along with Bruce Wayne's butler, Alfred. The Batmobile has magically surfaced in the region, although the Bats is without many of his trusty gadgets and big toys. He is joined, however, by a group of loyal ninjas as well as by Robin, Red Robin, and Red Hood.

The Batman and his arch-nemesis.

As you can probably tell from this abridged synopsis, director Junpei Mizusaki, original scenarist Kazuki Nakashima, and character designer Takashi "Bob" Okazaki (Afro Samurai) have crammed a lot of characters, locations, and subplots into a story that is a mess and literally all over the place. The filmmakers don't really let the audience catch its breath for very long and it's a chore to be able to follow everything. I don't take issue with Batman and Catwoman dueling it out with Joker and Harley in a faraway time and place. Those scenes work quite well. But I do have issues with them throwing in Batman's allies and major foes who seem to be there for fans sake. The problem is they merely occupy secondary or even tertiary roles in the form of cameos. All of those characters needed much greater development in the arc of this story as well as their specific purpose for being where they are.

Batman Ninja does display breathtaking visuals and the aesthetics are its chief attraction. The picture is highly imaginative in concept and the set pieces it deploys, which from range from a Joker-inspired ship and Transformer to a mega Batman robot. Even though the dialogue on the English sound track is uninspired, I thought that Tony Hale did an above-average impersonation of Mark Hamill as the Clown Prince of Crime. Further sentiments can also be made about the voice talents of Tara Strong, who delivered both Catwoman and Harley's lines. (For the latter, her high-pitched Northeastern squeals made me think of Arleen Sorkin and even Margot Robbie.) Overall, Batman Ninja presents considerable visual inventiveness but has a hard time deciding which story it wants to focus and settle upon. The narrative gets sidetracked too many times.

Batman Ninja Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Warner Home Video and DC Entertainment have released Batman Ninja as a triple package (Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD) that comes with an embossed slipcover. Warner has put the 85-minute feature on an MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-25, which carries a very modest average video bitrate of 14998 kbps. The movie appears in its originally composed ratio of 1.78:1. Colors and image detail are stellar. The picture makes a radical change to more plain and simplified animation at the end of the second act. The watercolor images are quite stunning and beautiful in evoking Zen-like paintings (see Screenshot #s 15 and 16). In addition to the CGI-looking animation, there is also a classic cartoon look to the picture (see #14). When introducing individual characters, the animators have overlaid large calligraphic letters over the image, denoting their names first in Japanese and then in English (see #s 8, 9, and 10). Although this transfer doesn't have any technical flaws, my one qualm is that some multi-plane compositions don't have as much depth as others.

Warner has provided nine chapter selections.

Batman Ninja Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Warner has included only one lossless audio track on this disc: the English-language version which is rendered here as a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (2830 kbps, 24-bit). Oddly, the original Japanese sound track, a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround mix (640 kbps), is placed in the bonus features pop-up menu instead of in the audio sub-menu! Leo Chu, the producer and writer of Batman Ninja's English version, told Michael Rougeau of Game Spot that although the visuals in both language editions are identical, approximately 90 percent of the dialogue is different. Chu and fellow English scribe Eric Garcia received a six-page manuscript containing a rough, literal translation of the Japanese script. The English track seems to deliver noticeably more words and dialogue than the Japanese track. Unfortunately, the English words carry little substance, with the jokes trite and fleeting, although the voice actors are up to the task. Their delivery is excellent on the DTS-HD MA mix. Words are uttered with sharp clarity. Dialogue is focalized around the front speakers, especially the center channel. Sound effects are precisely placed in discrete positions. The raindrops descending upon Arkham Asylum are heard distinctly on the surround channels as are explosions and other loud thuds. Composer Yogo Kanno's score is competently rendered on this track. Warner has included six different language dubs in lossy DD 5.1. It's unfortunate that the studio couldn't have dropped some of them and given the Japanese audio a DTS-HD MA or Dolby TrueHD.

Fourteen subtitling options are available for the feature. You can watch the English version with English SDH and the Japanese with regular English subtitles.

Batman Ninja Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• East/West Batman (17:33, 1080p)

• Batman: Made in Japan (14:03, 1080p)

• New York Comic Con Presents Batman Ninja (49:02, 1080i)

• Teen Titans Go to the Movies! Trailer (1:34, 1080p)

• Justice League Trailer (3:41, 1080p)

Batman Ninja Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'll watch anything related to the Batman universe and was looking forward to some big surprises in Batman Ninja. There definitely are but I found the feature to be a mixed bag. The inane dialogue and lack of consistency in the story are the main drawbacks. The gorgeous imagery is by far the best part of the picture. Warner and DC have delivered a nearly immaculate transfer but it's a shame that they could not accommodate the Japanese audio with an uncompressed mix. I gleaned a lot of useful information from the disc's two featurettes. The New York Comic Con Q&A is also a nice inclusion with three of the filmmakers present along with a translator. I'm giving Batman Ninja a slight pass. I would recommend a RENTAL FIRST before considering a purchase. If the splendorous images are sufficient for you, then I say it's worth adding to your collections.