Directed by Michael Goguen Written by Duane Capizzi Produced by Jeff Matsuda and Linda M. Steiner Executive Producers: Alan Burnett, Sander Schwartz, Benjamin Melniker and Michael Uslan Music by Thomas Chase Jones Casting and Voice Direction by Ginny McSwain Edited by Margaret Hou Animation Services by Dongwoo Co., LTD and D. R. Movie Co., LTD Voices Rino Romano (Bruce Wayne/The Batman) Peter Stormare (Dracula) Tom Kenny (Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin) Kevin Michael Richardson (The Joker) Tara Strong (Vicky Vale) Alastair Duncan (Alfred Pennyworth)

Released on DVD to coincide with Halloween, the ninety-minute The Batman vs. Dracula slants toward an older crowd with its copious violence and bloodshed; the amount of blood in the film might shock some people and younger children should definitely watch the film with parental supervision. But the narrative is still pitched at a simplistic level and won’t likely satisfy older viewers beyond the eye-popping visuals and excellently choreographed action sequences. A darker look and more horrific themes can only carry a story so far, and The Batman vs. Dracula goes only halfway in the story department.

The concept of these two great ‘bat’ legends, both mysterious creatures of the night, is a wonderful one that has appeared sporadically throughout the comics, usually in special one-shots. (Dracula has traditionally had closer associations with Marvel Comics, which had a hit with Marv Wolfman’s Tomb of Dracula comic in the 1970s.) For this titanic bat vs. bat face-off, the brains behind the show hatch up a rather generic concept to bring Dracula to Gotham, one that Hammer’s vampire movies had already explored. For reasons only hinted at in immobile flashbacks, Dracula’s coffin was brought across the ocean and placed in Gotham Cemetary. When the Penguin and the Joker make an escape from Arkham Asylum (easily the least effective prison ever constructed), Penguin makes a trip to the cemetery to find a stash of recently buried loot. Before he can re-do a scene from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, he stumbles upon Dracula’s resting place and accidentally revives the King of the Undead with a few drops of blood.

The remainder of the story follows the simple thrust that Dracula wants to conquer Gotham with his vampirized (but not technically undead) servants, and Batman has to stop him. Reporter Vicky Vale takes on the woman-in-jeopardy role, and a briefly explored subplot has the Gotham police gunning for Batman as the perpetrator of the disappearances around the city. The Penguin and the Joker provide some distractions from the straight-ahead battle between the bats, with Penguin plying his wisecracking puns and Joker doing his usual acrobatic freak-out act. Surprisingly, Penguin is one of the most effective elements of the movie, and his humorous bits add a nice touch of levity to an otherwise grim enterprise. I still find it hard to get used to Tom Kenny’s “Sponge Bob” voice for the Penguin, however.

Like the television series, the movie places the accent on action, and it doesn’t disappoint in this regard. Batman’s two big tussles with Dracula are filled with rapid movement and dizzying sweeps that don’t let you catch a moment’s breath. However, the real action highlight arrives in the middle of the movie, in a fight in a massive blood bank that floods the screen dark red. If this scene were shot in live-action, it would qualify the movie for an ‘R’ rating automatically. At all times the animation is astonishing, and the deep black and red color-scheme makes Gotham the perfect gothic Halloween town for the the bloody proceedings. 

But action pizzaz and the gorgeous deep-red design of the movie can’t compensate for its lackluster story and its general feeling of ordinariness. Dracula offers nothing new aside from the standard clichés of the vampire movie–nothing the King of the Vampires says or does will surprise anyone except younger children. Peter Stormare’s vocal performance is also surprisingly bland for such an excellent actor. Dracula’s voice has no real presence and the slight Hungarian accent sounds somewhat silly.

Other flaws inherited from the television series hold it back. Alfred the butler has turned chilly and heartless, the voicework tends toward overly familiar professional voiceover artists instead of the unusual and effeftive celebrity voices from Batman: The Animated Series, and Batman’s over-realiance on gadgetry instead of detective work.

Finally, where The Batman vs. Dracula should feel like an expanded epic, with all its blood and gigantically orchestrated action, it instead feels rather puny and brief. The clash between Batman and the foundational creature of the night should have had more complexity and depth to beyond an anime-inspired twirl through a gothic landscape and some cool fisticuffs.

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