DC Animated Superhero Retrospective Series - The Batman Vs Dracula (2005)

Written In January 2014

Before I get to the plot, can I just say… This a REALLY random set up in my opinion. Who would even think to set up a powerless hero who’s normal shtick involves being a detective, not someone who typically goes head to head with supernatural beings, and even when he does, 7 times out of 10, he’s hanging out with the Justice League and people who DO work with this kind of stuff. I’m just saying. Onto the plot.

Plot Summary Taken From Wikipedia:

The Joker and the Penguin break out of Arkham Asylum and race each other to find a stash of stolen money hidden within a crypt in Gotham Cemetery. The Joker is quickly intercepted by the Batman and is electrocuted when he falls into a river by his super-charged joy buzzers while the Penguin takes the opportunity to enter the cemetery himself. While searching through a crypt, the Penguin accidentally cuts his hand while using his umbrella-sword to open a coffin he hopes contains the money, finding a body instead. The blood from his hand drips on the corpse’s heart, which brings it to life; it is none other than thevampire lord Count Dracula, his body having been moved from Transylvania to Gotham City after his “death.” After attacking and turning a watchman at the cemetery into a vampire, Dracula hypnotizes the Penguin into becoming his non-vampiric servant so that he may lead him through Gotham to feed and guard his coffin during the day while he regains his strength.

While patrolling the city, the Batman witnesses a vampire attack, but decides to put the incident at the back of his mind and, as Bruce Wayne, proceeds to host a corporate party at his manor. The invigorated Dracula appears at the party, disguised as a cultural anthropologist under the name Dr. “Alucard” (“Dracula” spelled backwards), claiming to be visiting to study the Batman (believing his legacy had an influence on Batman’s existence), and takes an interest in Vicki Vale, a reporter who is interviewing and dating Bruce. After failing to turn Bruce into a vampire to quench his thirst, Dracula turns a waiter into a vampire that assaults Bruce’s butler Alfred. Realizing the imminent danger, Bruce immediately deduces “Alucard” is Dracula. Upon further research, Bruce learns that Dracula is behind the disappearances of several Gotham citizens, who have been dubbed “Lost Ones” by the media and turned into vampires, and attempts to find a way to synthesize a vaccine for the victims. Due to eyewitnesses claiming to see a bat-like figure during the attacks, however, it is mistakenly reported that the Batman is behind the disappearances instead. When Batman goes to Gotham Cemetery to look for Dracula, he gets chased down by a SWAT unit, all of whose members are taken by Dracula as they chase him back into the city. During a fight with the Batman, Dracula offers him to join him in his conquest of Gotham, though the Batman naturally refuses. Just as Dracula has the Batman at his mercy, the sun rises and Dracula is forced to retreat, vowing to kill Batman for rejecting his offer.

At the cemetery, the Joker reappears alive and well and confronts the Penguin, saying the shock to his head helped. He asks where the treasure is, thinking Penguin has already found it, chasing him into Dracula’s tomb. However, despite Penguin’s warning to not open Dracula’s coffin, Joker ends up “breakfast in bed, freshly-squeezed” for Dracula. The Batman tracks down the vampire Joker as he feasts in a blood bank and captures him. While the Batman attempts to concoct an antidote from the Joker’s infected cellular structure, Alfred discovers that Dracula once had a vampire bride, Carmilla Karnstein, who met her demise when she was exposed to sunlight. During his research, however, Bruce stands up an understanding Vicki, who is soon kidnapped by Dracula. Finally, the Batman is able to cure the Joker of his vampirism and ascertain the location of Dracula’s lair in Gotham Cemetery before returning him to Arkham. He then proceeds to mass-produce the vaccine to defeat Dracula and cure his victims.

Dracula attempts to sacrifice Vicki's soul to reanimate his bride Carmilla. Upon learning that Vicki has been kidnapped, the Batman rushes to Dracula’s lair with his anti-vampirism vaccine and arsenal of weapons, defeating and curing all the “Lost Ones” that attack him in the catacombs beneath Gotham Cemetery. The Batman then frees Vicki, disrupting the reanimation ritual. Dracula sends the Penguin to recapture Vicki while he fights the Batman, who lures Dracula into the Batcave and towards his prototype solar energy-storing machine and incinerates him with the sunlight stored within, reducing Dracula to a pile of ash and bones. This also frees the Penguin from his control, who, while chasing Vicki, finally finds the hidden treasure that caused all the trouble in the first place. Sadly for Penguin, he is arrested and blamed for Dracula’s kidnappings, causing the media to think he was forcing people to find the treasure. Having defeated an ultimate evil, the Batman triumphantly continues his duties to defend Gotham against anyone who may threaten its safety.

Contrary to my opinion of this being random, I really dug this movie. It didn’t quite hit me like Return of the Joker, Phantasm or Sub-Zero, but it was a much appreciated breath of fresh air after having to put up with Mystery of the Batwoman being so… Uninspired. This however, what’s a more inspired (if not, again, random) idea than Batman having to match wits with the Gothic Prince of Darkness, Count Dracula. Brought to a wonderfully creepy life through the voice of character actor, Peter Stormare. And makes this movie better for me, is that it’s set in a series that was a big part of my childhood; The Batman! While in all of my last four reviews I praised Kevin Conroy and company for their delightful and iconic takes of these characters, Batman: The Animated Series was not the Batman I grew up on. Like many, I actually spent my Saturday mornings looking forward to the continuing adventures of the caped crusader on Kids WB brought to life through the efforts of Rino Romano and company in their own series, The Batman. And that’s not to say I never watched B:TAS, I caught a few episodes here and there growing up, and of course like any sane 12 year old, I religiously watched Justice League and Justice League Unlimited on Cartoon Network. I also watched plenty of Teen Titans as well, but that review is next on the itinerary. But either way, I don’t get why people don’t talk about this show so much? It may not have had the same level of prestige as TAS and it may not have been as reverent to what came before it as The Brave and The Bold. But it was still pretty clever, the animation was generally pretty great, and how do you not love that theme by U2’s The Edge? Anywho, let’s get the pros and cons!

PROS:

• Peter Stormare is wonderful as Dracula!
• Kevin Michael Richardson gives a great performance as the Joker, I find him extremely underrated!
• Tom Kenny surprisingly makes for a pretty kick ass Penguin.
• Rino Romano is wonderful as Batman and Bruce Wayne respectively.
• Tara Strong is in this movie, I like Tara Strong.
• There are parts of this movie where the Joker is arguably creepier than Mark, Jack and Heath’s Jokers respectively. Not combined of course, God only knows how creepy that would be. Or maybe just Scott Snyder. 
  Seriously, what the fuck man?
• This Dracula is actually DRACULA, it’s not some toned down cartoonish caricature of the Lord of the Vampires, it is the real deal and creepy as hell.
• The vampires in this movie suck blood, they don’t steer away from it, we see them actually chomping down on people’s necks and lapping it up.
• Before being brainwashed, The Penguin refuses to serve Dracula. This feels pretty in character to me, given how much of an arrogant bastard he generally is.
• Vampire Joker is especially creepy!
• This is more of pro from the actual series, but I like that Penguin and The Joker are actually worthy physical combatants to Batman. They aren’t some guys who use tricks to best the guy, they can actually best him physically. This makes the fights more intense when you realize that these are actually guys that Batman can’t put down with ease.
• Batman actually gets to use science to solve his problems for once. This is something that we never really got to see Batman do in his prime in these movies. I say in his prime because we see Bruce trying to synthesize an antidote for the Joker Venom in the Batman Beyond movie. But regardless, Batman isn’t just a master detective and excellent combatant, he has degrees in advanced science and engineering! This is something I enjoy seeing
• The flashbacks/dream sequences in this film are wonderfully eery and well handled, especially with the repeated use of the Martha Wayne’s pearls falling onto the ground and always transitioning with the sound of a gunshot.
• When we first hear that the Joker’s broken out of Arkham again, all of the inmates sort of cheer. I find that funny.
• Joker’s “death” was really well handled, and while it wasn’t as emotionally effective as it was in Return of the Joker, it was, again, very creepy. With The Joker letting go of the ledge he was hanging from screaming “BYE BYE BATSY!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” Quickly realizing his joybuzzer was malfunctioning and struggling to keep afloat when hits the water as the electricity brings him to his final end. Or so I thought.
• There’s this quick scene where Dracula feeds on the Joker inside his coffin and Penguin tries to make a joke about it, but you can see he’s absolutely horrified. This is especially great because of the Penguin’s face where he just stares at the scene like “That is the most fucked up thing I’ve ever seen in my life!”

CONS:

• While I generally find Tara Strong to be a delightful presence, I don’t get why Vicki Vale had to be here.
• While the movie doesn’t stray away from the horror aspect, I wish it had the maturity to actually talk the way characters would here. I’m not asking for something like Blade where characters openly and actively use the f-bomb multiple times throughout, but actually throw out some real insults.
• At the end of their final conflict, as Dracula is dying, he proclaims in a horrified confusion that Batman is Bruce Wayne. Why did he just now acknowledge this? He never noted it beforehand or even hinted at knowing this, it just sort of comes off like a superhero movie cliche that the villain must always find out the hero’s true identity before being finally defeated.
• I wish we’d been given more explanation about these vampires, every good movie featuring these creatures gives some kind of explanation about what the deal is.

Overall, this was a real treat. It felt good to hear Rino, Tom, Kevin and Alistair Duncan again as Batman, Penguin, Joker and Alfred respectively. Peter Stormare was great as Dracula. And the story was surprisingly effective emotionally, I won’t say it hit me as hard as Mask of the Phantasm and Return of the Joker, but it did something that none of these other movies have really done for me; creeped me the fuck out! I’d say Return of the Joker came close, but with that added element of science fiction, in my mind it felt like something that could easily be corrected. With this movie though, I was genuinely left wondering, how the fuck is this going to be fixed? Ultimately, I’m gonna give The Batman Vs. Dracula a 7.8 out of 10.