Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a 2019 animated crossover superhero film, directed by Jake Castorena, written by Marly Halpern-Graser, and produced by Warner Bros. Animation, DC Entertainment, and Nickelodeon. The film is an adaptation of the six-issue intercompany crossover comic book miniseries Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by James Tynion IV and Freddie Williams II. The story focuses on Batman, Robin and Batgirl teaming up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, in order to save Gotham City from chaos at the hands of both Shredder and Ra's al Ghul with their sect: the Foot Clan and the League of Assassins. The film itself features the voices of Troy Baker, Darren Criss, Eric Bauza, Cas Anvar and Andrew Kishino.[2]

Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Blu-ray DVD cover
Directed byJake Castorena
Produced byBen Jones
Written byMarly Halpern-Graser
Based on
Starring
Music byKevin Riepl
Production
companies
Distributed byWarner Bros. Home Entertainment
Release date
Running time
84 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The film is the first collaboration between Warner Bros. and Nickelodeon, and was produced for the direct-to-video market. It was released on both Blu-ray and Digital HD on June 4, 2019. It achieved positive reviews, and grossed over $3.3 million from home video sales.

Plot

While touring Powers Industrial, Barbara Gordon witnesses a power generator being stolen by the Foot Clan and also spots four mysterious and elusive creatures during the robbery that she believes are metahumans. She informs Batman, who fights the Foot Clan at Wayne Enterprises before he is defeated by their leader, Shredder. The four "metahumans" Batgirl sighted are actually the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who has arrived in Gotham to stop the evil Shredder and find out who his new, mysterious ally is. After defending Wayne Enterprises from the Penguin, the Turtles encounter and fight Batman, as each side believes the other is working with the Shredder. The Turtles are forced to retreat when Batman proves to be more experienced in combat.

After researching Batman and his reported locations, Donatello manages to lead the Turtles into the Batcave, where they have a brief scuffle with Robin. After Batman and Batgirl arrive, the Turtles introduce themselves and offer their assistance to the Bat-Family when they realize they have the same goal. Robin reveals that Shredder and the Foot Clan are working with Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins. In exchange for the use of the Lazarus Pit, Shredder and the Foot Clan aid al Ghul in building a machine that will transform everyone in Gotham into insane mutants using a mixture of mutagen and the Joker's venom. Al Ghul and Shredder break into Arkham Asylum, giving Joker a canister of mutagen in exchange for the formula for his venom.

The Bat-Family and the Turtles are alerted of an incident in Arkham by Commissioner Gordon, where they discover that Joker has used the mutagen to transform himself and all of the inmates into mutated animals, including him as a cobra, Mr. Freeze as a polar bear, Scarecrow as a raven, Two-Face as a two-faced cat, Poison Ivy as a venus flytrap, Bane as a jaguar and Harley Quinn as a hyena. The heroes face off against the mutated rogues, but Joker injects Batman with the mutagen/venom combination to transform him into an unhinged mutated vampire bat. After defeating Joker, the heroes use Batgirl and Donatello's retro-mutagen to cure Batman and later the inmates, but realize this was a distraction for Shredder and al Ghul to acquire a Wayne Enterprises cloud seeder they need to complete their machine.

As Batman recovers in the Batcave, the two teams find out that their enemies are launching their machine at the Ace Chemicals plant. Batman initially orders the Turtles to leave Gotham due to their impulsiveness, but Raphael convinces him that they are better off working together. As the combined team advances towards Ace Chemicals, they defeat most of the Foot Clan and the League of Assassins' forces before confronting Shredder and al Ghul. Leonardo defeats al Ghul, Batman defeats Shredder, and Donatello and Michelangelo destroy the machine before it activates. The debris from the ensuing explosion knocks Shredder into a vat of Joker venom and detonates the plant. Before the Turtles depart Gotham to return to their master, Batman treats them and the Bat-Family to pizza, much to their happiness.

In a post-credits scene, Shredder is revealed to have survived the explosion but was transformed into a monstrous Joker look-alike by the Joker venom.

Voice cast

Production

Development

Warner Bros. Animation was considering adaptations of Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Wonder Woman as possible direct-to-video films.[3] The animated adaptation of the miniseries was officially announced in February 2019 to be in production and was released later in the spring.[4]

Casting

The initial announcement revealed Troy Baker would reprise his roles as both Batman from Batman: The Telltale Series video game and various Lego video games and films, and the Joker from Batman: Arkham Origins, Batman: Assault on Arkham, and the Batman Unlimited series, making Baker the first actor to portray both characters in the same property. The film also features Darren Criss and Eric Bauza reprising their roles as Raphael and Leonardo, while Kyle Mooney and Baron Vaughn voice Michelangelo and Donatello, respectively. Rachel Bloom voices Batgirl and Cas Anvar voices Ra's al Ghul. In addition, Tom Kenny, John DiMaggio, Carlos Alazraqui and Tara Strong reprise their roles as the Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Bane, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy from various DC properties.[5] Other key cast members of the film were revealed a month later, which consists of Ben Giroux as Robin, Andrew Kishino as the Shredder, Keith Ferguson as both Baxter Stockman and Two-Face, Brian George reprising his role as Alfred Pennyworth from Batman: The Killing Joke, and Jim Meskimen as both Commissioner James Gordon and the Scarecrow.[2]

Release

The first trailer was released on March 12, 2019.[6] The film had its world premiere at WonderCon Anaheim 2019 on March 31.[7] The film was later released to Digital on May 14 on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack and Blu-ray Combo Pack on June 4, 2019.[8]

Reception

Critical reception

Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released to positive reviews. Based on 13 reviews collected on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100% with an average rating of a 7.47/10.[9]

Sales

The film earned $609,769 from domestic DVD sales and $2,723,251 from domestic Blu-ray sales, bringing its total doestic home video earnings to $3,333,020.[10]

References
  1. Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Official Trailer
  2. Romano, Nick (March 12, 2019). "Animated worlds collide in exclusive 'Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' trailer". Entertainment Weekly.
  3. Joseph, Eric (12 October 2016). "WB Possibly Planning Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles And Wonder Woman '77 Animated Films". Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  4. Jackson, Matthew (13 February 2019). "Exclusive: Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meet in first animated movie crossover". SYFY WIRE. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  5. "SYFY WIRE". SYFY. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  6. Romano, Nick (March 12, 2019). "Animated worlds collide in exclusive 'Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' trailer". Entertainment Weekly.
  7. "NickALive!: Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Meet in First Animated Crossover Movie [Updated]". 9 March 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  8. "BATMAN vs. TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES To Debut This May". Newsarama. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  9. "Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2019 Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved July 17, 2020.
  10. "Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Numbers Listing". The Numbers. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
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