Ranking Every Animated Batman Film From Worst To Best
Save for a few missteps, animation seems to be one of DC's strong points.
Of all of the mainstream superheroes running around, Batman is easily one of the single most iconic and recognizable, having all but replaced Superman as DC's franchise player these days.
In addition to the various live-action interpretations, graphic novels, comic reboots, and animated television series we've gotten over the years, the Dark Knight has also been in more than his fair share of animated feature films. Some of these movies have been aimed at children, some have been aimed at adults, and some have found that elusive middle ground.
As it stands, there are currently twenty animated movies that carry Batman as the sole titular hero, with a twenty-first coming this year in the shape of Batman & Harley Quinn.
Naturally, this begs the question as to just how this new film will fare in comparison to its animated brethren. Sure, there are some it could easily surpass without even trying, however, surpassing others is definitely going to take some doing. After all, whereas some of the animated films have missed the mark, there are some that tell truly brilliant Dark Knight tales...
20. Batman: The Killing Joke
There is an argument to be made as to whether or not the long-awaited adaptation of the classic Alan Moore graphic novel would be as poorly received as it was had it not featured it's long, painfully nonsensical prologue. Sadly, you have to judge the film that was actually made, and in those terms, The Killing Joke was not great.
The film is wildly inconsistent, with its prologue and main event being crammed together like two puzzle pieces that don't belong. That said, the adaptation portion is mostly fine - it's probably just faithful to the book to a fault. It does absolutely nothing new, making the whole thing a bit pointless when you could have just read the book.
It's the prologue that really does this movie in, though. It's unnecessary, it's bland, and if anything, its better, more involved animation style only serves as a reminder of how good the adaptation could have been had it taken the same liberties.
The only thing this movie really has going for it is Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as Batman and the Joker, respectively. But even they couldn't save this painfully disappointing production that does a disservice to the book it was based on.