While Batman: The Animated Series (rightfully) hogs all of the TV glory, the later small-screen incarnation The Batman really wasnt that bad at times. The feature film spinoff, though, 2005s The Batman vs. Dracula, is that bad. Gravely disjointed in terms of plot but also animation style, the weak and meandering narrative cant seem to just sit still and be a straight story, for Alfreds sake. Parts of the overall aesthetic are modernized, like the dreadlocked Joker and the batarangs that glow blue (why do they glow blue?), but meanwhile Gotham City itself looks more like Victorian London. The Penguin, who has no business being in the movie at all, looks like he stepped out of the pages of the Elseworlds tale Gotham by Gaslight. A major qualm speaking of Elseworlds tales is that there is a phenomenal Batman vs. Dracula comic called Red Rain, which spawned two sequels due to commercial and critical success. This comic is probably far too dark for an animated feature adaptation, but surely there would be some element of the original comic incorporated? No? No. In fact, its pretty clear that whoever made this felt no need to look to the comics for inspiration at all. That would be fine, except that the originality at play here is hardly enough to make up for a lack of a comic book muse. Vampire Joker is pretty cool, Vicki Vale gets a big role, and the climax of the film isnt complete trash (why does everything glow blue?)but overall The Batman vs. Dracula is the one animated Batman feature that you can skip.
