The other day some friends & I visited our local video store because we heard they were having a wacky clearance sale on used movies. I was really excited to find THE BATMAN VS DRACULA Animated Movie on DVD! This is a newer movie ( 2005 ) that I had not seen before & didn't own yet, plus it was only $4.00! It's based on the newer THE BATMAN cartoon & while I'm not a huge fan of that show I heard this movie was pretty good. Plus, it's Batman! Anyway I watched it yesterday & surprisingly it's really enjoyable. I feel it's a movie I can suggest owning because the animation quality is very good. The sound effects are cool & very well done. The story isn't too bad either. Basically it features a "new villian" called Dracula. It's filled with alot of folklore about the classic monster & would be really great to watch around Halloween. I don't wanna give away too much of the plot but basically Dracula is accidently brought back to life in Gotham by the Penguin who has just recently escaped from Arkham Asylum. The Joker is also on the loose & creates some problems. Dracula goes about making vampire zombies out of the Gotham City citizens & because of reports of a "Bat" the media starts to blame Batman for the crimes. The voice talent for the movies is really great too. Rino Romano returns as the voice of Batman / Bruce Wayne & does a great job. Peter Stormare is the voice of Dracula & does a decent "ethnic accent" helping Dracula seem like the eurotrash he is, ha ha! Tara Strong is the voice of Vicki Vale. Tara is a cartoon voice legend having done the voice of Batgirl on the earlier Batman: The Animated Series. She is a main character on the Powerpuff Girls & also adds her voices to a few main characters on the new DRAWN TOGETHER cartoon. Tom Kenny does a great job as The Penguin & adds alot of humor to the character. I was kinda surprised by Kevin Michael Richardson's version of The Joker. I thought Joker's voice would be done by longtime "Joker Voice Guy" Mark Hammel ( Yes, Luke Skywalker ) but Kevin does a great job! Finally, Alastair Duncan returns to do the voice of Alfred & has great sarcastic wit that is needed for the role. The movie runs about 84 minutes. The DVD also includes some extras which are mostly filler except for a neat documentry on the voice talent & their process of bringing the characters to life. I highly reccommend renting or buying this soon to be Bat-Classic! One last note: There's a special version of the DVD which is sold with 2 exclusive PVC figures of Batman & Dracula, something to look out for.
