The Bruce Timm-produced "Batman: The Animated Series" and "Mask of the Phantasm" are great. This isn't.
I found it strangely unengaging, despite a decent idea at the heart of its central mystery, and despite some amusing moments from Alfred early on.
I'm only really familiar with the early "Batman: The Animated Series" programme; I haven't seen many episodes of "The New Batman Adventures". So even though I knew that the characters had been redesigned for the latter series, the Penguin's character design in this film came as quite a surprise, and not one I liked!
Also, the animation is quite variable in quality. A singer in the Penguin's nightclub appears to be smoothly animated at 24fps ("on ones" as animators say), whereas everything else in the movie is a lot jerkier.
It took me a moment to realise that the Robin in this film was Tim Drake. He doesn't get much to do, and when he does appear he's vaguely irritating.
I found it strangely unengaging, despite a decent idea at the heart of its central mystery, and despite some amusing moments from Alfred early on.
I'm only really familiar with the early "Batman: The Animated Series" programme; I haven't seen many episodes of "The New Batman Adventures". So even though I knew that the characters had been redesigned for the latter series, the Penguin's character design in this film came as quite a surprise, and not one I liked!
Also, the animation is quite variable in quality. A singer in the Penguin's nightclub appears to be smoothly animated at 24fps ("on ones" as animators say), whereas everything else in the movie is a lot jerkier.
It took me a moment to realise that the Robin in this film was Tim Drake. He doesn't get much to do, and when he does appear he's vaguely irritating.