If you’ve paid close attention to my reviews, you’ll know that I generally love 2D animation in all its forms, whether it comes from America, Japan, Europe, or elsewhere, regardless of studio or franchise.... but the big exception I’ve pointed out on occasion is the DC direct-to-video animated film lineup, of which Batman is far and away the most popular. I like Batman and his live-action movies, but nearly all the cartoon films come across as lazy and cheap compared to any other animated work, and especially compared to their lovingly produced comics and graphic novels.This is curiously the inverse of manga being adapted into anime: Japanese manga are often written by a single author on a weekly basis, quickly scrawled in black and white, whereas the anime is given a full studio of talent to tell its story in colour, with fun direction, acting, and music. It’s an upgrade on every level. By comparison, DC’s movies (mostly outsourced to cheap-labour foreign studios anyhow) are somehow a downgrade, with stiff and non-expressive animation, barebone detail and unappealing design, something even decent music and acting can’t fix – I’d always prefer to read the comic rather than watch the movie. Despite the passionate interviews and persistent output, I’m sure DC is fully aware of this, since nearly all of the movies went straight to home video or television, with little fanfare outside of dedicated comic blogs. But admittedly, I’d only seen a few of the movies, and perhaps I wasn’t in the right mindset to appreciate them at the time (perhaps related, I much prefer independent graphic novels over superhero monthly issues). But even to me, the 'Batman – 80th Anniversary' movie bundle (released in 2019) was very tempting. For less than $4 a film, you could get a massive collection of Batman’s animated films (18 of them, from 1993 to 2018) on Bluray or DVD. A handful of which, such as 'Gotham Knight' and 'Batman – Ninja,' I could vouch for being worth the price alone (yes, these are the Japanese-led ones, and side-by-side against the rest, are objectively better by every metric; fight me). After years of stalling, I bought the set, and when the time was right for me, I sat down with good intentions, hoping to give a fair chance to each.I might normally consider writing a separate review for all 18, but that seemed tedious and unnecessary. Instead, I’ve summarized my thoughts and scores below, with 1 paragraph per movie. I wasn’t sure how to organize this… I’ve listed these by release order, and summarize their ranking at the end.
'Batman – Mask of the Phantasm' (1993) is probably the most beloved in this set, being directly tied to the original 'Animated Series' from the early 90’s, back when Warner’s television animation still had some expressiveness and fluidity (unlike the 'New Animated Series' that the follow-up movies are heavily based on). For fans of American animation, I’d agree that this is the best looking film, and it still looks good today (although the Bluray isn’t consistently sharp in all scenes). The story, featuring a serious love interest for Bruce Wayne and a mysterious original villain called the Phantasm, is fairly strong and mature at times. However, it relies heavily on flashbacks (for nearly half the runtime), and when first watching this as a kid with a VHS, I distinctly remember being bored with the slow pacing. Great for adult fans, maybe less entertaining for children. 3.5 / 5.0.'Batman – Mystery of the Batwoman' (2003) is a much more direct example of what the 'new' animated series looked like, with even simpler designs and stiffer animation. Looking past that, there is a fun mystery regarding who the new 'Batwoman' vigilante is (albeit confusing, since Batgirl already exists in this story). The movie is oddly sexy (a featurette on the disc validates it wasn’t just me, in the way the male crew praised Bruce Timm’s female designs), not to the point that this isn’t kid friendly, although it might be an 'awakening' for some boys. 2.8 / 5.0.'Batman – Gotham Knight' (2008) is an experimental anthology of six short films, loosely connected, each animated and directed by a different Japanese anime studio. This follows directly after the success of 'The Animatrix,' and a couple similar projects for other franchises would come after. Each short looks very different… not great for people who don’t like it when their cartoons 'look weird,' or don’t like anime in general… but for me, the visuals and direction are several leagues better than anything else in this collection. 3.9 / 5.0.'Superman / Batman – Public Enemies' (2009) is more a Justice League tie-in than Batman, with a story of Lex Luthor becoming President of the USA (eerily relevant plot-points to American politics about a decade later). The story is almost non-existent, serving as an excuse for an army of B-list villains and heroes to hunt and fight Superman and Batman. However, we do get a lot of banter between the two, a great example of their relationship and friendship, and the action is fun, but tedious. 2.6 / 5.0.'Superman / Batman – Apocalypse' (2010)… why is this movie in the set? It’s really a Supergirl origin story, with Superman and Wonder Woman featuring, and Batman is just an afterthought. The 'Apocalypse' title is misleading, referring to Darkseid and his home planet, where the fight for Supergirl’s allegiance ultimately takes place. Even if inspired by the comics, I’m not a fan of Supergirl’s teenager-from-the-2000’s-stereotype characterization here, ruining some more meaningful moments of the story. The animation and designs are especially dull and workman-like in this one. 2.0 / 5.0.'Batman – Under The Red Hood' (2010) begins straight away with the death of Robin (Jason Todd) as told in the comics, then focuses on a mysterious new villain called Red Hood that’s making moves in an underworld run by Black Mask. This was the start of Warner Bros. embracing an adult audience with the violence. There’s some problems with the story: Robin’s death occurs far too quickly (an entire prequel film of that alone would have been worthwhile), Red Hood has a snarky attitude that’s less brooding and more Deadpool-esque, and the plotline between him and Black Mask wasn’t particularly interesting. On the other hand, Hood is a cool character, leveraging a history with Batman and the Joker to make him interesting and to drive some great dramatic scenes. The animation is a bit more dynamic too, a decent production despite otherwise bland designs. Definitely one of the better stories of the collection. 3.3 / 5.0. 
'Batman – Year One' (2011) is one of the earlier attempts to adapt a popular stand-alone graphic novel, set in the first year of Bruce Wayne’s return to Gotham and attempts to begin his Batman persona. This is really James Gordon’s story first, and is a mature look at why he transferred to Gotham’s police force, his seemingly futile fight against corruption in his team, and struggles as a married man with a child on the way. Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle are both just side-characters and are an afterthought; the movie would be stronger with their plotlines cut out. It doesn’t help that Bruce Wayne’s voice actor is particularly bad (although Gordon, played by Bryan Cranston, is great), and the story simply cuts from one day to the next, an awkward storytelling technique to cover the full year. The visuals are slightly grown-up compared to the typical Bruce Timm style, yet still clearly limited and low-budget, a severe disappointment compared to Frank Miller’s work. 2.7 / 3.0.'The Dark Knight Returns – Part 1, Part 2' (2012, 2013) adapts one of Batman’s most famous graphic novels, a classic from Frank Miller. Set in an alternate 80’s amid the Cold War, a retired Bruce Wayne lives in a Gotham that’s fallen apart from crime led by Clockwork-Orange-like gangs, and decides to return as an older, slower, larger Batman. A lot happens in the story, justifying the need to tell it in two movies (even though each is the standard 1 hour and 15 minutes – why couldn’t they just combine them?). We get a new Robin, a girl, who isn’t particularly strong or skilled, but represents the good in her generation, and by simply standing up to volunteer, she’s the hero Bruce needs to proceed. We see what’s become of some of Batman’s other classic allies and enemies, including a final confrontation with the Joker. We get an edge-of-your-seat battle between Batman and Superman. All peppered with Miller’s distaste for the media and government overreach, and the stupidity of youth or society as a whole – an argument among civilians is whether Batman is a fascist, and whether or not that’s OK for the state the city is in. This is the boldest take we’ve seen of the franchise, and with so many ideas, calling it 'messy' is an understatement, but it’s also creatively exciting, using the original novel’s writing and an all-star voice cast as bones to hold it up. This is also the most clear case of the classic Bruce Timm-art style not meshing well at all to the original comic, which was messy, ugly, but expressive; the animation here is consistent and to par with the other films, and therefore dull and plain. Direction is also hit-and-miss, with some of the moments of shock and horror (especially in Part 1) not having nearly as much bite as they should. If you haven’t read the book and have no loyalty to that source material, there’s enough cool moments and fascinating elements to impress. Part 2 should have been given an R rating though. 3.3 / 5.0. 'Son of Batman' (2013) retells the introduction of Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne’s secret child with Talia Al Ghul and eventual new Robin to Batman. It’s starts dramatically, with an extended attack that results in the death of Raj Al Ghul by Deathstroke, resulting in Talia bringing Damian to Gotham for protection as a last resort while she continues the war for the League of Shadows. It’s a lot of ninjas-with-swords action… which bored me – the League of Shadows are the least interesting villain(s) to me in this collection (but I guess it’s better than just featuring the Joker again). Damian is famously an overconfident jerk (although his skills more than back up his attitude), and I couldn’t get around to liking the toddler by the movie’s end. And to top it off, this is one of the ugliest visual and animated productions from a technical perspective in the box. Your enjoyment will be directly correlated by how much you already love Damian Wayne or the Ghul’s, and I don’t. 2.4 / 5.0.'Batman – Assault on Arkham' (2014) is loosely based on the Rocksteady 'Arkham Asylum' video games (meant to be a prequel). Releasing JUST before 2015’s 'Arkham Knight' game and the 2016 'Suicide Squad' live-action film was a perfect show of cross-media synergy. This is really a 'Suicide Squad' movie, with Harley Quinn and Deadshot leading a band of criminals to break into Arkham under Amanda Waller’s orders. It’s much more stylized both in editing and character designs (not quite like anime… I’d compare it to the American series 'The Boondocks'), and fully commits to a PG-13 rating with violence, blood, swearing and sex. It’s fun the first time around, although it doesn’t really fit with the games, and feels like a practice run for what the live-action films would repeat. 3.1 / 5.0.'Batman VS Robin' (2015) directly continues after 'Son of Batman,' featuring Damian Wayne and Bruce Wayne against the Court of Owls and their lead warrior, Talon. The Court is a relatively new comic villain, and one of the most interesting developments in the recent Batman stories. While it’s not a one-to-one adaptation of the 'new-52' arc, it’s close enough, and the role Robin plays in this movie fits. Damian is still a brat, but his relationship and growth with Batman is much more interesting here. The movie is also more dark and violent (I’m shocked it wasn’t rated R). Otherwise, the production is a bit workman-like and the climax is a letdown, but again, your interest in the villain makes the movie, and I was much more invested here than most of the films. 3.2 / 5.0.
'Batman – Bad Blood' (2016) is an entry that spotlights Nightwing, Robin, Batwoman, Batwing, and includes a brief tease of Batgirl, taking over when Bruce Wayne seems gone for good. If you don’t know any of the extended 'bat-family' as portrayed in the 'New 52' comics reboot, particularly a very contemporary Batwoman, this is a good entry point, and serves as an endcap to the prior films 'Son of Batman' and 'Batman VS Robin.' Hand-to-hand combat is kinetic, but the production still feels like a limited-budget tv special (complete with perfect spots to cut the film into three episodes) with dull visual design. The continued villain arc here, featuring Talia al Ghul and the League of Shadows, is also a bit boring compared to the other villains in this collection, and her plot doesn’t fully make sense as a follow-up to 'Son.' 2.7 / 5.0.(reviews continued in separate Part 2 post)