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WARNER

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Sam Liu
Cast:
Kevin Conroy, Melissa Rauch, Paget Brewster, Loren Lester
Writing Credits:
James Krieg and Bruce Timm

Synopsis:
Batman and Nightwing are forced to team with the Joker's sometimes-girlfriend Harley Quinn to stop a global threat brought about by Poison Ivy and Jason Woodrue, the Floronic Man.

MPAA:
Rated PG-13

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audio:
English DTS-HD MA 5.1
French Dolby 5.1
Latin Spanish Dolby 5.1
Castillian Spanish Dolby 5.1
Portuguese Dolby 5.1
German Dolby 5.1
Italian Dolby 5.1
Subtitles:
English
French
German
Italian
Castillian Spanish
Korean
Latin Spanish
Portuguese
Danish
Finnish
Norwegian
Swedish
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
English
French
German
Castillian Spanish
Latin Spanish
Portuguese

Runtime: 74 min.
Price: $29.98
Release Date: 8/29/2017

Bonus:
• Sneak Peek at Batman: Gotham By Gaslight
• Sneak Peek at Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
• Sneak Peek at Batman: Assault on Arkham
• “The Harley Effect” Featurette
&bull: “Loren Lester: In His Own Voice” Featurette
• Two Bonus Cartoons
• Trailers
• DVD Copy
• Harley Quinn Action Figure


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RELATED REVIEWS


Batman and Harley Quinn [Blu-Ray] (2017)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (August 23, 2017)

2017 brings a new animated adventure with the Joker’s main squeeze – and the breakout character from 2016’s Suicide Squad. Batman and Harley Quinn shows what happens with the Dark Knight finds himself forced to partner with his archenemy’s girl.

Super-villains Poison Ivy (voiced by Paget Brewster) and Floronic Man (Kevin Michael Richardson) infiltrate STAR Labs and steal a dossier. Aided by bewitched scientist Harold Goldblum (Rob Paulsen), they use this information to embark on a plan that would transform millions of humans into “plant people”.

While Batman (Kevin Conroy) and Nightwing (Loren Lester) do their best to deal with the threat, they can’t locate Ivy. To find the leafy menace, they recruit Ivy’s old Harley Quinn (Melissa Rauch). Though just out of prison and eager to “go straight”, Harley agrees to their plan – with chaotic results.

Bruce Timm gained fame as the head honcho behind the 1990s well-regarded Batman: The Animated Series, and he returns as the co-writer of Quinn. Really, the movie plays as a longer, “PG-13” version of TAS, though not one that captivates.

The film’s wacky opening credits set the tone and let us know that Quinn will go down semi-comedic paths. Though not an out and out laughfest, the movie opts for an irreverence we don’t usually get from Bat-efforts – outside of the cheeky Brave and the Bold, that is.

This insouciance works for Brave but not Quinn. The latter revels in its ability to generate material that would’ve been taboo on 1990s TV, and these stabs don’t succeed.

I’m all for superhero adventures that adopt a more “adult” tone, but Quinn feels more like the efforts of a smirky teenager. In one scene, we get allusions to Nightwing’s erection and Harley’s vibrator, and we later find an unfortunate sequence that focuses on Harley’s flatulence.

Heck, even the movie’s winking nod to the 1960s Batman TV series can’t resist this form of puerile “humor”. Instead of the usual “POW!” or “BAM!”, we get text like “OW, MY BALLS!” This might amuse 13-year-olds, but to me, it seems dopey.

It doesn’t help that Quinn stretches a TV episode worth of plot across 74 minutes. If compacted to 22 minutes, the film might fare better, but when asked to fill out 74 minutes, tedium results.

Throw in an awkward anti-climate change speech shoved awkwardly in the middle of the movie and Quinn fails to deliver a lot of entertainment value. While it gives us the occasional fun moment, far too much of it misfires.

Footnote: tag scenes show up both during and after the end credits.


The Blu-ray Grades: Picture A-/ Audio B/ Bonus B-

Batman and Harley Quinn appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. I felt consistently pleased with this strong presentation.

No issues with sharpness emerged. The movie always came across as tight and well-defined, so don’t expect any signs of softness. Jaggies and moiré effects also remained absent, and the image lacked edge haloes or artifacts. In addition, print flaws were a non-factor and didn’t appear at any point.

In terms of colors, Quinn went with a dark palette that favored blues and greens. The tones looked solid, as they showed positive richness and vivacity. Blacks were deep and tight, while shadows showed nice clarity. Across the board, the image worked well.

I thought the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Quinn opened up the comic book material well. This wasn’t a particularly ambitious piece, but it added pizzazz to the program.

The forward channels brought out the majority of the material. Music presented strong stereo imaging, while effects cropped up in logical spots and blended well.

The surrounds also contributed good information. For the most part, these reinforced the forward channels, but they also contributed a fair amount of unique material, instances that mainly occurred during bigger action scenes. The back speakers brought out a nice sense of space and environment.

Audio quality always satisfied. Speech was warm and natural, without edginess or other issues. Music sounded lively and full, while effects displayed good definition. Those elements seemed accurate and dynamic. All of this led to a positive presentation that deserved a “B”.

Like most DC animated Blu-rays, this one comes with multiple Sneak Peeks. The first previews Batman: Gotham By Gaslight. It goes for eight minutes, 30 seconds and features DC Entertainment Animation Creative Director Mike Carlin, writer James Krieg, and executive producer Bruce Timm.

They tell us about the source comic and aspects of the film’s story and character areas. It’s a promo piece but it’s an effective one.

The remaining three “sneak peeks” look at previously-released titles. Two separate “peeks” discuss parts one and two of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. These fill a total of 19 minutes, 28 seconds and include comments from Timm, Carlin, casting director Andrea Romano, director Jay Oliva, screenwriter Bob Goodman, co-producer Alan Burnett, and actors Peter Weller, David Selby, Ariel Winter, Michael McKean, Michael Emerson and Mark Valley.

We get notes about story and characters as well as cast and performances. These become basic advertisement and not much more.

Finally, the “sneak peek” for Batman: Assault on Arkham runs seven minutes, 29 seconds and offers info from Oliva, Romano, producer James Tucker, screenwriter Heath Corson, and actors Troy Baker and Matthew Gray Gubler. We learn about the film’s story/characters as well as cast and various production elements. It’s another promotional piece, of course, but it’s more interesting than most.

Two traditional featurettes follow. The Harley Effect lasts 21 minutes, 15 seconds and provides notes from Timm, Carlin, co-creator Paul Dini and clinical psychologist Dr. Robin Rosenberg. “Effect” looks at Harley’s origins/development, aspects of the character and her use in this film. “Effect” offers a solid – and unusually introspective – take on its subject.

Loren Lester: In His Own Voice takes up 11 minutes, 46 seconds and brings us material from Timm, Carlin, voice director Wes Gleason and actors Loren Lester and Kevin Conroy. We get notes about Lester’s career, with an emphasis on his Batman-related work. This turns into an engaging piece.

We also get two cartoons From the DC Comics Vault. Both episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, we find “Harley and Ivy” (22:23) and “Harley’s Holiday” (21:15).

As expected, Harley takes the lead in these, though she shares the spotlight with Poison Ivy for the first. I like both, though “Harley and Ivy” offers the stronger of the two shows.

The disc opens with ads for Teen Titans: The Judas Contract and Justice League Dark. Trailers adds promos for the theatrical flms Justice League and Wonder Woman.

A second disc gives us a DVD copy of Harley. It includes the sneak peeks and trailers but lacks the other extras.

With Batman and Harley Quinn, we get an animated adventure that focuses on the Dark Knight and one of his most popular adversaries. Unfortunately, the movie seems thin and without much punch. The Blu-ray offers excellent picture along with largely good audio and supplements. Quinn isn’t a total dud but it disappoints.

Note that this version of Quinn is a “limited edition” that includes a Harley Quinn action figure. The same Blu-ray/DVD combo is also available on its own without the toy for $5 less.

Viewer Film Ratings: 2 Stars Number of Votes: 1
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