ANI-MOVIES, *Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem

Ol' Longears returns in a second installment of the Batman Unlimited franchise based on the action figure line in this made-for-video animated movie. Monster Mayhem takes place sometime after Animal Instincts with some of the characters and events crossing over to this film, and put together by the same production crew as the previous one.

On Halloween night, Silver Banshee(one of Superman's baddies)and Solomon Grundy escape from Arkham Asylum(although I don't know why a zombie was in Arkjam)and team up with Scarecrow, while Clayface kidnaps a young computer genius, Gogo Shoto, who in this story is some sort of rewrite of the younger version of Toyman. All of the monstrous villains are working with the Joker to launch a killer "Joker Virus"(similar to the Batman: Digital Justice comic)which includes reprogramming Teen Titan Cyborg to be their own war machine. Batman gets Nightwing and Red Robin to help, along with Green Arrow who seems to be on a long leave from Star City in this universe. Joker unleashes his virus on Gotham City, declaring himself "King Joker, and the rest of his crew the new city board. After rescuing Cyborg and Gogo from Joker, the Batman Family takes the fight to Team Joker as the Clown Prince of Crime plans on infecting the entire world with his virus. Batman goes into the digital realm thanks to a virtual reality visor, where he uses a conjured up robot T-Rex to stop the multiplying Joker clones. The offline Joker then uses a giant robot and repainted mecha suit for one last chance, but Cyborg and Batman manage to stop him in time.

This was a pretty good feature, even though this movie is geared more toward selling Batman toys, even to the point that in one of the online Batman Unlimited animated shorts that the Dark Knight now has a working robot T-Rex. The DVD does feature some DC Nation shorts, with the Blu-Ray having more, but so far none of the Batman Unlimited animated shorts, although the same can be said for the Justice League: Gods And Monsters shorts, so maybe they're saving them for a future collected video release. Monster Mayhem has a pretty good cast, including Troy Baker recurring his role as Joker from Arkham Origins, plus some of the animation is a little above average from Animal Instincts. If you're a major Bat-Maniac then you'll want to put this one in your Bat-DVD Player!