Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is an animated movie and naturally enough stars Batman and Superman! I was a huge fan of Batman:The Animated Series and this movie will appeal to you if you liked that also. Clancy Brown gets top billing here and I liked him from films such as Highlander and the TV series Earth 2 and Carnivale. Carnivale was a very underrated show with great potential and it was a pity it got cancelled!
But, I digress! If you know of Clancy Brown then you will know he has a very deep and clear voice which makes him perfect for voice over work. Here he voices the evil Lex Luthor who once again has a devious plot up his sleeve to rule the world and get rid of Superman once and for all!Superman is voiced by Tim Daly who was in the Sopranos and the TV series Wings which I liked a lot as well. Kevin Conroy voices Batman as usual and we wouldn't have it any other way! Also in the voice over cast we have Xander Berkeley as Captain Atom, Corey Burton as Captain Marvel, Allison Mach as Power Girl, John C McGinley(from Scrubs) as Metallo, LeVar Burton aka Geordie La Forge as Black Lightning and Rachel MacFarlane(from American Dad) as Nightshade.
As you can see, Warner Bros assembled a top notch cast! Superman/Batman: Public Enemies begins by showing the economy in trouble, so in desperation the people vote in Lex Luthor as president!!!When will people learn??Democracy doesn't work!!! Just kidding!!Luthor decrees that either superheroes submit to him or be outcasts and criminals and most do, but only reluctantly. Luther offers to meet Superman and bury the hatchet but then tries to kill Superman with a hefty dose of Kryptonite!!!Superman defends himself but Luther makes it look like an assassination attempt on him, the President. Batman helps Superman escape but now they are being hunted as criminals. When there is a billion dollar bounty on their heads, every superhero and supervillain is trying to catch them!!Meanwhile, there is a huge asteroid made of Kryptonite heading towards Earth so time is running out for everyone on the planet! With Superman being hunted and unable to stop and asteroid, things do not look good!!
There is some great action in this movie as Batman and Superman team up, fighting everyone in sight and the story linking the two is very good. Batman and Superman are portrayed as best friends so that's good but I wish Batman was a bit more to the front in this. He is vital at the end, though , so it just about makes up for having him down behind Luthor and Batman. As with a lot of animated movies, the story is well-written and puts some live action movies to shame. What it deals with is: are Superman and Batman above the law they are protecting or should they be subject to it? Once they capture the bad guys, do we care if they break he laws themselves? It is an interesting dynamic and makes you wonder are they vigilantes that should be stopped or people we let do what they want? Yes, I know that they are just superheroes, but it is an idea that got me thinking anyway!!
I hope they keep making these movies as the animation is top quality and the stories are great. The excellent voice over cast in this shows that stars like doing animated movies so that is good. I would urge you to see this movie as it's only an hour long and great entertainment!!if you have any young children or younger brothers/sisters, they will love it and you will too, as I know I did! Are we not all big kids at heart???!!!
8/10.
Tim Daly was also doing a voice of Superman on the Superman: The animated Series for 4 seasons. And yes, he is fantastic.
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