Catwoman: Hunted is a DC Comics anime film directed by Shinsuke Terasawa and written by Greg Weisman. The animation was done by the Japanese studio OLM while it was produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment.

Catwoman (Elizabeth Gillies) is in the middle of robbing a party in Spain where Gotham City villain Black Mask (Jonathan Banks) is trying to impress Barbara Minerva (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), a leader of the criminal organization Leviathan. She is stopped by Batwoman (Stephanie Beatriz) who manages to catch her. Finding herself on a jet, she is introduced to Interpol agents Julia Pennyworth (Lauren Cohan) and King Faraday (Jonathan Frakes) who offer her a deal. They plan to capture Black Mask and Minerva at a gathering of Leviathan leaders. If she does, all warrants and charges against her will be dropped. She agrees, but both she and Batwoman realize there is more going on.

OLM Studios is known for anime hits like Pokemon and Komi Can’t Communicate. They do have impressive illustrators who have mad skills in character designs and action sequences. This was no exception. They do an excellent job and they definitely bring the story to life artistically.

Elizabeth Gillies does an excellent job voicing Catwoman. She definitely had fun with the character and brought out all of the charm, seduction, and guile that goes with the femme fatale. It is a shame she passed away after completing her dialogue because I think she would have continued to make it work as the character.

This is where the praise ends.

Stephanie Beatriz did not impress me as Kate Kane. It is true that the character is stiffer than say Robin or Batgirl, but it was more muted than her appearances in the comic books. The rest of the cast was competent, but no one else was impressive.

Also, where was Batman? They could have given him a cameo in the end. Now, don’t get me wrong. Catwoman is interesting enough to have her own movie, but I think they could have given him an appearance.

Essentially, this is the new norm at DC Entertainment. Mediocrity. The film played it totally safe and offered no gravitas for the story. It was unimpressive and definitely wasted its superb animation on this trite. DC Comics truly does not know how to use their iconic characters for an animated feature film, something where they were once king. It is sad to see them fall so hard.

Bottom line, when it comes to Catwoman: Hunted, not even top-notch anime could save the film from the mediocre DC writers’ room.

PARENTAL CONCERNS: Violence, Minor Foul language, Some Inappropriate sequences

FAVORITE QUOTE: Don’t call me cat… only HE calls me cat.

Check out the trailer below:

This article is based on the English dub.

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