Review: Catwoman: Hunted

There’s a lot of talk on the internet about Catwoman these days, usually centered on whether or not the character is portrayed as white or BIPOC depiction. Personally, I don’t care, if the actress does a great job in supporting the character, then that character is her’s. In animation alone the Catwoman character has been portrayed by numerous actresses including Gina Gershon, Sanaa Lathan, Naya Rivera, Cree Summer, Adrienne Barbeau, and now Elizabeth Gillies for the feature-length Catwoman: Hunted. 

For Elizabeth, that list features pretty big black high heels to fill, but damn, she fills them just as well as any of them and, more importantly, carries the heroes half of this near ninety-minute anime written by Greg Weisman and directed by Shinsuke Terasawa. The opening credits for Catwoman: Hunted feels less like DC Animated film and more like those from ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept and helps set the tone for the rest of the series. No, I don’t mean cigarettes and desserts, but rather a litany of anthromorphic characters, intense action sequences, and corny punch lines that is rife from the aforementioned Japanese industry.

After stealing a precious stone, Catwoman teams up with Batwoman to fend off against Talia Al Ghul’s Leviathan and a plethora of rogue villains like Black Mask, Cheetah, Nosferatu, Solomun Grundy, and more. While you’re not going to see the fighting technical flair from Catwoman as you would from say Demon Slayer or Attack on Titan, the fighting sequences are still solid enough for entertainment and for helping move the flimsy plot along. To be honest, I’d rather get more fighting sequences than give Stephanie Beatriz lines as “Batwoman” in what might be one of the dullest portrayals of the character that has ever been screened. The majority of Stephanie’s lines are read like a eulogy with fewer jokes and none of the flair, but the rest of the cast is very solid. Again, kudos has to go out to Gillies in nailing the lead role, but Keith David, Kelly Hu, Steve Blum, Jonathan Banks/Frakes, and the rest of the cast were pretty damn good if I do say so myself.

As I mentioned, the plot isn’t all that thick, a typical “object of value” storyline that isn’t all to out of place in most Disney and Warner adaptations for kid audiences. A lot of the dialogue is hammy and rather forgettable rife with your typical superhero punchlines about cats, in fact, the funniest joke is that Selina Kyle’s cat is named “Isis” which, I didn’t know we were allowed to have that name back for creative purposes. In any event, this Girls night out is rather atypical in plot but the anime production values gives us some juice to work with. There isn’t anything revolutionary here, but I’d like to see Gillies continue to reprise the role in future iterations.