Catwoman: Hunted – Film Review

Catwoman’s (voice of Elizabeth Gillies) attempt to steal a priceless jewel puts her squarely in the cross-hairs of a powerful consortium of villains, Interpol and Batwoman (voice of Stephanie Beatriz).

A lot of the DC animated films boast a cast of hugely talented actors but I was seriously stunned by how many huge A-list celebrities had given their voice to Catwoman: Hunted. Seriously, this movie has the voice of Elizabeth Gillies as Catwoman, Stephanie Beatriz of Brooklyn Nine-Nine fame as the voice of Batwoman, and The Walking Dead‘s Lauren Cohan voicing Julia Pennyworth. Not to mention the fact that Kelly Hu and Jonathan Banks are here, too.

With a cast that wonderful, you’d definitely hope the film itself is just as good. And although Catwoman: Hunted is far from being one of the best DC animated movies out there, it’s still a hugely entertaining film and one that is sure to leave you smiling by the time the end credits roll. I just wish this movie was a lot longer in order for characters to get all the proper development that they deserve.

This is a problem I have with almost every DC animated film – they are far too short. It’s almost as if the studio is scared that if they make a film longer than eighty minutes, nobody will want to watch it. That’s just simply not true. And it can’t be because they’re worried it will be too long of a movie for kids to watch because they’ve made some genuinely grisly animated flicks before that boasted the same running time. So what gives DC?

Gratefully though, the story that we are presented with here is one that is highly enjoyable to watch, even if it does feel like it lacks certain ingredients to make it a true knockout. There are no huge surprises in store for viewers here but rather, we are fed the tried-and-true formula of the previous films in this series. Yes, it can be a bit frustrating because it’s obviously nice to get something totally new, but at least it’s not boring to sit through.

Greg Weisman did a great job at making this story as good as it could have been with such a short running time. There are plenty of fun action sequences to behold as well as some truly great comedic beats as well, but I ultimately wanted a lot more of Batwoman here. Particularly, I wanted more development for her. She just kind of shows up being a badass and that’s about the extent of her character here.

There are a ton of characters involved with this story that don’t even feel like they are involved with this story mainly because they’re barely in it. Barbara Minerva, Solomon Grundy, and Talia al Ghul are all characters that appear in this movie. What do all three of them have in common? Sadly, they get criminally underused.

But in the long run, I had an enjoyable and fun time with Shinsuke Terasawa‘s Catwoman: Hunted, a movie that benefits from a fast-paced story but also falters because of it. It doesn’t offer anything hugely new for the series of DC animated adventures, but it’s still a good time nevertheless.