Batman tends to score highly among DC movies on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, but you may not have seen the six that have perfect 100% scores. The Caped Crusader is, after all, one of the most prolific superheroes in cinema, thanks to being one of the most popular comic book characters.
Batman’s most recent cinematic outing, The Batman, was released on March 4, 2022. The Critics’ Consensus on Rotten Tomatoes bequeaths The Batman with a respectable 85%. Nevertheless, it is just shy of being perfect, as detractors point to the movie being just a little too dour.
The Batman is the tenth live-action movie to center on Batman. Since 1966, he has been the star of nine other movies with several Batman actors donning the cowl. Less well-known appearances, however, occur in feature-length animations, and it is here where Batman’s most universally praised movies can be found.
Batman Has 6 100% Rated Movies On Rotten Tomatoes That Are Criminally Underappreciated
Although Marvel’s live-action MCU movies have dominated the superhero genre in recent years (with DC Studios’ DCU soon to pick up the pace), DC has excelled with its animation for decades. The DC Universe Animated Original Movies (DCUAOM) series is emblematic of this, with a whopping 61 feature-length animated movies in its repertoire.
Batman is central to some of the most highly regarded installments within the DCUAOM. In particular, six of the movies that star Batman as the central character have earned a perfect score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. These include:
- Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010)
- Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (2012)
- Batman vs. Robin (2015)
- Batman: Bad Blood (2016)
- Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2019)
- Batman: The Long Halloween (2021)
The fact that these movies boast perfect scores is indicative of their relative obscurity. For example, while The Batman‘s 85% score is based on the reviews of 527 critics at the time of writing, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns‘ 100% is based on just 6.
Nevertheless, the latter movie also boasts an audience score of 93% from a far healthier sample of 5000+ viewers. This, in addition to the unanimous praise awarded by critics, goes to show why these installments within the DCUAOM are worth a try.
Why You Should Give The DC Animated Original Batman Movies A Try
Animated movies rarely draw as much attention as their live-action counterparts, which, in the case of Batman’s best-rated DCUAOM installments, makes them particularly underappreciated. Sony’s animated Spider-Verse franchise, for example, proves how animations are just as deserving of superhero fans’ attention.
Batman’s animated outings are among the most comics-accurate portrayals of the Caped Crusader ever adapted for film. Meanwhile, animated movies like Batman: Under the Red Hood, which stars Batman fan-casting favorite Jensen Ackles in the тιтular role, are even cited as being an improvement on the source material.
Despite being animated, Batman’s DCUAOM outings do not shy away from the mature and dark themes that make live-action movies like The Batman so beloved. In fact, the medium helps to lessen such constraints that come with live-action movies, such as high budgets.
With that in mind, as audiences await the next morsel of an update on either Matt Reeves’ The Batman – Part II or the DCU’s Batman project, these perfectly-rated animated Batman movies are the perfect supplement for any Caped Crusader super-fan.
Batman
- Created By
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Bob Kane, Bill Finger
- First Appearance
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Detective Comics
- Alias
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Bruce Wayne
- Alliance
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Justice League, Outsiders, Batman Family
- Race
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Human
- Franchise
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D.C.