Batman and Harley Quinn animated feature, characters & plot details revealed

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Whoa, what? How is it that I'm just now discovering that there's a BATMAN AND HARELY QUINN animated feature on the way? I mean really, this stuff doesn't usually sneak past my radar. I am so confused, right now. Oh well, I suppose I should get used to my girl Harley Quinn making it into the big leagues after the release and success of David Ayer's SUICIDE SQUAD, right?

Over the weekend, during Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s Wondercon 2017 presentation, fans of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line, were treated to a  premiere screening of the latest of DC's animated slate TEEN TITANS: THE JUDAS CONTRACT. You can check the movie out for yourself when it hits Digital HD tomorrow, and then on Blu-Ray.DVD beginning on April 18th. After you've taken in that bit of super hero cinema, you can start looking forward to when the release of BATMAN AND HARLEY QUINN happens later this coming Summer. 

What I find to be quite awesome about BATMAN AND HARLEY QUINN is that the film will be presented in a style made famous by Bruce Timm's BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES – where Harley Quinn made her debut. According to Empire, the film will feature Batman (voiced by Kevin Conroy), Nightwing (Loren Lester) and Harley Quinn (Melissa Rauch) teaming up to battle Poison Ivy and Jason Woodrue, a.k.a. The Floronic Man, a.k.a. Plant-Master, who are out to cause a global catastrophe, as per usual. It's also to note that Swamp Thing (voiced by John DiMaggio) will also make an appearance. Other cast members who will be lending their voices to the animated madness are actors Eric Bauza, Rob Paulsen, Robin Atkin Downes, Mindy Sterling, and Trevor Devall.

In commenting about her being brought on to voice the beloved Harley Quinn, Melissa Rauch told Empire, “I love that Harley is a badass and, beyond that, that she uses her humor as another weapon in her arsenal. She knows just how to diffuse a situation with her humor, and how to incite a situation with her sarcasm. It’s a dream role. 

I knew Harley had a higher pitched tone, and a bit of a New York accent — and I come from a New Jersey family where everyone could be former gun molls. So I wanted to give a nod to my background without being as shrill. In all honesty, I used to speak exactly like that — my acting school professors really worked the accent out of me. So it was fun to find those tones and accent again."

Also chiming in was Loren Lester who stated, "[W]e’re not restricted by the networks for this film, so we can take the story and characters in more mature areas, and explore more about them as three-dimensional human beings with human feelings and human desires that we often couldn’t explore in the series." 

Welp, I know of one animated film that I'll have to add to my calendar for this coming Summer! Honestly, this all sounds like a sure-fire recipe for success: Bruce Timm-style artwork, Conroy as the Bat and Rauch as Harley Quinn? Okay, so maybe I loath BIG BANG THEORY to no conceivable end, but Rauch as the undeniably deadly and fanciful Harley Quinn? I can definitely get down with that. 

BATMAN AND HARLEY QUINN will arrive later this coming Summer.