The Batman vs. Dracula

***The Batman vs. Dracula*** is a 2005 direct-to-video animated movie based on *The Batman* television series. It has a much darker tone than the show, and features Vicki Vale. The movie was released to DVD on October 18, 2005 and made its television debut on Cartoon Network's Toonami block on October 15, 2005.

## Plot

At Arkham Asylum, during a bingo game, the Penguin is told by another prisoner that a large amount of money is hidden in Gotham Cemetery, in a crypt behind a tombstone with a cross. After the prisoner mentions he told Joker, an alarm sounds and a guard yells that the Joker has escaped. Penguin uses an opportunity created by the confusion to break out as well.

Penguin meets up with Joker on his way to the graveyard, and they strike a deal - but Joker loses no time in double-crossing Penguin and knocking him out with an electrified Joy Buzzer. As Penguin watches, he sees The Batman following Joker, and smirks.

Penguin reaches the graveyard, but it turns out that many of the tombstones have crosses. Meanwhile, The Batman and Joker fight, ending in Joker's apparent death, falling in water and being electrocuted by his own Joy Buzzers.

While in the graveyard, Penguin finds a crypt and cuts loose a suspended coffin. In the process, he cuts his hand on the blade of his umbrella and the blood drips onto the corpse's heart inside. As Penguin leaves the crypt, the corpse reanimates and gains new flesh and organs.

Penguin hears the corpse and sees Dracula rise. He runs, trying to escape, but Dracula follows the scent and trail of blood from Penguin's cut. Dracula finds the night watchman and drains his blood. Penguin is surprised when he sees the watchman become a vampire, protesting that a dead man can't do that. Dracula replies that he is in fact undead.

Dracula hypnotizes Penguin into becoming his servant to show him Gotham so he can feed. Dracula notes that Transylvania has changed, and is informed by Penguin that he is actually in Gotham City. Dracula concludes that he has been moved since his death. In a flashback, a group of angry people, led by a well-dressed and seemingly very educated man, march upon the castle Dracula. The leader drives the stake through Dracula's heart in order to finally destroy him. However, the leader knows that he has merely incapacitated the vampire, paralyzing him in a deathlike state. Soon, he arranged the vampire's body to be transferred out of Transylvania, buried in America, on land that would eventually become Gotham City.

Bruce has an interview with Vicky Vale at a restaurant. On his return to Wayne Manor, he tells Alfred that he invited her to the corporate dinner and a dinner on Saturday.

As the Batman patrols the city, a woman is robbed, but when the crook is stopped before the Batman can arrive, he decides he's not needed. However, upon hearing the woman scream again, he sees that the night watchman is a vampire. The crook and the woman have also become vampires. The Batman fights them, but is unable to defeat them and forces them to retreat. Penguin then wakes up Dracula, who now looks more human, having fed on some people, with plans to turn Gotham into a city of vampires, with him as their king. But who shall be his Queen?

Batman does not believe what he has seen, but knows something is wrong. At the party Bruce meets Dracula under the name of "Dr. Alucard". Dracula takes an interest in Vicky Vale and says he is studying the Batman. A waiter comes by with a tray of beef steak tartare, which Dracula marvels at before eating, much to Vicky's disgust. When a waitress comes by with a tray of garlic shrimp, the Count is noticeably disturbed. Bruce notices this and offers him some, saying that it tastes great and "really packs a punch", but Dracula hypnotizes him and leaves. A moment later the hypnotized Bruce leaves Vicky and wanders over to the balcony, where Dracula is waiting to bite him. However, just before Dracula is to bite his victim, Alfred arrives, prompting Dracula to disappear and Bruce to snap out of the trance. Dracula meanwhile feeds on one of the waiters. Alfred discovers the waiter is a vampire and narrowly avoids being attacked. Bruce meanwhile deduces "Alucard"'s true identity: Dracula.

After an intensive research with Alfred in the Batcave, Batman begins to realize that many of Dracula's legends were true events. Also realizing that Gotham citizens' disappearances are because of Dracula, he and Alfred realize that the vampires' number will grow exponentially into an army in a matter of weeks. Rather than killing the vampires, Bruce decides to find a way to revert Dracula's victims to normal again, since vampirism seems to be transmitted as a disease despite its roots in the supernatural, and normally there's a chance to treat it. Bruce and Alfred head toward the manor's library for its collection of medical textbooks and research belonging to Bruce's father himself, Dr. Thomas Wayne. Meanwhile, in Dracula's lair below the graveyard, Dracula watches a freeze frame of Vicky and says to himself "*Even her name possesses a mysterious allure...Vale...I think it's time we seek my bride.*".

The next morning, it is falsely reported that The Batman is causing people to disappear and is attacked that night on patrol. As Batman traces the city's number of disappearances, he discovers that the first attack occurred at Gotham Cemetery, where a watchman has disappeared. After realizing that vampirism is plaguing the city, Alfred not only arms the mansion with relics and herbs known to ward off the creatures, but also Batman's own arsenal as well. At night, while investigating at the cemetery, the Gotham P.D. SWAT unit members are also at the scene. As he escapes, the police members are taken by Dracula and transformed into vampires. Batman encounters Dracula on a rooftop. Dracula, admittedly admiring the Dark Knight, commenting that his legend has been influential, offers him a chance of heightened senses, speed, strength and immortality. Batman understands what this offer would really mean to him and refuses, and tries to fight, but is unable to defeat him and is severely injured. Fortunately, Dracula retreats when the sun rises, but not before Dracula promises to the Dark Knight that "*maggots will feed upon his flesh*" because of the rejection. Bruce wakes up later on in his bed after having a nightmare in which he sees his parents killed after they finished watching the movie The Cloaked Rider and sees the Batman as a vampire. The young billionaire wakes up, in fear of his own persona as The Batman and Dracula's evil.

Joker shows up at the graveyard after a fisherman took him to a boat and demands his share from Penguin. He chases Penguin into the crypt where he opens Dracula's coffin and is attacked. Later, in a blood bank, a nurse is attacked and The Batman finds Joker feasting on the blood from the numerous vials on the shelves; he humorously comments that the blood has a delicious flavor of "*a bold finish of wild cherries with a hint of oak*". The two fight until they knock over the shelves. While Joker is distracted drinking blood raining down from a collapsed set of shelves, The Batman hits him with garlic bombs.

Batman takes him inside the Batcave and gets to work curing vampirism, which the computer identifies as a form of virus infecting a host's cellular structure, and also obtaining the whereabouts of the Prince of Darkness from the Clown Prince of Crime. Despite his hatred toward the vampire lord, The Joker is unable to reveal his location because the vampire has completely taken control of his will, as the Joker is now his vessel because of what happened at Gotham Cemetery; this means Joker is going back to Arkham Asylum. Unfortunately, as the Dark Knight works toward discovering the cure and locating Dracula and his victims, he stands up Vicky who is at a train station where she meets Dracula. Bruce tries to call her, but gets no answer. He finishes work on the cure in the form of a vaccine, using it to cure Joker. He has lost his memory of what happened at the crypt. However, using what the Joker remembered prior to being bitten, Batman is able to deduce Dracula's location. Batman then proceeds to mass-produce the vaccine and plan his attack.

The Batman enters the crypt at Gotham Cemetery, and discovers a catacomb underneath it, which explains how Dracula was able to bypass the Christian relics above it. During the Dark Knight's attack, Batman cures all the vampires with the vaccine. Batman is about to fire a projectile carrying the last vial of the vaccine to the vampire lord when Dracula hypnotizes the Dark Knight and makes him unable to fire and destroy him. After hearing Dracula mockingly laugh at him, and remembering the childhood tragedy that inspired him to become Batman, the Dark Knight willfully breaks free of the vampire lord's control. He then attacks Carmilla, restores Vicky's soul, rescues Vicky and fights with Dracula. Batman learns that the caves lead to the Batcave and uses explosives to delay Dracula and enter the Batcave. He is beaten, however, and Dracula plans to kill him rather than turn him into a vampire, proclaiming in relation to the Batcave, "Impressive dwelling... It shall be your tomb!"

Alfred stabs a vial of the vaccine into Dracula but it does not work, as Dracula is the original - "evil incarnate". Batman then activates a device from Wayne Industries that can store and emit sunlight as well as turn it into energy. Dracula realizes too late that Bruce Wayne is Batman. Batman uses a grapple hook to fly up away from the sunlight, which then sets Dracula on fire, and Batman finishes him off with a punch, leaving only a skull with fangs. Alfred proceeds to sweep his remains into the dustbin.

In the meantime, Penguin goes after Vicky and chases her through the cemetery. After finding her in a crypt, he is just about to catch her when he is freed from his hypnosis and finally discovers the treasure that caused all the trouble in the first place. He is overjoyed, but is then caught by police. News reporters state that the people were under Penguin's control, and Penguin keeps saying they were vampires as he is taken away. Vicky sees The Batman, who arrives to check on the victims, and smiles, knowing he saved the city.

The Batman swings proudly throughout the city, knowing that he has just defeated an ultimate evil, and resumes his patrol, ready to defend Gotham against any others that might threaten its safety.

## Cast

* Rino Romano as Bruce Wayne/The Batman
* Peter Stormare as Count Dracula
* Tara Strong as Vicky Vale
* Tom Kenny as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin
* Kevin Michael Richardson as The Joker
* Alastair Duncan as Alfred Pennyworth

## Trivia

* The Ventriloquist (Arnold Wesker) made a cameo at the beginning of the film during a bingo game at Arkham Asylum.
	+ This movie might have took place after *A Fistful of Felt* which it was aired a week before the film was released. This is the only time Arnold appeared in this series without Scarface due to the fact that he and Mr. Snoots were crushed to pieces together by Chu-Chu Chucky near the end of the episode. Therefore, this movie takes place before *RPM.*
* There was going to be another movie called *The Batman vs. Hush* that it featured Hush as the main antagonist including Clayface, Mr. Freeze, Riddler and Catwoman. However the DTV project was cancelled.
	+ Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill tweeted a message saying that they will love to make a *Batman: Hush* animated film and in 2019, a movie based on Batman: Hush was made
* This film is quite similar to *Batman Mask of The Phantasm* where someone blamed Batman for all the trouble in Gotham City.
* *The Batman Strikes #15* is a prequel to the film.
* It's worth noting that the police send a SWAR team after Batman, for **abduction** charges; when *real* villains like Joker and Penguin only get a few cars sent after them.
	+ The cops are incompetent.
		- They attempt to outright kill Batman, who hasn't murdered anyone; just for pinning him for the abduction of the Lost Ones. Completely ignoring Penguin is still on the loose and could easily have someone dress up as Batman
		- They just switch to blaming Penguin since he was with the cured Lost Ones, even when Vicky can back up Penguin's claim of vampiresm
* It's noted all the Lost Ones were never reported as house abductions; meaning vampires needed invitation to enter private residences. Dracula entering the party at Wayne Manor isn't an oversight; public gatherings like parties are *open invitation*.