Heres how to watch all the Batman animated movies in order

Publish date: 2024-07-24

When you think of Batman, a series of images probably flash before your eyes.

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The Dark Knight of the comics, surveying Gotham City through slanting rain from an impossibly high gargoyle. The Caped Crusader of the 1960s TV show, running through Gotham docks with a bomb he just can’t lose. A devilish silhouette leaping across a stylish art deco rooftop in the opening titles of Batman: The Animated Series.

Batman has won a firm place in popular culture by being uncannily adaptable, and there’s no doubt his animated incarnations have played a massive part. Many still regard Kevin Conroy’s portrayal of the Dark Knight in Batman: The Animated Series as the definitive incarnation.

Developed by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and Mitch Brian, the show is a defining chapter in the Dark Knight’s career. Its continuity has endured through spin-off movies and comics for an impressive three decades. But that brooding, square-jawed Batman isn’t Gotham’s only animated guardian. 

Animating the Dark Knight

Batman’s animated career began with cameos in Filmation’s Superman series during the late 1960s. He’d take a more significant role in subsequent series, including Hanna-Barbera’s Super Friends and Batman: The Animated Series. It would be the feature spin-off from that latter series that would start his animated career. Oddly for the Dark Knight, but fortunately for us, he hasn’t looked back since.

The result has been a growing collection of animated features over the last three decades. Often these are unconnected, reflecting different eras and styles of the Dark Knight’s diverse career. That means there’s a Dark Knight for all seasons, whether you prefer your Batman Lego or Ninja. 

In 2007, Warner Bros. Pictures established a regular schedule of movies under the banner DC Universe Animated Original Movies. These regular direct-to-video features have proved to be highly successful, although they haven’t attempted to provide continuity like their live-action counterparts in the DC Extended Universe. 

Batman is by far the most featured character in DC’s animated features, whether taking the lead or as a crucial part of an ensemble. Unsurprisingly, his animated adventures take a varied approach. Among new stories, attempts to bring classic comic story arcs to the screen have received a mixed reception.

If you recognize some of the names or have read the original comic arcs, don’t expect the animated movie to head in the same direction as its inspiration. The animated adaptations often take a path, changing the plot to suit the medium, for better or worse. 

Are you looking to catch up? We’ve collected together every animated feature starring Batman in order of release for your viewing pleasure. Although there’s no set continuity, we’ve also collected them in sub-themes if you’d prefer to watch them in groups. 

Every Batman animated film in order

Watching by theme

As with Batman’s live-action movie career, there’s no direct continuity running between all his animated appearances. However, there are separate continuities where groups of the films benefit from being watched together — a far easier way to break down your Batman viewing.

Superman/Batman

Features inspired by DC’s Superman/Batman title.

Justice League

This continuity is mainly based on JLA storylines written by Grant Morrison and Mark Waid in 2000.

The ‘Dark Knight Returns’ Universe

A darker continuity based on Frank Miller’s definitive Batman story arcs 

DC Animated Original Movie Universe

The core shared universe of DC animated movies. This continuity started in the wake of DC’s New 52 reboot and is strongly influenced by that era.

The Tomorrowverse

Named after the first film in the series, inspired by one of Superman’s nicknames, this smaller shared universe revolves around the early years of DC’s greatest heroes.

DC Animated Universe

Confusingly named, this is the continuity that started with Batman: The Animated Series and continued with Batman Beyond. 

The Batman universe

Not to be confused with the Dark Knight’s latest movie incarnation, Batman’s second most successful animated series spawned one spin-off feature.

Return of the Caped Crusader universe

This continuity was a belated continuation of the 1960s Batman TV series.

Other Batman universes

These films and anthologies are spin-offs from larger media universes.

Standalone features

After the above-mentioned films, we are left with a bunch of standalone movies to watch for the complete animated Batman viewing experience.

Coming Soon

Those who are fans of seeing the Dark Knight in animated form are in luck. It has been announced that there will be another Justice League film, entitled Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part One. There will also be an R-rated animated film called Watchmen which is based on a graphic novel that includes Batman.

While it doesn’t include all of the movies from this list, you can get a head start on your animated Batman movie marathon by purchasing this 18-film collection at Walmart.

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