Gotham Girls

Gotham Girls is an animated series for the web in the early 2000s featuring female characters from the Batman universe. Taking up a handful of characters developed in Batman the animated series and The New Batman Adventures, Gotham Girls is part of the DC Animated Universe.

History
At nightfall, in the streets of Gotham City, there is no shortage of fingers! There is Catwoman, a thief and a refined collector; Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, duo of singularly assorted criminals; Zatanna, magician of justice; and finally Batgirl, daughter of Commissioner Gordon and right arm of Batman.

Genesis
In July 2000, in parallel with the Lobo series, Warner Bros. continues the adventure of Flash animation on the web by extending the Animated DC Universe. For such an adventure, Batman is a bearer but must not be overexploited. A compromise is then found: use the universe of the Justicier de Gotham without revealing the character! And as the Bruce Timm team loves to feature pretty female characters, it's only natural to use those developed in Batman The Animated Series and then in The New Batman Adventures,: Batgirl, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Zatanna, Montoya ...

Gotham Girls, less "controversial" than the trash series Lobo, will experience three seasons. The first two are made up of episodes playing mainly on humor, even nonsense (in a format as small as 3 minutes, it is difficult to make drama), while the third season will be more "elaborate "with a story to follow on ten episodes. The original gothamgirls.com site is disappearing, but the episodes are happily "viewable" from our episode guide.

Artists
The names of the artists who participated in the series do not appear on the site hosting the episodes or on the credits of the latter. Our research is ongoing.

Comments
Attractive and sexy, the heroines crunched by Bruce Timm (especially since Superman The Animated Series and 'The New Batman Adventures) were therefore assigned their own series along with Lobo, the space bounty hunter. Although different in their humor, the two series have the same qualities and the same defects: a support that allows more freedom but a technology that does not yet allow large-scale animation ... nor long-lasting. The very short episodes are easier to adapt to the genre of comedy and if it was approached with finesse in the series for the television, here one pitches between the best and the easier, especially in the first two seasons.

The originality of Gotham Girls is, like Lobo, to leave especially place to characters who are not heroes. Indeed, the series is not only interested in Batgirl, or even Zatanna (already appeared in the Batman The Animated Series) but also to Catwoman, Poison Ivy or Harley Quinn! As for the last two episodes - a significant detail demonstrating the freedom enjoyed by the series - they are again co-tenants, as in the famous Harley and Ivy episode (from the Batman The Animated Serie) and when we know the naughty drawings that Bruce Timm devoted to this duo, one thinks, looking at Gotham Girls', that the relationship of these two criminals is truly ambiguous.

While web support offers relative freedom to authors, it is far from Lobo (and his humor at the South Park) that is aimed rather at an informed public. As proof, Gotham Girls is still easily found on the web today, when Lobo disappeared after probably having embarrassed a few lads from Warner.

The first two seasons of 'Gotham Girls, if they are playful (especially thanks to the interactive sequences), sometimes have a slightly childish scenario (accentuated by drawing necessarily simplified compared to TV series). Nevertheless, besides this, the series is full of winks and details that will make the adult spectators smile. As for the 3rd season, police investigation sprinkled with humor, it follows with great pleasure: the scenario is complex, the situations more sought after, technical errors are dwindling, animation is more fluid and the stakes of the history really arouse the interest of the spectator-internet user ...

Voice
The main characters retain their "usual" voices already heard in previous series (Batman The Animated Serie, The New Batman Adventures, Superman The Animated Serie ...). Since the series has not been dubbed in French (or in any other language for that matter), we give below only the original voices.

Characters / Original voices
Jennifer Hale
 * Batgirl / Barbara Gordon	Tara Strong
 * Catwoman / Selina Kyle and Detective Renee Montoya : Adrienne Barbeau
 * Commissaire Caroline Greenway, Dora Smithy and Detective Selma Reesdale :
 * Commissaire James Gordon : Bob Hastings
 * Harley Quinn / Harleen Quinzel : Arleen Sorkin
 * Poison Ivy / Pamela Isley : Diane Pershing
 * Zatanna : Stacie Randall
 * Voix additionnelles : Tom Kenny

Broadcasts
The series was broadcast on the net from July 2000 on gothamgirls.com, now abandoned. A new episode was offered every month.

Episodes are available in English from our Episode Guide and Media pages.