Gotham Girls

Gotham Girls is an American animated Flash cartoon series created and produced jointly by Warner Brothers and Noodle Soup Productions about the females of Gotham City. Episodes starred Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Batgirl and Catwoman in short stories of varying length about the daily lives of the characters (from the DC comics universe).

It is also the name of a related comic book series.

Flash cartoon series

Gotham Girls is one of the few series of Flash animations made by a professional publisher of mainstream cartoons, and features professional voice-acting by the same actresses and actors as those who voiced the television series. Its use of Flash (and so vector graphics) enables the animation to appear undistorted or pixellated at any size/resolution.

Each episode features a mini-game or puzzle which can be played while the clip downloads, as well as an interactive feature which allows viewers to help a character make a certain decision.

Other features of the website include downloadable trailers (1, 2), screensavers, desktop backgrounds, internet chat buddy icons, as well as biographies of the characters (additional bios can be viewed by clicking on the occasional flapping bat image appearing in the bottom-right corner while watching the show itself at certain points) and an online version of the classic game Othello (aka Reversi) featuring the Gotham Girls.

The series lasted for three seasons (10 episodes each), with each episode released month-by-month. While the first two seasons featured primarily comedic episodes, the third season attempted to make the show more serious. These episodes linked directly to Batman and Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero. This is because Nora is doing this for revenge on men, for her sister was "killed by Mr. Freeze", or so Nora thinks. Dropping the magician Zatanna from its lineup and adding a host of new characters to the cast, including Detective Renee Montoya, each episode from this series tied into the next, forming a collective thirty-minute whodunit. The storyline also dealt with issues not seen since The Animated Series, such as the corruption of the Gotham Police Force, Poison Ivy's environmental crusade and Commissioner Gordon's wavering faith in costumed superheroes. The series shocked audiences with the inclusion of the only transexual character to ever appear in the DC animated universe.

The series finale, "Cold Hands, Cold Heart" aired in 2002, wrapping up the mystery and ending the website. GothamGirls.com remains online as an archive of the series, however the visible website only links to the animations for Series 3. Some fans were disapointed that Batman himself did not make even a cameo appearance in the show, but that did nothing to degrade the quality of its run.

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

Cast

Adrienne Barbeau as Selina Kyle (Catwoman)
Arleen Sorkin as Dr. Harleen Quinzel (Harley Quinn)
Diane Pershing as Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley (Poison Ivy)
Tara Strong as Barbara Gordon (Batgirl)
Jennifer Hale as Dora Smithy and Acting Commissioner Caroline Greenway
Bob Hastings as Commissioner James 'Jim' Gordon
Tom Kenny WGBS Anchor, Rogue Cop, Additional Voices

Comic series

A highly successful five-issue Gotham Girls comic book mini-series was produced by DC Comics in 2002 written by Paul Storrie, riding on the popularity of the online animated series and providing more mainstream publicity for its internet-based predecessor. It starred Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, Batgirl and Renee Montoya, and each issue spotlighted one of these characters to a certain degree. The story, which took place in the DC animated universe, involved a vial of chemicals that the three villainesses fought over, as they also tried to avoid capture by Batgirl and Detective Montoya.

There was also a sequel mini-series of sorts to the Gotham Girls comic mini-series titled Batman: Harley and Ivy.

External links

Batman | Flash cartoons

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