"Batman & Harley Quinn" reunites Bruce Timm, Kevin Conroy, & Loren Lester

Earlier this week, Warner Premiere, Warner Bros. Animation, and DC Comics released a nine-minute featurette that previewed their upcoming DC Universe Animated Original Movie: Batman & Harley Quinn.

The upcoming animated film is set in the classic DC Animated Universe, where Batman and Nightwing are forced to team up with one of their iconic foes, Harley Quinn, to stop Poison Ivy and the Floronic Man, making his animated debut in the DC animated universe, from unleashing an insidious force that could potentially end human life.

However, the Joker’s former girlfriend and Poison Ivy’s best friend is unwilling to help the Dynamic Duo out. She has traded her pet hyenas and giant mallet for living in a seedy area of Gotham and works as a waitress in a superhero-themed restaurant: Superbabes.

“I’m done with cape and tights and masks,” said Quinn stated to Nightwing in the trailer. “I am trying like hell to live a normal life.”

Batman & Harley Quinn came about after legendary animator and this film’s director, Bruce Timm, ran into former Batman: The Animated Series collaborator Alan Burnett.

“I ran into Alan Burnett, and he briefly said that “Oh! We are talking about possibly doing a Harley movie, and I told him that I would do it and he said: “Oh great!” said Bruce Timm, in the featurette.

After their initial conversation, the Harley Quinn co-creator went to work on the film’s storyboards and Jim Krieg, the film’s co-screenwriter, was impressed with what Mr. Timm achieved in a short amount of time.

“The storyboards were are all on paper, and as I was flipping through them, I told them: “Quite frankly, this is almost done. ” and it is brilliant,” said Krieg. “Bruce is the one person who is the closest to the material and has the emotional distance that can make this project legitimate.”

But Kreig stated that Batman & Harley Quinn features some classic elements that fans will enjoy, he advised that Batman’s younger fans should wait until their older to watch the film.

“This movie is the strange redheaded nephew of Batman: The Animated Series,” Krieg said. “Do not show it to your kids thinking that it is Batman: The Animated Series. The film is its own animal.”

While Batman & Harley Quinn is in Bruce Timm’s iconic animation style, Timm stated that fans might be familiar with the film’s structure.

“The film structurally is similar to an episode of Batman: The Animated Series that we did years ago called “Harlequinade,” Timm said. “The episode focused on a 48 hours aspect, where a cop had to team up with a criminal to catch another criminal.”

Harley Quinn, Batman, and Nightwing

In addition to Bruce Timm, there were several key Batman: The Animated Series collaborators that worked on this film. Longtime Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy, who is fresh off portraying the Caped Crusader in last year’s animated adaption of Batman: The Killing Joke, will once again voice the Dark Knight.

“It is a fascinating story,” said Kevin Conroy in the featurette. “It is a complicated story that has surprise turns in it that the audience is going to get a big kick out of.”

Rejoining the Batman family for this film is voice actor Loren Lester. Lester voiced Dick Grayson, and his alter egos, Robin and Nightwing, for both Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures.

“I loved this script,” said Loren Lester. “The film really captures the essence of the show.”

Joining Conroy and Lester for the film will be The Big Bang Theory’s Melissa Rauch, who will voice Harley Quinn.

“When I found out that I was going to be playing this role, I cannot tell you how overjoyed I was when the offer came into my inbox,” said Melissa Rauch. “When I saw “Harley Quinn,” I immediately wanted to know what this was all about.”

Rauch will join Arleen Sorkin, Tara Strong, Hynden Walch, and Jenny Slate as actresses who have voiced the character in several Batman animated films.

While no expected release date has been announced, pop culture website, CBR, stated Batman & Harley Quinn is expected to be released this summer.