Gotham Girls

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A 2000-2002 three-season web animation series of 30 short episodes made by Noodle Soup Productions for Warner Brothers Animation and created by Paul Dini and Hilary J. Bader, Gotham Girls stars the female characters of the Gotham setting: Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Batgirl, with occasional appearances by Zatanna and Renee Montoya. The series is notable for featuring the characters' television voice actresses and is generally considered canon with the DCAU.

The first twenty episodes (released monthly) were unrelated comedic interludes featuring tales of the daily life of the characters. The third season of ten episodes formed an interconnected arc concerning the disappearance of all men from Gotham City. Some installments featured an interactive element or mini-game.

The Flash Animation (hailing as it did from the early days of the web) was not very fluid, but got better as time went on.

The episodes are still online, though hidden on the Warner Brothers website, and a full list of the episode links can be found on the Other Wiki and YouTube. The entire series was also included as Bonus Content on the Birds of Prey television series DVD. A spinoff comic book was released for the series, and Paul Dini's "Harley and Ivy" mini-series and later Gotham City Sirens clearly took some inspiration from the premise.


Tropes used in Gotham Girls include:
  • Anti-Villain: Invoked in-universed. Ivy calls herself an "eco-terrorist of global importance". Which means she makes a contribution. At least one episode has her going out of her way to get the mayor to prevent bulldozing of a park because he swore he wouldn't in his election campaign.
  • Beauty Contest: Batgirl stages one in order to catch the villains. No beauty is actually judged, given the feminist vibe.
  • Breakout Character: The entire show was pretty much made to capitalize on fandom love for Harley Quinn.
  • Check, Please!: Used (incorrectly) by Harley in Strategery.
  • Curse Cut Short:

Batgirl: Long life my aAAGH! [Said just as the ledge she was holding collapses.]

Harley: [thinking] Rhymes with rich...

  • Girls' Night Out Episode: The premise of the series.
  • Keep-Away: Harley and Ivy try this on Batgirl with a CD. Harley eventually falls for Batgirl shouting "I'm open!"
  • Mama Bear: Ivy to Harley in a Season 2 episode, when Harley is briefly turned into a baby. Ivy is visibly distraught when baby Harley disappears and spends the rest of the episode looking for her.
  • Merit Badges for Everything: In "Scout's Dishonor", Harley sets up an evil Girl Scout equivalent with this sort of logic.
  • Nice Hat: Zatanna. "Sorry, boys. No-one touches the hat."
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Harley's plans really give Batgirl an advantage.
  • Noodle Incident: An ominously loud banging on the apartment door leads Ivy to ask Harley if she ordered explosives online again.
  • Pet the Dog: Catwoman numerous times, especially where cats are involved.
  • Reverse Polarity: How Harley Quinn un-disappears all of Gotham's men in season 3. The gun's settings are polarity and reverse polarity.
  • Sleazy Politician: The mayor of Gotham City.
  • Transsexualism: When all the men in Gotham disappear a female police officer disappears as well. Batgirl finds out that the reason she disappeared was that she was genetically male.