Now we have Batman: Under the Red Hood and I wanted to give you a little background first before I let you know how I felt about it. Here it is: It’s the best effort so far and by far. It’s a fantastic movie, and that’s what makes it stand head and shoulders above the rest. It’s an actual movie.
A few years ago Warner Premiere started releasing new animated superhero films straight to DVD for a more mature, PG-13 audience. The results were a mixed bag. The first one, Superman: Doomsday wasn’t very good. Adding graphic violence does not a more mature title make. What was worse, the film literally took all the fun out of Superhero movies and don’t even get me started on the weird facial lines drawn into Superman’s face. Was it the animator’s take your kid to work day?
Soon others followed with mixed results, the Anime Batman: Gotham Knight was hit or miss, but with some very strong hits in it. Then came a few Justice League movies, Green Lantern: First Flight and even a Wonder Woman origin story. Which was better than it sounds.
Now we have Batman: Under the Red Hood and I wanted to give you a little background first before I let you know how I felt about it. Here it is: It’s the best effort so far and by far. It’s a fantastic movie, and that’s what makes it stand head and shoulders above the rest. It’s an actual movie.
While the Wonder Woman origin story got close to being an actual movie, Batman: Under the Red Hood succeeds in every respect. It has a backstory. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. It IS more mature, but not because of all the violence. It’s more mature because of the subject matter it deals with and it actually evokes true emotion, which is rare for any animated film. The running times of 75 minutes per movie seemed long until now. This is the first one I would have liked to see another 15 minutes or so. But budget, blah blah blah.
The story is simple, or so it appears. Batman is chasing after a new villain in town, The Red Hood who is slowly taking over Gotham’s crime bosses. But there is something different about him. I will NOT give any spoilers here. Suffice it to say I was not familiar with the comic book storyline, so I think that made me enjoy it even more. Even if you know where the movie is going, it still manages to surprise you with witty, well written dialogue and fantastic characterization all the way up to the end.
Granted, The Red Hood isn’t the most creative of Supervillain names. That’s kind of just what he’s wearing. But I guess it’s more ominous than The Purple Shirt or The Green Slacks.
There is more going on here than just a superhero slugfest. There are more character, and this is key, they all have something to do. It’s not about finding the villain and then beating him to a pulp. There is an actual story here involving the Joker, the Red Hood, Nightwing, crime bosses, and Ra’s al Ghul. The closest thing would be Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993!) which really felt like a complete movie.
This Joker is spun much closer to the Dark Knight’s Joker as a homicidal maniac than anything else before it. Mark Hamill has always done a great Joker for the series, but VO actor John DiMaggio really brings a new spin here. Bruce Greenwood’s Batman isn’t bad, but it’s not earth shattering either.
Interestingly, the movie was animated like an action movie. The action, while frenetic, has more in common with the Bourne movies (without the annoying shaky close-ups) than with an animated movie.
I was really hoping WB would get this formula right eventually. They sure did and then some. If you’re reading this right now, you have a movie rental queue somewhere. Batman: Under the Red Hood deserves to be in it right now.
—Chris Mancini
