Written by Kroze Kresky, Media Editor

For the past several years, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros Animation have been hard at work bringing to life several of the most famous and popular storylines in comic book history, pumping out several entries a year. From Darwin Cook’s Justice League: The New Frontier to the most recent Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, these direct to home release full length features haven’t skimped out on quality or talent. Bruce Timm who has been famous for such comic book animated shows like Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League, and Batman Beyond has been heading up these animated movie projects since the start and his magic touch has always shined through. Now the creative team of Timm and co. have dipped into one of the most defining comic books of recent years, Batman: Year One, adapting it into a full on animated feature.

Batman: Year One is a retelling of Batman’s origins as Bruce Wayne (Ben McKenzie from The OC) comes into adapting the Batman persona and mindset in order to bring the city of Gotham back into order from the chaos it is currently drowning in. After leaving Gotham for many years to train, the prodigal son returns home only to find things have gotten worse… the mob rules the entire city. The Mayor and the police force have all been compromised by crime families and there is no telling who can and who can’t be trusted. At the same time, Jim Gordon (voiced by Bryan Cranston of TV’s Breaking Bad) moves to Gotham  with his wife after he has been transferred into Gotham City’s police branch only to find out how corrupt the system has become.

Along the way, Bruce ends up inspiring Selina Kyle (Eliza Dushku from Dollhouse) into jumping on the masked vigilante bandwagon as she takes on the persona of Catwoman, a master thief out to steal anything she can get her hands on and make a name for herself but overall her plot doesn’t really add anything into the main story.

The story jumps back and forth between the tales of Jim and Bruce as we watch these two begin their uphill battle against cleaning up Gotham as each of their stories parallels each other until these two forces meet up and form the relationship that would resonate in Gotham City and the entire DC universe for years to come. Between the two, Jim’s plot becomes far more compelling and ends up being more relatable to follow as opposed to either the massive amounts of brooding or fight scenes that come from Bruce’s half of the story. Extra props goes to Katee Sackoff (Battlestar Galactica) in her role as Detective Sarah Essen in which her relationship with Jim Gordon is very believable and perhaps is the best aspect of the entire film.

Sadly Ben McKenzie seems a bit lacking in his role of Bruce Wayne. When delivering the more introspective lines, he comes off as a bit too mechanical and without any emotion to it but yet just like how Bruce Wayne puts on the Batman persona and becomes a completely different person, Ben excels at sounding like a younger Batman at times almost channeling Kevin Conroy a bit during the more intense scenes.

The animation as always with the DC releases is top notch and evokes a style very much akin to the original Batman: The Animated Series with its dark and muted tones but yet follows the designs of the original Batman: Year One comic, staying faithful to the original source material.

Speaking about staying true to the source, the entire Year One comic has been adapted almost panel for panel in one of the most true to the comic movies I have ever seen. Every expense is taken to ensure that Year One is accurate and keeps to Frank Miller’s original vision.

Lauren Montgomery deserves a lot of credit here as once again her work on these direct to video movie releases continue to impress in terms of animation quality and direction. Batman: Year One feels like it could be a theatrical release with no additions made to it.

Special Features:

Along with Year One, this release also features a 15 minute Catwoman short with Eliza Dushku reprising her role as Selina Kyle as she hunts down a crime ring who has been smuggling something into Gotham… the question is what. This short provides us with a lot more meat and characterization to Selina than the main movie and makes her a bit more likable to audiences. The Catwoman short also features some amazing and intense action fight sequences to contrast the lack of action in the main feature. With being so bite sized, The Catwoman makes for easy repeated viewings and continues to stay enjoyable!

Other Features include:

•Sneak Peek at Justice League: Doom, the next DC Universe Animated Original Movie- The next DC Universe animated project features the last script written by the late Dwayne McDuffie and is an adaptation of the comic book story: Tower of Babel. This story will feature the returning cast of the Justice League Animated Series, as well as the addition of Nathan Fillion as Hal Jordan!

•DC Showcase Animated Original Short – “Catwoman”: This all-new entry to the growing canon of DC Universe animated shorts features the first first solo tale centered around Catwoman. The felonious feline’s adventure takes her through the seedy streets of Gotham City. Catwoman is voiced by Eliza Dushku (Dollhouse, Tru Calling).

•Featurette –“Heart of Vengeance: Returning Batman to His Roots”: “The Dark Knight Returns” provided the denouement of Batman’s life. Frank Miller’s next seminal work would provide his near-mythic origin in “Batman: Year One.” This documentary uncovers the contemporary genius of Miller and the audience that was poised to appreciate the depths of his work.

•Featurette –“Conversations with DC Comics”: The Batman creative team at DC
Entertainment discusses the personal influence of “Batman: Year One” on their careers. Batman producer Michael Uslan leads the chat amongst well-known writers, editors and artists of the Batman lore, focusing their dialogue on the darker, realistic interpretation of Batman’s origins by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli

•Audio Commentary with Alan Burnett, Sam Liu, Mike Carlin and Andrea Romano

•“Batman: Year One, Chapter 1” Digital Comic Book

•Two bonus episodes from “Batman: The Animated Series,” handpicked by Bruce Timm

•Standard and high definition versions of the feature film

•Digital copy on disc of the feature film compatible with iTunes and Windows

Overall

Batman: Year One is another standout title for Warner Bros Animation and continues the legacy started way back in Batman: The Animated Series. The casting is top notch and the animation quality is nothing short of amazing. Bruce Timm and company have once again knocked it out of the park and it excites me to know that they will be doing the same to The Dark Knight Returns next year!

ComicsOnline gives Batman: Year One 4 out of 5 limp bodies pummeled by the goddamn Batman!

Get your copy of Batman: Year One at Amazon.

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