The Batman/Superman Movie (“World’s Finest,” 1996) – Bridging the gap between two Batman cartoon series and connecting Batman to the Superman animated mythos, this three-episode arc of Superman: The Animated Series works extremely well edited together as a short movie, in large part because of the strong voice cast (which I praised at length last week). Here, The Joker finds himself strapped of cash but in possession of a large quantity of Kryptonite; he offers his services to Lex Luthor, leading Batman and Superman to collaborate in order to stop this lethal alliance. Batman is placed out of his element, a dark knight in sunny Metropolis, but the film finds a good place for him, and the team-up with Superman feels neither forced nor guaranteed. That is, the film strikes a comfortable balance between Superman’s cheery disposition and Batman’s grim and brooding ethos, between Lex’s disdain and Joker’s anarchy. Caught in the middle is Lois Lane, whose emotional vacillations are nuanced perfectly by Dana Delaney. And the rest of the voice cast is spot-on, as with any DC animation from the era – Tim Daly as the omnipotent but vulnerable Superman, Kevin Conroy as distinctly both Batman and Bruce Wayne, Clancy Brown as a tight-lipped and gravelly Lex Luthor, and of course Mark Hamill back as the clown prince of crime, The Joker. While some resented the visual update to the Batman style, it’s only the redesign of The Joker that feels somewhat less than perfect (I miss the red lips). It’s somewhat lighter fare than Mask of the Phantasm, but it’s as close to a perfect Batman/Superman team-up that we’ve seen on film or television.
Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010) – Critical consensus suggests that this film is better than Mask of the Phantasm (100% on Rotten Tomatoes, as opposed to Phantasm’s 87%), and while I’m not willing to go that far, I will say that Under the Red Hood is the best animated Batman venture since. Grieving the murder of Jason Todd (Robin II) at the hands of The Joker, Batman is forced to reconcile with his past when a new player in town is murdering the Gotham mob, working his way up to the top boss, Black Mask. While I’m a big fan of Judd Winick’s original comic series on which this film was made, I was skeptical of the new voice cast being used. Fortunately, newcomers Bruce Greenwood (Batman) and John DiMaggio (The Joker) serve as worthy successors to Conroy and Hamill; even Neil Patrick Harris is undistracting as Nightwing, but Wade Williams steals the show with his over-the-top Black Mask, at once a self-parody and a fearsome tyrant. But beyond the voice cast, the film itself captures the emotional essence of Winick’s original, even if some plot points are changed along the way; we understand very readily what Jason Todd meant to Batman, and we can tell very early on why the Red Hood and Batman philosophically collide as they do. And if it didn’t make sense already, the movie’s haunting last scene – a flashback to Jason’s days as Robin – will leave you clamoring to experience the film once more.
Batman: Year One (2011) – Here’s another case of a classic comic adapted by a new voice cast, but this time the results are a bit more disappointing – though not unworthy of viewing. Frank Miller’s iconic soft reboot of Batman’s origins gets adapted with Benjamin McKenzie as Batman and Bryan Cranston as soon-to-be Commissioner Gordon in this retelling of the first year in which Batman and Gordon fight crime, first separately then collaboratively. Again my skepticism of the voice cast arose and for the most part was not unfounded; while McKenzie’s emotionless voiceover captures Bruce Wayne’s internal deadness, it’s less engaging than I feel Conroy would have made it. The real star, though, is Cranston’s Gordon, who’s given the most screen time and surpasses the voice work done by Bob Hastings in the 1990s cartoon, approaching the definitiveness of Gary Oldman in the Nolan films. The film’s biggest detriment, though, is its overzealous devotion to the source material, leading to a few dead ends that don’t quite work on film. The plotline with Catwoman, for example, doesn’t quite go anywhere (even the DVD back-up short doesn’t help), nor does the diminished presence of Batman do justice to his appearance on the cover. I can’t help feeling that if the film had been titled Jim Gordon: Year One, I wouldn’t have this same complaint. The movie does, however, do a good job translating Gordon’s rise and struggles, and Cranston ably proves himself a superb Gordon. (And who can resist Alex “Moe Greene” Rocco voicing Gotham’s top Mafioso Carmine Falcone?)That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you next week!
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