Batman: Gotham Knight
The Next installment in the DC Original Animated Movie series is a bit of a deviation from their normal format.
Rather than making a full length feature like before, Gotham: Knight offers a collection of 6 shorts, some of which are a tied together by a common story arch, animated in various Japanese Anime styles. The animations are from several well known anime artists and animation studios in japan.
The stories take place between the Chris Nolan films Batman Begins and Batman: The Dark Knight.
Amongst the writers for these shorts are Steven S. Goyer, principal writer for both Nolan films; and Alan Burnett, writer for the Batman the Animated Series and Batman Beyond cartoons.
In order to make this review as painless as possible, I'm going review each short story independently.
The first short starts off as a bunch of kids tell about their recent run in with the Bat as he is chasing the Man in Black, a criminal in a black suit and red goggles with high tech gadgets, through Gotham city. Each has a different take on the Bat; from being a vaporous shadowy figure to being a steam punk looking Robot to even looking more like one of his enemies: the Man-Bat. The story is told in reverse chronological order as each story goes further back in the chase and recounts the Bat's footsteps as he goes after the man in black.
Once they are all done telling their stories, we see the real Batman appear as he continues to chase the villain in the skate park. The villain deploys a smoke bomb, and as he's about to finish off batman from behind one of the kids wacks him with a skateboard.
The animation style is not my cup of tea here. Its very papery, very cardboard-y in my opinion, however the backgrounds are fully realized paintings and give Gotham city a feel of depth and size I hadn't seen before.
Voice acting here is nothing exceptional. Sadly Kevin Conroy doesn't get to speak much in this short.
The different takes on Batman is an interesting concept, one Bruce Timm had explored before in the B:TAS cartoon. However here the designs cater more to the modern stylized anime aesthetic. Overall the story telling is innovative and well designed offering a good beginning to a Batman that will get progressively darker and more disturbing as the shorts continue.
The second short picks up where the first one ended. Batman has captured The Man in Black, now revealed to be a long haired punk named Jacob Feely. Detectives Ramirez, and Allen are tasked by Lt. Gordon to transport Feely over to Arkham Asylum in the narrows. The story takes the plot point from the movie of the Narrows being overrun with the escaped criminals from Arkham and moves it one notch ahead, turning the entire island into Arkham Asylum.
The detectives drive into the Island and deliver Feely. On their way back they are caught in the middle of a turf war between two rival gangs. Getting into a shootout one of the leaders of the gangs fires a rocket at the car. Batman appears to save Allen from his exploding car and proceeds to save detective Ramirez from the other gang leader by walking through the flaming wreckage of the cop car.
The animation is very dark and shadowy. Most things are completely covered in shadow, and only a few highlights are visible. This gives the short a closer feel to the dark brooding bat from the movies. The design of the Batman costume is also closer to the movie with a cowl that clearly looks like a reinforced helmet.
Voice acting here is very good. Detective Allen played by CSI alum Gary Dourdan is portrayed as a somewhat disdainful cop towards the bat. Allen feels the Bat is just a vigilante who thinks he is above the law. Dourdan's deep voice works well for Crispus. The Voices for the gang leaders are also appropriately unhinged and stressful.
Overall this is one of my favorite shorts. Dark, gritty and with a totally bad-ass Batman.
The Waynecom satellite mentioned in Crossfire has crashed. Lucius Fox gets an idea after examining the wreckage to create a electromagnetic bullet proof vest. It activates when it detects the blast from a gun and creates an electromagnetic field so strong that it is able to deflect bullets "even at close range" as Lucius claims.
So having to deal with 2 mob bosses at the same time in 2 boats anchored off the Gotham pier Batman dons the device and goes and confronts them. As they shoot him, one of the bullets ricochets off of him and hits a goon. Batman quickly picks up the goon and takes him to the hospital. Later he returns the device to Lucius stating that "It works too well" and that he's "willing to put his life on the line to do what has to be done, but nobody elses".
I'm not sure Batman would be too worried about a goon that just tried to kill him, getting shot, but I guess it comes down to him being the cause, since he was wearing that deflector vest. Anyway, voice acting is still very good. Kevin Conroy gets to play both Batman and Bruce Wayne, so you get a feel for the different voice tones. You also get a taste of Corey Burton's awesome voice acting. Famous for doing many Transformers voices in the 80's, and a few in the 2010 Transformers Animated cartoon he delivers a creepy Russian accent.
Other than that, there's not much to this short. The animation is very much modern Anime, with sharp pointy noses, and weird hairdos.
After a series of kidnappings by what was describes as a 6 foot lizard man, Batman and Lt. Gordon begin to track the creature. Batman through the sewers and Gordon on a chopper with Detectives Ramirez and Allen. The Monster turns out to be one of Professor Jonathan Crane's (a.k.a Scarecrow) old test subjects: Waylon Jones better known as Killer Croc.
So tracking continues as Gordon informs Batman about Croc. He tells him he's got a skin disease, and that he's cannibalistic. Batman eventually finds Croc, and battles him for a moment. Croc bites him, and then Batman stuffs a bat-bomb down his throat. Croc doesn't die but retreats into the darkness. Batman starts to hallucinate, and concludes that Croc must still have Crane's fear toxin circling through his veins and the bite has infected Batman with it. Gordon asks if he is in pain, and batman only responds that he works through pain.
Batman staggers forward through a large pipe and finds Scarecrow and dozens of his followers with one of the kidnap victims. Batman fights Scarecrows goons, and saves the victim.
The animation in this one is very stylized. With lots of hard shadows, and acute angles to the characters. The camera angels are also very extreme, with very tight facial close ups most of the time. Story wise it leaves a bit to be desired, its probably the weakest short of the bunch. The Batman costume here is very close to the movie designs with hard ab plates, and a very similar cowl.
All in all not one I like. It really ads nothing to the experience, and is a little to extreme in its concept and animation for my liking.
Foreshadowed in the last short as Batman answers Gordon's question of whether he is in pain or not after being bit by Killer Croc, this short takes us into Bruce's past as he is training to become Batman.
Shot by a bum in the sewers, Batman stumbles into a sewer grate that is filled with guns, and starts to have flashbacks. In the flashbacks he has traveled to India to learn how to effectively work through pain. A technique only the Fakir's there know and can teach. He is turned down by the Fakir's and turns to a woman who had learned the same techniques as a young girl by masquerading as a boy. Eventually she was found out, and was shunned by the village turning her into an outcast and branding her as a witch.
She agrees to teach Bruce how to overcome the pain and does so in the subsequent months. After some time, a group of kids come to harass the woman, and Bruce steps in and fights them. Once of them cracks a 2 by 4 over Bruce's skull, however he is not fazed in the least. After kicking but all around Bruce enters the woman's house where she hands Bruce his things, telling him he has to leave now and that she has failed him. Back from the flashback, Alfred has arrived in the Batmobile which he uses to open the grating and gets Batman out.
The Animation here is fairly standard, very reminiscent of the Street Fighter cartoon series style. The story itself is an interesting look at the psyche of the Bat, and what drives him. Well laid out and developed, the short does offer a nice easter egg, in that the Batmobile that Alfred arrives in is pretty close to the Tim Burton Batmobile of the 1989 Batman movie.
As Bruce is remembering his parents death, Deadshot assembles his sniper rifle and prepares to fulfill another contract. Deadshot fires from a ferris wheel across several hundred feet through a champaign glass's stem and into the forehead of his target. After completing the assignment he meets with a mysterious business man who hands him another contract in Gotham. Back in Gotham, the police department is moving Lt Gordon to a safe location after chatter apparently pegs him as Deadshot's next target. Crispus Allen requests Batman help to keep an eye on possible sniper points they can't cover. With Alfred using the satellite to look at the city from above Batman zeros in on a possible sniper location: the Train track overpass. Alfred mentions that its empty, and then discounts the possibility of anyone attempting a shot from a moving train at 60 Mph. Batman immediately realizes that that's exactly what Deadshot is going to do. As the train passes Alfred notices a second train coming in the opposite direction on the parallel track. Inside Deadshot sets up for the shot. Batman stops the shot in mid flight, and moves up onto the train to engage Deadshot. Deadshot reveals a wrist mounted machine gun and taunts Batman. Batman charges only to get shot at, and drops down off the train hanging precariously by one hand. Deadhsot starts shooting his mouth off about how dumb Batman must be just as Batman jumps out from behind one of the cars and slices through Deadshot's machine gun with his arm blades.
Batman grabs him, and instantly Deadshot turns into a frightened sniveling little weasel, and so he knocks him out.
The animation here is quite good I do like this one almost as much as Crossfire. Very reminiscent of the Street Fighter II animated movie it manages to blend in sharp shadows with bright shots. The action sequences are very nicely done, very smooth animation. It offers a more action oriented take on Batman than the previous shorts, and gives Batman a great enemy to take down. All in all my second favorite short.
The concept is a very interesting one and I think they pull if off quite nicely,. though perhaps slightly more traditional animation would have worked for certain shorts better. Music is handled really well using parts of previous Bamtan score, most notably Danny Elfman's score for the 1989 Batman movie in certain places. The music ties nicely into the visuals giving depth and feel to the already very dark and very mature content.
For Batman fans this is a must see. It offers a grown up version of the heor eveyr body knows and adds all the grit and psychologically disturbing imagery that the Nolan films brought to the big screen. For casual Batman fans this could prove a little too extreme of a change and the PG-13 rating may put off some viewers.
All in all I think is an excellent entry into the Batman mythos, and more than a animated movie, its an addendum to the Nolan series that brings depth and character development to story form the movies.
5 out of 5 reels for the most part.
Batman: Gotham Knight Website
The 2-disc Special edition features a very nice sleeve with an opening flap, and a holographic image of batman as he leaps towards Deadshot. For special features you get in disc one, the audio commentary with the producers and Kevin Conroy the voice of Batman is interesting. There's also preview trailer of another DC Original animated movie.
Disc 2 contains a nice documentary about Bob Kane the creator of Batman and a very long featurette that takes a look at the evil enemies of the Bat with conversations with several comic writers and artists.
Finally, Executive Producer Bruce Timm offers us 4 episodes from the Batman: The Animated series cartoon. Including the episode Legends of the Dark Knight, an episode which mirrors the concept of the first short: "Have I got a story for you" in which a group of kids exchange stories about Batman and each is animated to match their descriptions. The descriptions include a very 70's cartoon style as well as a decidedly Frank Miller inspired Batman design.
Overall lots of stuff to keep you interested and a great looking package makes this a must have as a physical DVD rather than a download or on demand viewing
Extra Images:
Rather than making a full length feature like before, Gotham: Knight offers a collection of 6 shorts, some of which are a tied together by a common story arch, animated in various Japanese Anime styles. The animations are from several well known anime artists and animation studios in japan.
Cast
- Kevin Conroy --- Batman / Bruce Wayne
- Jim Meskimen --- Lt. James Gordon
- Gary Dourdan --- Det. Crispus Allen
The stories take place between the Chris Nolan films Batman Begins and Batman: The Dark Knight.
Amongst the writers for these shorts are Steven S. Goyer, principal writer for both Nolan films; and Alan Burnett, writer for the Batman the Animated Series and Batman Beyond cartoons.
In order to make this review as painless as possible, I'm going review each short story independently.
Do I have a story for you
The first short starts off as a bunch of kids tell about their recent run in with the Bat as he is chasing the Man in Black, a criminal in a black suit and red goggles with high tech gadgets, through Gotham city. Each has a different take on the Bat; from being a vaporous shadowy figure to being a steam punk looking Robot to even looking more like one of his enemies: the Man-Bat. The story is told in reverse chronological order as each story goes further back in the chase and recounts the Bat's footsteps as he goes after the man in black.
Once they are all done telling their stories, we see the real Batman appear as he continues to chase the villain in the skate park. The villain deploys a smoke bomb, and as he's about to finish off batman from behind one of the kids wacks him with a skateboard.
The animation style is not my cup of tea here. Its very papery, very cardboard-y in my opinion, however the backgrounds are fully realized paintings and give Gotham city a feel of depth and size I hadn't seen before.
Voice acting here is nothing exceptional. Sadly Kevin Conroy doesn't get to speak much in this short.
The different takes on Batman is an interesting concept, one Bruce Timm had explored before in the B:TAS cartoon. However here the designs cater more to the modern stylized anime aesthetic. Overall the story telling is innovative and well designed offering a good beginning to a Batman that will get progressively darker and more disturbing as the shorts continue.
Crossfire
The second short picks up where the first one ended. Batman has captured The Man in Black, now revealed to be a long haired punk named Jacob Feely. Detectives Ramirez, and Allen are tasked by Lt. Gordon to transport Feely over to Arkham Asylum in the narrows. The story takes the plot point from the movie of the Narrows being overrun with the escaped criminals from Arkham and moves it one notch ahead, turning the entire island into Arkham Asylum. The detectives drive into the Island and deliver Feely. On their way back they are caught in the middle of a turf war between two rival gangs. Getting into a shootout one of the leaders of the gangs fires a rocket at the car. Batman appears to save Allen from his exploding car and proceeds to save detective Ramirez from the other gang leader by walking through the flaming wreckage of the cop car.
The animation is very dark and shadowy. Most things are completely covered in shadow, and only a few highlights are visible. This gives the short a closer feel to the dark brooding bat from the movies. The design of the Batman costume is also closer to the movie with a cowl that clearly looks like a reinforced helmet.
Voice acting here is very good. Detective Allen played by CSI alum Gary Dourdan is portrayed as a somewhat disdainful cop towards the bat. Allen feels the Bat is just a vigilante who thinks he is above the law. Dourdan's deep voice works well for Crispus. The Voices for the gang leaders are also appropriately unhinged and stressful.
Overall this is one of my favorite shorts. Dark, gritty and with a totally bad-ass Batman.
Field Test
The Waynecom satellite mentioned in Crossfire has crashed. Lucius Fox gets an idea after examining the wreckage to create a electromagnetic bullet proof vest. It activates when it detects the blast from a gun and creates an electromagnetic field so strong that it is able to deflect bullets "even at close range" as Lucius claims. So having to deal with 2 mob bosses at the same time in 2 boats anchored off the Gotham pier Batman dons the device and goes and confronts them. As they shoot him, one of the bullets ricochets off of him and hits a goon. Batman quickly picks up the goon and takes him to the hospital. Later he returns the device to Lucius stating that "It works too well" and that he's "willing to put his life on the line to do what has to be done, but nobody elses".
I'm not sure Batman would be too worried about a goon that just tried to kill him, getting shot, but I guess it comes down to him being the cause, since he was wearing that deflector vest. Anyway, voice acting is still very good. Kevin Conroy gets to play both Batman and Bruce Wayne, so you get a feel for the different voice tones. You also get a taste of Corey Burton's awesome voice acting. Famous for doing many Transformers voices in the 80's, and a few in the 2010 Transformers Animated cartoon he delivers a creepy Russian accent.
Other than that, there's not much to this short. The animation is very much modern Anime, with sharp pointy noses, and weird hairdos.
In Darkness Dwells
After a series of kidnappings by what was describes as a 6 foot lizard man, Batman and Lt. Gordon begin to track the creature. Batman through the sewers and Gordon on a chopper with Detectives Ramirez and Allen. The Monster turns out to be one of Professor Jonathan Crane's (a.k.a Scarecrow) old test subjects: Waylon Jones better known as Killer Croc.So tracking continues as Gordon informs Batman about Croc. He tells him he's got a skin disease, and that he's cannibalistic. Batman eventually finds Croc, and battles him for a moment. Croc bites him, and then Batman stuffs a bat-bomb down his throat. Croc doesn't die but retreats into the darkness. Batman starts to hallucinate, and concludes that Croc must still have Crane's fear toxin circling through his veins and the bite has infected Batman with it. Gordon asks if he is in pain, and batman only responds that he works through pain.
Batman staggers forward through a large pipe and finds Scarecrow and dozens of his followers with one of the kidnap victims. Batman fights Scarecrows goons, and saves the victim.
The animation in this one is very stylized. With lots of hard shadows, and acute angles to the characters. The camera angels are also very extreme, with very tight facial close ups most of the time. Story wise it leaves a bit to be desired, its probably the weakest short of the bunch. The Batman costume here is very close to the movie designs with hard ab plates, and a very similar cowl.
All in all not one I like. It really ads nothing to the experience, and is a little to extreme in its concept and animation for my liking.
Working Through Pain
Foreshadowed in the last short as Batman answers Gordon's question of whether he is in pain or not after being bit by Killer Croc, this short takes us into Bruce's past as he is training to become Batman.
Shot by a bum in the sewers, Batman stumbles into a sewer grate that is filled with guns, and starts to have flashbacks. In the flashbacks he has traveled to India to learn how to effectively work through pain. A technique only the Fakir's there know and can teach. He is turned down by the Fakir's and turns to a woman who had learned the same techniques as a young girl by masquerading as a boy. Eventually she was found out, and was shunned by the village turning her into an outcast and branding her as a witch.
She agrees to teach Bruce how to overcome the pain and does so in the subsequent months. After some time, a group of kids come to harass the woman, and Bruce steps in and fights them. Once of them cracks a 2 by 4 over Bruce's skull, however he is not fazed in the least. After kicking but all around Bruce enters the woman's house where she hands Bruce his things, telling him he has to leave now and that she has failed him. Back from the flashback, Alfred has arrived in the Batmobile which he uses to open the grating and gets Batman out.
The Animation here is fairly standard, very reminiscent of the Street Fighter cartoon series style. The story itself is an interesting look at the psyche of the Bat, and what drives him. Well laid out and developed, the short does offer a nice easter egg, in that the Batmobile that Alfred arrives in is pretty close to the Tim Burton Batmobile of the 1989 Batman movie.
Deadshot
As Bruce is remembering his parents death, Deadshot assembles his sniper rifle and prepares to fulfill another contract. Deadshot fires from a ferris wheel across several hundred feet through a champaign glass's stem and into the forehead of his target. After completing the assignment he meets with a mysterious business man who hands him another contract in Gotham. Back in Gotham, the police department is moving Lt Gordon to a safe location after chatter apparently pegs him as Deadshot's next target. Crispus Allen requests Batman help to keep an eye on possible sniper points they can't cover. With Alfred using the satellite to look at the city from above Batman zeros in on a possible sniper location: the Train track overpass. Alfred mentions that its empty, and then discounts the possibility of anyone attempting a shot from a moving train at 60 Mph. Batman immediately realizes that that's exactly what Deadshot is going to do. As the train passes Alfred notices a second train coming in the opposite direction on the parallel track. Inside Deadshot sets up for the shot. Batman stops the shot in mid flight, and moves up onto the train to engage Deadshot. Deadshot reveals a wrist mounted machine gun and taunts Batman. Batman charges only to get shot at, and drops down off the train hanging precariously by one hand. Deadhsot starts shooting his mouth off about how dumb Batman must be just as Batman jumps out from behind one of the cars and slices through Deadshot's machine gun with his arm blades.
Batman grabs him, and instantly Deadshot turns into a frightened sniveling little weasel, and so he knocks him out.
The animation here is quite good I do like this one almost as much as Crossfire. Very reminiscent of the Street Fighter II animated movie it manages to blend in sharp shadows with bright shots. The action sequences are very nicely done, very smooth animation. It offers a more action oriented take on Batman than the previous shorts, and gives Batman a great enemy to take down. All in all my second favorite short.
Overall
The concept is a very interesting one and I think they pull if off quite nicely,. though perhaps slightly more traditional animation would have worked for certain shorts better. Music is handled really well using parts of previous Bamtan score, most notably Danny Elfman's score for the 1989 Batman movie in certain places. The music ties nicely into the visuals giving depth and feel to the already very dark and very mature content.
For Batman fans this is a must see. It offers a grown up version of the heor eveyr body knows and adds all the grit and psychologically disturbing imagery that the Nolan films brought to the big screen. For casual Batman fans this could prove a little too extreme of a change and the PG-13 rating may put off some viewers.
All in all I think is an excellent entry into the Batman mythos, and more than a animated movie, its an addendum to the Nolan series that brings depth and character development to story form the movies.
5 out of 5 reels for the most part.
Batman: Gotham Knight Website
The DVD Set
The 2-disc Special edition features a very nice sleeve with an opening flap, and a holographic image of batman as he leaps towards Deadshot. For special features you get in disc one, the audio commentary with the producers and Kevin Conroy the voice of Batman is interesting. There's also preview trailer of another DC Original animated movie.
Disc 2 contains a nice documentary about Bob Kane the creator of Batman and a very long featurette that takes a look at the evil enemies of the Bat with conversations with several comic writers and artists.
Finally, Executive Producer Bruce Timm offers us 4 episodes from the Batman: The Animated series cartoon. Including the episode Legends of the Dark Knight, an episode which mirrors the concept of the first short: "Have I got a story for you" in which a group of kids exchange stories about Batman and each is animated to match their descriptions. The descriptions include a very 70's cartoon style as well as a decidedly Frank Miller inspired Batman design.
Overall lots of stuff to keep you interested and a great looking package makes this a must have as a physical DVD rather than a download or on demand viewing
Extra Images:
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