| Review:
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At its core, Batman Gotham Knight is an anime-styled
series, with six 12-minute short cartoons dealing with Batman
in the world established in Batman Begins. All six stories
are underwhelming in the story department and even the art
leaves a little to be desired. The animation is more conventionally
realistic than Batman: The Animated Series or The Batman,
but the caped crusader himself never looks terribly imposing
or convincing. The stories do have the thinnest of connecting
tissue, but really they work better when viewed as six separate
stand-alone tales.***
And the voice work leaves much to be desired. Yes,
Kevin Conroy was dubbed in at the last second as Bruce Wayne
and Batman, but it's downright awkward hearing this fifty-three
year old voice actor voice a twenty-seven year old Bruce
Wayne, especially when Conroy employs his more arching,
over-the-top, and older sounding Batman voice that he started
using on Justice League (it's far less effective than his
subtler readings from Batman: The Animated Series). Dare
I say it, but if they wanted continuity from the animated
worlds, they should have gone with Rino Romano, who plays
Bruce Wayne on The Batman at the same age as he is presented
here (Romano may never be Conroy in his prime, but he steadily
improved as the show ran its bumpy course). To be fair,
Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker suffered the opposite
problem when they were forced to replace Stockard Channing
with a much younger Angie Harmon as the voice of fifty-something
Barbara Gordon. Harmon did what she could, but she just
sounded too young.***
The other voice work fails to stand out, despite the
use of various voice veterans in the Andrea Romano catalog
(Rob Paulson, Cory Burton, George Newbern, Kevin Michael
Richardson, etc). Jim Meskimen lacks the gravitas to measure
up to previous incarnations of Jim Gordon, be it Gary Oldman,
Bob Hastings, or Mitch Pileggi. Much of the voice over suffers
from a stilted, unnatural delivery, which seems partially
the fault of the stilted visuals. The animation seems to
not be completely animated (something like every other frame)
and it most resembles the three-season Spawn cartoon that
HBO aired back in 1994.***
As for the much advertised PG-13 rating, it's purely
for the dark and gloomy atmosphere and character models.
There is periodic bleeding and occasional fisticuffs, but
nothing that wouldn't be out of place in the PG-rated Batman:
Mask Of The Phantasm. And this certainly isn't 1/4 as disturbing
as Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker (truth be told, I'll
be shocked if Heath Ledger does anything approaching as
horrifying as what happens in that direct-to-video shocker).
Oh, and Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker was rated PG-13
when it was released in its original uncut form in 2004,
so the sticker on the Batman: Gotham Knight DVD claiming
that its 'the first ever PG-13 rated Batman animated movie'
is blatantly false.***
Now, onto the actual stories...***
1) Have I Got A Story - Very similar the much-heralded
Batman: TAS episode 'Legends Of The Dark Knight'. In that
episode, two kids told their differing views of Batman,
which in turn were presented as different versions of the
character over the years (the first segment was modeled
after Bill Finger and Dick Sprang of the 1940s and the second
was a riff on Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns). At
the conclusion, they encounter the real Batman who is a
little bit of both versions. This is the same exact concept,
except it's closer to the 1973 Batman comic story 'You Shoulda
Seen Him'. In this version, the kids tell more surreal versions
of Batman (one imagines a Man-Bat, for example) and yes,
they eventually encounter the real thing. It's a good idea,
but it's easily the third best version of this story, a
fact highlighted by the fact that the episode Legends Of
The Dark Knight is included on the two-disc DVD and Blu
Ray special editions of this title. (I would have preferred
'Almost Got Im', but that's me).
Grade: C***
2) Crossfire - Detectives Crispus Allen and Anna Ramirez
(not Renee Montoya, no absolutely NOT Renee Montoya) get
caught in a gang war while transferring a prisoner to the
Narrows. This one, written by Greg Rucka, deals with Allen's
resentment of Batman and his issues with trusting a freelance
vigilante. Fair enough, but the dialogue is simplistic and
Ramirez is forced to play the role of helpless hostage at
the climax for no particular reason (since Allen is the
one who doubts Batman, shouldn't he be the one in peril?).
For what it's worth, this one gives us a preview of just
what happened to the Narrows after Ra's Al Ghul and Scarecrow
released their toxin at the climax of Batman Begins. Anna
Ramirez is apparently featured in The Dark Knight, and I
have no idea why she wasn't named after her comic book counterpart.***
Grade: C
3) Field Test - Bruce Wayne tests a new bullet deflection
technology with mixed results. This is one of the best segments,
with solid dialogue, good interplay between Bruce Wayne
and Lucious Fox, and a slightly surprising and suspenseful
climax.
Grade - B+***
4) In Darkness Dwells - Batman encounters Killer Croc
in the sewers and gets doused by Scarecrow's fear gas. An
entertaining action-filled episode, but it fails to have
much of a pay-off.
Grade: B-***
5) Working Through The Pain - As Batman struggles to
find safety after being seriously wounded, we see flashbacks
that show how Bruce Wayne learned to control pain and pain
management. An interesting piece of Bruce Wayne's past,
but no more than that.
Grade: C+***
6) Deadshot - The best episode is saved for last. Written
by Alan Burnett (one of the pioneers of Batman: The Animated
Series, along with Bruce Timm, Eric Radomski, and Paul Dini),
this tale contrasts the sheer obsessive professionalism
of Batman alongside master assassin Floyd Lawton (aka -
Deadshot). This briefly deals with Wayne's fear of guns
and provides a terrific action climax. Batman is at his
most bad-ass in this segment. Grade: A-***
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