Review by Leonard Norwitz
Production:
Theatrical: Warner Bros. Animation
Blu-ray: Warner Home Video
Disc:
Region: FREE!
Runtime: 1:15:49.586
Disc Size: 22,440,121,987 bytes
Feature Size: 13,989,181,440 bytes
Video Bitrate: 16.944 Mbps
Chapters: 8
Case: Amaray Blu-ray case
Release date: July 27th, 2010
Video:
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Resolution: 1080P / 23.976 fps
Video codec: VC-1
Audio:
English DTS-HD MA 5.1
German Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English, French, Spanish & Portuguese, and None
Extras:
• Robin: The Story of Dick Grayson (24:13)
• Robin's Requiem: The Tale of Jason Todd (20:58)
• DC Showcase: Jonah Hex (11:53)
• First Look: Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (12:12)
• Bruce Timm's Top Picks (Robin's Reckoning, Pt. 1 and 2,
Mad Love, The Laughing Fish) (1:28:07)
• Trailers (Jonah Hex Motion Comic), The Lord of the Rings
(Animated), Legend of the Guardians, Justice League: Crisis
on Two Earths, Batman: Gotham Knight, Superman: Doomsday)
Description: DC Comics goes back to the mid-1930s, having
given us over the years such superheroes as Batman,
Superman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman, among others,
first as comics, then in animated forms. Over the past
couple of years Warner Bros Entertainment, who has been
right there alongside DC Comics since forever, has been
putting out animated direct-to-video “episodes” featuring
characters from the DC Universe on the Blu-ray format every
few months (Batman: Gotham Knight; Superman/Batman: Public
Enemies; Wonder Woman, Green Lantern: First Flight, Justice
League: Crisis on Two Earths). Alas, none of those made use
of lossless, uncompressed audio, an oversight that the new
Batman episode corrects, and which we expect will continue
with Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, coming in September.
The Film:
8
I think the worst thing one can say about “Batman: Under the
Red Hood” is that its title, which unintentionally brings to
mind a story about a perverted superhero and a certain fairy
tale waif. Indeed, for anyone new to the story line written
by Judd Winick going back to 2005, the title must seem
peculiar which, as it turns out, refers to the mysterious
identity of a new crime lord in Gotham City, an athletic
superhero type known as the “Red Hood,” after his mask,
which completely covers his head. Red Hood tells Gotham’s
assorted crime bosses that he’s in charge now, and if they
don’t like it – well, there’s always plenty of room at the
cemetery. When he comes mask-to-mask with Batman and Robin (Nightwing),
on the other hand, Red Hood positions himself as a
vigilante, willing to do what Batman is not: namely to kill
bad guys. Given how bad these bad guys are, there is a
certain resonance with Red Hood’s ethical posture and his
practical solution to the problem.
Case in point: The Joker, locked up in an asylum for the
criminally insane. The Joker was responsible for the death
of the second Robin, Jason Todd, an event that still plays
havoc with Bruce Wayne’s guilt-ridden memory: He and the
first Robin, Dick Grayson, had both lost their parents when
they were children, and later Wayne took on a mentor/father
relationship to the boy. The whole Robin thing was Batman’s
idea – or, as we learn in the extra feature that delves into
the backstory, it was deemed necessary from a purely graphic
storytelling point of view for co-creators Bob Kane and Bill
Finger to give Batman someone to talk to as he does what he
does. Like a vampire who outlives any mortal he or she may
form an intimate relationship with, Batman suffers the
tortures of the damned each time a Robin meets his fate and
is eventually replaced by another. They’re not pets, after
all.
When The Joker is sprung from his cell by Gotham’s leading
crime boss, Black Mask, in order to help dispose of The Red
Hood (I wince every time I see that name) Batman relives his
guilt over Jason’s death (as we first read in the 1988-89
comic book arc “A Death in the Family”). Batman confronts
his ethical dilemma in a terrifying and intensely poignant
scene where he stands between Joker and Red Hood, the
ironies of which are played out to the last row in the
balcony.
Image:
7/8
NOTE:
The below
Blu-ray
captures were taken directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.
A number of transfer issues mar this otherwise excellent
animation: Banding is probably the most dominant (surprising
considering its generous bit rate of 24 Mbps), but
noise and artifacts also crop up now and again. The casual
viewer will be distracted, as they should, by the movie’s
bold color saturation, inky blacks, and, most laudably:
movement across the screen, which is handled exceedingly
well. Check out the elevated train that speeds away from
Batman and Nightwing at the end of their pursuit of The Red
Hood. I am used to seeing things like light seen through the
windows of a passing train handled very jerkily in
animation, but here it’s clean and smooth. We are also happy
that that old bugbear edge enhancement does not undo the
animator’s line art. Other recent examples of DC Universe
original animated movies (of which three are previewed in
the Bonus Features) fare a little better in PQ, especially
Green Lantern: First Flight. All the sadder, since this
Batman episode may be the best of Warner’s animated DC
Comics thus far.
Audio & Music:
8/7
No such complaints are present in Warner’s aggressive
soundscape, made that much more vivid in DTS-HD MA. This is
a movie with a number of lengthy action pieces with more
effects than you can shake a cape at – crashing, zinging,
exploding and whooshing. There’s plenty of gunfire and
falling pieces of buildings, the panned whoosh of a car or
plane darting from one side to the other. Perhaps the rear
channels are not as engaged as hoped, but I didn’t count it
as a defect.
Extras:
7
For those, like myself, relatively unacquainted with the
history of The Caped Crusader and his various Boy Wonders,
you’ll not want to miss Robin: The Story of Dick Grayson and
Robin's Requiem: The Tale of Jason Todd in which a whole
platoon of Batman aficianados and artists talk about how
Robin came about and Jason Todd in particular. Most
interesting. The specs indicate HD, but the PQ could pass
for decent standard def. Four 22-minute episodes from
“Batman, the Animated Series” are presented, alas, in
standard definition: Robin's Reckoning: Parts 1 & 2, The
Laughing Fish, and Mad Love. In case you passed on the
feature length version, you might want to catch DC Showcase
– "Jonah Hex", a 12-minute animated short in HD.
Bottom line:
8
Despite a problematic transfer, the story and its animation,
voicing, color and production, the slam bang whiz bop audio
design and useful bonus features make this a recommended
purchase.
Leonard Norwitz
July 24th 2010