'Batman: Year One" Animated DVD

Here's a couple pics and some casting news:
Hollywood Reporter

'Batman: Year One' First Look (Exclusive Images)
12:00 PM 4/20/2011 by Borys Kit

Check this: The first two images from Batman: Year One, the adaptation of the Frank Miller-David Mazzucchelli classic from Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation.

Bryan Cranston, Ben McKenzie, Eliza Dushku and Katee Sackhoff have been tapped to star as the voices in the movie, which is the 12th entry in the line of DC Universe Animated Original Movies. Read more about the movie here.

Cool photos and interesting casting choices.

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I'm actually looking forward to this movie. BY1 is a story I actually respect as a Batman tale and, by virtue of what it is and when it came out, isn't yet another "if Batman has a flashlight, a paper clip and 15 minutes to prepare, he could take out Galactus" type of thing.

thecolorsblend wrote:I'm actually looking forward to this movie. BY1 is a story I actually respect as a Batman tale and, by virtue of what it is and when it came out, isn't yet another "if Batman has a flashlight, a paper clip and 15 minutes to prepare, he could take out Galactus" type of thing.

I wonder about something. I've never read BY1 but I am aware of it. Here's my concern. Before BATMAN BEGINS was released, whatever, wherever exactly, I read it 'on the Internets', it gave me the impression that the Batman reboot was supposed to be based on BY1, whether strictly or not, but basically, how Batman came to be. I couldn't give you exact links now but most likely it was the likes of SingerHomoHype & related sites. But it did sound like they were 'adapting' that story, at least to some degree. But I'm also aware that you don't particularly like Nolan's interpretation of Batman. But you do like BATMAN: YEAR ONE.

So what is the difference exactly? What am I missing here?

non_amos wrote:

thecolorsblend wrote:I'm actually looking forward to this movie. BY1 is a story I actually respect as a Batman tale and, by virtue of what it is and when it came out, isn't yet another "if Batman has a flashlight, a paper clip and 15 minutes to prepare, he could take out Galactus" type of thing.

I wonder about something. I've never read BY1 but I am aware of it. Here's my concern. Before BATMAN BEGINS was released, whatever, wherever exactly, I read it 'on the Internets', it gave me the impression that the Batman reboot was supposed to be based on BY1, whether strictly or not, but basically, how Batman came to be. I couldn't give you exact links now but most likely it was the likes of SingerHomoHype & related sites. But it did sound like they were 'adapting' that story, at least to some degree. But I'm also aware that you don't particularly like Nolan's interpretation of Batman. But you do like BATMAN: YEAR ONE.

So what is the difference exactly? What am I missing here?

Fair questions.

01- I'm not crazy about Nolan's version of Batman.
02- One thing that irritates the piss out of me about Nolan's version is that Batman is the only superhero of that universe. BY1 references Superman.
03- BB does somewhat riff on BY1 but it's not a strict adaptation of it. BY1 shows how Bruce created the Batman identity. He returns to Gotham after completing his training and, not long after, Batman makes his debut. BB is a lot more didactic and expository about that. It shows a lot more.
04- Like BB, BY1 ends with the implication that the next foe Batman will be taking on is the Joker.
05- Unlike BB, the universe BY1 set up allows for real supervillains without hacking them into pieces to force them into some sort of bullshit "realism".
06- A lot of BY1's charm comes down to Frank Miller's writing and David Mazzhuchelli's art.
07- At the time I read BY1, the concept of Batman facing primarily mobsters and whatnot was a fresh idea. It had whiskers by the time Nolan ran it into the ground.
08- BY1 was unafraid to explore the flaws, weaknesses and (at times) bad choices of the characters. Bruce goes through a bit of a learning curve before becoming Batman. Gordon has an affair with one of his lieutenants.
09- The changes Miller brought to the Batman mythos felt logical and organic to the character. The changes brought by Nolan often felt foreign and contrived.
10- Miller wrote a superhero comic book; Nolan made a Law & Order movie co-starring Batman.

EDIT- I want to mention that BY1 was my first exposure to David Mazuchelli's art. In spite of the weekend warrior blowouts I have in the Marvel universe these days, I'm a lifelong DC guy and I can't see that ever really changing. As such, it's only been in the past couple of years that I checked out Maz's work on Daredevil. I maintain that his style is everything I shouldn't like as I tend to prefer more traditionally superheroish art in my comics. And yet, Maz's work is absolutely gorgeous. In the final analysis, I guess I dig his stuff for the same reasons I like Kelley Jones- both so effectively create mood and atmosphere that I'm perfectly willing to overlook how unusual their line work styles really are.

http://www.toonzone.net/forums/showpost.php?p=3854342&postcount=289

Sneak Peak:

Nice find ap, a cool sneak peak.

I've heard exactly nothing about this movie that gives me pause. Zero. Timm's track record with me is overall pretty good (and, pound for pound, better than Dini's or Burnett's). Picking this up on opening day? Meh, no-brainer.

Plus... I'm kind of over storylines from the 2000's getting most of the adaptations. It'd be neat to see TDKR, Crisis On Infinite Earths (if that's even possible), The Great Darkness Saga (a Legion story) and other things get some time in the sun.

But as far as this BY1 movie is concerned, it looks awesome!

Thanks for the information.

Bryan Cranston talks Commissioner Gordon role:

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AVC: They told me you were running late because a voiceover session ran long. Were you busy playing James Gordon in Batman: Year One?

Bryan Cranston: I was. [With mock shock.] You mean you didn’t know?

AVC: I guessed. They said you were doing voiceover work, so I just put two and two together.

BC: Yes, and it was a lot of fun, too. You know, the reason I took that was—well, at first, I turned it down with the comment, “Thank you, but I’m not interested in that.” And I told my agency why, and I guess the studio asked me why I would turn it down, so they told them. And they said, “No, no, no, please, it’s not anything like the TV show.” Because that’s what I thought. I was like, “I don’t want to do the ‘Bang! Zoom! Kapow!’ thing, saying things like, ‘Get to the Batcave!’” But they said, “No, no, this is completely different,” and I said, “Well, all right, I’ll read the script.” So they sent me the script. My edict is, “Everything I do really has to be well-written,” and it’s really served me well. And I read that, and I went, “You know what? This is really well-written, and it’s complex.” Even the Commissioner Gordon role is complex, because he’s conflicted. Basically good, but he has some major character flaws. And it was, like, “God, this is really interesting! This isn’t like a kid’s cartoon series. This is really in-depth!”

AVC: And dark.

BC: It is. It really is. And moody.

Where exactly has Bryan Cranston been since, oh, 1989??

And that part is pretty funny coming from the Dad in 'Malcolm In The Middle'....

As a long time comics reader, it's hard not to get pissed off reading that passive-aggressive interview.

thecolorsblend wrote:As a long time comics reader, it's hard not to get pissed off reading that passive-aggressive interview.

It's amazing how out of touch actors in HollyWeird can be about their own profession.

Director talks comic vs. film, and a few new pics:

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/09/11/new-info-images-from-the-animated-batman-year-one/

One sequence that exemplified the difficulties was one in which Batman makes one of his first attempts at fighting crime. He attacks a trio of burglars on a fire escape and the entire battle takes as long as it does for a dropped television to hit the ground. It worked well in the medium of comics, where time is flexible, but took some effort to make work in animation.

“Once you have something in motion, once it starts dropping, you’re on a clock, this kind of intuitive kind of clock,” says Liu.

Batman: Year One was animated by MOI Animation in Korea, which gave the story more of an anime style than the original comic book had. Liu says the animation had to be updated to meet modern expectations in a number of ways.

“People want to see more combo movies,” he says. “They want to see almost like a ballet kind of choreographed fight and I just think that stuff that passed in the 1990s doesn’t really fly anymore.”

When is the film out again?

First "Official" Clip:

Nice little clip there, love bats intro/lines.

New clip at the link:

http://comicbookmovie.com/fansites/SuperHeroTooniverse/news/?a=47636

not a bad clip there.

Anyone else see this yet?

Hm. Interesting. The guy who got sent through the brick wall was Pratt, I believe. And, apart from the obvious, one reason Batman punched him through the brick wall was because he'd tried to shoot the cat. In the comics anyway. Here? Batman tosses him through wall... just because.

What's interesting is how the animators have stuck closely to a lot of the layouts and panels Mazuchelli drew. Batman kicking the pillar, for example. Blink and you miss it but it looks like it was pasted almost right out of the comic book. Well done!

I actually meant the whole movie.....

It was good for what it was, but it never actually "built" to anything.

Do you mean a continuing narrative? If so, yeah, that's sort of my gripe with a lot of the animated movies we've gotten up to now. Sure, they're good as one-and-done stories but that's really all you can say about them. It feels like there's more story out there but we're never going to see it (BY1, GL- First Flight). Or it even goes the other way, where it feels like we've missed a shitload of stuff and too much story and continuity get wedged into one movie because we'll NEVER get the proper context (Red Hood, Death of Superman, etc).

That's one good thing about TDKR. It has an immaculate continuity going for it where you don't need much more than what's in the story itself to understand what's going on. I do wonder how they'll handle the Reagan stuff though.

Actually, I mean "Batman Year One". The entire movie.

Saw it, and though it was well made and the voice actors were all good, the whole movie just seemed to.... go. It didn't build up to anything, no "climax" to the movie.

Still, you should see it if you like Batman and DC's Animated Films.