'Batman: Year One" Animated DVD

Saw about 20mins of it myself. Good voice work and aanimation. I too agree with what I saw it just goes with no real end/context. But still not that bad of movie. Need to watch the rest of it later.

webhead2006 wrote:Saw about 20mins of it myself. Good voice work and aanimation. I too agree with what I saw it just goes with no real end/context. But still not that bad of movie. Need to watch the rest of it later.

When you watch the whole thing like I have, THEN you can form an opinion on it.

The BY1 facebook page has a clip of Bruce's street fight where, among others, he scraps down with pre-Catwoman Selina. I'd embed the thing here but I can't find a code to do so. Still worth watching if you ask me.

https://www.facebook.com/BatmanYearOne

It makes sense in the movie WHY they fight. But overall, very little interaction between Batman and Selina Kyle/Catwoman.

Watched it tonight at a friend's house.

Can't knock how close it is to the look and plot of the comics. It's funny how you can get a better sense of the parallels/contrasts between Gordon and Batman when you take the thing into a different medium. But somehow their journeys are brought into a clearer focus when you shift into a different environment. Somehow. Dunno why.

In fact, in relation to that, Catwoman really is an extraneous element in the movie. I've got nothing against her, you understand, but in this movie she mostly serves to detract from the Gordon/Batman stuff. I realize you need additional elements to sustain the narrative. That makes sense. But if you ask me, it might've been a better move to more deeply incorporate her into the Gordon/Batman journeys somehow or else eliminate her entirely from the proceedings. But the verbatim copying of the comics treatment of her only made me realize for the first time how little she has to do with anything in terms of BY1.

I'm not criticizing this thing, I'm just making a point. Just so's we're clear.

Other stuff. Frankly, the voice talents didn't bowl me over. Maybe it's my baggage. I mean, I've been a fan of BY1 ever since I was 9 years old. "Whoaaaa, THIS is how Batman started out! COOOOOOOOOL!" So over the years, I guess I developed a voice in my head for the various characters. No big problem with Gordon, Flass or Barbara or the minor characters. But Batman... I dunno. I guess I somehow envisioned a young Clint Eastwood with a little extra bass going for Batman and a sort of Cary Grant for Bruce Wayne in BY1... even if it meant casting two different actors in each role. I mean, who would know or care about the difference in animation?

But Commissioner Loeb really felt like a swing and a miss. I envisioned him as the guy who's not only been around the block, not only built the block, he PAVED the street it sits on himself when he was younger and paying his dues. As a result, he's amassed all this power and corruption, and the wear and tear of it is finally starting to affect him, his body, his voice, his overall health, etc. I wouldn't want him to sound like a feeble old man... but that's a bit closer than the Ed Asner-lite thing. Not bad but not what I expected either.

Even so, these aren't deal-breakers. It's worth watching.

Do you see now why I said it never really "built" to anything?