Batman Gotham Knight Review

DC is at it again releasing another animated movie into their PG-13 collection. Filling the gap between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Batman Gotham Knight is a collection of 5 stories that will keep Batman fans happy for the release of the upcoming film. Starring Kevin Conroy, Batman in almost all batman animated appearences, will this anime style cartoon live up?

The movie, if you want to call it that, is actually 6 interlocking short animated features. Each episode has its own writer and its own way of telling a story but somehow link to one another. With certain areas being touched on, like where the Scarecrow went off to, the stories easily explain the large gap between the two movies. Taking voice acting and story telling to the max they decided to combine these aspects with the top anime producers in Japan to give us one action packed package.

The first episode, Have I Got A Story For You, was probably the most disapointing episode of them all. The story is similar to one of the most popular episode from the 90's cartoon of batman where cops have to tell their point of view of the story and explain what went wrong. Well in this case its kids and instead of defending their jobs they are explaining their experience with Batman. Batman looks in-human but you realise your being told a story from a kids point of view and your seeing their exact description. However the episode is the least exciting and had probably the most dull storyline of them all. While uniqe you need some type of interest to keep you going, this had very few surprises or interest in it at all. However it wasnt the storyline that had me bored, but the art in this epsiode was very dull and the animation was horrible. Now I know its the anime way to make things 3 frames at a time but the animation was as stiff as can be. Then also following anime tradition the enviroment (cities, building textures etc) were AMAZING but the characters them selves could of been drawn in 2 seconds. Finally hte episode abrubtly ends with an Adam West inspired Batman finally showing up. Combining all this and i was thinking that maybe anime was not the right way to go at all.

Episode 2, Crossfire, was slightly better but still was dull to me. The story follows two cops that are taking a prisoner to Asylum, however they get stuck in a gang war with the Russians. While the story was hinting at the fact that Batman is now in question with the society it had no central interest to it. One thing i noticed in this episode was the un necasary need for amazing detail on the characters but little effort on the enviroment. This esiode strong point was probably having the most amazing shots of Batman with the best design of Batman overall. However still very boring with little animation in it, seems as though they used a ton of still shots to make this one keep running. The scene with Batman standing tall in the fire had the gitters going through me and you can tell the story teller was trying harder to depict the dark side of Batman.

The third episode, Field Test, was probably the best american style animation adoptation of them all. When this one started out you finally get to see Bruce Wayne. With this in mind the character design of Bruce was alot like Peter Parker from the new Spiderman series and was alot easier to relate to. The artwork in this epsiode was awsome because it was clean, had clear colors, and everything seems to flow, including the animation. I really liked this one because it had alot more animated action in it and reminded me alot of the 90's series, which is hard to do now a day. However not only was the visuals awsome the storyline was also fun and interesting to follow as well. Getting into Bruce Wayne finally then seeing batman was something the first two episodes didnt do at all. Overall if one of the episodes were to be chosen to be made into a full fledged series id take this one without a doubt.

Finally the fourth episode, Darkness Dwells, was starting to make this DVD a little more worth While. After watching an entertaining third episode i was hoping its only up from here, and surely it was. While Batman did have a poor character design the story was still entertaining and had the darker side of detetives. You also get a treat by seeing the Scarecrow again and Batman gets to play a better Batman with this story. The only bad part, yet again, was the Animation. The entire time it was building up to one climax scene where Batman would take down a bunch of bad guys and take the goods with him and win. This scene was messed up by having too many flashes, poor animation, and really bad frame rates. Overall though you cant let just one scene ruin the entire episode, it was still worth watching.

Finally the 5th episode, Working Through Pain, you would think "ah 2 good episodes this one is going to top it yet again" well your wrong. We go back to poor story telling and yet again poor animation styles. Batman himself looks really neat here, the character designs were a bit poor, and the story was just not interesting let alone some what confusing. Watching how Bruce is going through training again to handle pain but at the same time your also watching him fight through pain, however it wasnt edited to blend well at all. To me this one would have worked being in a future film or having more time to explain but for the time it did have it was a failed attempt at something great. Similar to episode 1 the ending just took the icing off the tumbling cake.

I must say they always save the grand finale for last and with episode 6, Deadshot, just proves my point. Starting out with what i was thinking would be yet another poorly animated, over done detailed, animated short turned out to be something i wanted to last hours. Batman facing off against a steathy sniper Deadshot must defeat him before killing the good guy. The episode features absolutely amazing visuels with both the character designs and the scenery. With shots of the city as Deadshot takes aim into a high rise building from a ferris wheel to Batman standing strong on a ledge. The animation in this one was stunning as well and everything visuelly seemed to be done correctly. The storyline was intriguing and had you on your seat with chills passing through your body. This episode really makes you think just how great the Dark knight is going to be. This might be the only episode on the DVD that i wanted more of when the credits started rolling by.

Overall the DVD is a renter. Possibly watch each episode alone as watching them all can get boring as they dont interlock like a movie would. With 2 to 3 wasted episodes i really dont see this as a keeper, even though i bought it anyways because im a batman fan. Honestly the sound could of been better, i believe the trailers had my room shaking more than the movie itself ever did, and the visuals in some episodes were below average. Bonus features on the DVD side of things were merely a Wonder Woman sneak peek, behind the scenes type of thing, and commentary while WB decided to load the Blu Ray version with tons of features. There is a The Dark Knight trailer embeded in the features trailers though so be sure to check that out!

Final Thought. With acclaimed writers behind the scenes, Josh Olson, David Goyer, Brian Azzarello, Greg Rucka, Jordan Goldberg, and Alan Burnett, you would expect alot better. However they are busy working on the best film of the year so you cant really blame them. :) Anyways this is no where near the caliber the american Batman animations level, except mybe the third and 6th episodes, and i sure hope WB doesnt let anime ruin anymore DC comics. I was EXTREMELY hyped up to see a Batman animated movie after watching Superman Doomsday but i just see this as a missed opotunity and im still waiting for its release.

Finaly grade 7/10 (5/10 for the first two episodes)