Now any comic geek knows that DC/Warner puts out the best comic cartoons. Actually some of the best cartoons ever. So if you combine Batman, comics and animation it's going to be one giant nerdgasm of geeks either singing it's praises or cursing it to damnation over the tinest details. If the devil is in the details then fanboys are the devil. But there really is little to complain about in Batman: Under the Red Hood. The latest in the WB/DC line up of animated movies and I'd have to say among them, this is tied for me as the best animated comic movie (the other being the Wonder Woman animated movie). Warners has created a really dark, slightly bloody and very moody and psychological Batman epic.
*Spoiler alert*
For those of you who aren't familiar at all with the history of Batman, there have been several Robins. However Robin number 2 died tragically and quite messily at the hands of the Joker who beat him senseless with a crowbar for several hours and then blew him up with a bomb just for good measure. When that guy really wants someone dead, he really wants someone dead. I mean seriously, you can't get deader then blowing a guy up. Could've cut out the middle man with the crowbar and just blown him to Kingdom Come already. So with this Robin dead, it's really rang out as a failure for Batman who lost family as a child, to rebuild a family with Robin and to lose it again but what makes this an especially stinging defeat is that as a child, he was helpless to stop his parents murder but now as a man, a man trained to stop murder with an arsenal of angst and personal issues, he was helpless once more to stop a member of his family dying again. Now flash forward several years later and Jason has returned from the dead and is well....not very well adjusted from being murdered and beaten. Note: in the comics Jason returned from the dead from Superboy Prime punching the wall of the universe. In the movie he was brought back with the magical healing properties of the Lazarus Pit.
Too Many Robins! Not enough Hoes!
Jason was always the loose cannon of the Robins. Brash, angry, cocky and arrogant but immensely talented, kinda like a young Ghandi if Ghandi was pissed off and gun crazy. Batman first met him when he was stealing the wheels off the Batmobile when Jason was just a street kid. Now that's fucking balls to fuck with Batmans car. You never mess with a mans car. But to mess with Batman's car as a kid is just nuts.
Coming back from the dead is right up there with those pissed off American Idol rejects after a bad audition and he's adopted a persona that the man who killed him used to have, the Red Hood. Joker was the original Red Hood and now Jason has taken the mantle so that he can not just stop crime, it's so that he can control it. Jason's philosophy on crime fighting is that you can't stop it and you have to rule it through murder and intimidation, which is true fear. Not the scary boogie man vibe Batman gives out since they know he won't kill them. But also on his agenda is to eventually get to the Joker and have Batman kill him in some weird demented way that would show Jason that Batman loves him. Guys got more on his plate then Obama and he's nuttier then squirel shit. Should be a fun time to watch. It also sounds like a couple of my ex's. Actually it sounds like another comic character from another company...hmmm....
Deadpoo...I mean Red Hood...heh..I said poo
After a lengthy battle, Jason finally manages to get the three way showdown between Joker, himself and Batman which also has some homosexual undertones and sexual intensity but that's a post for another time. Here is where the acting and the dialouge shine since Jason nearly almost pleads and tries to force Batman to kill the Joker. And when Batman refuses Jason voice turns into the voice of a son who is rejected by a father in a Star Warsy way. It's true. Star Wars leads to everything in life. Fuck Lord of the Rings. There is only one return and that is of the Jedi. Yea...so it's a bit complicated and a tad ridiculous. But not as out there as something like Pirate Batman!
Courtesy of Crack.
*Spoilers over. Read on*
Now for speaking of talent, the biggest draw one would notice is the casting that DC/WB is drawing to it's animated films and this one is no exception. Serisouly they got enough star power and action here just to shoot a live action flick. Jensen Ackles (Supernatural) plays the Red Hood/Jason Todd and fits so perfectly. Ackles voice perfectly portrays the cockiness, anger, wild intensity and the dark humor that embodies Jason Todd. At first I thought he might be a poor choice to play the Red Hood but the casting choices of Andrea Romano has never been wrong and she still hasn't missed the mark here. Ackles has one of the difficult jobs of going from hurt, vulnerability, to anger, to cockiness to funny dark humor all within several seconds of each other. Those beats are hard to switch up to without going over the top or turning Hayden Christensen bitch whiny.
"Am...not WHINY! I...am the most....powerful...Jedi Ever!!"
Another challenge here was overcoming the influence of the voices used in the original Batman animated series. Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill have become so iconic as the voices of these characters that it's hard to hear anyone else doing these voices. But Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek) has done a fantastic job of doing the voice of Batman with the perfect tint of smoke, grit, intimidation and cool that one would expect to come from The Dark Knight but the most impressive jobs is done by Joe DiMaggio (Futurama). That's right....that Joe DiMaggio who does the voice of Bender the robot. This Joker's voice is much lower and menacing then the high pitched manic glee that Mark Hammill brought to the table of the original animated series but still has a sense of growling menace and fun that gives the character a prescence on screen. In fact at several points in the movie it can almost sound like Mark Hammill's original voice coming out of the Joker. Actually in another part it also sounds like Bender the robot is being attacked by Batman which gives me a story idea to write (Batman/Futurama cross over). Rounding out the cast is Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) as Nightwing. Harris here brings a lightheartedness and youth the movie very much needs since the story and violence is so stark. Along with them also is Jason Issacs and Kelly Hu who round out the cast in supporting roles.
And speaking of violence...woo! Man this movie has got some graphic stuff in it.
I mean it's no Saving-Private-Ryan-Omaha-beach-arm-shot-off-guts-hanging-out-stuff but it's pretty bloody for the average cartoon movie.
And brutal since they do show some of the beating that Jason took before he died. Geez. It also has a scene in which Joker graphically slashes a guys throat and shoots several hench men with little cutting. Again, the movie isn't for kids and if your kids watch this, then parenting classes might be for you along with a therapy bill. It gets to a point where you even think Joker actually murdered a bunch of people by setting them on fire. But it's not all blood and guts and punching and kicking. It has some nice nods to the original comics in a flashback sequence that brings the youthful humor and energy that the chracter of Robin was supposed to bring (along with homosexual overtones but that's another post for another time.) It gives the movie a bittersweetness only found in Sandra Bullock flicks and if Sandra Bullock was directed by Quentin Tarintino.
Overall the movie is impressive and pretty true to the story of the comic, withstanding some minor plot details but you could live without those points since it stays at the heart of the story. The original Under the Red Hood and A Death in the Family graphic novels are quite lengthy and does differ from the movie but once again, the movie stays close to the heart of the story and retells the story that I would say is even better then the original source material. Kinda like X3 only if X3 wasn't crappy or directed by the vanilla of all directors. In fact I would say that since they deviate a bit from the source material but staying true to the heart of it, adds a sense of edge of the seat excitement since the movie is pretty much a wildcard. However there are scenes they take from the graphic novel verbatim but that's not a bad thing at all with voice cast they have. However one grip I have to have.....Red Hood looks like Deadpool. As I watched it, my mind screamed: IT"S BATMAN VS. DEADPOOL!!!! IT"S FUCKING DEADPOOL!!! HE EVEN JOKES LIKE DEADPOOL A BIT. HE USES GUNS AND KNIVES LIKE A CERTAIN MERC WITH A MOUTH AND HE WISECRACKS!!! But again...that's a minor gripe for me as a comic fan. It's like eating a regular watermelon where you have to spit out the seeds. It still tastes good but the seeds kinda get int he way. Again I would really have to recomend Batman: Under the Red Hood to anyone....except children. It gets my seal of approval.
"I'm telling you. Catwoman...loosey goosey. Look at my hands. I'm not exagerating"
Now the video on the cast of Making Batman: Under the Red Hood. You'll see that the actors love the streotype that white folks like to wear hats backwards on their day off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8vkC-IxzA0&feature=related
