Film Review - Batman: Under the Red Hood
Voices by - Bruce Greenwood, Jensen Ackles, Neil Patrick Harris | Directed by - Brandon Vietti | Warner Bros. DVD FF 75 min PG-13 2010
Review By Juliet
We open with the Joker holding Robin (Jason Todd) prisoner in a shed and beating him with a crowbar. Batman is racing to the scene as Ra's al Ghul wonders aloud whether he'll make it in time. Just as Robin is about to escape, the building explodes as Batman arrives to see the flames. Later, a group of drug dealers gather at an old warehouse. They assume that it's the Black Mask that's called them all together, but really it's a new figure, the Red Hood who wants to control the drug trade in Gotham. Batman busts some thugs who are unknowingly transporting Amazo, a robot who can harness the powers of superhumans. Batman defeats Amazo with the help of Nightwing, and both set out to figure out the story of this villain who uses the name Red Hood (the name originally belonged to the Joker). As Batman begins to unravel the plot, it appears that Jason Todd is in fact alive and may be the Red Hood. Batman pays a visit to Ra's al Ghul, who hired the Joker on that fateful day not to kill Jason Todd, but to distract Batman. Feeling guilty over Jason's death, Ra's stole Jason's body and brought him back to life in the Lazarus pit, but something wasn't right. Meanwhile the Red Hood breaks the Joker out of jail to kill him. Batman must decide how to deal with this new threat who just may be an old ally.
Let's get this out of the way right now, the opening of this movie is pretty brutal. By that I mean watch it on your own first, and then make the decision whether or not you want to show this to your kids. Right off the bat (no pun intended), we get some of the more intense moments of A Death in the Family story arc from the comics, and this film doesn't hold back. Granted, it's rated PG-13 and appropriately so; it's just the Joker wailing on a kid with no remorse that's a pretty jarring way to start off. It's totally effective for setting up the story, but like I said before, this is one I would check out ahead of time so you can decide whether or not it's appropriate for the younger viewers in your life.
This film takes its cues from two comic book story arcs: A Death in the Family and Under the Hood. The latter was written by Judd Winick, who also wrote the screenplay to this film. The story translates pretty well to the screen. A few things had to be changed from comic to film since the comics had the Hush storyline to begin a slow buildup to Jason being alive full of plenty of fake outs. Because I read the story as it was coming out, the reveal in the film seemed a bit rushed to me, but I think those less familiar with the comics will find the pacing just right.
The animation was pretty good. It had a nice blend of elements from Batman the Animated Series while still still having it's own style. All of the voicing for the characters was well done and appropriate though I still always assume that the Joker is going to have the voice from animated series.
The disc also includes a Jonah Hex animated short. I really like that DC is including these short films with their animated features. It's a great chance to highlight some of their lesser known characters (which is kind of funny to say now that Jonah Hex has a live-action feature film). Special Features also include a sneak peek at the new Superman/Batman Apocalypse animated film, a look at 3 other DC animated films, a featurette on Dick Grayson's Robin, and 2 episodes of Batman the Animated Series which felt to me like cheating since I've already got the whole series on DVD.
This is a pretty good animated feature from DC. Although it varies a bit from the comic book, I think that readers and non readers alike will find this worth checking out.