Rating: ½ 

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  USA. 2011. Directors – Sam Liu & Lauren Montgomery, Screenplay – Tab Murphy, Based on the Graphic Novel by David Mazzucchelli & Frank Miller, Producer – Lauren Montgomery, Music – Christopher Drake, Animation – Moi Animation Studios (Animation Directors – Kyung-Ho Choi, Hyung-Ho Jung & Hyung-Ki Ki). Production Company – Warner Bros. Animation. Voices: Bryan Cranston (Lieutenant Jim Gordon), Ben McKenzie (Batman/Bruce Wayne), Jon Polito (Commissioner Gillian Loeb), Eliza Dushku (Selina Kyle/Cat Woman), Fred Tatasciore (Detective Albert Flass), Katee Sackhoff (Detective Sarah Essen), Grey DeLisle (Barbara Gordon), Alex Rocco (Carmine Falcone), Jeff Bennett (Alfred Pennyworth), Keith Ferguson (Jefferson Skeevers), Robin Atkin Downes (Harvey Dent), Stephen Root (Brendon)  

The film adapts Batman: Year One (1987), a four-part story arc that was originally published by DC in Batman and subsequently as a graphic novel. This came from celebrated comic-book writer Frank Miller, who has become famous in recent years for works adapted from his graphic novels such as Sin City (2005) and 300 (2007), as well as the film adaptations of Daredevil (2003) and Elektra (2005) that were substantially based on his comic-book interpretations of the characters. Miller has also directed the adaptation of The Spirit (2008) and wrote the screenplays for Robocop 2 (1990) and Robocop 3 (1993). At the time of the Batman: Year One graphic novel, Frank Miller had just written The Dark Knight Returns (1986), a sensation that succeeded in redefining the brooding, psychologically tormented vision of Batman as dark avenger and held great influence over the modern graphic novel. (This has also been pegged as an upcoming two-part DC Universe Animated Original Movie). Batman: Year One was Frank Miller’s immediate successor to this. Batman: Year One definitively retconned many of the details of the Batman origin story and has widely become regarded as a classic Batman graphic novel. It certainly had influence on other Batman films, in particular Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008) and was rumoured to be adapted as a live-action movie at one point, which would have been Joel Schumacher’s third Batman film outing, before being more seriously revived as a potential Darren Aronofsky Batman film in the early 00s.

Batman: Year One immediately has a far darker, grittier edge than any of the other animated Batman films. Indeed, there is much about it that makes you question whether Bruce Timm and co are making these animated films for adults or children any longer – the film was released to dvd with a PG-13 certificate, for instance. We get far more adult scenes than usual like where Bruce Wayne is hanging out in the red light district of Gotham City or Jim Gordon is seen repeatedly beating in the head of the downed Flass. Gordon is even shown engaged in affair with co-worker Sarah Essen while still married, which certainly introduces something far less black-and-white into the usually anodyne world of animation.

The film is extremely faithful to Frank Miller’s original comic-book story, even down to replicating many of the visual details of the drawn panels (some of these are shown over the end credits as contrast). Interestingly, Batman: Year One serves as more of a Commissioner Gordon origin story than it does a Batman origin story – the film is largely told through the eyes of Gordon more so than Bruce Wayne. It is certainly the most in-depth dealing with Commissioner Gordon as a character than we have seen in any of the animated (and live-action) films and tv series. The story tells of Gordon’s dealings with a corrupt Gotham Police Department and rise as a detective of principles to eventually root out the corruption and be appointed commissioner. Although we do see Bruce Wayne becoming Batman, Batman is surprisingly peripheral to much of the action. The film does tie in continuity with other aspects of the Batman mythos – we see Selina Kyle (working as a dominatrix in the original Frank Miller graphic novel but it not being specified as such in the film) and putting on the Catwoman suit, as well as crusading attorney Harvey Dent before he became Two-Face.

The complaint one would make of Batman: Year One (and most of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies) is their short running time – Batman: Year One comes in at only 64 minutes. One is not sure if this is in order to sell the films to children’s audiences – where traditionally dvd sold animated films come in around such running time – or not. Certainly, all of these truncated films could easily handle being at around a more standard 90 minute length (although most of these are now going into dvd release accompanied by a short film of around 30 minutes based on one of the lesser DC superheroes such as The Spectre, Green Arrow and Captain marvel). This does lead to a number of the earlier scenes following the dual progression of Commissioner Gordon and Bruce Wayne through their career arcs feeling shortened and not fully satisfying.

Batman: Year One rises to find its strength particularly when it comes to the action element – there is a fantastic sequence with Loeb’s police cornering Batman in a ghetto tenement house and bombing it to the ground before Batman makes a getaway by drawing a cloud of bats to his aid. The action sequences have always been the highlight of the Bruce Timm films, even if Batman: Year One is a far more character and psychology driven film than most of the others.

The other Batman films and tv series are:- Batman (1943) and Batman and Robin (1949), two 15-chapter serials from Columbia; the campy tv series Batman (1966-8) starring Adam West and Burt Ward, which produced one film spin-off with Batman (1966); the animated tv series The New Adventures of Batman and Robin (1977); Tim Burton’s superb duo of films Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992) starring Michael Keaton, and Joel Schumacher’s dismal campy follow-ups Batman Forever (1995) and Batman & Robin (1997), featuring respectively Val Kilmer and George Clooney, followed by Christopher Nolan’s fine revival of the franchise with Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012); the excellent animated series Batman (1992-4) inspired by the Tim Burton films and its follow-up The New Batman Adventures (1997-9), which spawned nine film spin-offs with Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), Batman and Mr Freeze: SubZero (1998), The Batman Superman Movie: World’s Finest (1998), Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (2003), Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009), Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010), Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010) and this, as well as Batman: Gotham Knight (2008), a compilation of anime Batman shorts; Batman Beyond/Batman of the Future (1999-2001), the futuristic follow-up series from the same creative team featuring an aging Bruce Wayne and his young apprentice, which also spun off one animated film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000) and another animated tv series Static Shock (2000-4), which featured several appearances from Batman; the animated series The Batman (2004-8), which badly revised the basics of the series and was also spun off into a film with The Batman vs. Dracula (2005); and a further animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008– ), which placed Batman alongside other DC superheroes. Batman also makes appearances in the line-up of superheroes in various other DC-related animated series such as SuperFriends (1973-7), The All New SuperFriends Hour (1977-9) and Justice League/Justice League Unlimited (2001-5), as well as the retro-Justice League film Justice League: The New Frontier (2008) and the subsequent Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010). Other spin-offs include the short-lived live-action tv series Birds of Prey (2002), featuring the women of Batman – a paraplegic Batgirl, Cat Woman’s daughter and Harley Quinn – and the Halle Berry starring Catwoman (2004).

(Nominee for Best Adapted Screenplay at this site’s Best of 2011 Awards).