Batman: Year One Review

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

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interrupted by a football game. Oh, so the Super

Bowl. Yeah. Hello and welcome again to Animation

Aficionados, crossing over with Tooncast Beyond.

We are continuing our look through the DC animated

original movies. I am your host Ben, joined by

my co -host, TV's Mr. Neil. I'm smarter than

the average. And we have with us the host of

Tooncast Beyond, TFG1 Mike. Hello. And tonight

we are talking about Batman Year One. Batman

Year One, of course, is based off of the groundbreaking

graphic novel Batman Year One of the same name,

published by DC Comics, written by Frank Miller.

This was the reboot after Crisis of the Infinite

Earths for Batman. After Frank Miller finished

his run on daredevil at Marvel and I remember

lots of people in the comics industry were making

jokes Oh my goodness batman, you know, they're

gonna all ninja Batman and they were making jokes

about that being a bad thing even though As we

know that's not exactly a bad thing One thing

I have to say about this adaptation is It's almost

too faithful of an adaptation year one it's it's

to the point where I'm watching it I know exactly

I know exactly what's gonna happen because I

read the graphic novel and if there's no deviation

there's nothing special about it it's it's a

perfect adaptation and I think that's almost

the weakness of it because because I remember

Batman Begins which took elements of year one

but totally made its own thing out of it Which

which is what the geniuses of an adaptation is

you you know, you do your own thing This is totally,

you know exactly word for word year one and I

Think that really doesn't endear it to me. Honestly,

yeah Neil your thoughts Um, it was a little slow

for me not having read the comics that didn't

really bother me but you know, this is only an

hour long and Just like last week's movie. I

was kind of looking at the looking at the clock

and It felt a lot longer than it that it really

was But it wasn't it wasn't bad. It was really

slick and clean It kind of has an anime style,

but like I see in other shows It's kind of that

anime style the way anime is not supposed to

look because I like I like classic anime where

you have the girls with the big poofy green hair

and stuff and expressive faces and dirty hair

And part of the thing with this for me is the

art style is too clean It's there was a rawness

in the original graphic novel. The art is was

so extremely raw and The rawness itself had this

sort of emotion the heavy inclines the heavy

the heavy colors the heavy blacks it Sort of

dripped to this noir feel that that really helped

year one because year one was a was a do Was

a story of duality between a batman and bruce

wayne bruce wayne and jim gordon and in both

of their struggle to do right by themselves and

do right by the city and You know, it's a classic

noir story where you have two very opposite point

of views But they both intertwine and there's

similarities that weave in and out as they meet

and then Go off into their own tangents and meet

again. That's that's Classic Navarre and it worked

great in the graphic novel, but I think in the

actual in the actual animated format it really

didn't do it for me and Like I said, I think

part of the reason with that is just the art

style is so clean So incredibly clean that it

loses all that raw roughness that made me love

the the artwork in the comic For me this movie

Should be called Commissioner Gordon exiled the

Gotham. This is pretty much a Full -on I mean,

I know they're both narrating the story and they're

it's both of their point of views between Batman

and Gordon But to me, this is more of a Gordon

story and more of corruption in Gotham story

than it is ever a Batman story whatsoever I'm

going to read one production note here the film's

producer Bruce Tim said that the original story

arc is already cinematic so the adaptation of

film was straightforward. Bryan Cranston originally

turned down the role as James Gordon because

he was unfamiliar with both animation and classic

comics. Cranston said of this, I wasn't aware

of this level of storytelling and animation.

I confess that freely. I think Cranston did an

amazing job as Gordon. He's no... The Gary Oldman.

Yeah. Yeah, he's no he's no Gary Oldman from

the Nolan films But for what this is and I'm

a person who has never read the original for

me Batman year one For me that story is mask

of the phantasm That's just the way I see it

This film I liked it. I thought I was I thought

I was because it said it was anime style I thought

they were gonna go back to the one of the styles

in Gotham Night. Thank God they didn't But it

just I've watched the movie twice and I didn't

even watch it before we started the record tonight

I I was going to but it was so fresh in my mind.

I originally watched it when I first bought it

through iTunes. I watched it for enjoyment then,

and I liked it. I thought it was great. I liked

all the different, you know, stories within the

movie as far as the corruption in the police,

as far as Batman trying to find his identity

and all this and all that, or as far as Bruce

trying to find his identity and all this and

all that. I watched it a second time about two

and a half, three weeks ago before I wrote a

little mini review on it. I like it. It's okay,

but... Under the Red Hood is at this point under

the Red Hood is my favorite singular Batman movie

in the DC Universe movies at this point and I

think that's exactly right because Under the

Red Hood is exactly how they should do these

things where they take they took it They take

a vague concept and they work from there and

as as Bruce Taylor said They they did a faithful

adaptation, but I think that's what killed it

for me. It's too faithful. It's way too faithful

And it's down to where I know exactly how each

shot will go because I've seen it before. It

doesn't surprise me. And the art style is too

clean. It doesn't wow me. It doesn't draw me

in like that raw roughness that that comic had.

And. And one of the things they did actually

add a little bit in here, the the fight between

Selena, the African -American prostitute and

Bruce Wayne. The comic was one panel long where

Batman pretty much blocks a kick says she knows

karate But only karate and then lays her out

with a punch yeah, and And that's why I remember

the This this really didn't wow me it this really

didn't keep my interest in I'm a big fan of Frank

Miller's early work. Like I said, I loved his

Daredevil Born Again run. I loved the Year One

comic. But this is too faithful. It is way too

faithful. It doesn't add anything new to the

DNA. It's a clone. It's a clone. As everyone

knows, each time you clone, you lose something.

Parts of the comic I don't really work well as

a movie because it Like like the female character

the one blonde cop that comes in she comes in

the middle of the movie and then she's gone before

the end Doesn't really have much of a character.

Yeah detective Sarah Essen. Yeah, it's Her whole

story arc is basically she's she's the temptation

to James Gordon and She leaves and the temptations

gone and it's something that's a lot more subtle

in the comic But the thing is as the story went

on in the first couple of pages when they first

showed Barbara Gordon that you know Jim Gordon's

wife not the redhead When they first showed her

she was very she was very beautiful, even though

she was pregnant But as the comic went on these

the artist drew her more and more plain looking

Because it was sort of trying to offset the idea

that james goran sees barber and he sees what

he's always been with And he sees essence and

essence just drop dead sexy gorgeous Yeah, and

that's that that's something that was in the

comic But because the art style is so clean and

and they're so always exactly on model That's

lost. Yeah. For me, in this movie specifically,

and more so, The Dark Knight as well, I grew

up watching reruns of the Adam West Batman. I

grew up on BTIS. I grew up on all that DCAU stuff.

I grew up even on the Adam West Casey Kasem Adventures

of Batman and Robin cartoons Barbara Gordon has

always been James Gordon's daughter It always

puts me off at this point now when they're calling

his wife Barbara I know in the comics that's

that's her name and that's fine and all well

and good but you have this 20 30 year history

of animation where Barbara has always been his

daughter in animation and giving me 87 Turtles

argument where I what I'm familiar with is right.

Is that is that the argument you're giving right

now Mike? No, I it just no what I'm saying is

having Barbara as his wife It puts me off because

that is not what I mean, I guess I am but at

the same time I I don't take points away from

the movie for it It's just something that kind

of throws me off at first because of what I'm

used to So you are saying exactly that and I

think that's very unfair because you limit yourself

to do Interpretations or even old interpretations,

you know, you don't know of it's but on the other

side, you know You also have to think about that

The animation market is larger than the comic

market. So that's that might actually throw a

lot of people off That's absolutely true. And

I think that's part of the entire overall detriment

of your one is like I said, it's too faithful

adaptation What are your thoughts Neil on some

of the stuff in here one? Um Well, the one scene

that I really did like is when James Gordon and

his wife Barbara go to visit Bruce Wayne and

He's he's pretending to be drunk and he's got

a prostitute there and he does the Sharon Stone

basic in instinct leg cross Yeah, and the wife

sees it That was great. That was pretty much

the best portrayal in animation for playing up

the Playboy angle of Bruce Wayne that I've seen

in a long time. You don't normally see the Playboy

side of Bruce in animation. Every now and then

it came out in BTAS and in Justice League, but

it was way more subtle and this was pretty much

balls to the wall. Well, balls to something.

As far as the voice cast, I'm going to save one

person for the very end, but we have Bryan Cranston

as Gordon, you got Eliza Dushku as Catwoman slash

Selena Kyle, which I absolutely love Eliza doing

the voice, but I think she was way underutilized

in this movie. And sadly, the iTunes... Movie

the iTunes download did not come with the Catwoman

shorts. So I have yet to see that so Neil said

that you'll send them the link but But you know

licensing ruined one of the best jokes in this

cartoon When that when that Selena Kyle first

time as Catwoman decides to rob Commissioner

Lowe The joke is in the comics Commissioner Lowe

Has a extensive collection of Disney memorabilia

And like I said that that joke is ruined because

of licensing they couldn't have they couldn't

have Catwoman rip off the head of a Mickey doll

and throw it at the TV Like in the comics, but

like I said, that's that's that ruined the best

joke in the comic licensing Other mainstays that

people will know Katie Sakoff as Sarah S and

Jeff Bennett as Alfred Pennyworth, which He was

barely in it honestly he was but I Think he only

said one sentence. Yeah, probably I'm not Andrea

Romano as the Ops Distrition. So there's that

Steven root was Brendan James Patrick Stewart

was one of the henchmen Okay, now let me get

to the one that I left out here I Wish they would

have gotten Bruce Greenwood to do this movie.

It would have made Batman a hell of a lot more

interesting It would have made me think of it

more as a Batman story However, they decided

to cast Ryan fucking Atwood Ben Mackenzie now

I Ben Mackenzie I loved him in the OC. I love

him on Southland on TNT I'm sorry his voice does

not lend to either a good Bruce or a good Batman

the only as Neil said before the scene that he

liked the only time I really liked Ben's voice

as Bruce was during that that Playboy scene,

but his narration was so dull it almost put me

to sleep Oh, it's a I forgot about that. That's

a yeah, it just overall You know sad because

the the Ben McKenzie portrayal is so underwhelming

it, you know Brian Cranston's Gordon pretty much

carried this film and oh, yeah in overall that

that You know, you do you do two faithful adaptation

number one number two you Number two, you don't

cast it correctly. I'm sorry. This movie isn't

cast correctly and I just think that this is

This is not that good a movie and I actually

feel bad that I own it and the only reason I

don't sell it is one thing Neil is really happy

because this movie comes with a built -in palate

cleanser Catwoman short. Um, you know, I'm I'm

not as I don't think I'm as thrilled with the

catwoman short as you are but There is the one

part in it where what did they throw down on

the floor in the stripper scene? Diamonds. Yeah.

And she does the splits. And I swear to God,

I thought she was going to pick it up with her

snooch. That's nothing compared to Catwoman's

dance. Now, that was a dance. Yeah, I just. Yeah,

I'm very disappointed in the iTunes features

I'm very disappointed iTunes overalls. Oh Let's

not even go there But anyway So as far as what

it's made It's very abysmal. I mean the movie

came out what? October 18th, so it's been out

two months. It's only made $1 ,830 ,000. It sold

121 ,282 units. I think it doesn't deserve much

more than that. I'm sorry to say it. Like I said,

I'm sad that I own it. I agree with you. it's

an overall decent movie if you're just looking

at that way you're not analyzing it but if you're

someone like you Ben who's coming from the comics

and yes straightforward adaptation really it

makes it too clean as you said in it you know

there really isn't that much here for I mean

as I said before for me I would watch Mask of

the Phantasm over this any day because that is

Better Batman year one story for me. Well exactly

and that's the thing Batman year one has infected

the the DNA of what Batman is but you should

never just distilled just year one and presented

again because You know Batman Begins used a lot

of DNA from year one Mask of the Phantasm used

some year one DNA a little bit of year two as

well This whole phantasm story is based off of

the Reaper story, but that's a story for another

time Yes in total to this point all 13 of these

movies have made 75 million three hundred and

forty five thousand seven hundred twenty two

dollars and they've sold four million eight hundred

and sixty nine thousand three hundred thirty

seven units For 14 movies in nearly Almost five

years I would say that's good numbers I still

can't believe that doomsday still has the highest

as far as the far as the money goes so for me

as I said I did buy this in iTunes simply because

when you when you rent stuff in itunes versus

buying you only get the movie you have to actually

buy stuff in itunes to get the special features

and i thought the catwoman short was going to

be on the itunes purchase it wasn't so i kind

of wasted fifteen dollars and eighty nine cents

but i was still open minded to the movie because

i had never read the comic and i was like okay

well we'll see how this goes and it was um i'd

probably if it was on netflix i'd probably give

it a three but I'm probably really going to give

it a two at this point. It's just, I don't know.

What about you, Neil? I'll give it a two as well.

It's with another asterisk because, you know,

it might be worth it for you to rent it if you

really want to, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Yeah. I've given this a two as well. I bought

it and I don't think it's worth a buy I think

if someone can show it to you for free, it's

worth seeing it if you're not familiar with the

comic This is pretty much a faithful adaptation

So you get to see what the whole of the hub a

bit about year one is but I think you're really

missing out because You know, it doesn't have

any of the rawness in that in that art. It doesn't

have any of that rawness. So But it has a exact

same story. So and a two. Yeah Alright, so we

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of Omens, give me sight beyond sight. I see a

new episode of Tooncast coming this week. He

must be smuggling diamonds again. That thug could

smuggle his own mama. You know, Maggie got one

of those last week. You heard from her? You ladies

look like you could use a break. They should

have made a movie out of Catwoman instead of

Batman Year One. Yes, during the break, Mike

was able to take a peek at the Catwoman showcase

short. And like I said, Batman Year One came

with the automatic palette cleanser. Yes. Well,

aside from that, she didn't really have like

a real conclusion in the movie she's doesn't

really have much to do with the plot at all she's

just kind of there yeah she's just kind of there

and this kind of adds an extra layer to that

you know it kind of gives her a more satisfying

conclusion honestly I say this isn't the same

Catwoman because in the yeah because in the actual

because that this because when looking at it

the The costume is different the cost none of

the costume is different This is the modern catwoman

costume, but also the catwoman in year one is

african -american this catwoman obviously is

not I Mean she it's you know, the skin tones

starting to get really light anyways, but now

this one's definitely Caucasian Yeah Not to mention

the actual The actual art style is a lot more

interesting in this one. They still has that

blank blank stare thing that Neil doesn't like

Yeah, but the bodies make up for it. Oh Yes,

they do I'm actually surprised there wasn't I'm

surprised that they were able to even put this

on a PG -13 rated movie because at first I thought

that Red bikini stripper was actually I thought

we were gonna actually see full frontal Do you

think this is stripper Ella? Yeah, pretty much.

Yeah, this is way too well animated for stripper

Ella But one thing we have to mention is just

Catwoman strip dance Wow that that was more of

like Gymnastics stripping than anything else.

That was just awesome about what about that zip?

All the way down. Oh yeah. That went down quite

a bit. Yep. And where'd she hide that whip? Yeah,

I know. You know, and it doesn't hurt that, well,

it actually helps it, but it doesn't hurt that

Eliza Dushku provided the voice for it. Were

you picturing Eliza Dushku doing the dance? Oh

hell yeah. Who wasn't? Don't tell me we might

have to take another break But this really you

know, I could sing the praises of I Can sing

the praises for this although all day long because

I think the cat because everything year one did

wrong Catwoman did right and like telling an

original story based off of a piece of DNA versus

versus something else and I know this movie cause

a lot of people to lose pieces of their DNA,

but But really this is actually a great You know,

like I said, the only thing that keeps me from

selling here one is the cattleman short. Yeah

Yeah, but Mike's just stuck with it because he

has iTunes uh... now kind of moving off of kind

of just to close the show here i do want to bring

up the fact that this this past week well by

the time this airs uh... as of this recording

when we're recording this uh... we have just

gotten the justice league doom press release

and i can't wait till february twenty eighth

The grand reunion union of actors who provided

the voices of Justice League for the cartoon

of the same name and its follow -up Justice League

Unlimited includes Kevin Conroy, Michael Rosenbaum,

Susan Eisenberg, uh let's see, Carl Lumley, and

of course they have to bring in Bumper Robinson

and uh and a few other people but yeah um we

are getting all the Justice League voice actors

the blu -ray special edition features for doom

will have a tribute to duane mcduffey on it because

doom was well while ass all -star superman was

the last thing he was able to see before you

know see and promote before he passed away doom

was the actual last thing he worked on and that

he wrote for One minor thing though one minor

thing There is no george newburn Yeah You know

what? I know people dump on George for that season

1 of Justice League, but it's really not fair

because he hit out of the park after that. Really,

it's not his fault. It's Bruce Tim and the writers'

fault. Bruce Tim admitted it. Well, no, no, no.

I understand that. Who is playing? Superman is

in this though, right? Tim Daly. Oh, okay. Well,

that's fine. But I think it's just such a shame

that every time they do a movie it's like, Tim

Daly. Tim Daly, Tim Daly, and they're never calling

George back, and George does a pretty damn good

Superman. He does, you know. I mean, George Newburn

is just sitting there. Come on, guys. George

Newburn. I'm going to keep going until you're

just a greasy smear on my fist. Let's go. Yeah.

That was such an underrated performance, Ben.

Come on. You could have put more into that. No,

but I am so looking forward to that. Here on

Tooncast Beyond, we will actually, because by

the time this episode airs, this episode airs

February 1st, 2012. There will not be a Tooncast

Beyond episode until March 7th. So we're taking

a month off in February because Doom doesn't

release until February 28th, as I said. uh...

but i'd just absolutely can't wait to see it

i actually just added uh... the the trade paperback

for the jail a issue on on my amazon wishlist

and i want to read that i'd hopefully someone

get that for me for christmas and i want to read

that before actually see the uh... the movie

uh... i've heard really good things of from tower

of babel and this is probably the only book at

this point that i'm really excited to read before

seeing the adaptation for its because i loved

all of the adaptations like new frontier and

all that i love those movies individually for

what they are without having to read the source

material so I think that's going to do it for

us. Thank you for joining us here on the Tooncast

Beyond Animation Aficionados crossover. There

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your name 502 -526 -5821 We hope you enjoyed

this episode of tooncast beyond animation aficionados

and wish you'll join us next time where we will

be continuing the DC universe animated movie

spotlight with Justice League doom for now. I

am TFG or Mike with TV's mr. Neo And Ben. Thank

you for listening until next time. Good night.

You guys always fucking up. You each have a personal

vendetta against the Justice League. Their deaths

would serve my goals. You've all tried and failed

to kill members of the League on multiple occasions.

Everybody take what you can and get out. It's

the Justice League. Say goodnight, Ace. Savage

has foolproof plans for how we can destroy them.

Kryptonite bullet. I will pay you 100 million

dollars after you destroy the Justice League.

Take them down. Pick a card. Any card. Before,

I broke the bat. Today, I break the man. Welcome

to the Legion of Doom.