Batman :Under The Red Hood Review Disc 1
The menu is pretty much the same as other dvds, play movie, special features, look at trailers and what have you. Let’s start off with a 15 minute short of animated Jonah Hex. Which is what im currently watching as my dog is crying at 5 am. Pretty simple stuff here. Western as it starts off with a saloon and the burlesque women , beer and a badass cowboy with half of his mouth missing! Now im interested. Its just basically a western animation from what I see to be honest though I don’t know what Jonah Hex is because ive never followed it. The cowboy though has a Clint Eastwood like voice as im hearing but he’s voiced by the first Punisher Movie lead role Thomas Jane! Once again ill be honest I just finished it and still have no idea what the hell just happened., so im going to skip what happens here but Jonah Hex fans it’s definitely worth a look.
On to the next part is the special features which contains a first look at SUPERMAN/BATMAN APOCALYPSE. Which ill write about in just a second. It also contains trailers for the following-
JUSTICE LEAGUE:CRISIS ON TWO EARTHS, BATMAN GOTHAM NIGHT (excellent dvd fyi) , SUPERMAN:DOOMSDAY, THE LORD OF THE RINGS ANIMATED TRAILER, JONAH HEX MOTION COMIC TRAILER AND LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS TRAILER. Its safe to say im going to leave those out because they are trailers and why spoil the fun for you?
SUPERMAN/BATMAN APOCALYPSE- Definitely excited for anything with Batman in it (except for the series which has characters like the joker with dreads. Sorry not my taste.) What is interesting about this piece though is not a trailer or a short. Its 12 minutes of artist and creators talking about the story which ill explain a few points here.
- Mainly revolves around Superman, Batman, Darkside, Wonder Woman and Kara even though im not going to explain who she is. More reason for you to buy this!
- Darkside takes Kara and uses her to get what he wants from Superman.
-Batman just kicks ass that is all.
From the looks of it once again the animation is very well done because hey it’s DC. Not cutting corners but like I said its just people talking about it and im not going to spoil that for you so im going to get to the best part of this dvd the actual movie.
Batman: Under the Red Hood. WARNING: THIS IS A PG-13 MOVIE CONTAINING BLOOD, VIOLENCE AND DARK THEMES. PARENTS READ THIS BEFORE SHOWING THIS TO YOUR CHILD UNDER THE AGE OF 13.
The movie starts off with Ras Al Ghul regretting a choice he made 5 yrs ago. Then it goes to Joker (SWEET) beating the crap outta Robin with a crowbar. Very intense stuff here it shows blood but the violence is under control here as not much is to be seen. It’s taken right out of Batman: Death in the Family novel so for those whose haven’t read it I will not get into it because then it would be spoilers but I will what happens maybe considered as Batman’s biggest failure. Now I won’t waste anymore time so lets say the prologue ends there and it cuts to the title and credits then rolls on to the rest of our feature film!
Animation is by all means terrific and most of it is at night. Now after the title and credits its goes to present day which is 5 yrs later. Mob Bosses who are working for Black Mask are in a warehouse and are debating what the next move is. All of a sudden a mysterious man in a red hood shows up out of nowhere and tells them to work for him and if they refuse they die. Seems that Red Hood wants to take over Gotham just like almost every other villain that Batman has encountered. Black Mask and Batman have chosen otherwise though. Something is very different with this one though because Batman gets flashbacks and its not who Batman or you expect it to be. NightWing who is voiced by Neil Patrick Harris makes his appearance in the movie also which is entertaining to say the least and he helps Batman try to catch the mysterious Red Hood. Joker wants to get in on the fun too and you will see the role he has to play in this. As the movie progresses you will see over the top chase scenes ensue and so does fighting which will bring you back to the days of Batman The Animated Series! These fights should not be missed as Red Hood and Batman have a couple of blowouts (pun intended) themselves. It truly becomes a dark and courageous story as time goes by and you will be stuck in your seat from start to end as it all plays out and in the end it will leave you speechless.
The voice cast like I said before though is terrific and ill only list 2 because I listed NPH already.
Batman is played by Bruce Greenwood and Joker is played by John DiMaggio (who you all know as BENDER from Futurama.)
The only thing that im not happy go lucky for is the movie length. Its only 75 minutes long which I think should have been at least 90 minutes and at maximum 120. Still great story, great animation, great everything. Batman fans this is definetly one to own as you’ll watch this over and over again.
Under The Red Hood 2 Disc Special Edition Disc 2.
Disc 2 contains 3 things which im very happy to write about. Robin: The Story of Dick Grayson and Bruce Timm's own 2 picks of episodes of the show he co-created and what i grew up and loved, Batman The Animated Series. Ill get to that in just a second..
Robin: The Story Of Dick Grayson goes into a short barely 25 minute documentary of how Dick Grayson became Robin and how he would evolve into Nightwing while the creators and artists compare his attitude and actions relating to Batman. They explain how the relationship between the two became in the overview of father and son, teacher and mentor as well as big brother and little brother. They showcase Robin as a free spirit but at the same time they discuss what would have happened if he had stuck by Batman’s side. It’s interesting to see everyone’s spin on it and views of how they interpret it but I’ve always enjoyed the comic book way. The only problem I really have with this story is that it’s too short. I expected it to at least be 45 minutes of how Robin came into his own as kind of a short movie. Either way it’s still a choice if you’re a fan of Robin.
Bruce Timm’s picks 2 episodes from Batman The Animated Series.
Bruce Timm was co-creator of Batman TAS and other DC related shows and films such as Superman: The Animated Series , The New Batman Adventures , and Batman Beyond as well as countless others (crediting wikipedia for this). The two episodes he picked are Robin’s Reckoning 1&2 which are about.. You guessed it,Robin. I’m going to keep what happens hush though because you have to see it for yourself. Fans of the animated series will definitely enjoy this as much as I did because it brings you back the nostalgia if you don’t own the animated series on dvd by now and sure as hell I don’t.
Overall I say the 2 disc special edition of Under The Red Hood is worth it to own just on the fact that’s its one of the best Batman animated films out there from the past 5 yrs. Despite that the actual movie and Robin story are kinda short in both aspects its certainly worth the collection. If you order it from http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Two-Disc-Special-Collectible-Figure/dp/B003XK9ZIM/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1280998175&sr=1-2 . look for the special edition that contains a Red Hood figure because fans of the movie will enjoy the figure as a whole.
DCAU is a movie site dedicated to the animated films of the DCU such Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Green Lantern and others. The link for that is http://www.warnervideo.com/dcuondvd/ . Go to that to catch up on your favorite DC Hero and up coming titles.
Credits- Batman was created by Bob Kane and has been published by Warner Bros and DCU which have all been trademarked. Thanks to Amazon.com and wikipedia for the info and links in which has helped me write this review.
Any questions or comments regarding this can be sent to Robratedr@gmail.com
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that’s all for now stay tuned as I delight you all with another review or post very soon from The Rated R Society
-Robbie
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