Batman - Under the Red Hood Review

Quick Bat-Review: Bat-great

The movie starts off with a bang, both literary and figuratively with an adaptation of the events from “A Death In The Family” – if you are not very well versed in Batman cannon, I don’t want to spoil anything, suffice to say that the events in the introduction set up the plot for the rest of the film.

Considering that we’re dealing with an animated movie here, I’ll try something new and I’ll review the movie on its component parts: graphic style, voice acting and plot.

Graphic Style

The art direction in this movie is a bit of a departure from the trademark “noir deco” of The Animated Series. However the movie doesn’t suffer from this because the drawing style of the characters differs as well. The hard sharp angles of the Animated Series are replaced here with a more curved look – this combined with the aforementioned change in drawing style makes Under the Red Hood a separate beast. However while in the guise of Bruce Wayne, the animators thought it necessary to have him scowl all the time, which makes this Bruce Wayne much less expressive than his Animated Series predecessor.

Voice Acting

Probably in a bid to more thoroughly differentiate itself from its predecessors, Under the Red Hood also features different voice actors. Now everybody who read anything even remotely Batman related on this website – Batman: Arkham Asylum, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse -  will know that as far as I’m concerned THE voice of Batman/Bruce Wayne is Kevin Conroy, but to be completely honest Bruce Greenwood (Captain Pike from Star Trek) does a very good job in voicing the Dark Knight. He doesn’t have the same gravitas or brooding aesthetic that Kevin Conroy brings to the character but nonetheless he’s a solid Batman voice.

Now let’s talk about the Joker. Just as is the case with the rest of the movie, this is a different Joker than the character in the Animated Series, he is illustrated differently and his actions are likewise different - this is a Joker much closer to Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the character, he is violent, deranged and isn’t afraid of getting his hands dirty. So it would make sense that he would be voiced by someone other than Mark Hamill, and in this case we get none other than John Di Maggio – that’s right, between voicing Bender in Futurama and Marcus Fenix in the Gears of War franchise, John DiMaggio finds time to lend his voice to the Joker. And he does a pretty decent job, his gravelly voice and inflexions adding some layers to the Joker’s lines, though some of you might find it hard to hear Bender’s voice coming out the Joker’s mouth, I know I did.

The Red Hood, Black Mask and Ra’s al Ghul voice actors do a pretty terrific job in portraying their characters but the only one that I consider deserves mention is Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing. Nightwing’s dialogue with Batman offers most of the movie’s comic relief, his lines are mostly witty quips at Batman’s behavior and character but unfortunately his presence is limited to the first half of the film, the second half being dedicated to revealing the rest of the plot and packing on the drama.

The Plot

Batman – Under the Red Hood offers a nicely layered story, with a present day plot being caused by events in the past that we sometimes flashback to. There’s not really a lot I can say about the plot because I don’t want to spoil anything and ruin the pleasure of discovering it on your own but rest assured that you will not be bored during this film’s runtime.

Now I’ve been calling it a film or a movie for the duration of this review and that is due to the fact that it is scored and directed just as a live action movie would be. If it weren’t for the obviously animated characters and the occasional crappy CGI shot – thankfully those are few and far between – the story and the execution style will keep you interested. And the score definitely shows signs of being influenced by The Dark Knight score, but it works very nicely with the action.

The writing is great, especially towards the end when there is a lot of emotion being expressed between the main characters, and thankfully the script benefits from voice actors that did a great job.

And just let me say that the fight choreography is absolutely superb, thanks to the advantages of animation as opposed to live action, there is no need for quick jump-cuts to create the sense of speed - *cough* Batman Begins - you can see everything that’s going on all the time, and it’s expertly done.

Something that I enjoyed seeing in this movie is that it wasn’t afraid of being violent when it had to, people get shot and set on fire on screen, and a lot of violence is inferred via use of shadows or blood sprays, these are only a few scenes here and there but they are enough to make the film a much more serious affair than your usual Western animated feature.

In conclusion the plot is well done, the movie is well-voiced, expertly choreographed and a pure treat for any Batman fan out there, definitely give this one a watch.