DC comics has played second fiddle to Marvel Comics as a publisher since the late 1960s, it's been roughly a tie on TV and Marvel has been so much more successful at movies that it's no longer funny. When it comes to cartoons, however, DC has made Marvel its bitch. Batman: Under the Red Hood continues that tradition by not only being better than almost all Marvel animation, but by outshining most of Marvel's live-action films as well. This thing has better action scenes than Thor, better performances than Spider-Man and a better script than Captain America.
Under the Red Hood spins out of one of the most infamous moments in Bat-history - the Joker murdering Robin. Not Dick Grayson, the "real" Robin, but his replacement Jason Todd. The movie doesn't really spend any time on the issue of that replacement, it just presents it as something that happened and I'll go along. If I try and explain it I'm afraid I'll go off on a rant involving everything from the Crisis on Infinite Earths' reboot of Jason Todd to the recently retconned-out-of-existence female Robin. Let's all just agree to accept that when Dick Grayson got too old to be a kid sidekick, Batman wound up with another one.
5 years after Jason was killed by the Joker (John DiMaggio), someone shows up in Gotham calling himself the Red Hood (Jensen Ackles) and declaring war on the city's reigning crime boss, Black Mask (Wade Williams). Batman (Bruce Greenwood) has to discover the Hood's motives and why he's adopted a former alias of the Clown Prince of Crime. With the assistance of the now grown Dick Grayson as Nightwing (Neil Patrick Harris), the Darknight Detective is plunged into a twisted scheme involving drugs, guns, revenge, disillusionment and the surprising involvement of one of Batman's most formidable foes, Ra's Al Guhl (Jason Isaacs).
This is not just one of the best super-hero cartoons I've seen, it's one of the best super-hero stories I've seen in any medium. About the only negative thing I can say about it is that it ambitiously tries to take on the question of why Batman doesn't kill the Joker and fails. There is no answer to that because the fictional moral code of Batman was never meant to co-exist with the fictional murder of thousands of people. It's a problem at the heart of the modern fanboy ethos and it's unsolvable.
Besides that, Under the Red Hood is great. The fight scenes are spectacular and take advantage of the capabilities of animation to convey clear, coherent violence that puts the confused, jump-cut dominated action of today's Hollywood to shame. The voice work is also superb, with John DiMaggio giving the Joker an edge of identifiable insanity. Wade Williams playing Black Mask as sort of the Tony Montana of Gotham and Neil Patrick Harris showing us how the brighter personality of Robin is so important in rescuing Batman from the depths of cynical nihilism give their characters an incredible amount of depth. The music by Christopher Drake is also tremendous, making this cartoon sound like an honest-to-goodness motion picture.
Writer Judd Winick, whose comic book work I've never been particularly fond of, also deserves a lot of praise for taking one of the most convoluted bits of Bat-continuity and turning it into a story that anyone can follow and enjoy as long as they don't wonder about why Batman keeps drafting underage children into his war on crime. Those people would probably have their heads explode if they knew Batman in the comics was now on the 4th Robin. 5th, if you count the now retconned-away Stephanie Brown.
Oy. I feel that rant coming on.
Under the Red Hood spins out of one of the most infamous moments in Bat-history - the Joker murdering Robin. Not Dick Grayson, the "real" Robin, but his replacement Jason Todd. The movie doesn't really spend any time on the issue of that replacement, it just presents it as something that happened and I'll go along. If I try and explain it I'm afraid I'll go off on a rant involving everything from the Crisis on Infinite Earths' reboot of Jason Todd to the recently retconned-out-of-existence female Robin. Let's all just agree to accept that when Dick Grayson got too old to be a kid sidekick, Batman wound up with another one.
5 years after Jason was killed by the Joker (John DiMaggio), someone shows up in Gotham calling himself the Red Hood (Jensen Ackles) and declaring war on the city's reigning crime boss, Black Mask (Wade Williams). Batman (Bruce Greenwood) has to discover the Hood's motives and why he's adopted a former alias of the Clown Prince of Crime. With the assistance of the now grown Dick Grayson as Nightwing (Neil Patrick Harris), the Darknight Detective is plunged into a twisted scheme involving drugs, guns, revenge, disillusionment and the surprising involvement of one of Batman's most formidable foes, Ra's Al Guhl (Jason Isaacs).
This is not just one of the best super-hero cartoons I've seen, it's one of the best super-hero stories I've seen in any medium. About the only negative thing I can say about it is that it ambitiously tries to take on the question of why Batman doesn't kill the Joker and fails. There is no answer to that because the fictional moral code of Batman was never meant to co-exist with the fictional murder of thousands of people. It's a problem at the heart of the modern fanboy ethos and it's unsolvable.
Besides that, Under the Red Hood is great. The fight scenes are spectacular and take advantage of the capabilities of animation to convey clear, coherent violence that puts the confused, jump-cut dominated action of today's Hollywood to shame. The voice work is also superb, with John DiMaggio giving the Joker an edge of identifiable insanity. Wade Williams playing Black Mask as sort of the Tony Montana of Gotham and Neil Patrick Harris showing us how the brighter personality of Robin is so important in rescuing Batman from the depths of cynical nihilism give their characters an incredible amount of depth. The music by Christopher Drake is also tremendous, making this cartoon sound like an honest-to-goodness motion picture.
Writer Judd Winick, whose comic book work I've never been particularly fond of, also deserves a lot of praise for taking one of the most convoluted bits of Bat-continuity and turning it into a story that anyone can follow and enjoy as long as they don't wonder about why Batman keeps drafting underage children into his war on crime. Those people would probably have their heads explode if they knew Batman in the comics was now on the 4th Robin. 5th, if you count the now retconned-away Stephanie Brown.
Oy. I feel that rant coming on.