It's rarely recognized, but Warner Bros' animation division is doing an important service to the American animation industry. They are the only major studio currently pushing for animation geared towards adults that don't fall into comedy.
Batman: Under the Red Hood is the latest in their string of DC Comics inspired straight-to-video movies that bear the PG-13 rating—strangely an oddity for American-produced animation. While explicit content doesn't equal maturity, there's no question that young children are not the target audience for these superhero cartoons. It's not about a call for more violence; it's about variety in what is a largely limited industry, with so few exceptionally daring output.
I saw the film at San Diego Comic-Con, where they held the world premiere screening Thursday along with a Q&A panel afterward with the cast and crew. After seeing how far the film could push that PG-13 rating in terms of violence, it's not surprising that a question was asked on how far the violent content in these films could go. Bruce Timm candidly answered that, as the powers that be decided, there can never be an R-rated Batman film, no matter how badly fans demand it.
The team has received an R rating only once—unexpectedly—when they submitted their first cut of the war-heavy Wonder Woman movie. Remembering the hassling hustle of having to tone it down in time for the release date, they've exercised caution this time around; though even showing restraint, Under the Red Hood is still the most violent Batman movie to date, with even more visible blood on screen than the two Christopher Nolan Batman films combined.
That's to be expected, though, when your opening scene is a recreation of A Death in the Family, the controversial 80's storyline in which Joker brutally beats the second Robin (Jason Todd) to near-death with a crowbar and then blows him up with a bomb, too late for Batman to save him. The story then jumps five years later: a mysterious vigilante called the Red Hood begins to take over Gotham's drug trade from mob boss Black Mask, prompting the livid Black Mask to wage war and desperately hire the Joker to kill Red Hood. Meanwhile, Batman begins to realize who Red Hood truly is and what part he personally played in the new player's arrival.
Under the Red Hood is written by Judd Winick based on his own year-long Batman storyline from 2005. Bruce Timm was initially apprehensive about adapting it to a movie (rightfully so) because Winick's story was heavily built upon a long Batman history, and Red Hood's secret origin was even significantly linked to a big DC crossover, which for obvious reasons the movie can't get into. The most impressive screenwriting feat Winick has done here is being able to streamline all of that into one coherent story that's superior to its convoluted source material, despite ending on a non-ending. Still, as DC's straight-to-video movies often are, the writing is the weakest link, even if never outright bad. Winick's dialogue is labored and obvious enough in comic book form, but voiced out loud, they just trip all over themselves.
The big theme of the movie is the perversity of Batman refusing to end Joker's life despite his monstrosity, as helpfully pointed out by Red Hood. "I'm not talking about killing Riddler, or Two-Face! Just HIM," a passionate Red Hood yells at Batman during the last showdown, not realizing that he's defeating his own argument. The script approached this heroic dilemma with blunt simplicity; the idea of examining Batman's moral limit is to forcibly concoct a strawman argument gone real, with a literal gun to the head. It's terribly unimaginative and reduces it to a shouting argument, not to mention leaving it wide open for Batman of all people to figure out a way out of it.
Up until this weak climax, the story is actually quite enjoyable, if not with some oddly arbitrary spots: Nightwing is involved for no particular reason other than to provide comic relief, when the story would've been more effective if Batman has grown lonely since Robin's death. I also wondered what the point of bringing in Amazo is, other than to pad the running time with yet another fight scene.
It sounds bad, but keep in mind that, also like other DC straight-to-video movies, everything else are top notch. The voice acting is unbeatable, again with the great Andrea Romano at helm, featuring a cast like Bruce Greenwood as Batman, Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing, Jensen Ackles as Red Hood, Wade Williams as Black Mask and a terrific John Di Maggio as Joker.
Di Maggio, best known as the voice of Bender on Futurama, was present at the panel and blushed the entire time over the audience's warm reception. He admitted that playing Joker was the hardest challenge of his career, knowing full well how big the shoes he had to fill were.
"When I got the call, my reaction was..." Di Maggio demonstrated a dumbfounded look to the crowd, then whispered, "'Wha--What happened to Mark Hamill? Is--Is everything okay?'"
It's also immensely enjoyable on a pure action level. The fight scenes are fantastic and the atmosphere thick. It's a dark superhero story that moves at a very fast pace and rarely ever slows down, if at all. From the brutal opening to the mexican standoff ending, it's a series of roof-to-roof chases, big superhero fights and surprise deaths. I suspect the movie will be more of a treat for fans who are familiar with the story already, although it does try its best to condense the history in mini flashbacks. There's one particularly engaging sequence where Batman remembers raising Jason Todd to be Robin, from an excited little boy to a brash, violent teenager.
Batman: Under the Red Hood is really a case of faulty adaptation. A bunch of very talented people gathered to animate a comic story that's not particularly good to begin with, nor is it even important to carry over to the animated world. At least in the comic book universe, Red Hood's story continues and evolves, thus further justifying his existence. On film, he just felt like an arbitrary intrusion in the conflict between Batman and Joker.
When Bruce Timm revealed the team's next four projects, the prospects of these future movies are looking up. After a quick stumble with this September's Batman/Superman: Apokolips (a Supergirl story adapted from a pretty silly Jeph Loeb story and sporting hideous-looking animation that forces the late Michael Turner's static art to move around awkwardly), next year we'll see Green Lantern: Emerald Nights coincide with the release of Martin Campbell's Green Lantern movie. It's similar to The Dark Knight's spin-off anthology Gotham Knights, except this time, each story will center on a different Green Lantern, which is an exciting way to introduce the movie audience to the rest of the Corps.
The next two projects after that are the ones that got the biggest reaction: adaptations of Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman and then Frank Miller's Batman: Year One. As far as I'm concerned, those two books are as good as any in providing the definitive takes on those two characters, so there are plenty of reasons to get excited. It's good to be cautious, since they could only fit so much of a wondrously comprehensive book like The New Frontier into a what ended up being a mediocre movie, but that's probably only an issue with something as elaborate as All-Star Superman. Batman: Year One is a more straight-forward affair.
If they're willing to go as dirty as Under the Red Hood, then the seedy Year One could be as seminal to American animation as The Dark Knight. Tall order, but we've got a great production team serving it. After all, they've managed to make a Judd Winick story this entertaining.
Batman: Under the Red Hood goes on sale on DVD and Blu-ray Tuesday, July 27th.
