Batman: Year One
It’s fascinating to think how right DC Comics have treated their characters in the realm of animation, and yet, they’ve been unable to really jumpstart their iconic characters in live-action. Even though they can claim success with Richard Donner’s “Superman” films, Tim Burton’s “Batmans,” and now, Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy, it’s been a series of fits-and-spurts in creating a unified live-action universe for their characters. With the animated series’s of the ’90s, and the direct-to-DVD movies of the ’00s, however, DC and Warner Bros. Animation have been a match made in heaven for their fans.
With the 64-minute film, “Batman: Year One,” they take one of their boldest chances yet in adapting one of the most legendary graphic novels in the history of the medium. How is it you can bring the dark beauty and rough poetry of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s famous book to the screen, even in the go-for-broke world of animation?
For screenwriter Tab Murphy and directors Sam Liu and Lauren Montgomery, the answer is simple…don’t try. The graphic novel will always be around, and they understand that. What they focus on is trying to bring the spirit of the book, and the power of its duel narrative– in which Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham City after years away to fight justice, and Lieutenant James Gordon first arrives in town, and finds himself alone among a corrupt police force –to life. In both areas, they succeed terrifically.
Murphy, Liu, and Montomery know that with material this good, the best thing to do is to just let it speak for itself, and try to make an entertaining movie out of it. That they do. Yes, they condense the material to make it fit in the running time, and they soften it to get a PG-13 rating, but thanks to especially strong voice work by Bryan Cranston (as Gordon) and Ben McKenzie (as Wayne), whose origins into the partners they would become, drive this innovative, powerful story, the animated adventures of “Batman: Year One” doesn’t reach the imaginative heights of previous animated efforts like 1993’s “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm,” but the ways in which it stays true to Miller’s groundbreaking tale makes me curious (and hopeful) to see how DC and Warner Animation look to bring Miller’s even more brilliant vision of Batman (The Dark Knight Returns) to life. If you haven’t yet gotten into the animated DC Universe, and need to have something to tide you over until DC gets their cinematic act together, this is a good place to start.
