Review of Batman: Year One (2011) by Steven M — 12 Jul 2012

I went into Batman: Year One, Warner Premier's animated interpretation of Frank Miller's classic graphic novel, with little hope. After reading that former OC and Southland star Benjamin McKenzie would be donning the caped crusader's voice, I was initially turned off to this whole thing. However it was the vocal talent in Bryan Cranston (as Jim Gordon) and Eliza Dushku (Catwoman) that brought me in here. However the funny thing is that while McKenzie will never ever stack up to Kevin Conroy (no one ever will, let's face it), he doesn't do a half bad job. And while I thought that Bruce Greenwood did a tremendous job in last year's Batman: Under the Red Hood, McKenzie does a decent job of bringing a younger version of Bruce Wayne/Batman to life here. No, he wasn't my idea choice, and no he isn't the best voice for Batman, but let's give the guy a little credit here, he's in the middle of not being as good as Conroy but not totally blowing it like Jeremy Sisto.

Putting that aside, there were a few things that I had problems with. I'm pretty positive that Detective Flass has always been a man on the larger side, however here he was portrayed as a slim/slender man. Catwoman's costume was correct, but I honestly don't remember her being an African American woman in the graphic novel. Yeah, I know they did that deal in the comics, more recently, but I'm pretty sure that isn't the case in Frank Miller's vision, that's for sure. Finally we get to the fact that this movie's run time is only 64 minutes. That's a pretty short film, even for a direct to dvd animated feature. Sure, some fat was trimmed from the novel, and some days (the story is presented by important dates over Bruce Wayne's first year as Batman) are most likely cut here. And I will also through out that it just felt like at the beginning, Bryan Cranston was just reading the script lines very dryly. However, he did liven up, so I can't really complain there too much. Everyone else does a decent job here.

It isn't on the same page as last year's excellent Batman: Under the Red Hood, but this is probably the most decent portrayal of Year One that we'll ever get. And since Batman Begins is essentially the live action vision of that story, with other elements thrown in, you will have to take or leave this animated film. If you are a Batman fan, you will eat this up. However the more casual Batman viewers will probably scratch their heads a few times.