Batman: Gotham Knight (2008) (V)

Directors:

Yasuhiro Aoki
Futoshi Higashide

Writers:

Bob Kane (creator: Batman)
Josh Olson (screenplay) (segment "Have I Got a Story For You")

Release Date:

8 July 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Crime

Tagline:

Get Ready....To Rage Against Evil

Plot:

Anime-inspired direct-to-DVD anthology film. Comprised of six short stories, from diverse creators,...

Plot Keywords:

Skateboarding | No Opening Credits | Superhero | Batman | Character Name In Title

Cast

Kevin Conroy	...	Batman / Bruce Wayne (voice)
Jason Marsden	...	Thomas Wayne / Doctor / Cop / Youth 2 (voice)
Scott Menville	...	B-Devil / Cop (voice)
George Newbern	...	Man in Black / Guido / Man / Youth 3 (voice)
Corey Padnos	...	Porkchop (voice)
Crystal Scales	...	Meesh (voice)
Alanna Ubach	...	Dander (voice)
Hynden Walch	...	Woman / Young Cassandra / Young Bruce Wayne (voice)
Corey Burton	...	Scarecrow / The Russian / Ronald Marshall (voice)
Gary Dourdan	...	Detective Crispus Allen (voice)
Jim Meskimen	...	Lt. James Gordon / Deadshot (voice)
Pat Musick	...	News Anchor (voice)
Ana Ortiz	...	Detective Anna Ramirez (voice)
Rob Paulsen	...	Sal Maroni / Mole Man / Youth #4 (voice)
Andrea Romano	...	Martha Wayne / Dispatcher (voice)

Also Known As:

Batman Anime (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for stylized violence, including some bloody images.

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA | Japan

Language:

English | Japanese | Spanish | Portuguese | Thai

Color:

Color

Certification:

Singapore:PG | USA:PG-13 | Australia:M

Company:

Warner Bros. Animation

Trivia:

Although the director wanted to move the flashback scene in "Working Through the Pain" to Japan, the producers chose to leave it in India, in order to show the diversity in Bruce's training.

Quotes:

[from trailer]
Bruce Wayne: I'm willing to put my life on the line to do what I have to. But it has to be mine, no one else's.

Movie Connections:

Followed by The Dark Knight (2008)

Nice original addition to the Batman franchise.

This movie uses the good and original concept of picking 6 different short stories done by different directors and animation style and put them all back to back on one DVD. It's a welcome addition to the still ever growing Batman franchise.

The variation in story and style of course ensures that every short is a special and interesting one in its own way. It doesn't really get distracting that the animation style for each short story changes. Each short can be watch as one separately from the others but it's also good to watch back to back, even though the stories get hardly connected to each other. The movie doesn't have a constant chronological order and each story is about something different and features also different characters.

The first shorts don't really focus on the Batman character himself but more on the other people in Gotham and how they see him and think about him. The others are still purely about Batman though and his fight against evil. There is a nice balance between the first shorts and the later ones.

Of course not all of the shorts are as good as the others and the quality of them variates between great and entertaining to just plain boring. But overall it just purely entertains. Some of the shorts are also really spectacular to watch with its action and violence involved. I wish some of the shorts were a bit longer, since the stories felt like they had even more potential to be developed more.

Because they are shorts, the story and character development remain very restrained. This is obviously the problem with basically every short movie that ever gets made. It's mostly the reason why this is not a classic or a Batman must-see. But nevertheless the fans should be happy with the end result, since it features the Batman character from a lot of different angles and uses different interpretations of the character, which ensures that the character still remains an interesting one, even when basically everybody all over the world already know who Batman is.

Definitely good to watch!

7/10