Batman: Animated Collection (2016)
Dirs. Various (see individual paragraphs for respective credits)
Alternatively, a money-grabbing collection from unconnected eras in Batman's animated history that don't complement each other much.
However you look at it, it's the only way to get three of the five films on Blu-ray in the UK without importing, so is perhaps noteworthy to those that prefer that particular format.
See below the cut for short musings on each one. I've listed them in the peculiar order that they're presented in the set, which isn't the order they were made or released and definitely isn't a very logical way in which to view them.
The first film is 01. Mystery of the Batwoman (2003 / Dir. Curt Geda), which is the reason I bought the collection - it was cheaper to obtain it by buying all five together than it was to import that single title from abroad. It's a crazy world.
Poor Batman (Kevin Conroy) rarely gets a break. If he's not fighting for his life against crazed and ego-centric criminals, many of whom often have an angry mob of disposable underlings at their disposal, then as Bruce Wayne he's dodging gold-digging ladies at high class charity balls.
When a female figure hits the streets of Gotham in a stylised bat suit, being reckless and endangering human life, the caped crusader has to use his night-time detective skills and his daytime playboy skills to figure out who's under the mask. It's tough being a millionaire.
The story gives viewers more than one potential suspect to ponder, and provides a few twists along the way to keep the grey matter guessing, to a degree.
It's reminiscent of The New Batman Adventures style of animation, not the more pleasing Batman: The Animated Series. It's not as good as the previous two films in that shared continuity, but it has some fun moments and isn't as bad as its reputation might imply. [1]
02. Batman: Bad Blood (2016 / Dir. Jay Oliva) features the 'extended bat-family', which changes the tone considerably from how it is when Batman works alone against the horrors of the night. Personally, I prefer the latter model, but it's nice to see the filmmakers try other things.
The 'family' in question are Nightwing (Sean Maher), Robin - the Damian version (Stuart Allan), and Batwoman (Yvonne Strahovski). Though separate ordinarily, the different personalities must work together to discover the whereabouts of Batman (Jason O'Mara), who's gone missing.
The lack of any proper 'team dynamic' was perhaps intentional, to illustrate how the individual personas felt about each other, but the layers of stupid that exist outside of that were no doubt conceived to work in a more direct way. Alas, "high tech" villains with rocket wings, a bat-styled antagonist with a secret origin, ropey CGI vehicles, and a soldier with expert control of experimental tech that he's never used before all register high on the dumb-as-shit meter.
Conversely, exploring how each character's personal trauma not only defines them but also functions as a source of strength and drive, and making that relevant to the story, is interesting. The Crime Alley scene and its associated symbolism is excellent. There's a decent balance of mystery and reveal. And a number of the dramatic set-ups and combat scenes seem to be inspired by anime, like something you might see in a series made by Production I.G.
Overall, Bad Blood is a mixed bag, with meritorious subtext ruined by some stupid actions.
If nothing else, the collection deserves credit for presenting MotB in its native 1.78:1 format, unlike the R2 DVD edition that came out years before, which cropped it to a 4:3 ratio.
In 03. Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010 / Dir. Brandon Vietti) a criminal calling himself Red Hood attempts to take control of Gotham's criminal underworld, an act that doubles as a kind of challenge to Batman. The villain's methods are extreme and permanent, but seem to be getting results. Batman tries to prevent further casualties; he's determined, brave, and overflowing with professionalism, but something about Red Hood bothers him on a deeply personal level.
The usual DC quality and attention to detail is evident throughout, besides their penchant for trying to incorporate CGI vehicles. The character designs are mostly great, and there's some timely black humour, more often than not courtesy of the Black Mask character (Wade Williams).
Regarding voices, Bruce Greenwood is an excellent Batman; so much so that in the pantheon of folks who've voiced the Dark Knight in animated form, I'd put him second only to Kevin Conroy, who's quintessential in the role. John DiMaggio is a supremely talented voice actor, but I don't feel he was the best choice for Joker. And Jensen Ackles, who excels in the Supernatural TV Series, does the job well enough as Red Hood, but doesn't stand out in any great way.
It's rated PG 13, but the violence is more extreme than any of the previous films, with multiple murders, explosions, and even a bag of severed heads being thrown around. It's perhaps a case of making it more grim in the hopes that it'll appear more mature, but the result arguably lessens the dramatic power of the storytelling and at worst sullies the purity of the series.
04. Batman: Gotham Knight (2008) is an anthology with six shorts from various Japanese animation studios and a number of different Asian directors. There's no frame narrative tying the works together, but most, if not all, of them do seem to share the same continuity and the whole thing is unified somewhat by having Kevin Conroy provide the voice of Batman throughout.
The first of them, by Studio 4°C and directed by Shōjirō Nishimi, features four kids at a skatepark trying to outdo each other as they relate the story of their individual encounters with Batman. It's a highly stylised work, varied even further by each child putting their own spin on the event.
The second is by Production I.G. and directed by Futoshi Higashide in a more traditional style. It follows two Gotham detectives who get caught in the middle of a gang shootout.
The third, by Bee Train and Hiroshi Morioka, has the collection's most 'anime' style version of Bruce. There's very little plot, opting instead for more of a thematic concept, but it's dull.
Next is by Madhouse and Yasuhiro Aoki. It's typical of the studio's output, with extreme CUs, skewed perspectives, distorted visuals, and objects placed in the frame to purposefully obscure and annoy, most of which are techniques that I hate, but acknowledge that other folks may like.
The penultimate story is Studio 4°C's second entry and is very much the best of the entire collection. Directed by Toshiyuki Kubooka, it sees Batman reminiscing about a time he spent in India, training his mind and body to deal with physical pain, all while his life's blood pours out in the present. It has a spiritual depth that the others lack, and because of that has a deeper resonance when the fade-to-black rolls in. To be frank, it's the only one I feel is worth revisiting.
And finally, another Madhouse entry, this time directed by Jong-Sik Nam and Yoshiaki Kawajiri. It's about firearms, with a scene atop a fast-moving train being its only standout feature.
It ought to be noted that none of the works were actually written by their respective directors. All six stories were penned by American creators, which is likely part of why most of the segments feel as bland beneath the surface as many of the other US-origin films. Ultimately, its 'anime' credentials are surface-deep, which makes the whole venture seem rather timorous.
05. Batman: Year One (2011 / Dirs. Sam Liu + Lauren Montgomery) is the titular hero's origin story retold yet again, this time based on Frank Miller's comic of the same name. Visually it closely resembles David Mazzucchelli's character designs, which I was very pleased about.
It's a surprisingly faithful adaptation, with instances of dialogue and scene setting lifted directly (and at times almost verbatim) from the source text. The perspective is split primarily between Batman/Bruce Wayne and Lieutenant James Gordon, with occasional input from Selina Kyle. Both men provide a rather dry but useful v/o, offering insight into their private thoughts.
Ben McKenzie is okay as Batman, but Bryan Cranston steals the show as a Jim Gordon who has to work hard to win his battles and fix his mistakes. Eliza Dushku is pretty weak as Selina, but the charter is very underdeveloped, so she didn't really have much to work with, to be fair.
At various times the city is perceived almost as a punishment, while at others it functions as a kind of crucible, but it never once feels like Gotham. It's like a generic video game world, empty, devoid of the gothic characteristics that have been associated with it for the longest time.
When Gordon is centre stage Year One is an accomplished and engaging drama, but elsewhere it was less convincing; e.g., Bruce kicking a tree in half was ridiculous and idiotic.
As successful as the adaptation is overall, I feel that an alternate version focussing solely on an expanded Gordon narrative — excluding Selina completely and including Batman only when he crossed over into the newly relocated lieutenant's world — could've been fantastic.
NOTE: there was a similarly packaged Superman: Animated Collection (2016) that likewise had films that didn't get a UK Blu-ray release outside of the package.
[1] The previous films are Mask of the Phantasm (1993) and Batman and Mr. Freeze: SubZero (1998), both available separately and also later included in the 2018 Batman TAS boxset.
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