DC has been pumping out animated movies now for the last few years at the rate of 2-3 per year. None have been bad, a few have been pretty good, before this though only Justice League: New Frontier was outstanding. Batman Under the Red Hood may be better than that. It’s outstanding animation, voice acting, and tight script (Judd Winnick adapting his story of the same name from the comics) make for an exceptional Batman movie.
The story centers around the second Robin, Jason Todd, his death at the hands of the Joker (played with a cold brilliance by John DeMaggio) and his resurrection by Ras ‘al Ghul. Never entirely stable when he was Robin, Jason takes the Red Hood mantle that was the Joker’s before he became the Joker and starts taking out crime in Gotham in a far more permanent fashion than his predecessor favors. Bruce Greenwood voices Batman and though I never thought I’d ever like anyone but Kevin Conroy doing Batman’s voice, Greenwood is just fantastic. I’d love to see him and DeMaggio do more work in this films if Conroy and Mark Hamil aren’t available to fill their usual roles. The conflict between Batman and his greatest mistake is great stuff. I’m an unapologetic Batfreak and one of the most interesting parts of his psyche is his tendency to surround himself with damaged people to help in his crusade and form a kind of surrogate family for himself to replace the one he lost when he was so young. Jason Todd represents his worst nightmare in that first, he failed to save him from death, and when he returns, now he uses the training he imparted to take more lives. The entire film is taut and filled with drama, but the last 15 minutes during the final showdown between the Red Hood, Joker, and Batman, is up to par with the best Batman stuff ever filmed in any medium.
This is a great film for anyone who loves animation and the superhero genre, and I could not recommend it more highly. If I have any criticism it would be that at 75 minutes, I could have used 20 more minutes of character development because the work done by the entire vocal cast was so good I just wanted more. But leaving ’em wanting more is how it’s supposed to go, eh?
9.5/10
Killing Time 