User reviews

Batman: Gotham Knight is an anthology of shorts that are different from the original WB animated series in that it's not in the usual twenty-minute animated form (1/2 hour for commercials). It's more like a collection of comic books from Batman strung together without any real association aside from it being different interpretations from the Japanese directors. A similar mode went with the Animatrix years ago, in that it's partly a weird and intriguing exploration of the world created, and partly as a cash tie-in for the upcoming new movie (in this case, of course, Dark Knight).

All of the directors, to greater or lessor degrees, have a specific vision to share with us Batman fans, and at best it's a real visual 'trip'; things move past with lightning speed, but so we can see a lot of "things" happening, and every so often, like 'Working Through Pain', the animators don't kid us anymore and show Bruce Wayne going through kung-fu training with a spiritual twist (I chuckled at seeing Bruce as now being an Asian). For the most part, however, the shorts don't have a lot going on in terms of real substance- how can they with such short amounts of time. The first, 'Have I Got a Story for You', relies on Rashomon storytelling from a bunch of skater kids on Batman; this one has some of the most creative twists on just the design of the dark knight. Then there's maybe my favorite of the whole lot, 'In Darkness Dwells', which showcases the Scarecrow and, briefly, Killer Croc (apparently a fan favorite), and has a firm handle on its very dark atmosphere and the harsh story of Crane and the bums.

Other stories like 'Dead-Shot', 'Field-Test', and especially 'Crossfire', are enjoyable on the shallowest levels, and there is only bits and piece of a story going on (Crossfire relies also on a big mob shootout to make up for a paper-thin narrative). While it's great to hear Kevin Conroy back to voice Wayne/Batman, and to see some of the twists the animators take and the distinct styles coming through with a handle on making it fierce and graphic (it'll probably get a TV-14 when finally broadcast), it doesn't come close to the dimensions found in the original 90s animated series. It's a wonderful, absorbing garnish of sorts.

This is a collection of 6 animated Batman stories (in Anime style) aimed to fill the gap between Nolan's Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Each story is directed by different people but unlike Animatrix (WB's first animated filler compilation, done for the Matrix series), the look and feel of every episode is too similar to actually distinguish. The mood is more dark, violent and brooding than any other screen Batman interpretations. The first episode starts of relatively lightweight and is the most humorous. The stories then get edgier and darker. The whole compilation makes for an enjoyable viewing as Batman deals with the wild imagination of kids, spiritual healing, Hinduism!, Scarecrow, Killer Croc, and a hit-man called Deadshot. But for me, the real joy of watching Gotham Knights is listening to the definitive Batman/Bruce Wayne voice that is Kevin Conroy, who has been the voice of Batman in every animated form from 1990 to 2006 (I think). Here, he is the voice of several variations of Batman and is pure joy to listen to. I have to admit though that a couple of Bruce Wayne animated interpretations don't really fit with his voice but Conroy's voice acting more than makes up for it. The animation is great but not anywhere near as radical as Animatrix or recent Anime films. The action scenes are quite thrilling. Also, very worthy of mention is the exhilarating soundtrack, particularly in the Scarecrow episode. All in all, this is a great addition to the Batman animated collections.

i knew this wouldn't be anything like the Batman Animated Series BUT all the short stories were well done by some different anime looks and each story was well written and executed. My favorite 2 would have to be the Killer Croc and Scarecrow episode and the last one with the sniper. the music was awesome and I hope the Dark Knight took notice because that score was really catchy and strong. and the animation and storytelling were spot on and the pacing of each one was great. Not too long or too short on any episode. They got Kevin Conroy to voice the batman here and I was really happy with that because I think Conroy is the Voice of Batman in the animated world, no one does it like he does. If you are a batman fan i don't think you will be disappointed if you check it out and see it for yourself. I am and I'm happy I own it now!

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

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I've never been a fan of anime, and this film didn't really do anything to change my mind. This is a collection of short stories much in the same vein as the Animatrix meant to somewhat bridge the gap between Batman Begins and the Dark Knight.

Each story focuses on one particular aspect of Batman and his mythos. Through the eyes of some kids we so how his presence in Gotham is to many an urban legend. We also see how he learned to deal with pain, we see a sample of the development that goes behind some of his toys, we see the police's attitude towards him and of course we get to see some good old fashion Batman ass kickery. Collectively all these stories are pretty well written and I liked how they managed with the use of subtle details and references to link one story from the next to help bring it a little higher than your typical anthology.

But as I've said I'm not a fan of anime. I find anime directors to be exceptional at conveying mood and atmosphere through the use of brilliant backgrounds and well plotted storyboards, but outside of the science fiction realm of the Batsuit and the monsters I find there character designs lacking in originality. When Batman takes off his mask Bruce Wayne has a remarkable resemblance to almost every other anime character we've ever seen. This can't be said for all anime artists, we do get some variety here and regardless of the style it's always interesting to see different artists' takes on the same character. Another issue I found across the board which I think more than anything detracted from my enjoyment of this and most others of the style is the lack of emotion that goes into the character acting. We're treated to good voice actors here, specifically the return of Kevin Conroy as Batman but the solid performances of the voices are lost behind faces completely devoid of emotion. The heads remains dead during the lion's share of all dialog while the mouth moves up and down (sometimes not even that)until the voice is done delivering the lines. This is no exaggeration either, there is no movement of the eyes or brows or even enough variation on mouth shapes to imply any emotion at all, if they're not throwing a punch the characters are relentlessly static. As an animator myself I may be more critical to such things and I'm not trying to tell of anime creators, I know it has legions of fans, but I won't be joining the ranks personally until they evolve beyond some of these problems.

In the end this is still worth seeing if you're a Batman fan, and despite my ranting against the anime style I did really enjoy seeing the different interpretations of the Batsuit and batmobile along with a couple other elements that carried across the stories.

This is a 6-story anthology movie directed and animated by different people.

1) "Have I Got A Story For You": I caught this part of the movie a while back on the TV and my first reaction was "wtf is up with the animation?". The lip- sync was atrocious, like terribly bad. And the story made no sense. Some random kids were telling stories about Batman and just as the last one finished talking, Batman appears out of nowhere fighting a bad guy for the sake of the plot. And then one of the kids saves Batman's life?????

2) "Crossfire": This one focuses on two policemen who end up getting in the middle of a crime battle. Sounds dumb? It is. Because it's very convenient, like the previous one. The animation looks like cheap anime, but looks WAY better than the first one. Kevin Conroy sounded way off as Batman in this one, almost as if he was replaced by someone else. The only good aspect of the story is that the story centers around officer Ramirez and we get to see Batman through her eyes. This character is later used in The Dark Knight in the same year.

3) "Field Test": We get to see Lucius Fox creating new technology for Batman. For some reason, Lucius looks really orange in some scenes. And this Batman sounds different too. And he looks really dumb... he has a huge bat-nose.

4) "In Darkness Dwells": This one features Killer Croc and Scarecrow kidnapping a priest. Now this is a good one, this is what the whole movie should've been like. Story centered around Batman and showing his detective abilities. Simple, awesome, effective.

5) "Working Through Pain": It's not clear if this is directly after the previous chapter, but it goes through flashbacks of Bruce's training. This one wasn't as good as the previous one, but it was very a interesting take on his lore.

6) "Deadshot": Finally, this last chapter focuses on the titular sniper assassin and adversary of Batman. The animation in this one is top notch and by far the best. It's very detailed and polished. The plot is solid and very entertaining.

In conclusion, this movie goes from horrible to great. Honestly they should've just cut the first half of the movie and release it as an episode on whatever Batman TV show was airing at the time... or something, I don't know.

6/10

Just before the release of the masterpiece, The Dark Knight, Warner Brothers decided to follow the success of what they did with the AniMatrix, releasing a DVD of short Anime films. I was disappointed by AniMatrix, which was marketed essential viewing before seeing the second two Matrix films. They were a damp squib and only one of the shorts had anything to do with the main films. But luckily I quite enjoyed Batman Gotham Knight.

Batman Gotham Knight is six short film, around 12 minutes long, telling different stories about the Dark Knight. One includes a very interesting one about some skater teenagers saying they saw Batman, and came up with three very different versions of what Batman is. That short was good, and that was the weakest one as well. Other stories include Batman fighting against the Russian and Italian Mafia who are in the middle of a gang war, fighting the sewers against Scarecrow and Killer Croc, testing a new bit of equipment, a flashback story set in India and stopping Deadshot killing Lt. Gordon. My personal favourites out of the shorts are Working Through Pain and Deadshot, both telling good stories, and wonderfully action packed.

Batman Gotham Knight was marketed as a number of shorts set in-different the events of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. To me it felt more Christopher Nolan's films were more an influence then directly linked. Another influence must have been the great 90s animated series, with Kevin Conroy reprising his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman. The direction and the art is so wonderful to, I love anime and I like it when American and Japanese ideas are combined together. The storytelling and action is excellent. There are detailed character designs, like in Working Through Pain you got a real scene of India and young Bruce Wayne looked and fought like Bruce Lee. There are top writers and directors working on the shorts, including David S. Goyer, the writer of Batman Begins and the Dark Knight. Like the Nolan Batmans, the shorts try to shot a dark, more unpleasant Gotham, in a realistic city. There is corruption, and crime from low level thugs to organised crime leaders. Batman here is a symbol of hope and change for the city. The storytellers also try to take a more grounded view of the villains, even trying to make Killer Croc a little more believable (i.e. not a mutated crocodile).

Unlike the AniMatrix, the stories are interlinked in some way, making the shorts as a whole stronger, more like a good TV series. They are recurring themes like the gang war.

If I had to complain, I would have like to have seen more. I would have liked the shorts to have been longer, like 20 to 30 minutes. I think this level of animation and storytelling could, and should work as a excellent TV series, with a more adult audience because of the themes and violence.

Worth watching if you can get it at a good price.

Batman: Gotham Knight is an anthology of six Batman stories with a Japanese Anime style.

It has been influenced by Batman Begins and The Dark Knight with the cartoon opting for a darker tone.

The first story are a group of skater kids recalling stories of their encounters with Batman, which all differ.

The last is Batman taking on Deadshot hoping to put his own past to rest.

Given the nature of six short stories it does zip along well before anyone gets bored.

However it comes across as a minor piece. This would had been evident if anyone watched The Dark Knight which was released in the same year.

I heard about this movie around the time when the first Dark Knight trailer was released and I was really excited about seeing it and when I did it did not disappoint at all. Here are the reason why this movie is so good. The movie follows a great storyline and each of the six stories are very well done out and each have a terrific plot. The voice over actors are great such as Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Gary Dourdan as Crispus Allen, Corey Burton as Scarcrow, David McCallum as Alfred, George Newbern as Killer Croc, Jim Meskimen as Jim Gordon and deadshot. etc. Also I was really happy that Kevin Conroy was returning to play Batman again. The animation is really well done. The way the characters look in it is really good but they look different in each story because each story is done by different people but all of them are really well done. The way batman himself look in this movie is amazing each story has a different costume and look but are all amazing. Each story has a different style of animation and they are all very well done. The way the villains look in the movie are also just amazing such as scarecrow and killer crock and deadshot. The action in this movie is really good and very intense and very entertaining to watch. so I am sure that you will not be disappointed with Batman: Gotham Knight. So make sure that you rent or buy Batman: Gotham Knight because it is great.

Overall Rating: ******** out of **********

**** out of *****

So now all I am waiting for is The Dark Knight because I know it is going to be one of the greatest movies ever made.

Batman: Gotham Knight is short stories centered to cover the gap between Batman Begins and Dark Knight and how he became a staple it Gothams life. It is a nice idea and the stories are quite interesting, but I didn't really like it for I found it kind a broken feature and I didn't get interested to what was happening.

My main problem was the animation ,it was too like anime and at times it was very ugly and I was thinking "This film was made in a harry and they didn't had the change to make it better". Now, to be honest the animation isn't all bad in every story, in two or three of them it is actually very nicely made. Especially in the story with featuring Deathshoot is it spot on and that put though in to my brain like "Why didn't they made that part longer?".

My main concern in the end was that this flick was more just filler time between the feature films and not a creative attempt to add more mythology in to the newly formed Dark Knight series!

In conclusion if you liked ,good for you. I personally was unable to get to the premise.

This animated Batman movie is definitely a unique one I have seen all the animated Batman movies and TV shows and while some are better than others Gotham Knight is the only one I struggled to enjoy.

This movie has six different story's all connected each one having a different director meaning each story has a visually different animation style this does set it apart from the rest of the animated Batman movies but in each story I found something that stopped me enjoying it one animation style looked more like an episode of the cartoons (Hey Arnold) or (Recess) making Batman look more like a parody of himself another story is done in a Japanese Anime style which made the Bruce Wayne side of Batman look like an edgy anime character it's not that the animation is bad the problem is they don't match the dark tone of Batman or even the campy funny Batman they are more like failed test animations for an animated Batman series.

I do recommend watching it if your a Batman fan as the storylines are interesting and orginal so even if your not a fan of the animation styles it's worth viewing.

Just a side note I watched this on Blu Ray and there is no main menu or play movie screen the movie just starts on its own and you can bring up the in movie menu to change the languages and screen selection not a major issue but you expect some quality on Blu Ray however the Blu Ray version's extras include four classic episodes of Batman The Animated Series which are one "Legends of the Dark Knight" two "Heart of Ice" three "Over the Edge" and four "I am the Night"

'Batman: Gotham Knight', an anthology film, has some attractive segments, but not all of them appeal. Some segments work, but some fall flat.

'Batman: Gotham Knight' Synopsis: A collection of key events mark Bruce Wayne's life, as he journeys from beginner to Dark Knight.

'Batman: Gotham Knight' which unfolds in 6 segments, is a mix of entertainment & boredom, both. The only chapter which is excellent is called "In Darkness Dwells". The remaining of the chapters range from good to plain dull. I expected more from this animation flick, since the Batman movies have been pretty awesome, to date.

A Special Mention for the superb graphics & the credible vocal-performances. Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne/Batman, especially, does a brilliant job.

On the whole, 'Batman: Gotham Knight' is impressive in parts.

And that's why I only rate it 7, simply because I would have liked to see most of these shorts made into feature-length movies. The anime style was really good with lots of atmosphere and bolt storytelling.

The first short was a little silly and had some less pleasing art style, but the succeding shorts had better animation, stories and action to give it a unique look and identity. Interesting outcome that I would have liked to see fully realised.

Batman: Gotham Knight is a lot like The Animatrix in that it bridges two movies with colorful and varied animation and innovative stories. Or at least that's what it should have been. While The Animatrix was fresh and exciting and superior to the live-action films Batman: Gotham Knight just seems to plod around familiar territory without ever getting too deep.

Averaging at about 11 minutes each the stories are just too short to really make an impression and a couple of them end abruptly much to the annoyance of the viewer.

Kevin Conroy returns as the voice of Batman (this will come as a great relief to fans who have had to put up with Rino Romano's voice in the new, inferior series) but there's none of the wild invention seen in the 90s TV series or any of the subsequent feature-length movies. Each story seems to have one idea and sticks with it to the bitter end whether it works or not. It would have been better if they connected the stories and built towards a better end.

As a movie it fails. As a sequence of quick adventures leading up to The Dark Knight it kinda works. The animation is pretty and I'd like to see more but give us more depth next time, Warner.

Batman : Gotham Knight is a compilation of 6 shorts. It is made to be an anime, which is hugely popular in Japan and slowly gaining interest in other countries in the world.

The first Segment is titled 'Have I got a Story For You' . It follows a story by young kids who told their peers about Batman, the way he fought and the way he managed to win the battle. Exciting, with a witty twist in the end. Absolutely well done in terms of storyline, but lacking in the expressions shown by batman and the villains. It was so generic and lacked emotions.

In Segment Two : Crossfire, Cris and Anna has been partners for six weeks with Major Crimes Unit (MCU). Cris was reluctant to be in the force and has consider to be in other police unit. It was because Cris' didn't agree with the way MCU sees Batman, as a vigilante. Anna, however, were grateful with Batman for making the city much better.

Cris' reluctance were somewhat mixed when Batman helped saved his life during a gunfight between two Russian mobs.

However, the producer leave it to the viewers to decide whether Cris' perception of Batman has changed or not.

Segment Three : Field Test. Yeah, true to the title, it shows how Bruce Wayne got interested in being Batman. He tries out his new power, and his gas guzzling, super power batmobile. My least favorite episode.

I have a gripe with the fourth Segment, 'In Darkness Dwells' . The kung-fu were cool, but the visual is not that nice. It appears to be lacking in fluidity, the movements seems a bit rigid and unrealistic. And the scenery seems to be poorly done. Whether purposely made that way? I do not know. However, it did made it less enjoyable.

'Working Through Pain' is the best shorts! It deals with pain, and how we as humans managed them. The story goes back and forth between Wayne's time underneath the city's sewer, suffering from much pain due to the wound in his abdomen, to the days when he travels to India to seek knowledge from Cassandra, the purported witch in the village.

It allows us to think of pain. Of how it happened, and how to deal with it. Either to deny it and to bury it deep in the memory, or step out of it and realized then pain is a normal human feelings.

The visuals of India is so vibrant, so colorful, so believable. Kudos to those who made this short for the time taken to study about India and her beauty.

The Final Segment : Deadshot is a duel between Batman & a hit-man, DeadShot. Suspected of killing many prolific figures, Batman with the help of his trusted buddy, Alfred to find DeadShot.

Found him, they did. Just as he was about to shoot at the Police officer, Batman managed to avoid DeadShot's bullet from entering the police officer. Ragede, he went to find DeadSot in the train and atop the train Batman faced the deadly hit-man.

All in all, I found the shorts to be enjoyable. It showed the many aspects in Batman's life, what happened when he was much younger and what aspires him to be what he is now.

Before I get on expressing myself I want to say that seeing Batman: Gotham Knight is simply an imperative. A simple fact that it bridges the gap that occurs between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight alone is why this needs to be viewed as a prelude to The Dark Knight, but it isn't wholly the reason why this must be viewed. Yes, the concept itself is taken from Animatrix which served the same purpose, but that also isn't the sole reason. It's because this is easily a fine piece of work on all grounds. I have never been a fan of anime, but that's merely due to me not being genuinely interested in the medium. What a fine example of execution this truly is. Consisting of six vignettes written by six different writers, such as David S. Goyer and Josh Olson (A History of Violence) and directed by different talents in different styles this has exactly the balance that is required to be fully entertained, mentally stimulated, and visually inspired. I cannot add anything more to it that could not be summarized in those exact three adjectives. This one's a keeper, and should not go amiss.

In the spirit of the Animatrix, Batman: Gotham Knight is a series of animated stories done each by different director and bridging the gap between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Also as with Animatrix there were some I loved and some I just liked but all of them have to be respected for there unique concepts and vision. It is so interesting to me to see so many great ideas and different perspectives sprout from the original concepts of Batman and The Matrix. I'm always astonished at how far the technology of animation has come over the years and wonder if actors will some day be replaced by animated characters and environments that are not restrained to anything in anyway. Which will make anything you can think of not only possible but way easier to put on screen. All that said the film was enjoyable, entertaining and whetted my appetite for July 18 and The Dark Knight.

What is it with the fascination with anime? "Gotham Night" is awful, absolutely dreadful stuff. The anime results in a Gotham City where everyone looks like Speed Racer. In one of the six episodes, Batman is drawn with a huge stomach and spindly legs, kind of like Hank Hill. Why can't the alleged artists of anime draw human beings? I agree that often the backgrounds in anime are wonderful, but the human figures always look the same- just like Astro Boy.

Even getting past the ugly, childish human figures, the stories in "Gotham Night" make no sense. There is no real drama, and the action is too focused on showing blood at every opportunity. And political correctness runs wild throughout; Russian gangs ruling the criminal underground in the city? And their arch enemies are some kind of Irish-1930s-Warner Brothers-type of nondescript (and, needless to say, totally unrealistic) outfit. I expected them to be brawling over bootleg liquor at any given moment. What are these writers thinking? Is there any city in modern America where the criminals look and talk like this? This is par for the course in Hollywood, but it still irks me.

I love Batman, but other than Kevin Conroy's always magnificent voice, this movie has almost nothing to recommend it.