User reviews

I bought this movie the instant it was available, and after the first ten minutes I knew I wasted my money. This movie was so disappointing in that it was nothing but a recap of "Under the Red Hood" and very little else. If you're going to make a Death in the Family movie, make the movie and not some half-assed attempt at it. I really wish I could get my money back. I only gave it five stars because the animation was good and I like the voice actors. Storywise, this was a complete and utter failure.

I want my money back, DC! You tricked me!

This is a series of 30 min cartoons, felt like you were watching Sat morning TV. We get the redundant RED MASK story, a Hawkman story, a weird artist cartoon, a Sgt Fury story ... it is like DC had a few cartoons laying around and thought they'd tos them on a disc for a cash grab. Disappointing.

I love interactive stories and I love Batman movies. Coincidentally, I was able to get the best of both worlds when this was announced. Especially considering Under the Red Hood is one of my favorite Batman movies. Sadly though, this was clearly a rushed idea that could've been amazing but ended up just being alright

As the marketing suggests, there's 3 paths the story can go. Robin dies, Robin cheats death, and Batman saves Robin. All 3 options had the foundations for incredible stories, and some even stuck the landing. The ideas worked well and I could see any of them happening in an actual Batman story. It's also pretty entertaining sometimes! It's super interesting to see Batman under the red hood with different outcomes and R rated violence. It's also REALLY cool to see just how dark Jason's life could've been, be it for the better or the worse

That being said, let's talk about its weaknesses. For starters, only one of the options has further choices to make, and the other two are mostly straightforward stories, which isn't really what was promised. One of them was what I watched when I rented on itunes, and was basically just a condensed version of UTRH. Also, a lot of the stories end up lacking in some of the writing or line delivery. It's kinda awkward at times, especially for the intended tone

A big red flag was obviously the absence of Jensen Ackles, but I found Vincent Martella's performance surprisingly strong at times. He did a really good job carrying the story, even if he couldn't do it flawlessly all the time. Which I attribute more to the writing and directing, considering he's proven time and again he's a competent voice actor, especially in Phineas and Ferb

A big problem I also noticed is one I have with Telltale Games, with a lot of the decisions ending up in relatively the same place, just with slightly different details. A lot of the endings are very different to be totally fair, but not devoid of what I'm calling the telltale effect. It would've been much cooler to see something along the lines of Detroit where decisions always have consequences, for better or worse

Overall I'd say it wasn't as good as some of DC's finest work in the animation department, with not a whole lot of rewatchability. However, I definitely thought it was worth checking out and would consider it worth loaning to my friends so they can experience it for themselves

Sadly, with it sitting next to Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker and not far away from The Dark Knight on my blu ray collection, it won't be my first choice anytime soon.

Batman: Under the Red Hood, one of DC's most successful animated films, finally got something added to that continuity of animation. The trailers were really good, and showcased the variety of stories in this movie very well. The big issue is that the marketing didn't show as much that renting the film means not getting the interactive version. You can find all scenarios if you buy the film digitally, but you need a Blu-Ray for the full experience. Since this is more a collection of shorts, I will review each one separately. (I have done reviews on Adam Strange and Death on those pages, but I'll shorten it here.)

Batman: Death in the Family scenarios

Red Hood Reloaded: This scenario is essentially Under the Red Hood but shortened and narrated. Although it brings some interesting perspective, it can't replace the original. 4/10

Jason Todd's Rebellion: This one is the shortest, and it has some very interesting ideas presented. It's unfortunately too short and abrupt to say it was even complete. It at least doesn't drag like Red Hood Reloaded. 5/10

Red Robin's Revenge: This short was entertaining. It had some solid action scenes, the voice acting was fine, but the ending was a little convenient. 7/10

Red Hood's Reckoning: This short was well-written, intense, and satisfying. It is a little more violent to push that R rating, but it was good. 7/10

DC Showcase shorts:

DC Showcase is an area of DC that makes shorts of obscure characters likely not to get a feature film, to introduce to audiences these new characters.

Sgt. Rock: An entertaining War short with supernatural-horror elements and good action. 7/10

Adam Strange: Overly violent, dull short with unlikeable characters and it doesn't give audiences a good idea of who Adam Strange is. 3/10

The Phantom Stranger: Scooby-Doo meets the occult, tone-wise. There is even a VW Mystery Machine car. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't interesting. 5/10

Death: Adapted from Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Death is a beautiful, bittersweet end to this mediocre animated film. 9/10

Batman Death in the family was a very short film if you could even call this thing a film,and because of that i wasnt able to fully comprehand our characters in a better way and i found it to be rather to fast,how staff was happening on screen and it felt rushed since a very beginning till a very end.Story was solid and entereteining in a sort of way,animation was also cool and voice acting impressive .But like i said short runtime and rushed moments were little to much to me and some scenes were even hard to see how fast they were changing between from scene to scene,in end this was unfortunetly animated short film but it had solid staff in it

Batman is one of those comic characters who is not afraid to delve into darker, more mature storylines. A Death In The Family is one of them, and it is infamous because readers actually got to decide the ending, which involved whether or not Jason Todd, who was the holder of the Robin mantle at the time, lived or died. and has gotten its fair share of attention and backlash for the final result. This movie is an adaptation of the story as well as a follow up to 2010's Batman: Under The Red Hood (as the cast from that film reprise their roles in this one).

Keeping with the interactive aspect of the comic, the movie is done to the point where it allows you to make choices that change the story. Before the film starts, the movie gives instructions on how to make choices (but thankfully, it can be skipped for those who watch it again or don't want instructions). The movie for the most part, has new footage mixed in with what looks like scenes taken from Under The Red Hood. Immediatly, this can be seen as bad, as the UTRH scenes are sadly just copy-and-pasted into the film, without any additions to take advantage of the R rating this film got. Basically, when you get to the point where you choose Robin's fate, you get three choices (that is, if you're watching the Blu-Ray. The digital copy does not have the interactive part). If you choose the Robin Dies route, all you get is a repeat of that film (only with Bruce Wayne/Batman narrating). Also, there is not much interactivity in this movie. Two of the paths do not allow you to choose to change the story, while one has most of the interactivity, which sadly hinders this more.

Because of these problems, the movie is too short (the longest being a half-hour), making this an underwhelming film. The only good thing about this is John DiMaggio does a good job voicing The Joker, but this interactive film is a lackluster and a waste of $18 I bought it for at Wal-Mart. Avoid this and look for something better, like Batman: Under The Red Hood (which is way better in its original form).

Folks are a little too harsh here. It's definitely not a movie experience in the slightest, nor did I go in expecting it to be. It's just a collection of possible scenarios that could have come from the scenario that started Under the Red Hood. Did any of you really expect anything different? Some bits are of course better than others, some are downright creepy, some are lame. In the end, it's just a fun little game you're playing, and I had fun with it. Sure, it lacks the depth and epic tone of the movie it spawns from, but it's not supposed to have those. I can't five it a full 10 star rating, simply because it isn't a legitimate movie experience, and lacks the substance to earn that rating. But as a fun little time killer, I was satisfied.

-- Wes Wall.

This is a new low for DC. I never thought they would have treated their loyal fans with such disrespect. Batman: Death in the Family is a shameless and LAZY repackaging of clips from Batman: Under the Red Hood, this time narrated by Bruce Wayne. It's unbelievable. I'm glad I only rented it - but still upset that I wasted five dollars on this shameless cash grab by DC. SHAME ON THEM.

Warner's first interactive movie* is a retelling of the 2010 movie Batman: Under the Red Hood - but with the viewer making choices at key points, and deciding how the story plays out. For example, where Jason Todd dies in the explosion in the original, the viewer here gets three options; 'Robin cheats death', 'Batman saves Robin', and 'Robin dies'. If you choose 'Robin dies' you get an abbreviated version of the Under the Red Hood movie. If you choose 'Robin cheats death', he survives the explosion, and if you choose 'Batman saves Robin' Batman gets him out of the warehouse before the explosion. Those last two each lead to a completely new series of events, with the 'Batman saves Robin' option having the longest, most interesting story, with more 'branch points' as it develops (some going where you'd never expect, with real surprise twists and turns).

Bruce Greenwood and John DiMaggio return as Batman and Joker, and are fantastic (DiMaggio absolutely nails Joker here). Jensen Ackles doesn't voice Jason Todd this time (perhaps because he was lined up as the new DC Universe movies Batman), but Vincent Martella, (who played younger Jason in Under the Red Hood) does return and voices Jason/Red Hood throughout. We also get prominent appearances by Talia al Ghul, Two-Face, and Jim Gordon, plus many cameos. Animation is good to very good (the material reproduced from Under the Red Hood looking the best). I've played all seven (apparently) scenarios through at least twice and can still see myself coming back to it.

This also includes four Showcase shorts; Death, The Phantom Stranger, Sgt. Rock, and Adam Strange. I found Adam Strange the weakest, whilst Sgt. Rock and The Phantom Stranger are enjoyable horror yarns. But Death is hands down the greatest animation, from any company, I have ever seen. Heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time, it's worth the cost of the Blu-ray on its own. See it if you can.

Overall, Batman: Death in the Family gets 9/10

*Interactive version is Blu-ray only.

There are many bizarre choices in this animated film. The recurrent blur in the picture, the tepid melodramatic tone of the story, the unconvincing outcome of the explosion caused by the Joker (the death was expected, off course, but it was so, let me say, clean!), the excessive narration of flashback by the Batman. The Joker himself does not have the mood I expect from the character, ressembling more a Disney witch than the clown criminal. The sudden ending, which actually does not finish anithing, is so frustrating. If putting the entire story as a testimony Bruce Wayne was an intention to innovate in the script, it just did not work.

Bought the digital release on iTunes... kept watching & waiting for the movie to start. Just a recap on past DC animated Batman movies.. with barely a minute or so of new footage. Yeah you get a few additional extra short movies BUT no full movie here to see. I would certainly AVOID THIS. Utter utter Con job.

Digital version doesn't have interactive features. I want my fifteen bucks back.

Really fun/entertaining interactive feature. You must buy the dvd to enjoy the interactive version. The digital buys/rents do not give you the experience sadly.

I'm annoyed at myself for buying this movie. First, the digital version doesn't allow for making interactive choices as was advertised in all of the previews. Only the physical copy of the movie allows for interactive choices. Second, this movie starts with Batman retelling the story of the movie "Under the Red Hood" for a half hour. Batman just narrates throughout most of a half hour short story. Boring!!! Then credits roll and another short story begins. I'm not sure why they decided to make a movie retelling the story of a previous movie, but it's a dumb move on DC's part, and worse, it's misleading to the consumer who thinks this movie is a coherent original story. I should have read the reviews before I purchased it. Waste of money, in my opinion. I would say this movie isn't even worth renting. Just go ahead and buy "Under the Redhood" instead. With DC movies, sadly, ALWAYS read the reviews first!

Basically a 20 minute or so clip show. There was some other video story starting up after but I just turned it off. Waste!!!

Batman: Death in the Family is the latest ripoff con job from Warner Brothers Animation. They were thinking to themselves, well our movies aren't doing so well, so let's just retcon an entire movie that we think still has some gas, how about Under the Red Hood? It's a recognizable title, a title we're still coasting off the fumes and good name of, and people still like it; let's slap together a 30 minute short with the cheapest animation possible through an overseas company with inferior quality, cobble that 30 minutes into another title and market it as an "interactive" movie. Let's stretch this thing out and pad the hell out of it by slapping it into another story in the most awkward way we can. We'll patch any of the holes with ADR dialogue and still images, and maybe it'll work. This movie is the equivalent of fixing a dirty carpet hack job. All right guys, get the hot glue, a bunch of duct tape, gum, plaster, anything that'll work, oh but we're still gonna charge you for it. Can you even call it animation when nothing moves on screen? Warner Brothers can't look me in the eye and say that with a straight face. Animation implies that something is moving on the screen. Instead of actually animating it, cause that's too much work, let's just make things stand very still then dump a whole bunch of exposition and narration, cause we aren't able to tell a story visually anymore. This is the worst tricking the audience gimmick since Cloverfield Paradox. We haven't even gotten to the story yet, which is another carpet crammed into a dumpster, then set on fire. Jason Todd is one of the worst character that DC created, and no one cares about him or his story. People realize they killed him off back in the day for a reason, right? I guess we don't learn from our mistakes, something that Warner Animation can't figure out. All this movie proved to me is that no matter what universe Jason Todd is in, he's still a dick and a murdering psychopath. Basically, he was screwed up from the start, and screwed no matter what. We can't do anything new with him, I guess. I'd be embarrassed to call myself a writer if I wasn't able to do something clever with a character. People are still drinking the cool aid thinking Warner Animation still makes quality films, which they haven't done in at least 10 years. It's funny to see them so desperate though, to the point of turning into a sleazy fix-it-up plumbing company that still charges you when they exploded your entire bathroom.

Wow. DC/Warner animation really missed the mark with this. As a huge fan of all the DC Batman animation films, I can honestly say this was nothing but a cash grab. Incredibly disappointing. Out of the many different and exciting comic stories to tell... from the long Halloween to Endgame or even something daring like Batman Damned... this one was approved but the studio...

If you were a hopeful fan looking to get a great movie, do stay away from this wasted opportunity. :(

So I thought that I wouldn't listen to reviews and just watch the movie. Oh gosh is this movie terrible. You came here to watch death in the family right. NO. The only death in the family is a 20 minute recap of under the red hood with ONLY recycled footage. The rest of the movie is terrible random boring short story's. Don't wast your time. Just watch (or rewatch) under the red hood.