Batman: Gotham Knight

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

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 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!

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.