Broken Frontier

Taking thematic cues from Batman: The Animated Series and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, director Brandon Vietti’s Batman: Under the Red Hood—Warner Premiere’s latest direct-to-video DC Universe Original Animated Movie—is a thrilling, film noir journey through Gotham City’s criminal underbelly that, like the Dark Knight himself, rarely pulls punches.

Opening with the Joker joyfully (and bloodily) beating the second Robin, Jason Todd, to death with a crowbar, it’s clear that Under the Red Hood earns its PG-13 rating. Although most Batman fans are more than aware of this scenario from the controversial A Death in the Family story arc of the late 1980s—during which comic book readers actually decided Todd’s fate via a 900 number—actually seeing this scene play out in animated form is fairly disturbing. Young Bat-fans should stick with the far more kid-friendly Batman: The Brave and the Bold on Cartoon Network for their animated Caped Crusader fix.

After the brutal opening sequence, the film flashes forward five years, when a mysterious new villain, the Red Hood, emerges in Gotham City, much to the chagrin of established crime bosses like Black Mask. Batman and the grown-up original Robin Nightwing must thwart this new threat to their city and root out his true motives, but what they ultimately find is a surprise to them both. Those of us who’ve read Under the Hood by Judd Winick, who also penned this film, will just have to settle for acting surprised. But even though some of the twists (especially the big one) in this film might seem spoiled for those of us who’ve followed the comic books through the years, Under the Red Hood is satisfying nevertheless.

As mentioned earlier, this is a mature Batman adventure that’s hardly squeamish about splattering blood or breaking bones, but fortunately its “adult” slant doesn’t simply apply to its PG-13 violence, language and drug references: Under the Red Hood is as sophisticated as it is shocking. Due to the personal nature of the story, this film examines Bruce Wayne’s sense of morality, his relationships with his protégés and even his twisted kinship with his rogues gallery. If you enjoy psychologically dissecting your superheroes, Under the Red Hood does just that.

Whenever a new animated Batman project is announced, one always hopes that Batman: The Animated Series’ Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill—who played Batman and the Joker in that Emmy-winning series—will lend their voices to these characters yet again, but while that isn’t the case here, the cast is superb. In Under the Red Hood, Bruce Greenwood (J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek) and John DiMaggio (Futurama’s Bender) play the Caped Crusader and the Crown Prince of Crime respectively, and each do an excellent job. DiMaggio’s Joker is subdued in many ways compared to Hamill’s more maniacal interpretation of the character, but like Heath Ledger’s version of the character in The Dark Knight, this Joker is frighteningly unpredictable: one’s never sure if he’s going to slit someone’s throat or tell a joke (he’ll probably do one, then the other). Greenwood’s Batman/Bruce Wayne sounds weathered and emotionally scarred, which further emphasizes the psychological weight of the events in this film.

Playing Red Hood is Jensen Ackles, whose voice fans might recognize from the CW’s Supernatural. He does an admirable job with this character, who spends much of the film terrorizing the mob and getting into the Dark Knight’s head. In fact, as fun as the fight scenes and chase sequences are in this film, perhaps the best moments in the film are the smaller, character-focused exchanges between Batman and the Red Hood. In fact, the tense final showdown between the two—which involves the Joker—rivals the climaxes of some recent theatrical thrillers in terms of sheer intensity.

Another notable voice actor in Under the Red Hood is Neil Patrick Harris, who plays Nightwing. No stranger to Warner Premiere’s DC Comics films, having played the Flash in Justice League: The New Frontier, the How I Met Your Mother star quips with the best of them. 

Among the bonus features on this DVD/Blu-ray is the short DC Showcase animated film Jonah Hex, which stars Thomas Jane as the titular Wild West badass. It’s an excellent short film, but its quality is also bittersweet: it serves as a sobering reminder of just how much the live-action Jonah Hex film got wrong.

A tightly scripted and action packed film that makes the most of its 75-minute running time, Batman: Under the Red Hood is among the best DC Universe Animated Movies released to date. But be warned: This one ain’t for the kids.