<![CDATA[we see the world in ben-day dots

with Dave Scrimgeour, and Mike Nay, but Kevin McCluskey

Warner Bros. Animation presents "Batman Year One."

Starring the voice talents of
Bryan Cranston
Ben McKenzie
Eliza Dushku
Jon Polito
Katee Sackhoff

Based on the DC comics characters

Batman created by Bob Kane (with Bill Finger)

Executive Producers Benjamin Melniker, Michael Uslan
Executive Producers Sam Register, Bruce Timm

Producer Lauren Montgomery
Co-Producer Alan Burnett

Voice Direction Andrea Romano

Music by Christopher Drake

Edited by Margaret Hou

Based on the graphic novel by
Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli

Written by Tab Murphy

Directed by Sam Lui, Lauren Montgomery

Kev
I do like a lo-fi Batman. A Batman that doesn’t have all his gadgets yet.

Dave
Yeah. Ha! You got enough cats, woman?

Kev
Ha, ha! Yeh. That’s the line in 'The Batman,' isn’t it? “You’ve got a lot of cats.” Was this design for Selina Kyle, by Miller and Mazzucchelli, the first time she’d had the cropped hair?

Mike
I think so, yeah.

Kev
She’d always had the flowing locks before, hadn’t she?

Dave
Yeah.

Kev
The stuff with the media doesn’t feel quite as prominent in this as it did in the comic.

Dave
No, you’re right. They’ve kind-of downplayed that as well.

Kev
I mean, it’s still there, but you’re not being directed to it quite as much.

Dave
No, it was a lot more prominent in the comic. It was kind-of the one thing that kept everyone together and connected.

Kev
This is a great scene in the comic, and it’s done really well here too. The building of the tension is excellent. It just ratchets up, and up, and up, until we hit the crescendo with the escape under the cover of bats.

Bruce's serious face.

Mike
Wasn’t it the Vulcan nerve pinch that he used in the comic?

Kev
It was. He uses the Vulcan nerve pinch at one point, doesn’t he?

Dave
Does he?

Kev
Yeh, he comes up behind one of the cops, and takes him out with the pinch. What do you make of Ben Mackenzie as Bruce Wayne and Batman?

Dave
He’s fine. What do you think?

Kev
I think he’s good. He’s supposed to be a little bit younger than our regular Batman, so I think he was a good fit for the role, at this time.

Dave
I think he was playing a cop in 'Southland' on TV around then, and he was supposed to be a young, fresh-faced guy on that as well.

Kev
True. I suppose it’s not a million miles from playing this. I like the fact that they’ve kept all this from the comic in here as well, the way he keeps saying “Amateur,” and “I’ve made a mess of things here.”

Dave
Yeah.

Kev
This scene here, where he summons the bats, was used in 'Batman Begins,' wasn’t it?

"You've got a lot of (bats)."

Mike
Yep.

Kev
Yeh, that’s a good shot, with the bats there. I think it is Chris Drake that’s created the music for this. It certainly sounds like it. I think he does a great job of capturing the essence of the scores of the 'Dark Knight' movies, which were the Batman movies at the time, but there’s enough of a difference, and enough unique elements that that he brings to it himself, to allow them to stand on their own. Some of the electronic elements, like the ones he uses on his 'Dark Knight Returns' score, for example, are fantastic. That's a nice callback to the thrust kick on the tree trunk there.

Dave
Yeah. Batman’s still taking hits here.

Mike
Just like the Paul Dini version did in the early 'Batman: The Animated Series' episodes.

Kev
I always think that the computer, 3D, modelling animation of these things looks a little bit stiff in places, particularly with the vehicles. It’s a little boxy.

Mike
Yeah.

Kev
I suppose it’s another way to save a little bit of time and money though.

Dave
I see what you mean, some of it is a little bit blocky. That’s a good line about people not being able to sit down after the vaccination shots against the bats.

Mike
Yeah.

Kev
They’ve downplayed that point where he just leaves the winos behind, and doesn’t even try to save them.

Dave
Yeah.

Kev
You should’ve said “No” to sharing that cab, Jimmy.

Mike
Yeah, but he marries her later on.

Kev
Does he?

Mike
Yep.

Kev
I did not know that.

Dave
That shot is pretty much exactly like the comic as well.

Kev
Yeah, it’s Hopper, isn’t it? ‘Nighthawks.’

(Cheating) Shitehawks At The Diner.

Dave
This has gone for a very linear approach to the story. A lot of the depth, the little things, have been left out, and it’s not quite adding the same amount to the characterisation, as it did in the comic book.

Kev
You’re right. It’s following the same plot points exactly though.

Dave
Maybe it was just a time thing, and they had to cut it down, so some of those nuances were lost.

Kev
That could very well be the reason, yeh. This is Frank Miller’s Catwoman, alright.

Cat suit.

Dave
Yeah.

Kev
See, when I watched this, I felt that Gordon came across as an arsehole for cheating on Barbara, but in the comic, you feel for him a bit more. You kind-of understand why he does it. Obviously that doesn’t make it right, but you sort-of get where he’s coming from. He’s keeping Barbara at arm’s length to protect her, and now their unborn child too, from the absolute "hell" that is Gotham, and as a result they’ve become distant. So now he’s lonely, and he’s falling for a colleague, a colleague who knows, and understands, what he’s having to deal with on a daily basis.

Dave
Yeah, maybe it’s just those little bits I’m talking about that they left out that's the reason for that.

Kev
I think you’re right. I always thought that the affair was a great sub-plot. It doesn’t really add anything to the actual narrative of it in terms of the storyline, but it’s a really good piece of characterisation.

Mike
I think Frank Miller just wanted to show him as a flawed human being.

Kev
Exactly, Mike. He’s trying to be this beacon of morality, but he has his own flaws as well.

Dave
And here we have Spider-Bat.

"Spider-(Bat), Spider-(Bat), does whatever a Spider-(Bat) does."

Kev
I do think that Bruce's movement on the wall there actually looks quite bat-like. That’s really well done.

Dave
Now, was Skeevers not sniffing the old cocaine in the comic book.

Mike
Yeah, he was. I suppose they had to cut that out for the cartoon.

Kev
He had the rails of coke on the table, didn’t he?

Dave
Yeah.

Kev
They ramp-up the horror element in that scene there with Skeevers. It’s almost like torture-porn.

Dave
Y’know what this kind-of feels like, in an off-beat way? It almost feels like a pilot for a TV series.

Kev
It does actually, yeh. The pacing of this is so quick, it feels like they’re setting everything up to be continued down the line.

Dave
Maybe they wanted to have a series after this. 'Year One: Continued,' ‘cause it has a pilot feel to it. Ha, ha! That clown at the back of the room.

What kind of sicko still collects toys as as grown man? No wonder he's corrupt.

Kev
And that’s what you were talking about earlier, Mike, with Commissioner Loeb and his pop culture memorabilia; they won’t have been able to get the licences for all these characters to put them in the animation, so we get these generic versions of them instead. But yeh, you’re right, Dave, this is a lot brighter than the comic. There’s more sunshine in Gotham here.

Dave
And it's more condensed.

Kev
Yeh, it's more condensed too. I suppose, if you did the animation as dark, in terms of less light on the screen, like there was on the comic book page, it might have been a bit much. Like watching a pirated VHS of 'E.T.' in the '80s.

Dave
I think they would have had to up the rating too.

Kev
Probably, and they would have had to find other ways of making it visually interesting if everything was just dark and gloomy all the time.

Dave
Bruce Wayne doing the full Sharon Stone in 'Basic Instinct' there.

Kev
Ha, ha! That’s some fringe Barbara is sporting here as well. It’s a VERY angular fringe and bob haircut.

A haircut you could cut diamonds with.

Mike
Ha, ha! Can you imagine her talking about that job to her friends? “Oh, so you got to meet Bruce Wayne! What was he like?” “He was frigid, and he swapped the champagne for lemonade!”

Kev
Ha, ha! Yeh. Despite what we were saying earlier about character nuances perhaps being a bit lost in translation; I feel like Barbara is maybe a bit more fully realised in this than she was in the comic. It could simply be a case of actually hearing the things that she’s saying, as opposed to just reading them in a speech bubble though.

Dave
Yeah.

Kev
Or maybe even just my limitations as a terribly unimaginative reader. They’ve also downplayed how Gordon was almost hoping that Barbara wasn’t going to be pregnant in this, ‘cause he didn't want them to have to raise the kid in “hell,” as he kept putting it in the comics. They’ve kept the wallpaper and everything in Loeb's office from the comics though, haven't they? It's decorated in the same sort of way. And they can use Warner Bros. characters obviously, because they have the rights to those I.P.s.

Dave
Yeah.

Kev
You’re right, Dave, this really does feel like a pilot, but I suppose that, in a way, 'Year One' is kind-of like a pilot for the rest of Batman anyway, isn’t it?

Dave
Yeah.

Kev
A pilot for the entirety of the last 80+ years.

Dave
This is almost like a pilot episode for a new animated series that just never came to fruition.

Kev
Yep. Ah, the old one-armed push-up. Very ‘Rocky III.’

"You're gonna eat lightning, and you're gonna crap thunder!" (Yes, I know this line is from 'Rocky II.')

Dave
I thought that was George Dawes out there for a minute. I really did.

Mike
Ha, ha!

Kev
“What’re the scores?”

Dave
"Welcome to the celebrity TV quiz, ‘Shooting Stars.’"

Kev
“He’s a baby! He’s a baby!” Yeh, that’s kind-of the thing with Gordon right there, isn’t it? They make a real point of that. There are consequences to his refusal to conform, or to bend to the will of the corrupt cops and city officials .

Dave
Yeah.

Kev
What’s Jim and Barbara’s son’s name then?

Mike
I think he’s called James.

Dave
You’re right, Kev, the background music is just there, but some of it is really good.

Kev
Yeh, I really like it. I like the way it incorporates certain elements of the Nolan films. Who was it that scored the Nolan films again?

Dave
Was it not Hans Zimmer?

Kev
Zimmer! That’s it! Yeh. Jeez, my memory is shot tonight.

Mike
I thought it was just the Snyder-Verse films that Hans Zimmer did.

Dave
He did ‘The Dark Knight.’ I don’t know if he did ‘Begins,’ or ‘The Dark Knight Rises.’ Jim Gordon has just shot George Dawes anyway. He’s had it.

Kev
Yep. He’s out. No, Zimmer was involved with all of the 'Dark Knight Trilogy.' You’re right, Dave, I wonder why they cut down on the voice-over. They use it a lot more sparingly here, don’t they?

Dave
Yeah. It does make a big difference, cutting the voice-over. It takes away some of the “noirish” elements.

Kev
It really does, yeh.

Mike
It couldn’t have been that dark in this underground car park. Wouldn’t Barbara have recognised Bruce here?

Conveniently placed shadow are a (Bat)man's best friend.

Dave
Yeah.

Kev
That’s the thing though; HAS she recognised him here? Has she thought, “Holy shit. It’s Bruce Wayne!” Especially after giving it the whole, “I think he’s a sleazy, womanising scumbag” spiel from earlier as well. I suppose, if she has recognised him, and he then goes on to keep her son alive, that’s as good a reason as any for her not to tell anybody who it was, for her to think, “Nah, he saved my son, I’m going to honour his secret.”

Dave
Yeah.

Kev
The Gotham City in this, doesn’t look anywhere near as nightmarish as it does in the comics.

Dave
No.

Kev
It kind-of just looks like any relatively quiet city.

Dave
Yeah. Plus, she must see him now, after he’s saved the kid.

Kev
Yeh, surely that’s a hint that the Gordons have always known, isn’t it? It’s the plausible deniability there, “Ah, well, I did see him, but I didn’t have my glasses on, so…..” Jeez, if that was me, I wouldn’t be able to see that it was Bruce Wayne either. All I’d be able to make out is a blob in front of me. So, what do you think of this adaptation, in terms of in comparison to the comics? Do you think it works?

Errr, Jim, I think your son's nappy might need changing.

Dave
Yeah, it’s interesting.

Kev
I get what you mean though, Dave. It feels a bit rushed, almost.

Dave
It does. Very rushed, actually.

Kev
Ah, I hadn’t realised that it was Eliza Dushku playing Selina. And Dave, you said the same thing about the comic, how it felt like the pace was quick. Katie Sackhoff even looks like Essen.

Dave
Katie Sackhoff does look a bit like Essen, yeah.

Kev
That's good casting for a live action adaptation, never mind an animated, voice acting gig. But yeh, I think the pacing, that’s already very quick in the comic, maybe hinders the animation a little bit, in that it’s too fast, and that it needs a bit more room to breathe maybe.

Dave
Yeah.

Mike
It didn’t even really feel that long, to be honest.

Kev
No, it doesn’t feel long at all, does it?

Dave
I think it’s only about an hour.

Kev
Yeh. And to adapt four issues? So 15 minutes per issue? Yeh, maybe it IS a bit rushed, right enough.

Mike
And normally when they do movie adaptations of comic books, they’re never really that accurate, but this was pretty faithful.

Kev
It’s pretty close, isn’t it?

Dave
Yeah, sometimes they add extra stuff, but they didn’t here. If anything, they cut chunks of dialogue.

Kev
It’s ‘The Killing Joke’ one that they added the entire prologue to, isn't it?

Mike
Oh yeah, where Batman has sex with Batgirl. What was the point of that?

Kev
Jai reviewed that one for Ben-Day Dots, it was the very first Ben-Day Dots reviews actually, and said she felt like all that stuff was pretty pointless.

Dave
This is definitely an interesting comparison. I mean, the faithfulness is bang-on, but as you say, it’s probably been a bit rushed.

Kev
If anything, I wonder if it being as faithful as it is, is actually a bit of a hindrance.

Dave
Maybe they looked at it like, this is what happens when you follow the comic book to the letter.

Kev
But what works in comics, doesn’t always necessarily work in animation or live action.

Dave
Yeah, it gets lost a bit. Maybe they looked at that for ‘The Killing Joke’ and tried something else, and by the time they got to ‘Gotham By Gaslight,’ they just completely changed the whole story.

Kev
I’ve not watched the ‘Gotham By Gaslight’ adaptation. I remember the animation style put me off it a bit, purely because it was nothing like the Mike Mignola art from the comic.

Mike
Yeah, he definitely does have a style that’s unique.

Kev
Yeh, and that animation style seemed to almost be at the opposite end of the spectrum to his own.

Mike
Also, making Commissioner Gordon Jack The Ripper was a strange choice too.

Dave
They even had a little reference to Johnny Goggs in it. It had a lot of the ‘89 stuff in there as well.

James 'The Phantom Raspberry Blower Of Old Gotham Town' Gordon. *****Spoiler alert, Mike!*****

Kev
Yeah, like you said, Dave, it’s like they were throwing everything against the wall to see if anything would stick. I suppose, if you do it exactly like the comic book, everybody knows the twist, so you’re trying to do something different to misdirect the audience a bit, but sometimes you try too hard, and you end-up with Commissioner Gordon being Jack The Ripper.

Dave
Which is a complete one eighty.

Kev
Yeh, when does it become a case of having a twist just for the sake of having a twist?

Dave
Maybe that’s the lesson they learned here; that being completely faithful doesn’t quite provide the results that they hoped it would.

Kev
You’re walking that fine line, aren’t you? ‘Cause if you try something completely different, it might not necessarily work. Same way that if you’re too faithful to the source material, that might not work either. Adapting this stuff must be hard, man. I don't envy them at all.

Dave
That’s probably what they learned from this, as their starting point for the next one.

Mike
Did you know that Batman is getting closer and closer to being in the public domain?

Kev
I was reading that, yeh. What are we, about a decade out from it?

Mike
2035, I think.

Kev
Have you seen that 'Winnie The Pooh' slasher film, ‘Blood and Honey?’

Mike
I heard about it. Is 'Winnie The Pooh' public domain as well now?

Kev
Yeh, but not the Walt Disney ‘Winnie The Pooh,’ so it can’t have the red jumper, or any of that stuff, but the A. A. Milne ‘Winnie The Pooh’ is, and some guy made a slasher film version of it. ‘Cause y’know, that’s what you can do, now that it’s public domain, is you can make 'Winnie The Pooh' a serial killer.

Dave
“Oh bother!”

Mike
If you wanted to, in 11 years' time, you could write your own Batman book then. As long as it’s based on what he was like when he first appeared in the 1930s. So basically, you can do a Batman comic where he still uses guns.

The end.

(D), (M), & (K)

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