'Batman Year One' Part One Retrospective

by Dave Scrimgeour, Mike Nay and Kevin McCluskey

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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

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Dave
When was this made?  2011?


Kev
God!  Is it that old already?  Jeez!


Mike
Is this the same animation that they used for the ‘Killing Joke,’ or is it different?


Dave
I’m not sure.


Kev
No, me neither.  I’m not entirely sure if it’s the same style of animation, or not?  I'd need to watch 'The Killing Joke' again.


Dave
No, I think it’s different, isn’t it?  Huh!  Ben Mckenzie!


Kev
Yes!


Dave
Voicing Batman, years before he played Jim Gordon in the ‘Gotham’ TV series.


Kev
Yep, there you go.


Dave
Did Bryan Cranston do the voice for Jim Gordon?


Kev
Yeah, I think you’re right.  Walter White himself.  Or “perverted dentist” Tim Whatley, if you prefer.  The opening is pretty much taken straight from the comic.


Mike
Yeah.


Dave
There’s even a lot of images that they’ve lifted straight out of the comic that I noticed as well.


Kev
It's maybe a bit brighter though.  Not quite so dark and dingy.


Dave
This is certainly brighter than the comic book.  And less people in the train station.


​Kev
Yeh, there’s more sunlight here, isn’t there?

Donald Trump arrives in Gotham. Like a moth to a flame.

Kev
Definitely.  Cheaper to animate that way, I suppose.


Dave
Yeah.  Damn those extras.


Kev
And this is where we are introduced to playboy Bruce Wayne.  Who was the actor that Mazzucchelli based the look of his Bruce Wayne on in the 'Year One' comic?  He starred in ‘To Kill A Mockingbird.’


Dave
Oh, Gregory Peck?


Kev
Yes!  I swear my memory is getting worse as I’m getting older.  Bruce doesn’t quite have the same look in this.  I always wondered what the significance of the image of the clown hanging up in the background of Commissioner Loeb’s office was.  Is it a little nod to The Joker?

Not convinced by the decor in Commissioner Loeb's office. Seems a little dated, and tired.

Mike
Well, as far as I remember, in the book, Commissioner Loeb always kept a collection of pop memorabilia, mickey Mouse heads and stuff, all over the place.


Dave
Right.


Kev
Well, I suppose you can’t have Disney I.P.s in a Time Warner production.  The legal departments of both companies would have a fit.  They’re doing the same great job here that they did in the books, in establishing just how corrupt these guys are.  Gordon saying, “You don’t have to worry about my honesty,” and Flass commenting, “Oh yeah, Gotham’s great…..if you’re a cop.”


Dave
Yeah.


Kev
Is it Christopher Drake that did the soundtrack to this as well?  He did the ‘Dark Knight Returns’ one, and I absolutely love that.  This seems similar-ish.


Dave
Yeah.  I think they're keeping some of the exact same narration as well.


Kev
You’re right, they’ve kept some of the dialogue pretty much exactly the same.


Dave
It’s also keeping the quickness of the pace, but we’re not getting the dates that were used in the comic to give us a sense of the passing of time, and a timeframe for the story.


Kev
We got the date at the start, January the 4th, but it’s the only one that we’ve had so far, yeh.  I always liked that exchange between Gordon and Flass.  “Call me, Lieutenant.”  “Yeah, sure thing, Jimmy.”


Mike
Flass does come across as the loudmouth asshole from your work, or something.


Kev
Yeh, Flass is a total arse in this, isn’t he?  It’s kind-of like ‘Copland.'  That “You’re either with us, or against us,” sort of scenario.


Mike
Now, here’s the thing that I’m wondering; which Barbara Gordon is in this?  Is she Jim Gordon’s biological kid?  Adopted kid?  Does he have her with someone else?


Kev
Yeh, he’s certainly not had her yet, has he?  ‘Cause Barbara, his wife, is pregnant here, but pregnant with their son.


Dave
Poor Alfred has got to clean up all the shit Bruce breaks during his little temper tantrums at Wayne Manor.

You've got to ask yourself one question; why is Alfred SWEEPING up snow?

​Mike
Yeah.


Kev
Butler and grounds keeper.  I suppose it’s just one of the many hats that Alfred wears for Bruce.


Dave
Jon Polito, providing the voice of Commissioner Loeb here.


Kev
It hadn’t really occurred to me before, just how much Loeb and Co. had selected Jim Gordon for this role, thinking that he wouldn’t really cause them any problems, which, of course, he does, and so they stoop to beating him up as a warning.


Dave
Is this one of the first stories that really gives Gordon a bit of a character arc?


Kev
I think to this extent, certainly.


Dave
In terms of promoting him from just being a supporting character, kind-of thing, I mean.


Kev
I actually think Gordon is the more interesting character in this.  More so than even Bruce Wayne.


Dave
Yeah.  I always thought this was Bruce Wayne doing a bit of a Frank Castle here, with his test run on the red light district of Gotham.

Just like any trip to Amsterdam in the late '90s.

Kev
Yeh, this does feel a bit like 'The Punisher.'  Some of this is taken directly from the comic book.  They’ve changed the POV a little bit, but it’s a lot of the same “shots,” so to speak.  And that’s what Bruce gets for trying to help; stabbed in the leg by the sex worker he was trying to help-out.


Mike
And here comes Catwoman the dominatrix.


Kev
They’ve really gone for that Amazonian build on her, eh?


Dave
Haha!  Yeah, just a bit.

It's Miller Time!

Kev
When we were doing the comics, you said that you feel like so much of this is Frank Miller’s kinks coming out, didn't you, Dave?  That he clearly likes that dominatrix-style woman.  Big, powerful, sexually dominant, and that he probably loves being walked all over by them.


Mike
I think one of his favourite things is butch, Nazi women, with swastika tattoos on their breasts.


Dave
Did he not do that in 'The Spirit' movie?


Kev
He certainly did it in 'The Dark Knight Returns.'  And if I recall correctly, he did similar-ish stuff in 'Sin City' as well.


Dave
This has kept the fast pace of the story from the comics.  It’s jumping from scene to scene.  It’s not having a breather.  It’s just keeping the story going.


Kev
None of the scenes overstay their welcome, do they?  Come in late, and get out early, I suppose.  What do you think of the animation?


Dave
I think it’s quite good, actually.  I haven’t watched a lot of the animated adaptations of the Batman stuff, but I quite like it.


Kev
They tend to be different, depending on which of the Batman stories they’re adapting anyway.


Mike
I always find that the DC animations are a lot better than the Marvel ones.


Kev
It does seem like there is a lot more effort put into them, eh?


Mike
Yeah.


Dave
When was ‘Year One’ written, ‘87?  So you can’t JUST have that story from ‘87.  You’ve got to make it a bit more relevant to 2011, when this was released.


Kev 
That’s true, you’ve got to bring it forward 20-odd years.  At least somewhat.


Dave
Yeah.  Even if it’s just little things, like the cars, and the technology, and all that stuff.


Kev
You’re right, Dave, it’s fairly faithful as far as an adaptation goes, isn’t it?  They’re not straying too far from the source material.  Check Flass with his varsity jacket on.

"I'm a bootlegger!"

Mike
You mean that he still wears it, 20 years after graduating?


Kev
Yeh.  Ha, ha!  He was clearly a very popular jock at high school and/or college.  A proper frat boy.  Plus, maybe life kind-of peaked there and then for him.
​

Dave
Yeah.  That’s a good sequence there.  I liked that one.


Kev
The one where Gordon walks into the light through the headlight of the vehicle?


Dave
Yeah.  That one.

"You can call me.....(Gordon)!"

Kev
Was this the first time that anyone had written Jim Gordon as such a well-rounded character?  And was this the first time that anyone had made him quite as capable as he is here, in terms of his physical prowess as well?  In that, he clearly has his special forces training.  He’s not the 1960’s Batman TV show version of Jim Gordon, where he’s kind-of the comic relief, that's for sure.


Dave
Or even the Pat Hingle version from the 90’s movies.


Mike
The Pat Hingle one always looked like he should’ve been retired already.


Dave
Yeah.


Kev
That shot is a panel, taken right out of the book as well.  I suppose, you really can use the comic like a storyboard in that sense.

Spot. Light.

Mike
We’ve seen the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents so many times, there’s probably been action figures of them by now.


Kev
Yeah, somebody has bound to have done them, haven’t they?  And that’s another shot right out of the comic there as well.  I really love that transition from a young boy Bruce Wayne’s eyes to an adult man Bruce Wayne’s eyes.  And that’s a nice image there too.  The one with the bat reflected in the shattered glass.

Bruce Wayne's fractured psyche.

Mike
Yes, Daddy, I’ll become a bat.


Kev
Ha, ha!  Yes!


Mike
He’s really not all there, is he?


Kev
No.  Definitely not.  This is the end of chapter one, isn’t it?  This is us into chapter two now.

April, Fools!

Dave
Yeah.


Kev
I do like it when they make a point of showing that Bruce Wayne is not a well man, at all.   Really, if you think about it in the slightest, it’s fairly apparent.


Mike
If nothing else, you would think that he would be arrested for the child endangerment of all the Robins.


Kev
Ha, ha!  Yeh.


Dave
It’s also pretty obvious that, even though Gordon is the top cop, he’s not liked at all, is he?


Kev
No.  He’s a bit of a fly in their ointment at this point, is’t he?  He’s messing things up for them, because he’s actually trying to do things the right way, rather than the easy way.


Dave
That bit is taken right out of the comic as well.


Kev
Yeah, these bits with Gordon really make it feel like ‘Se7en,’ or something like that.  This really is just a noir-ish thriller a lot of the time.  One that just so happens to have Batman in it.

'Batman Se7en: The Gordon Year.'

Dave
Yeah.


Kev
Gordon’ll make a good dad.

Jim's done that Hollywood thing of adopting a load of kids of different ethnicities, like he's catching Pokemon.

​Mike
As far as I remember, the kid that he’s having here, turned out to be a serial killer.  In the comics, at least.


Dave
Oh, right.  Okay.


Kev
What comics was that in?


Mike
The main DC comics.


Kev
Just in the main line, yeh?


Mike
Yeah.


Dave
What “Year” was that?  Year Twenty?


Kev
Ha, ha!


Mike
Ha, ha!  Probably.


Dave
You can just see a man, trapped by his circumstances, can’t you?


Kev
Yeh, it's even in his body language.  Like that shot of him sitting on the edge of the bed there, with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

'Lost In Translation.'

Mike
Ha, ha!  Bruce Wayne is definitely a rookie in this.


Kev
Definitely, yeh.  You pointed out while we were reviewing the comic, didn’t you Dave, that so much of his “success” here is luck.  He kind-of gets out of these scrapes by sheer luck, rather than by preparation, or ability.  These police sketches are like the original Bob Kane ones.  Gordon’s done the right thing there, turning Flass into a bit of a laughing stock more than anything else.

Bob Kane on his lonesome, Vs. Bob Kane WITH Bill Finger.

​Dave
Flass’s bullshit report is funny as well.


Kev
Yeh, it takes away any power he had.  It doesn’t feel like Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon are on a collision course in this, the same way they were in the comic.  You can just feel it coming in the comic, but here, less so.


Dave
I think there’s less of that narrative in this.  That’s one of the differences between the comics and this, there’s not quite the same amount of narrative.


Kev
You’re right, they’ve not got the same amount of voiceover here, the way they did with the caption boxes in the comics either.


Mike
Yeah, you’ve got Batman’s inner monologue during this scene in the comic.


Kev
I wonder what the choice was there?  Why they decided not to use the voiceover as much here?


Dave
Maybe it was to give Batman more prominence.  ‘Cause obviously, in the comics, it’s more of a Gordon story.


Kev
You’re right.  Although you had that dual narrative, Jim Gordon felt like he was more of the main protagonist in the comics than he does here.


Dave
Yeah.


Kev
That’s such a Frank Miller line about her knowing “how to walk in heels.”  He seems to have a bit of a thing for women in heels, and how they walk in them.  Again, probably over him.


Dave
Ha, ha!  Yeah, Miller’s a bit of a lunatic for that stuff, isn’t he?


Kev
He is a bit.  I like that they always make a point of saying that Dent would be prime suspect for being Batman.


Dave
I do prefer this bit in the animation, to the same bit in the comic, because Batman hiding behind the table was a bit iffy.


​Mike
Ha, ha!  Oh, yeah.


Dave
I mean, c’mon!  Some detective he is!  Gordon didn’t even notice a guy dressed as a bat hiding behind a desk!  I thought this here, with him outside the window, was a bit more plausible.

Bruce Wayne; Curtain Twitcher!

Kev
Yeh.  Definitely.  “Essen, I could kiss you.”  And later on, I will.


Dave
It hasn’t strayed from the form of the story in the comic much at all.


​Kev
It hasn’t, no.  And I do like Jim Gordon as a man of action.


Dave
Yeah, I like it as well.  It IS still a dual narrative,  It’s not just Batman, it’s Batman AND Gordon.


Mike
Didn’t they use this scene, when he’s getting chased by the cops, in ‘The Dark Knight?’


Kev
At the end of the movie, yeh.  They also do it in 'The Dark Knight Rises,' and there’s something similar in 'Mask of the Phantasm' as well.


Dave
Is there?


Kev
Yeh.  There’s the one in 'The Batman' too.  Bruce is always getting chased by the GCPD.  You’d think they’d all learn.  Jimmy’s got to go, as far as the Gotham underworld is concerned.  He’s kicked the hornets’ nest with the organised crime gangs in Gotham.


Dave
Yeah.  He certainly has.

(D), (M) & (K)

Next: A May To December Kind Of Relationship.