I have often enjoyed what is released in regards to DC Universe animated films. In recent years, less so. But at the time when ‘Batman: Gotham Knight’ had been released in 2008 we had only seen Batman appear in one other DC Universe animated movie, the first been JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE NEW FRONTIER which showed Batman in his early days, but didn’t feature the character much in it.
His first animated solo run in the DC animated universe of films was ‘Batman: Gotham Knight’.
I had anticipated ‘Batman: Gotham Knight’ to be one of the better ones. Produced by well know animation companies in Japan such as Studio 4C, Production I.G. and Madhouse.
Unfortunately, this does not deliver. It is said to be set in Nolan’s Batman Universe filling the gaps between Begins and The Dark Knight. However, it provides no such interesting continuity links whatsoever other than using some of the same characters that appear in TDK. These character’s personalities don’t match up to the ones in TDK nor do they look like their live action counterparts. Gotham Knight is similar to how the ‘Animatrix’ was done, having 6 short stories running about 10 minutes each. This was a mistake in my view, as there is no room to develop each story into something more and the short storylines plus themes are uninteresting at best with the exception of the last two. There is a storyline connecting each animation but the resolve of it is over too quickly. Batman doesn’t face any true challenge. An excellent character, Dead Shot, is in this and he could have been that challenge for Batman, but he is left with all too short a story in this. I also didn’t find this to be as realistic as I thought it would be. Killer Croc doesn’t visually look like anything I would imagine him to be if he were in Nolan’s Batman universe of films. The same goes for the Scarecrow. They even use the Batmobile from the Batman 89 film in this.
On the plus side, the animation is beautiful and it’s interesting to see some of Japan’s best animation companies represent their view of Batman in animation, which is coolness itself.
In the end though I suggest sticking with BATMAN: The Animated Series which is by far one of the greatest interpretations of Batman in animation.
Favorite Quote: “It seems I’ve been trying to stop those two bullets all my life.” – Bruce Wayne
All of this has happened before 