Looks great, awesome extras and price, looking forward to this one:

Batman: Year One Blu-ray

Posted July 14, 2011 03:56 PM by Matthew Smith


Warner Bros.Warner Bros. has announced the release of an all new Batman adventure for Blu-ray, Batman: Year One. The animated feature, which is based on Frank Miller's iconic graphic novel of the same name, will premeire on Blu-ray and DVD on October 18th.

Frank Miller and illustrator David Mazzucchelli's Batman: Year One re-envisioned the character of Bruce Wayne when it debuted in 1987. It tells the story of his return to Gotham City and his first attempts to fight crime as Batman. Christopher Nolan cited the graphic novel as a heavy influence in his new film renditions of the hero.

This new animated adaptation of the story has been produced by Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. Voice credits include Ben McKenzie as Bruce Wayne, Bryan Cranston as Jim Gordon and Eliza Dushku as Selina Kyle/Catwoman.

The Blu-ray will include DVD and digital copy versions of the film. Special features include:

Audio Commentary with Alan Burnett, Sam Liu, Mike Carlin and Andrea Romano
Heart of Vengeance: Returning Batman to His Roots- Documentary focusing on Frank Miller and his two great contributions to the mythology of Batman- The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One.
Catwoman- All New DC Showcase Animated Original Short
Conversations with DC Comics- Featurette in which the Batman creative team at DC Entertainment discusses the personal influence of Batman: Year One on their careers. Led by Batman producer Michael Uslan.
Batman: Year One, Chapter 1 Digital Comic Book
Two bonus episodes from Batman: The Animated Series, handpicked by Bruce Timm
Sneak Peek at Justice League: Doom, the next DC Universe Animated Original Movie

A SRP of $19.99 has been set for Batman: Year One. Pre-orders should be up soon.



http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=6867

The extras on there look potentially interesting.

Looks good. Just don't care for the voice from what I heard in that trailer, it doesn't sound "hard" enough for the Batman.

I'll certainly check it out...

Well, he is just starting out in this story.

Think I'll stick with the basic DVD for this one, as the extras don't interest me too much. I already have the entire series of the Justice League cartoon and they'll probably release the Showcase shorts collection down the line.

Plus my PS3 has the dreaded Yellow Lite of Death and I can't watch blu's anyway!

I'll be getting this day one for sure and it releases the day after my birthday so even better. I wonder if Amazon will continue with the lithographs. If so I'll probably get it there.

The cover is pretty sweet, too

Its a few days after my birthday as well. Can't wait to get it.

They should have gotten Kevin Conroy for Batman. He's the only one that can do it properly. He would have gotten the younger Batman down perfectly. Kevin played a late teenaged/early 20s Bruce Wayne/Batman in Gotham Knight and it was great. It's not Batman without him.

I notice this has a commentary track, which has become less common with the animated DCU features. I also like the idea of a Catwoman short film. Been a while since I've last read Year One. I remember really liking Gordon in it.

Oh, and standard "They should always cast Conroy" and "Won't they ever do someone other than Batman or Superman" complaints apply.

Never seen any of those in person. So they're worth picking up?

I have read reviews on the Web, but I was wonder if anyone else on the Forum has watched the movie on BR yet?

Just watched it tonight. I really enjoyed it, but I didn't really care for what they did with Gordon's character. I realize that it's faithful to the graphic novel though. I thought Batman's voice was just okay, but Bryan Cranston voicing Gordon was awesome!

Watch out, Amazon is already sending copies without the DVD/Digital Copy/Slipcover.

Guess I'm lucky then. Had mine pre-ordered from Amazon...

Very disappointed with this telling of the year one story. First, it was only an hour. Other DCU movies have been averaging about 71 minutes. There was alot they left out with Det. Essen and they left out one of the key parts in the issues was gordon's first meeting with bats, similiar to the way they did it in Batman Begins. I had such high hopes after All-Star Superman that this would be handled well. Sadly I think this is the worst of the DCU stories adapted. Bryan Cranston was magnificent. Batman's voice...I can't remember his name, was merely ok.

Did they just...totally drop the Catwoman arc? As a fan of the artwork in the actual comic, I found the animation in this to be only acceptable.

I haven't watched it, but I saw screenshots of Selina Kyle in the reviews. Not sure about the Catwoman part, but that's disappointing, if so.

I mean I was thinking about it today after watching, and realized "Hey...there was like...no resolution to Catwoman's involvement whatsoever."

Is it good as Batman: Under the Red Hood?

Watched it 2x over the past few days and I also watched the extras.

-Just to get it out of the way, Bruce/Batman voice over was below par. The opening voice when Bruce was flying back to Gotham and looking down at the city from his window seat was noticeable bland/boring. Others that were watching the movie noticed it also. But, as the movie went on, the voice over was not so bad - or I got use to it.

-Loved everything about Gordon. Voice over, story, action, his conflicts within, wife being pregnant, not being perfect...

-Movie was short, 61 min, but the Cat-Woman story was kind of concluded in the "Showcase" extra. The Extra is not for little kiddies, so beware.

-Loved the art work.

-Really cool how they switched from Bruce/Batman to Gordon, really dug into their personal psyche.

-Like the dates that popped up to let us know the year is progressing.

-Extras:
*Showcase had a nice twist at the end
*Sit down with the "Bat-boys" was a great history lesson
*"Justice League: Doom" gave me a great taste of whats to come next (wish they would come up with a new story for Batman/Superman like they did with Green Lantern)
*Have not watched the included Batman Eps.


Conclusion: One of my fav Batman animated movies, looking forward to watching it a few more times. I love action movies, but I also love movies that get into the being/motivation of the lead characters. They kept to the original style, which helped me stay in the correct mood of Frank Miller's Batman story.

If you are looking for pure action, this may not be your movie, though there is good action in the movie. The story is about 2 men and their inner struggles to find a way to change the ways of corrupt city.

The problem is that the story is really Jim Gordon: Year One more than Batman: Year One. It's a well-done character piece on Jim Gordon, but Batman and Catwoman come off as nothing but bit players.

The voice actor for Batman was atrocious, probably the worst I have ever heard from any character in a DCU animated feature. The opening narration from Batman sounds like an untrained 12-year old boy is reading it off a piece of paper.

That's what killed it for me. It was like a real crappy attempt at trying to emulate Terry McGinnis (Will Friedle). Hell, I would've taken Friedle over this guy, easily.

The only highlights for me were Cranston as Gordon and the feature on "Doom" . I can't wait for that.