SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Over the past 4 years DC has put out some of the best animated movies that we have ever seen. From Superman: Doomsday, Justice League: Final Frontier, to Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, and Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. And Batman: Under the Red Hood is in the category for one of the best animated films. This film hits on every level and peels back yet another layer from Bruce's dark past and brings it into the light. This is the story of Jason Todd's death and subsequent resurrection in a way that Batman would of never seen coming.
The story starts off with the Joker pummeling on a tied up Robin/Jason Todd and Batman is on a furious rush to get there in time, but by the time he arrives, Joker blows up the building and Bruce holds Jason's corpse in his arms....We forward it to 5 years later in a meeting of the mob bosses that the unknown Red Hood assembled. After some "persuasion" he convinces them to switch their drug take from Black Mask to the red hood. Batman quickly becomes involved and things escalate from there. I wont get into too much detail with the story because if your reading this you have either seen the movie and wanna see a review on it or you haven't watched it yet and want to see an opinion on it. I wont waste your time with a synopsis of the movie.
I enjoyed the way that the production team and director sill kept me anxious and in anticipation of what was coming next, even though i basically knew where the story was going to end up, Red Hood is unmasked and we see Jason Todd in the flesh and the have a huge fight seen. However, what i saw was nothing of what was to be expected, well maybe it was seeing DC's track record for making excellent animated films.
Story: The actual story was lifted from the pages of the comic book. It stuck very close to the source material. They changed a couple things here and there. For example, the way jason todd came back in the comics was that Superboy prime altered the past and then he was put in the Lazarus pit to heal. In the film, he was put directly in there by Ra's because he felt guilty that he had to die for no cause and that is how he was resurrected.
I thought the reason that red hood goes about doing his business with the mob was brilliant, he tries to show how batman's efforts to stop crime is futile because there will always be crime, and how the only way to stop crime is to control it and be the head of the mob.
Finally, the climax of the story was fantastic with Jason finally saying what i was thinking the entire movie, what was the purpose for Jason becoming Red Hood and doing all of this??? He actually forgives Bruce for not being there in time to save him but then comes the reason, why is Joker not dead for killing him? Jason actually thought he was the person to get him to change his one rule of no killing and that was the driving force toward Jason. It ended with todd holding a gun to jokers head and telling him to pick one, either he kills the joker himself or jason does it anyway...
Voice acting: The voice acting in the film was superb. I thought I had to get used to Bruce Greenwood as batman over Kevin Conroy but it was a seamless transition, but the big change was John DiMaggio as Joker, taking over for Mark Hamill. This actually worked tho because dimaggio brought a deeper sounding joker for a darker movie and i think he pulled it off beautifully. Plus he nailed the laugh. Jensen Ackles and Neil Patrick Harris were very good as Red Hood/Jason Todd, Nightwing respectively. Jason Isaacs was also great as Ra's in the small role.
All in all this is a film that delves deeper into the psyche of the dark knight and a must-see for fans of batman.
Rating: 8.5/10
My top 10:
10.Batman: Gotham Knight 7.0
9.Wonder Woman 7.0
8.Green Lantern: First Flight 7.5
7.Justice League: The New Frontier 7.5
6.Batman: Mask of the Phantasm 8.0
5.Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths 8.5
4.Batman: Under the Red Hood 8.5
3.Superman: Doomsday 9.0
2.Superman/Batman: Public Enemies 9.0
1.Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker 9.5
Thank you for reading. I appreciate it :D
Hopefully more to come, give me your thoughts below. Thanks again