Batman: Under the Red Hood

Before reading this, if you haven’t read Batman: A Death in the Family this review will contain POSSIBLE SPOILERS. If you haven’t read it and you are a fan of Batman or DC’s animated movies then you will enjoy this movie. For those of you who have read it please feel free to read on.

In stores today, Batman: Under the Red Hood is one of the darker stories in the DC universe. As everyone knows (so it’s not a spoiler) that the Joker killed Robin, Jason Todd, because of a telephone poll done by DC in 1988. Subsequently, Jason Todd was “resurrected” in the DC universe. This movie is the animated version of that story.

Bruce Greenwood (Captain Pike in Star Trek) voices Bruce Wayne/Batman instead of Kevin Conroy, the voice that we all know and love. Greenwood does a fabulous job. Neil Patrick Harris voices Dick Grayson/Nightwing and Jensen Ackles (Supernatural) voices the Red Hood/Jason Todd. Both of them were also very good. I missed Mark Hamill as the Joker but John DiMaggio did well enough.

The story is not unfamiliar to fans of Batman. I thought they may have glossed over Jason’s resurrection a little fast in order to put in more action sequences. I would have thought more interaction between him an Ra’s al Ghul would have made for a great subplot. I really liked the team up with Batman and Nightwing, and how the writers were able to show how it differed from when Batman and Red Hood teamed up.

The animation to me was not as good as DC’s previous animated films, but the story made up for that. I say see it and enjoy. Just a reminder, it has graphic violence even for DC animation; it is rated PG-13. (It really is PG-13 and would probably be an R if it were live action.)