Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has crafted another winning entry in their line of animated DC movies with “Batman: The Long Halloween Part One”. I had not read the graphic novel that it was based on but quickly became engaged in the story which sees Batman (Jensen Ackles); working with Captain Gordon (Billy Burke) and Harvey Dent (Josh Duhamel); to solve a murder of a key figure who was about to turn on the Falcone family.
The murder took place on Halloween and when a subsequent incident happens on Thanksgiving; Batman and his colleagues deduce that there is a pattern in the works as the killer strikes on holidays.
With Christmas and New Year’s Eve approaching, Batman gains help from an unexpected ally in Catwoman (Naya Rivera); who has her own mysterious reasons for wanting to be involved and assisting Batman.
Amidst the darkness and neon of Gotham City; Batman must race against time in order to solve the mystery and stop the killer. Of course, nothing is ever as it seems in Gotham and a complicated web of interconnected characters, suspicions, motivations, and threats arise to further hinder efforts to solve the case.
The film is visually engaging and captures your attention from the start. The menagerie of characters; some of whom only make a cameo in Part One is great fun and the Joker (Troy Baker); gets the best lines in the film when he arrives to further complicate the situation.
The animation and voice acting are top-notch and the visually appealing theme of Gotham in the winter season as the holidays change was very enjoyable to see as were nice touches such as Bruce Wayne debating with Alfred if leaving the gates open for potential Trick or Treaters was worth the security risk.
I am already looking forward to the release of the second part of the film and it will be great to see what future adaptations the studio is considering as like “The Killing Joke”; this is one of the many stories that needed to be adapted to an animated film.
4 stars out of 5
