Holy Crap! They actually animated Dark Knight Returns?

[Crazedwraith]

Wiki link ahoy

I've got the Year One movie as part of a 5 movie box set. ( with gotham knight, under the red hood, mask of the phantasm and the dissappointing mediocre for the DCAU Mystery of the Batwoman) But I've not seen it yet.


Anyway, animated DKR, anyone seen it? Is it any good? How faithful is it to Frank Miller's 'adult' stuff. Gore, whores, mass murder that kind of thing?

[Gandalf]

I've seen it, and it's actually pretty good. Some parts are omitted, such as the Joker and the Boy Scouts and the whole inner monologue. Overall they remained loyal to the tone of the book, definitely worth the watch. The Superman/Batman fight is just awesome.

Once watched, I recommend the Paley Centre's panel on the film.

[Spiderman Fanboy]

Of course!

[Tsyroc]

I thought it was a good adaptation. I did miss the inner monologue, especially in the second part. Still very well done.

It did get me to thinking that like the Watchmen movie that it might not seem so impressive, story wise, these days because the original books came out so long ago and have had a very strong impact on how Batman has been done since then. At the time it was a shocking, much more adult take on Batman, the Joker and even Superman then what was going on up to that point.

In the movie I particularly liked the stuff with "Ronald Reagan". Maybe the whole political commentary resonates more with me than it did back when Reagan was still president and the USSR still existed.

Here's a question for fans of the movie and books. Who is the fat guy who makes the dolls for Joker? I've seen people refer to him as Toyman, the Superman villain, but I guess I never put it together that was who he was supposed to be. Back when the books came out I wasn't super familiar with Superman's "rogues gallery" and it was a Batman book so I was thinking it must be some Batman villain I'm not familiar with.

[Stark]

I can't even imagine DKR without the inner monologue. Wouldn't it lose the context of his personal struggle against his own inner demons?

[Crazedwraith]

Yes but you keep him punching Superman in the face. Which is what the fanboys are there to see.

I found out about this when Youtube recommended me a clip. When Clark gives Bruce at friendly warning. Seemed at least some of Supes thoughts had been worked into the dialogue instead. So perhaps its not all completely lost?

[Stark]

Well the content could be transposed, but the effect would be hard to retain - that super tough man has a mind full of doubts and monomanias etc.

I wonder if someone animated the cult so we can see the huge penis statue on TV!

[Batman]

Some of it was, but most of it is lost. And while it does somewhat detract from the narrative, in all fairness I don't think working in all of it (either as offscreen voices like they did for the initial inner demon monologue, or by working it into dialogue) would have worked particularly well for a movie because there was such a lot of it. I don't know if it was the best possible adaption, but I'd call it a pretty damn good one, even with the IMHO unnecessary minor story changes, the fact that I hated Jim Gordon's voice and them sticking a little too close to the source material visuals (I don't see how going with the black on grey costume from the word go would have negatively impacted the movie, for example).

[Tsyroc]

Some of it was, but most of it is lost. And while it does somewhat detract from the narrative, in all fairness I don't think working in all of it (either as offscreen voices like they did for the initial inner demon monologue, or by working it into dialogue) would have worked particularly well for a movie because there was such a lot of it. I don't know if it was the best possible adaption, but I'd call it a pretty damn good one, even with the IMHO unnecessary minor story changes, the fact that I hated Jim Gordon's voice and them sticking a little too close to the source material visuals (I don't see how going with the black on grey costume from the word go would have negatively impacted the movie, for example).

The thing I missed about the suit with the yellow target on the chest was your inner monologue explaining why you had a big yellow target on your chest.

[Ahriman238]

Oh, did they finally put part 2 of that out? Excellent.

[Batman]

Some of it was, but most of it is lost. And while it does somewhat detract from the narrative, in all fairness I don't think working in all of it (either as offscreen voices like they did for the initial inner demon monologue, or by working it into dialogue) would have worked particularly well for a movie because there was such a lot of it. I don't know if it was the best possible adaption, but I'd call it a pretty damn good one, even with the IMHO unnecessary minor story changes, the fact that I hated Jim Gordon's voice and them sticking a little too close to the source material visuals (I don't see how going with the black on grey costume from the word go would have negatively impacted the movie, for example).

The thing I missed about the suit with the yellow target on the chest was your inner monologue explaining why you had a big yellow target on your chest.

I always hated that one. Every halfway competent shooter is going to go for center of mass anyway, especially against a moving target knowing it's being shot at. I decidedly don't want the incompetent ones lured into shooting at the one part of my body they can be reasonably expected to actually hit. Sure, a single head hit could seriously ruin my day, but if the guy needs me to put a big honking target on my chest to go for it, what are the chances he'd actually hit my head?

[Tsyroc]

The thing I missed about the suit with the yellow target on the chest was your inner monologue explaining why you had a big yellow target on your chest.

I always hated that one. Every halfway competent shooter is going to go for center of mass anyway, especially against a moving target knowing it's being shot at. I decidedly don't want the incompetent ones lured into shooting at the one part of my body they can be reasonably expected to actually hit. Sure, a single head hit could seriously ruin my day, but if the guy needs me to put a big honking target on my chest to go for it, what are the chances he'd actually hit my head?

I think Miller used the same reasoning for why the Punisher had a big white skull on his torso.

From your perspective I would think the black bat on the grey costume would attract the aim of people trying to quickly get a snap shot off at you well enough without having the nearly glow-in-the-dark effect of the big yellow bulls-eye. The grey and black suit also works better for the whole ninja disappear into the shadows schtick which makes you more difficult to target at all.

[Batman]

The yellow chest disc only ever made sense in connection with the equally yellow utility belt (and that was out of universe 'the suit looks idiotic otherwise' sense). Granted, Burton made it work somehow, but even I am on repeated record saying that the original Burton Batman suit was far from optimal.