A magnificent cartoon that fully conveys the spirit of the comic. Many key moments and various trifles were transferred to the treat type for Solomon Grundy, mainly it is an extremely accurate adaptation, as close as possible to the original. Although they cut out some moments and characters.
Jensen Ackles as Batman is great, his voice fits well and I would love to see him in live action, hopefully James Gunn will offer him the role. His Batman can be emotional, we are shown that he is a man, not a soulless machine.
Joshua Duhamel's role as Harvey Dent didn't bounce, especially when transitioning to second personality. His timbre changes from a calm prosecutor to a lunatic with a coin in his hand. It was very interesting to watch his character slowly lose his mind and slide into madness.
Naya Rivera as Selina Kyle is not bad, but I did not see in her that Catwoman, it is rather an attempt to convey her image, of course, but no more.
Troy Baker for the Joker... well, as usual, above all praise. Since the days of Arkham Origins, he has perfectly managed to establish himself as a worthy successor to Mark Hammil.
The Long Halloween tells us about Halloween itself, as unexpectedly, wow. On the eve of the feast day of all saints there is a murder, then another and so on, but all murders in one way or another, but connected and occur on certain holidays.
Not quite experienced in detective cases, Batman takes on this case and he needs to understand who is behind everything. Yes, who doesn’t tell Bruce that he’s not a detective yet, that he’s wrong in his conclusions and not always the simplest conclusion is true. And that’s good, I love an inexperienced Batman who can be wrong, dumb, and draw the wrong conclusions. Because this is how we show the growth of the character, how he understands his mistakes and tries to correct them.
The animation here is good and its style is peculiar, not everyone will like it, but I went.
The main detective line at first glance may seem simple and obvious, but do not rush to rejoice in your conclusions, you will be surprised, believe me, because I was surprised and not once. It is interesting to watch, because the veil of mystery does not disappear until the very end. Each storyline will lead somewhere and even be connected with the parallel, which is very cool and interesting, thereby creating the integrity of the story, which in turn affects the greater immersion of the viewer.
If you do not like to read comics or do not like the style of this particular story, then you can safely watch the adaptation and do not lose anything. The main essence of the story, moments, phrases, actions, everything is transferred as it was in the original.
The burden of revenge hangs over Gotham City, all devoured by darkness. The streets are infested with gossip, organized crime divides power. One problem, Batman? No, there's a new player who's audacious and doesn't really want tricks and tricks. The old-fashioned one bullet is one dead body. The Knight of Gotham has faced a variety of villains, but the new “avenger” Holiday leaves behind a shaky chain of contention that weaves a dark knight’s loved ones, and is about to launch a deadly domino principle. Will the hero be able to unravel the knot of the new punisher Gotham?
Definitely wine! Absolute immersion in the routine of the most famous crime fighter. At the same time, I migrated to the perfect world-noir, and at the same time contemplated the bright aesthetics of the Batman world. Would it seem interesting in the gang fights? It turns out a lot of things, the animation is gorgeous material, and Long Halloween, in addition to transferring bright types of antagonists to the screen, also manages to attract the atmosphere of eternal darkness. The same Gotham City where in the order of things ball villains, and justice leather wing.
The story of greed and revenge in the best traditions of the tabloid novel is intertwined with a high-quality thriller, where Bats is twisted around a new villain. Intrigues are weaving, Commissioner Gordon sighs hard, Harvey Dent quietly goes crazy, there are not enough vacant places in the Arkham hospital, but there is something not to hear the Joker's laughter.
Naturally, there is the whole set of a typical Gotham City wrestler, but in addition, endless action is poured, with places completely in the spirit of the 60x entourage, which smoothly and delightfully flows into a hundred percent thriller. Cold winter, empty streets of Gotham, snowfall, and a sense of impending disaster. The Dark Knight suddenly realizes that he has met someone unlike ordinary villains, it is good that this state of affairs is not only outraged by him. Yeah.
Which in itself is cool, not to mention the main opponent of Bats - the Joker, the prince of the underworld is chic, that very drop of madness in the cereal fields. Without him, this detective thriller would not have been so dynamic. Although what is there, one clown panopticum is not limited, which will certainly please fans.
We're watching Part Two.
I think few would argue with the fact that the animated universe of DC comics can be considered more than established. At a time when the cinematic universe swings like a pendulum from side to side, the animation universe has managed to complete one of its large-scale arches and get a reboot with a new approach. However, in addition to the development of a single universe, the studio has recently made a habit of filming the cult and famous comics of the publishing house. It’s time for the Long Halloween.
The plot of this film revolves around Batman, Harvey Dent and Commissioner Gordon, who team up to stop a mysterious and elusive serial killer who kills his victims on holidays.
This film is an adaptation of the cult series of the same name by the comic book authored by Jeff Lobe and Tim Sale, which saw the light of day in 1996 and turned the usual understanding of what comics should be. This explains why this comic book series still holds honorable places in the lists of the greatest and most important comics in history. Not to mention the fact that this film had a significant impact on the “Dark Knight” Christopher Nolan and the upcoming “Batman” Matt Reeves.
From the very first years of its existence, Batman was assigned the title of “The Greatest Detective in the World”. Unfortunately, in most cases, Batman does not have to use his detective skills and everything comes down to a banal confrontation with already known villains. In this case, he just gets the opportunity to justify his title. Since similar to the original comic book, Chris Palmer’s “The Long Halloween” turns out to be sustained not within the framework of some action movie or blockbuster, but within the framework of a certain fusion of detective, psychological thriller and drama. Thus, reducing everything to the fact that Batman analyzes evidence, interrogates suspects and tries to identify the killer, rather than acting purely with fists and brute force. Thus, we are not witnessing the phenomenon of the “greatest detective in the world”, but rather the slow transformation of Batman from an inexperienced crime fighter to this very detective by trial and error, much of which seems to fall on the second part of the dilogy.
If we talk about this tape as a film adaptation, we can safely say that it succeeded. Catwoman received much more screen time and role in the story than in the original source, and some details of the plot received a different interpretation. Nevertheless, in my opinion, the authors of this tape very accurately transferred the cult comic to the wide screen within the framework of the story. Especially everything that is connected with the “backstage kitchen” of the Gotham crime families, who are slowly losing power and their place to costumed madmen and monsters. What is served with obvious analogies towards the cult “Godfather” Mario Puzo.
After quite a passing "Superman." The Man of Tomorrow, directed by Chris Palmer, surprised me. Palmer created a very integral and interesting film, which is very worthy of placing various backgrounds for the upcoming continuation / completion of the dilogy. But at the same time, it does not turn into one solid “guidance star for something more”. Creating the impression of a very worthy symbiosis of a detective, psychological thriller and drama with a devastating, devoid of any emotions and restrained atmosphere and manner of storytelling.
From a visual point of view, the film is designed in the same style as the rebooted animated universe Superman. The Man of Tomorrow, also directed by Chris Palmer. However, in my opinion, visually the film became more beautiful. The main problem with Man of Tomorrow was that it looked great in statics. It's like looking at pages from comic books. However, in the dynamics of the movement turned out to be rough, the animation was torn. In this case, “The Long Halloween” looks very stylish, beautiful and spectacular both statically and dynamically. However, it is still a pity that the authors of this tape could not find a way to transfer a very unusual and at the same time extremely impressive picture of Tim Sale from the original comics.
8 out of 10
Batman: Long Halloween. Part 1 is more than a worthy adaptation of one of the most famous and iconic Batman comics. The authors of this tape not only laid interesting groundwork for the continuation / completion of the dilogy, but also created a whole, deep, atmospheric and interesting project in principle. In some century, it is not another action movie or blockbuster, but a worthy symbiosis of a detective, psychological thriller and drama, which looks with increased interest.
To date, the animated series dedicated to Batman, is an impressive amount of work, so different in form and content, but successfully fit in the category ' good' and ' bad'. We know the masterpieces of his time like ' Masks of Fantasm', bringing the image of the hero far beyond the genre naivety and age qualification; we know very not perfect, but very interesting interpretations of the most famous stories about the crusader in a cloak like ' Murderous joke' and ' Year of the first' we saw talentless, poor and simply stupid crafts like some ' Batman vs Robin' and he is identical - there is something to discuss, and there is something to compare. 'Batman: The Long Halloween' this is both a very successful adaptation on the TV screen of the plot straight from the comic book, and one of the best films about the Dark Knight in the animated genre available today.
And the first advantage of the film, which becomes obvious, is its entourage and artistic style. Unlike many others, for this story was chosen the style of the same gangster America of the 20s, urban, indifferent and sullen, absorbing the whole palette of grayness. In a similar setting, such a character as Batman first found himself, and no matter how many interpretations he later tried, from a technocrat oligarch to a supernatural spirit of revenge, here, in the technologically mundane and morally detached world of the 20th century, this hero is most appropriate and symbolic. The visual style, of course, could not correspond to the drawing used in the comics, which resembled both an avant-garde portrait and a cartoon engraving, but it is already good and textured, depicting its characters as naturalistic and alive, without going beyond the inherent possibilities of such animation.
And from the first minutes of the screen, it becomes obvious: Gotham City is rotten, the mafia has taken root in every aspect of his life, buying or eliminating those who would try to stop it. It is not known what the next round of this struggle would have been if it had not been for the high-profile murder of a member of the Falcone mafia family, committed by an unknown person. The event escalates the conflict, pitting the troubled mafia against a bulwark of incorruptible justice in the face of a police captain, a prosecutor and a masked man, while a third man plays his game against them all. The cartoon follows the original source and at the same time differs significantly from it, making different accents, omitting some scenes and complementing others, but it does the main thing - tells a devoid of sophistication and grandeur, but a fascinating and lifelike story, at stake is not the future of Gotem or the ideals of justice, but the fate of those people who became participants, or hostages, of the developed vicissitudes. That Gordon, who is not with his family because of his work, or Falcone’s godfather, who lives and acts according to his views of the world, or even Batman, in this film is young and obstinate, who has not yet chosen loneliness and does not deny himself romantic feelings – they are all people not only fighting, but living their lives. And especially dramatic is the role of Harvey Dent, determined and indomitable, loving and vindictive - we know what fate awaits Harvey in the future, but now he is a beautiful, full of feelings and the will to win, a man who has something to fight for and has something to lose. And the fact that the cartoon was able to convey this mood, this connection of people and events, to build a story that is interesting to follow, despite its external simplicity - all this is a distinctive advantage of this animated picture over many others. It is not enough to have violence in the frame, you need to have reasons to empathize with the characters, to see them as people with advantages and disadvantages, values and ambitions. All this is here, as there is a rather stylish action - the film still does not forget who it is named after and Batman appears in it on the foreground. On the bottom line 'Batman: The Long Halloween' it's a great example of superheroics regardless of format. Of course, there are some moments that stand out from the general series, whether it is the presence of the Joker, but this is done at an acceptable level and, in general, the film is not even for something to criticize, because it is whole made, uniform and knows what it is about and how to tell it. Excellent work.