Batman: Year One

[Firm18]

Love the cover.

 

[Freedom77]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdd6_ZxX8c
[YT]pWdd6_ZxX8c[/YT]

IMO the animation looks flat and simplistic and the voice over is soulless.

It comes off as college project with a high budget.

but yea, it was a very funny clip... very funny and very clever. Original too. I defiantly don't think you should be banned for making pointlessly idiotic posts.

 

[redfirebird2008]

Bryan Cranston said about Batman: Year One: "It was a lot of fun. You know, the reason I took that was—well, at first, I turned it down with the comment, 'Thank you, but I’m not interested in that.' And I told my agency why, and I guess the studio asked me why I would turn it down, so they told them. And they said, 'No, no, no, please, it’s not anything like the TV show' (referencing Adam West's light kiddie fare Batman). Because that’s what I thought. I was like, 'I don't want to do the 'Bang! Zoom! Kapow!' thing, saying things like, 'Get to the Batcave!' But they said, 'No, no, this is completely different,' and I said, 'Well, all right, I'll read the script.' So they sent me the script. My edict is, 'Everything I do really has to be well-written,' and it’s really served me well. And I read that, and I went, 'You know what? This is really well-written, and it’s complex.' Even the Commissioner Gordon role is complex, because he’s conflicted. Basically good, but he has some major character flaws. And it was, like, 'God, this is really interesting! This isn’t like a kid’s cartoon series. This is really in-depth!'"

Will Harris: "And dark."

Bryan Cranston: "It is. It really is. And moody."

http://www.avclub.com/articles/bryan-cranston,58817/

Even after Burton and Nolan's movies, the campy Batman still casts a huge shadow on the public's perception of the character.

I am glad to hear that he gave them a second chance to convince him. Hopefully this turns out great. The source material is obviously amazing, so it has a lot of potential. Can't wait to buy it.

 

[Drz]

Batman artist Dustin Nguyen shares his excitment for the upcoming Batman movie:

http://duss005.deviantart.com/art/year-one-243643215?q=gallery:duss005&qo=0

 

[KRIM]

Bryan Cranston said about Batman: Year One: "It was a lot of fun. You know, the reason I took that was—well, at first, I turned it down with the comment, 'Thank you, but I’m not interested in that.' And I told my agency why, and I guess the studio asked me why I would turn it down, so they told them. And they said, 'No, no, no, please, it’s not anything like the TV show' (referencing Adam West's light kiddie fare Batman). Because that’s what I thought. I was like, 'I don't want to do the 'Bang! Zoom! Kapow!' thing, saying things like, 'Get to the Batcave!' But they said, 'No, no, this is completely different,' and I said, 'Well, all right, I'll read the script.' So they sent me the script. My edict is, 'Everything I do really has to be well-written,' and it’s really served me well. And I read that, and I went, 'You know what? This is really well-written, and it’s complex.' Even the Commissioner Gordon role is complex, because he’s conflicted. Basically good, but he has some major character flaws. And it was, like, 'God, this is really interesting! This isn’t like a kid’s cartoon series. This is really in-depth!'"

Will Harris: "And dark."

Bryan Cranston: "It is. It really is. And moody."

http://www.avclub.com/articles/bryan-cranston,58817/

I don't get it. Cranston is part of the industry, and TDK was this monstrous Hollywood goliath. How in the world is the Adam West series still his most prevalent Batman image?

 

[Drz]

I don't get it. Cranston is part of the industry, and TDK was this monstrous Hollywood goliath. How in the world is the Adam West series still his most prevalent Batman image?

Because of the cartoons?

 

[KRIM]

Brave & The Bold? In any case none had anywhere near the impact TDK did (or B89, for that matter). So it's still puzzling he couldn't at least acknowledge that the Batman mythos do have a dark tone.

 

[Drz]

What i'm trying to say is that Cranston thought the animated movie would be lighty fun fun stuff on Batman, he would know that the Batman movies have been dark since 1989.

 

[Lencho01]

Maybe it was the fact that it's an animated Batman. Animation is generally seen as "only for kids" in the US. So, maybe he thought it would be goofy or something.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I don't think he ever sat down and watched BTAS or read Frank Miller or watched superhero movies. Most older people never did. All the knows is the Adam West version.

 

[Lencho01]

http://collider.com/batman-year-one-comic-con-bruce-timm-interview/104069/

Comic-Con 2011: Producer Bruce Timm Talks BATMAN: YEAR ONE, The Flaming C, and How YEAR ONE Is More Realistic than Christopher Nolan’s Batman

by Jason Barr Posted:July 23rd, 2011 at 2:19 pm

While you may or may not recognize his face, if you have any sort of affinity for Batman: The Animated Series and/or animated DC Comics films in general, then you are definitely familiar with the work of artist/producer Bruce Timm. A longtime staple in the animated DC world, Timm has worked as a producer and character designer for numerous projects including the aforementioned Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: The Mask of the Phantasm, the Justice League television series, and more.

​

As part of Batman: Year One‘s Comic-Con press day, I had the opportunity to participate in a small roundtable interview with Timm where he discussed a range of topics including the possibility of an R-Rated animated Batman film, The Flaming C (the superhero persona he drew up for Conan O’Brien), and the ways in which Year One is more realistic than Christopher Nolan’s Batman films. Check out the full interview after the jump. Batman: Year One gets released to Blu-ray/DVD on October 18th and, as I mentioned in my interview with Ben McKenzie, is certainly worth your time.​

Question: With the darker tone of this material, is this a sign that we may be able to expect something more than a PG-13 rating on some of Warner’s direct-to-video animated films in the future?

BRUCE TIMM: It has come up in discussion in the past and we actually came really, really close to doing an R-rated Batman movie and then at the last minute we said, “We don’t think the world is ready for it yet,” but it could happen.

What was the source material for that?

TIMM: I’m not allowed to say because it could still happen someday and I don’t want to jinx it.

It felt like you pushed the envelope of the PG-13 rating with Under the Red Hood. Is there anything about Batman: Year One that works similarly?

TIMM: You know, it’s not like we tried to push the envelope just to be pushing the envelope, a lot of times it really just has to do with whatever the story requirements are. Sometimes the stories just go down a certain path and we kind of have to take it to its logical extension, and that leads us into the dark side sometimes and we have to go with it.

Was there any discussion about going with a different project given that a lot of Year One has been cannibalized in the motion pictures that Christopher Nolan has made?

TIMM: My argument has always been that even though Batman: Year One has had a huge influence on Batman in general, specifically on Batman Begins a lot, he still changed a lot of things and there are a lot of things in Year One that they just didn’t do. They just went a different way and that’s great, you know. I’ve always felt that there’s enough stuff still in the original comic that they didn’t do that allows us to make the film faithful to the comic without adding or changing anything so that’s what we did.

Specifically for the Catwoman stuff in Year One, has anyone from The Dark Knight Rises come to you for advice in bringing that to their film?

TIMM: Dude, I’m not even on their radar.

Has anyone at the studio come to you or Lauren (Year One co-director) with questions regarding Wonder Woman, because the two of you put out what was probably the best Wonder Woman story I’ve seen in your animated film, so have they asked for any advice with regards to the character?

TIMM: Well, thank you, but no, they have not. And, believe it or not, I’m good with that.

Moving forward, are we going to see anything beyond the “Big 5?” Are there any hopes of maybe a Teen Titans movie or a short of any kind?

TIMM: Really, I don’t know. I would love to explore other characters besides Superman, Batman, and the Justice League, but unfortunately those are our best sellers in this line. Some of the other characters haven’t sold quite to that level so you’re going to see a lot more Superman, Batman, Justice League just because it makes economical sense. With Green Lantern, with the movie coming out, when that was announced that gave us the market cred to go ahead with our Green Lantern film so we’ll probably be doing more of those as well. I guarantee you that if they get a Flash movie up and running we’ll be doing a Flash direct-to-video or maybe a series. So, every time one of those characters reaches a higher profile it makes it a lot more economically feasible to go down that path.

How much more can we expect to see from The Flaming C?

TIMM: I don’t know at this point. We’re, you know, we kind of need to see if we can kind of build the interest in the character to a little bit higher level and see if we can get somebody interested in actually financing an actual series or a pilot and then we’d actually have to sit down and figure what the hell that character really is.

Are we going to see the shorts again when Young Justice starts back up?

TIMM: I don’t know. Probably. If I had to guess, I would say possibly.
In the future, should audiences expect to see more original scripts getting made like Wonder Woman or more classic titles like All-Star Superman and Year One going direct-to-video?

TIMM: I think there’s always going to be kind of a mix of original stories and things that are based, to one degree or another, on comic book source material.

Are there plans to release any more classic titles in the near future?

TIMM: Yes, in fact, we’re going to be doing, no I can’t say…

When talking previously about Year One you said that this film would be even more realistic than the Nolan films. Can you talk a little about that?

TIMM: I said that? Well, it’s realistic in this sense, because I think the Nolan movies are kind of a deliberate stab at grounding the movies in a kind of more believable reality than say the Schumacher or the Tim Burton movies. For instance, in Nolan’s films, Gotham city looks like a real city. However, there is still a kind of larger than life element to his movies even just in terms of what the Batmobile does or some of the gadgetry or even the sequence in Batman Begins where Batman goes to Tibet to learn, you know, the skills to become Batman. To me, that’s like already a step removed from the gritty, down to earth realism of Batman: Year One because Year One takes place entirely in an urban environment, there’s very little gadgetry, there’s no Batmobile, there’s no larger than life villains, the villains are just mob guys, you know, like crooked cops. So, that’s what I mean by saying it is even more realistic than the Nolan movies. When I say that, it’s not a slam at those movies. I’m in awe of them. But again, it’s the difference between a medium budget animated feature and a mega budget summer tentpole movie. For years people were saying, “Oh, Batman: Year One, they should just turn that into the Batman movie for live-action,” and I thought it really wouldn’t work because people expect more from a superhero movie in a theater. For a summer tentpole movie they expect bigger, crazier action sequences. They expect bigger explosions and larger than life superheroes and super bad guys. So, I totally understand that, for a live-action movie, the source material is kind of commonplace, it’s more like a cop movie than a superhero movie which is perfect for us because it’s a lower profile, it’s a lower budget movie, it’s not as big of a gamble. I think it’s awesome in its own way, but it’s not a big, spectacular superhero adventure.

Is there any chance of pushing the direct-to-video stuff beyond the sixty or seventy minute runtime and into more feature length territory?

TIMM: Realistically, probably not, no. Again, it’s all budgetary. They have people over at Warner Home Videos whose job it is to crunch all of the numbers, to compare projected sales to the projected budget of the film and to look at all of the different outlets to see where the DVD and Blu-ray industries are at now and how much money they can make off of VOD and all of that crap. So, we have kind of a set limit on how much we can spend and that dictates how long the movies are. We’ve actually talked to them about it and they’ve looked at it and went, “Well, you know if we spend an extra ‘X’ amount of dollars to up the screen length, we don’t think that’s going to translate into more sales.” So, to them it doesn’t really make any sense. The numbers don’t make any sense.

What about showcase shorts? Sometimes, when there’s a gap in films, you release those. Do you have any plans to release more of those?

TIMM: Again, it’s economics. We’re not doing any more of those. There’s no way to monetize them. I give all of the credit in the world to Warner Home Video for even taking a gamble on those things because they really had no reason to do so. Just putting them as an extra on a DVD doesn’t increase the sales of that DVD. It just doesn’t. Looking at all of the numbers, the math just doesn’t make any sense. So, the only way we can justify going back and making more of them is, if we put together a compilation with the new shorts on it, that has to make money because that would underwrite the cost of making the films. But, you know, people were not interested in that format in long form so, like I said, I’m really grateful that they even allowed us to make the shorts you’re talking about because they didn’t have to. I wish we could make more of them, but I understand.

http://collider.com/batman-year-one-comic-con-ben-mckenzie-interview/104589/

Comic-Con 2011: Ben McKenzie Talks BATMAN: YEAR ONE, SOUTHLAND, and THE O.C.

by Jason Barr [SIZE=-2]Posted:July 23rd, 2011 at 1:38 pm[/SIZE]

In Batman: Year One, Ben McKenzie takes on the iconic role of Bruce Wayne/Batman during his first year of “service” to Gotham. While doing press for the film at Comic-Con, I had a chance to participate in a small roundtable with the Southland actor who seemed genuinely grateful for the opportunity to voice the character in the animated adaptation of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s classic tale.
During the interview, McKenzie talked about learning the ins and outs of voice acting, filling the iconic shoes of both Batman and Kevin Conroy, shared stories from shooting Southland on-location, and discussed some of the baggage brought on by his tenure on The O.C.. Check out what he had to say after the jump. Batman: Year One will be available on Blu-ray/DVD on October 18th and, after watching the film last night, comes highly recommended from yours truly.

Question: How much did you know about Batman from a character perspective beforehand?

BEN MCKENZIE: I had never heard of this Batman that you speak of (laughs). You know, I’m not an aficionado. I can’t claim to have the kind of devotion that so many fans here have to all sorts of various comics. But, Batman: Year One I was definitely familiar with. I was a big, big fan of all of Frank Miller’s stuff, but particularly Year One. It’s an origin story but it’s very realistic, very gritty, very “noirish.” It inhabits a world that I really like exploring and, as an actor, it all tracts motivationally and, you know, if you like characters, these are actual characters with actual human problems. They don’t have superhuman powers and they are just supremely motivated whether it’s trying to exact justice in an unjust world or controlling themselves while suffering great pain, they’re all real people and that’s fun to play as an actor.

Can you talk a little bit about your approach to the character considering that you’re, in a way, filling two iconic roles: one of Batman and the other of legendary voice actor Kevin Conroy?

MCKENZIE: I’m sure I will fail in that sense. I was asked while walking the press line if I had revisited anyone else who had voiced the character before and I didn’t because I felt as though that’s not what I’m supposed to be doing. What I’m supposed to be doing is, I was hired for a reason and I have to trust that Andrea knew what she was doing and my take on it is my take on it. Now, when we get in the booth, we work collaboratively on it to come up with the most compelling Batman/Bruce Wayne that we can. In some sense, perhaps the reason why I was cast is that it is a younger Bruce Wayne/Batman. It’s a twenty-something guy who is coming back to Gotham, who is trying to exact justice but is unsure of himself a little bit in terms of how he is going to be able to do this and he gets himself sort of in over his head in certain situations as Batman. So, he’s feeling out this new life. So, yeah, he’s a little younger and less sure of himself.

Did you have any fun with the role at home, just practicing in front of a mirror?

MCKENZIE: Yeah, my dog got a lot of (in character) “I’m Batman” and obviously he didn’t really know what the hell I was talking about (laughs). So, there’s a lot of talking to your dog and there’s a lot of practicing in the mirror. Somebody mentioned to me that the line “I’m Batman” is probably the best pick-up line you could have. Plus, Comic-Con is probably the best place to have that best pick-up line so I’ve got to try that out later (laughs). In all seriousness, you do find yourself going over and over the lines. You’re really trying to find the through-line throughout what is going on with him psychologically and what is forcing him to take on such drastic action to do something that almost none of the rest of us would ever do. We may dream of doing it, we probably all fantasize about, you know, taking out that neighbor that we hate or that family member, hopefully not close family member, that we hate or some part of the world that we don’t like and that is wrong, that is actually immoral, not for personal petty reasons but because there is actually a flaw in the world and he is the one who is bold enough to do it. So, that requires a certain amount of psychosis given that he’s psychotically focused on justice and so he acts out the way that he does.

Now that you’ve played the Dark Knight, are there any other iconic superhero roles, animated or live-action, that you look forward to playing?

MCKENZIE: Man, I’m very happy just to be doing this. Weirdly, and this is not some sort of ploy to be able to play him in another movie, but I actually grew up loving Iron Man who’s maybe not the most popular answer. I had an Iron Man graphic novel as a kid that I loved. I think what’s great about playing superheroes is that, in general, they are often at the extremes of human behavior, which is a very fun place to go as an actor. You’re often not, for example, on The O.C. there weren’t a lot of epic battles. Now, there were some classic lines, but it usually wasn’t a life or death struggle, although some times it was, in a way that only The O.C. could of done. But, yeah, I think it’s great playing superheroes, I mean, it’s really a lot of fun.

You’re actually getting a lot of attention for Southland right now. What are you currently setting your sights on? What role do you want to take on next and what drives you as an actor?

MCKENZIE: Well, Southland is something that I really enjoy being a part of because it has allowed me to get away, a little bit, from some of the baggage of The O.C., which I would never criticize, but it certainly puts you in a certain category where you have to take on projects that allow you to play adults with real problems and real issues. I’m very proud of that show. In terms of what’s next, I don’t know. I’ve always, ever since The O.C., just tried to take on projects that I felt had good stories with good characters. I’d like to do that more in film if possible but, you know, sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t.

Would you consider doing more voice acting?

MCKENZIE: I would love to. It’s been really, really enjoyable to be a part of Year One. I’ve done a few things here and there, but this has been really great. What’s great about voice acting is that it’s very similar on one level to live acting but there’s a whole technique that I’m new to, that I’m learning as I go along. It’s really enjoyable. It’s like playing bass guitar versus regular guitar or something like that. It’s a different instrument and a completely different part of your body that you have to fine-tune and work on.

Having someone like Andrea (Andrea Romano, voice director on Year One and countless other animated projects) around I’m sure is very helpful too.

MCKENZIE: Yeah, it’s pretty cool. I think maybe the way it worked out is that she worked with Regina King, my co-star on Southland, on Boondocks and so she asked Regina about me and Regina lied and told her I was a good guy so that’s how it all kind of came through. But, yeah, she’s a legend, you know, she does everything. So, I just have to not fail her and I’m pretty much good.

You did really good work in Junebug. Do you have any other indie projects that you are looking at?

MCKENZIE: I’m trying to develop a couple of things on the indie track but they wouldn’t go until next year once I’m done with Southland. But, yeah, I love that movie and I love movies like that, smaller with more understated drama.
Have you visited the convention floor yet?

MCKENZIE: I have not. Do I need to?

You definitely should, but be prepared for the Kevin Conroy people.

MCKENZIE: (Laughs) Oh boy. Do I need bodyguards?

You don’t need bodyguards, you’re Batman.

MCKENZIE: (Laughs) You do know that I’m not really Batman, right?

 

[flickchick85]

A couple of reviews:

http://movies.ign.com/articles/118/1183831p1.html

http://collider.com/comic-con-2011-batman-year-one-review/104808/

While the Collider one is more mixed, neither seemed to have a problem with the voice acting, so that's something.

 

[theMan-Bat]

Producer Bruce Timm interviews:
[YT]JSen1OGdinI[/YT]
[YT]CdJ228A61es[/YT]
[YT]qw7AKLapIVw[/YT]
[YT]mkNiVrz6mQw[/YT]
Director Lauren Montgomery interview:
[YT]fnepLYgNuV4[/YT]
Co-Director Sam Liu interview:
[YT]oYgrnBCDZA4[/YT]
Voice Director Andrea Romano interview:
[YT]EDq-wmeje1I[/YT]
Ben McKenzie (young Bruce Wayne/Batman) interviews:
[YT]xNZTSvsxKgs[/YT]
[YT]6gruQumIQCM[/YT]
[YT]V1eiPLUe3Fg[/YT]
[YT]_IKK_dq1YJU[/YT]
Katee Sackhoff (Detective Sarah Essen) interviews:
[YT]DzHqWEhYCQY[/YT]
[YT]NF7dM8xCTf4[/YT]
[YT]OI0Z--_So4M[/YT]
Eliza Dushku (Selina Kyle/Catwoman) interviews:
[YT]ykoe_FABhT0[/YT]
[YT]8a5GGzGmcfg[/YT]
Fans, Eliza Dushku, Bruce Timm, Lauren Montgomery and Andrea Romano:
[YT]FAIcTBquqq8[/YT]

Frank Miller was asked if he had seen the Batman: Year One film and if he had any thoughts on it. "I have not seen it," was Frank Miller's reply.

 

[Mister J]

Caught the featurette of this on Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. I like the approach they're taking. Seems like a good voice cast too.

 

[Mackers50]

When is this animated movie going to be out?

 

[The Caped Knight]

When is this animated movie going to be out?

October 18th the same day as Arkham City is released.

 

[antsman41]

Great day for Batman...

 

[theMan-Bat]

Comic-Con 2011: Batman: Year One Coverage and Panel

We take a side trip to Gotham for the world premiere of Batman: Year One at Comic-Con 2011. And it was awesome.

By Jordan Hoffman

Batman: Year One premiered for 4500 eager fans at the San Diego Comic-Con and I believe every single one of them came away with their expectations met or exceeded. My only beef is that it really should be called Gordon: Year One. But that's something I should discuss with Frank Miller, not the team of Bruce Timm, Sam Liu, Lauren Montgomery and Andrea Romano - a group of filmmakers who are absolutely unstoppable right now.

Superhero cartoons are for kids? Nonsense. This tale of how Batman's first days change Gotham City, essentially an essay on social reform, is as dark as anything produced by Christopher Nolan. Marital infidelity, child prostitution and civic corruption are bluntly (although tastefully) displayed - it just so happens that there's also a guy zipping around town in a bat suit.

Unlike Nolan's Batman Begins, Batman: Year One leaves the mechanics of Bruce Wayne's transformation into the Dark Knight Detective off screen, focusing primarily on Gotham City's other great defender of righteousness: Jim Gordon.

We meet him as he first makes his transfer to the City of Crime, admitting in voice over that he has misgivings about his wife's pregnancy. Man's inhumanity to man has hollowed him out. "I hate the job, hate the gun, but I keep practicing" he incants on the firing range. When Batman arrives on the scene he recognizes in him a true partner.

As in Miller's original, there's the origin of Selena Kyle and Catwoman. She's portrayed sympathetically; a "working girl" inspired by Batman's vigilantism, but uses the technique for her own "getting by." There's a great three-way showdown when she and Batman both target the local crime boss Falcone - he for collecting evidence, she for collecting loot.

Visually, Batman: Year One is masterful and iconic. Set in the 1980s (a VHS and Beta store makes that clear) there are occasional new wave flourishes, though this is still Gotham we're talking about. The most striking images involve light playing off Gordon's glasses (watch for the Straw Dogs reference) or Bruce Wayne alone in his mansion. Chase sequences are somewhat stylized with blurring techniques and the roly-poly faces of the baddie politicos pull no punches.

Much like the recent Batman: Under the Red Hood, this is a REAL movie. We in the US are a little late in accepting animation as a medium for adults - and using characters that are often Slurpee cup tie-ins don't help - but I think the pacing, art and voice performance from Bryan Cranston as Jim Gordon might really change some opinions.

Batman: Year One will be out on DVD and Blu-ray in October. In a parallel world it's playing in theaters.
http://www.ugo.com/movies/comic-con-2011-batman-year-one-coverage-and-panel

 

[theMan-Bat]

CON REVIEW: Batman: Year One

by: Jason Adams

REVIEW: Though Frank Miller has received some critical backlash for his more recent explorations of the Caped Crusader with “All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder” and “The Dark Knight Strikes Again,” his 1986-1987 arc “Batman: Year One” remains the seminal telling of Batman’s origin story. And what better way to pay tribute to one of the best comic books ever than by being incredibly faithful to it?

That’s exactly what Warner Animation Studios has done with their cinematic adaptation BATMAN: YEAR ONE. The movie is literally the comic come to life, nearly verbatim. I can’t really remember anything that’s been changed or omitted from Miller’s original story. The major plot points and emotional elements are there, the characters are completely intact, and David Mazzucchelli’s straightforward, loosely stylized artwork is preserved in impressive fluid motion.

Pretty much the only variable thus left to chance were the voice actors who were tasked with the tough job of convincingly reciting Miller’s heavy prose. While “Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston is brilliant casting as the voice of young James Gordon, Ben McKenzie (“The O.C.&#8221 had me worried as Bruce Wayne. (Especially as a Kevin Conroy purist.) It took a little getting used to, but after a while it clicked for me, especially as this Bruce Wayne/Batman is a much different character than we’re used to seeing in most other animated forms. And McKenzie’s gruff Dark Knight voice works as well, perhaps even a little less silly than Christian Bale’s. Also successfully behind the mic are “Battlestar Galactica’s” Katee Sackhoff as Gordon’s partner Essen and fanboy fave Eliza Dushku as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, whose character I still find a little extraneous to this story.

On one hand it’s great to see Miller’s work done justice and the movie is both exciting and entertaining because of it. But if you’ve read the original series, then there’s not too much in the way of surprises as you’ll know exactly what’s is going to happen. As a film on its own, BATMAN: YEAR ONE walks a fine line for notoriously picky fanboys, somewhere between “Too faithful!” and “How dare you change a word of my favorite comic!” I can’t really suggest an easy fix to that problem, or if it’s really even an issue, but it was definitely something that crossed my mind as I was watching it.

Another aspect worth mentioning is that this is really a movie as much about James Gordon as it is about Bruce Wayne and his title persona, which is definitely reflective of the source material, but might be surprising to casual fans. Thankfully, Gordon is a gripping character in this movie. In fact, I think his scenes cleaning up the dirty Gotham cops, by cunning and by force, are probably more interesting and got a bigger reaction than most of the Batman stuff. That could be from Miller’s treatment of the character as well as the fact that Gordon is typically unexplored compared to the Caped Crusader.

BATMAN: YEAR ONE is also fairly violent and hardcore for an animated film like this. The fights are dirty, with plenty of blood, broken bones and characters stripped naked—definitely earning its PG-13 rating. All 5,000 fans that turned out for the Comic-Con screening were clearly engrossed, with every big moment or gruesome injury getting an audible reaction. When Gordon has that one moment of poor judgment (you know what I’m talking about if you’ve read the graphic novel) it sounded like people were losing their minds in the crowd.

One last interesting thing gleaned from watching the movie was just how much Christopher Nolan mined it for BATMAN BEGINS. It’s been probably at least a decade since I read “Batman: Year One” and I had forgotten a lot of the little moments and character shadings that clearly influenced the MEMENTO director’s successful reboot. A lot of that film series’ success is clearly built upon the foundation of Miller and his original story, so it’s hard not to recommend this faithful adaptation for any Batman fan.
http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/con-review-batman-year-one-

 

[Gamma Goliath]

Great day for Batman...

Bad day for my wallet......

 

[theMan-Bat]

INTERVIEW WITH (SARAH ESSEN) KATEE SACKHOFF


TOONZONE NEWS: In this story you are Sarah Essen who is a cop, but also Jim Gordon’s mistress. How did you like that?

KATEE SACKHOFF: Yeah, well, it's fun, you know. It’s like your introduction to Batman and all of the sudden, you’re a home wrecker. It’s fantastic. I did a lot of studying for this role...um, kidding, totally kidding. Could you imagine if I was like, “Are you married? Do you want to sleep together?” “Yeah,” “Can we bring on your wife in on this, just talk about it, how she feels purely just for research?” It would’ve been awesome. Yeah, so it’s great. I grew up stealing my brother’s comic books and so I’ve always been obsessed with the Batman world and didn’t quite get to be a villain, but she sleeps with a married man, so I guess she kind of is.

INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR LAUREN MONTGOMERY

TOONZONE NEWS: Is Batman: Year One the best film you’ve worked on?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY: I personally really enjoy it. It’s a departure from the visual style that we see very often from Warner Brothers. They’ll try and do variations on it, but it never strays too much. This one has such a different color palette, it actually looks fairly different from the other ones. I think just because of that, it’s so refreshing. It’s also a much more realistic interpretation of the superhero, I really enjoy it. The fact that we got to do something different because we’ve been doing superhero stuff so often. Any time we get to kind of experiment with something with any sort of change is fun. It’s challenging.

TOONZONE NEWS: Did you look at the Batman: Year One graphic novel for reference at all?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY: Yes.

TOONZONE NEWS: The artwork has this really interesting and unique art style. The graphic novel also has this great dark color palette and these sorts of muted colors. Is that incorporated into the animation at all?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY: Yeah, we actually tried to follow it as closely as we could from the colors to the characters, and just tried to make Gotham as dirty and ugly as we possibly could. That’s just a harder thing to do than you realize, just getting the overseas artists to really put that extra detail in the backgrounds with just like cracks and trash. We kept getting these perfectly clean cities back and have to make notes, “It needs to be dirty. Put graffiti, put crap in there.” So yeah, it’s hard to make – you don’t realize how difficult it is to get a realistic looking alley way because when they’re painting it digitally, a lot of things tend to look pretty clean and pretty pristine. So just to go in and add that extra detail like things being crooked is that much more work. But we tried to get as much as that in there as we could so that the city really felt real.

TOONZONE NEWS: So is this the dirtiest, grungiest animated movie you’ve ever worked on?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY: I think so because a lot of our other ones – we’ve never really had a Gotham that has looked as dirty as this. It really needed to feel just miserable because so much of the comic is about Gordon being surrounded by corruption and just being miserable in Gotham, and Bruce realizing what Gotham is and wanting to make it better. So the city had to be a character in the movie itself. So we wanted to just make it feel like the dirty, sad Gotham that it needed to be.

TOONZONE NEWS: I think Bruce Timm mentioned the graphic novel almost being too short and having to expand on it a little bit. Can you comment on that at all?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY: It is too short or it was too short for our usual requirements which are in the seventy minute mark. I think Year One actually hits somewhere between sixty and seventy minutes. Because of that we really didn’t want to just make up new scenes. We wanted it to just be a faithful adaptation of the comic. This film was not actually slated to have a short featured with it, but we happened to have a Catwoman script (by Paul Dini) that was going to be for the next batch of Showcase shorts, and so they just said, “We have this script. We’re going to do it. And we’re going to just put it on this DVD and kind of supplement that kind of extra amount of time that we don’t have in the movie.” So the movie is actually quite short, but we also have the Catwoman Showcase short featured on it.

INTERVIEW WITH CO-DIRECTOR SAM LIU

TOONZONE NEWS: How did you like getting to work with translating the unique color scheme from Batman: Year One in the animation?

SAM LIU: We definitely tried to match it as close as possible. One of the defining things about David Mazucchelli’s work is the thick line – which is very difficult for them to animate. I remember bringing up something; we never actually tried it with actually drawing smaller so that the line just becomes thicker. It made it more difficult. So it’s going to have a thinner line, but as far as the design-wise, we tried to match it as spot on as possible. It took us a while to sort of get the style down to where Bruce (Timm) liked it. And the Batman character itself, Bruce did it because he was unhappy with all the incarnations that was coming in. Bruce is very, very picky about trying to get it as close as possible as we could. And even the way it was colored, we did a couple experimentation's on how you it flatter and more minimal, but there’s elements in animation that you kind of need. Even though in the comic you might have a flat sky, it looks horrible in animation because if you shoot it with like Batman jumping in the air and you have that sky but you don’t have anything else around it, it looks horrible. So stuff like that helps because it gives us something. But again, all the way from color to design style and the backgrounds, we tried to make it as close to the comics as possible. No fifty foot tall buildings. They are all four stories at the tallest type of stuff. It’s like a '70s, old Chicago kind of feeling/type of city.

TOONZONE NEWS: Design wise, who is your favorite looking character in this piece?

SAM LIU: I don’t know...that’s a tough one actually because I was such a fan of the comic it’s almost like I expected them to look a certain way and they look like it. So I feel like Gordon looks how Gordon should look. I feel like Bruce looks like how he should look. Even Batman looks like how he should. I don’t know if I have a favorite per se, but I think they’re all kind of done the way they are supposed to be.

INTERVIEW WITH VOICE DIRECTOR ANDREA ROMANO

TOONZONE NEWS: For Batman: Year One, with Ben McKenzie being new to voice acting, did you kind of have to guide him along?

ANDREA ROMANO: Yeah, absolutely, and he was putty in my hands in a good way. He was just like, “tell me what to do,” and I’m like, “OK. That’s what I do. It’s my pleasure to tell you.” And he sent me a hand written snail mail thank you note. And I thought, "He’s hugely busy. What a nice, thoughtful [gesture]." Isn’t it? I was so impressed. I was like, “Thank you for that. Nobody sends a thank you card anymore.” You get an e-mail. It was lovely. I really wish we could’ve had more time with him, but his schedule was so nasty because I think he could do this stuff regularly if he wanted to. I called up Regina [King] when I wanted to use him, “What’s it like to work with Ben? Is he a good guy? Is he going to come play?” And she said, “Absolutely, he’s going to be wonderful.” And he was. I think he’s terrific. I think he’s a swell actor.

TOONZONE NEWS: How did Katee Sackhoff like playing Sarah Essen, the other woman in Jim Gordon’s life?

ANDREA ROMANO: She was so cool to watch her work. She got up to the microphone, she wanted to stand. And she was just so present and so there. She was terrific. She’s a really, really good actress and she did a good job.

http://www.toonzone.net/news/articles/38326/sdcc2011-batman-year-one-roundtable-interviews

 

[theMan-Bat]

CCI: "Batman: Year One" Premiere Panel Recap

by Travis Fischer

Following the screening of Batman: Year One at Comic-Con was a follow-up panel. Executive Producer Bruce Timm, directors Sam Liu and Lauren Montgomery, casting/dialogue director Andrea Romano, and voice cast members Bryan Cranston (James Gordon), Ben McKenzie (Bruce Wayne/Batman) and Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen) came on stage to discuss the movie.
The first topic, presented by Warner Home Video publicist Gary Miereanu, dealt with deciding what to keep and what not to keep from the graphic novel. "We tried to keep it as faithful to the comic as possible every step of the way," said Bruce Timm. "Every time we had any type of creative decision, we just said, 'Let's look at the comic,' and that's what they did." Gary Miereanu asked how Bruce Timm made the film his own. His reply was simple: "We didn't."
Moving on to the cast, Andrea Romano explained that she had wanted to work with them for some time, but their schedules never allowed it until this project. "We were lucky enough to get this beautiful cast that was available to work at the same time, and it was just a joy," Andrea Romano said.
Three-time Emmy winner for Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston relayed how he was hesitant about signing on to play James Gordon at first. Remembering the Commissioner Gordon from the Adam West Batman show, Bryan Cranston didn't realize what his character would really be like until he got the script. "I read the script, and I loved it," he said. "It was in-depth, it was compelling, and I was eager to see how it would turn out. I'd never read anything like this before."
Ben McKenzie had the opposite reaction when he found out he'd be portraying the young Bruce Wayne and Batman. "It's very intimidating to play such an iconic character," said Ben McKenzie. "So many people have played the role so well." Just as Ben McKenzie played the rookie Batman, this was also his first time doing voice work. "It was really fun, and it was nice to do a slightly different spin on it in that he's a young man and not quite sure what he's doing -- I bring that lack of confidence naturally."
Katee Sackhoff had a discussion about the tightness of Bruce Wayne's workout shorts in the movie, Gary Miereanu asked what preparations Katee Sackhoff made before playing the Sarah Essen character. "I went around and started dating married men," Katee Sackhoff said, prompting Bryan Cranston to hold up his ringed hand.
Katee Sackhoff talked about sleeping with married men and then talking to their wives to see how they feel, purely for research, to which the Warner Home Video publicist Gary Miereanu reminded everybody of the "Please be aware there may be people in the audience under 18" reminder on everybody's name plate. "There should be a big panel outside saying 'Please go away if you're a child,'" Katee Sackhoff said, to which Bryan Cranston joked, "Talk about a Sackhoff."
Trying to get the panel back to a PG rating, Gary Miereanu asked Bryan Cranston about almost becoming an actual policeman instead of playing one. In college, Bryan Cranston originally majored in administration of justice. "What I realized while taking elective courses was that the girls in acting class were prettier than the ones in police science," said Bryan Cranston. "A person's entire future rested on the decision making and libido of an 18-year-old boy. Is that getting back to the PG?"
The cast were asked what aspect to doing Batman: Year One was most appealing for them. "Honestly, it was the writing," said Bryan Cranston. "I would not be sitting here now if I didn't respond to the writing. It was really good, and I think it really translated beautifully on screen."
"I have always been a fan of Year One," said Ben McKenzie. "It's real, and it's gritty, and it's honest. You understand why the characters are doing what they're doing."
"I grew up stealing my brother's Batman comic books, so when this came to my attention I just sort of jumped at it," said Katee Sackhoff.
When asked if there were difficulties in adapting the story from page to screen, Bruce Timm said that the process was actually fairly simple. "You know the beauty of doing films that are based on really good source material is that it's all there," said Bruce Timm. "When you work with really, really solid source material, all the problems are worked out for you." He went on to say that they copied pages directly out of the book when creating the script and storyboards. "We were literally grabbing whole chunks of dialogue verbatim. It's hard to take credit for any part of the story because it's right there in Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's work."
While most of the animated feature is lifted directly from the comic, there were some additions – an extended fight between Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. The film turns what was a short fight into a extended fight between the two pre-vigilantes. "Especially in the fight thing, we had to make it a bit better," said Sam Liu. "We didn't feel like fans would be unsatisfied with that."
Bruce Timm recalled that he actually thought that the extended fight was in the book and was surprised when he looked back to see that it wasn't. "Your memory kind of fills in the blanks," he said. "So here it seemed entirely appropriate to play that thing out."

Finally, for the big announcement for the panel, Bruce Timm announced that Batman: The Dark Knight Returns will be adapted into an animated feature as a two-parter. With Batman: Dark Knight Returns announced, the next audience member asked how they would be able to do the story justice without making it an R-rated film. "Your memory is playing you false," said Bruce Timm. "It's going to play very well animated, and I'd be very surprised if it got an R rating."
Andrea Romano was asked if she was considering using voice-acting mainstays Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill to reprise their roles as Batman and Joker for Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. "We always consider using Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill," she replied.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=33534

 

[FCEEVIPER]

Is this this thing out yet????!

 

[cryptic name]

Saw this at comic con and was kinda let down by it. I was really looking forward to it and it just seemed kinda meh. Cranston was far and away the best part though, his Gordon was great. I think what kinda messed it up for me was McKenzie's narration. His dialogue as Bruce and Batman wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible either, it was his voice over narration that really ruined it. So strange and stilted sounding, it was almost like Chris Walken was narrating certain scenes. The best thing to come out of all this though was the announcement by Timm that they would be doing a 2-part Dark Knight Returns animated feature. That just sounds awesome. Hope they get Ironside back to do Batman like in the TAS episode.

[YT]qRpY37QNlx8[/YT]

 

[Lencho01]

The back cover...

http://www.twitpic.com/60v27e