Batman: The Long Halloween - Part One Review

Batman: The Long Halloween - Part One is a animated direct-to-video comic book movie based on the storyline of the same name. The movie is produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Batman: The Long Halloween - Part One is written by Tim Sheridan and directed by Chris Palmer.

The story Bruce Wayne is still in the early days of his career of the vigilante Batman. One day he gets a call from both Commissioner Gordon and district attorney Harvey Dent about a mysterious killer who's murdering people around the holidays. Now Batman must find out who this serial killer is before another life is taken.

Initial Reaction

The reason why I looked forward to this one is because Batman: The Long Halloween is one of my favorite Batman storylines. It's a great mystery comic with fantastic art by Tim Sale. So when I heard a two-part animated movie was going to be made, I was excited.

Cons

I've got nothing to say. Let's move on.

Middle Ground

One mix bag I have with the movie is the art style. With this movie I found myself at a very similar situation with previous Batman animated movie, that being Batman: Hush. Where I didn't mind the art style they used, but it definitely would've been so much better had they stuck with the style that was used in the comic storyline. Another thing I was kind of alright with was some of the changes. I didn't hate any of them, but there was one HUGE change they made to the story that has more worried. I'm not giving it away cause it's a spoiler, but what I will say is, there's a suspect that played a big part of the original story arc but it was changed, and now I'm wondering how they're gonna pull off Part Two without this character. I think I'll get over these changes when we get part two very shortly.

Pros

Now for the more positive things about part one of Batman: The Long Halloween, for starters good animation. Even though I've seen this style with Superman: Man of Tomorrow and Justice Society: World War II, I still really like it. Another thing that made the movie good was the voice work. Everyone did a really great job, I especially liked how Josh Duhamel as Harvey Dent. The way he plays Harvey he can really hear him slowly start to lose it, he's right on the edge. The last thing I'll give the movie credit for is how suspenseful it is. Much like the comic story arc it was based on the movie gives a great mystery and some intense moments, I remember this one scene with Carmine Falcone and his son Alberto where they get into an argument and it escalated really quick.

Batman: The Long Halloween - Part One is a pretty good DC animated movie. It has good animation, great voice work, and much like the comic it was based (or half of it anyways) it's quite suspenseful. The gray areas are while I didn't mind this art style, I still would've loved to see Tim Sale's art be brought to life. And the changes, I wasn't against them, they just have me a tad bit worried about the part two. But I'm certain when part two comes out my slight worries will be put to rest.

My final rating is Good.

Okay that's going to do it for me. Come back on Saturday, Jun 26th for my review of F9. I'm really excited to see that one because my local theater is FINALLY gonna be up and running again after an entire year. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.