Batman: Gotham by Gaslight - Film Review
Plot
In an alternative Victorian Age Gotham City, Batman (Bruce Greenwood) begins his war on crime while he investigates a new series of murders by Jack the Ripper.
Review
One thing I want to get out of the way is that I have not read the Gotham by Gaslight comic so I have no idea how close it is to the book, but from what I've heard it is rather different in some parts.
This is the third of DC's animated movies to be R-rated after Batman: The Killing Joke and Justice League Dark. This is rated R for "some violence", I can get that as there is quite a bit of blood, and some other almost R-rated things in there. DC's next animated film Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay will be rated R also.
I've not seen many of DC's direct to video animated movies, but I have seen some of them and this one is pretty high on the list of their best ones, I'd say it's almost as good as The Dark Knight Returns. I've seen Batman: Under the Red Hood, but I remember almost nothing about it so I can't say it it's as good as everybody says.
This is also the third of DC's animated films I've reviewed. I reviewed Justice League: The New Frontier (which for some reason is my second most popular review, I don't know why as I don't feel that's one of my better ones) and Justice League: War for the Justicethon I had back in November.
One thing I really liked was the alternate versions of characters from Batman comics such as Poison Ivy, Harvey Dent, Cyrus Gold (who, in the comics, becomes the villain Solomon Grundy), and these three orphans, who were three of the Robins in the comics.
I really liked the reveal of who Jack the Ripper was, I don't want to give away who it was, but I was rather surprised.
One thing I found a little weird was that in the comics, Barbara Gordon is Jim Gordon's daughter, but in here she's his wife. I just thought that was a bit weird.
I'm not a huge fan of the animation, but that goes for all of these DC movies.
Bruce Greenwood is great as Batman here, I think this is his second time voicing Batman in one of these movies, as he was also in Batman: Under the Red Hood and I think he also was Batman in the Young Justice TV show. Some of his best scenes are when he's just Bruce Wayne instead of Batman, but he's great as Batman.
Jennifer Carpenter is also really good as Catwoman in here. Catwoman even has a musical number in it... huh, this is the third animated Batman movie in a row with a musical number. There was one in The Killing Joke, there were two in Batman and Harley Quinn, and there's one in Gotham by Gaslight. Anyway, she plays a really good Catwoman and you buy her and Bruce despite them being voice actors.
Some of the other cast such as Scott Patterson, Yuri Lowenthal, John DiMaggio, Tara Strong, Grey DeLisle amongst some others are all good here.
Overall, Batman: Gotham by Gaslight is a really good addition to DC's lineup of animated movies, it's really cool seeing a Victorian era Batman. I think you should check it out if you haven't yet. It's probably my favorite of the movies I've seen this year so far. Hopefully the comic's good too.
Batman: Gotham by Gaslight gets a 9/10.
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Next review - The Open House
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