Director – Chris Palmer (Voltron: Legendary Defender, Superman: Man of Tomorrow)
Starring – Jensen Ackles (Supernatural, My Bloody Valentine), Josh Duhamel (Transformers, Touristas), and Naya Rivera (Glee, Frankenhood)
Release Date – 2021
Rating – 3/5
DC has really impressed me over the years with their animated films. Honestly, I avoided these releases until Gotham by Gaslight and from that moment on I was hooked. Hell, I even went back and started grabbing the older releases because they are that fun.
When I received the press release for Batman: The Long Halloween Part One I was too damn excited to check it out. I jumped at the email asking for a review copy and when I saw other reviewers get it in and I didn’t I was concerned. However, the next day it showed up and I was shitting my pants. Thank you WB and DC for sending this one over!
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows a young Dark Knight as he investigates a serious of murders during the holidays by a serial killer dubbed the Holiday Killer. His investigation leads him to a member of a crime family and his old enemy The Joker before his trail runs cold. **Spoiler Alert**
The Long Halloween Part One was a pretty entertaining “who done it” set in the early years of Batman’s career but It’s far from the best animated DC film I’ve seen. In fact, it wouldn’t even scratch in the top ten. However, as far from perfect as it is I still enjoyed it. I just wish there was more to it.
The voice acting in this is great. As a Supernatural fan I loved hearing Jensen Ackles as Batman/Bruce Wayne. For years fans have begged to see Ackles wear the cowl but hearing him as Batman was just as fun. He did a fantastic job as did everyone else in the film. The entire film features amazing voice acting from seriously talented actors.
The story for this one is, obviously, split up into two segments with Batman working with Harvey Dent and Commissioner Gordon to find the Holiday Killer. Through several dead ends we end with Batman chasing the suspected killer. The story as is takes a long time getting started only to end. I’m sure if you were to combine both parts into a three hour film it would make a more enjoyable film but as is the cliffhanger is very disappointing.
Finally, the animation didn’t sit well with me. Don’t get me wrong, everything looks great but a lot of the characters were illustrated the same which created some confusion. It wasn’t until the characters actually spoke that you could tell them apart. As I said, the animation doesn’t look bad but it looks like some of the male models were recycled. Overall, The Long Halloween Part One is another great Batman animated feature but it takes too long to get started and once it does the film ends with a cliffhanger. It’s fun but I would have rather watched both segments together.
