Batman: Under the Red Hood Review

Batman: Under the Red Hood Review

Batman: Under the Red Hood is based off the comic book story 'Under the Hood' and starts off showing us one of Batman's biggest mistakes. Then it skips five years later were a mysterious new vigilante is taking out criminals and taking over the drug trade, he goes by the name Red Hood (Jenson Ackles). Batman (Bruce Greenwood) teams up with his former side-kick Dick Grayson, now known as Nightwing (Neil Patrick Harris) to stop this a drug war between Red Hood and Black Mask (Wade Willaims). To stop the Red Hood, Black Mask breaks the Joker (John DiMaggio) out of prison. Another villain in this film is Ra's Al Ghul (Jason Isaacs) who Batman visits to shine some light on the Red Hoods origin. Some themes in this film include death, revenge and family which all make the film very intersting and very emotional at some points through the story.
The animation in this film is great, using a lot of black and dark colours, which is always good in a Batman film. The voice work is also good, ranging from voices such Bruce Greewood and John DiMaggio to well known TV stars such as Neil Patrick Harris and Jenson Ackles. John DiMaggio gives his own take on the well known villain Joker and it is great, he has a perfect, yet scary laugh and he uses a menacing, dark voice. Bruce Greenwood also has a good Batman voice and he also voices Batman in Young Justice.
The director of this film (Brandon Viette) has also worked on another DC/Warner Bros project called Young Justice which is about a team of side-kicks -such as Robin, Kid-Flash and Aqua Lad- to form their own team. The art style between these two animations are very similar and both stories will keep you interested all the way through and will leave you wanting more.
Overall, I think 'Batman: Under the Red Hood' is an amazing film and I would rate it 9/10. It is definitely one of the Dark Knights greatest stories ever told and you will be missing out if you don't watch it. The only problem I have with this film is that it is short (75 mins) and I think it could be better if they include more fighting scenes -their are only 3 fighting scenes- and make it a bit longer.