THE ANIMATED BATMAN ADVENTURES #8 - 'Batman: Year One' (2011)

"Batman: Year One" adapts one of Batman's greatest storylines from the comic books, originally written by Frank Miller in 1987. The movie, like the comic book, tells an elongated version of Batman's origin story, particularly how he got started as the Caped Crusader. It is also an origin story for James Gordon, the police lieutenant that will eventually go on to be Gotham PD's commissioner.

In the movie, Bruce Wayne has officially returned from his trips abroad. Gordon has arrived after something in Chicago forced him to move with his pregnant wife, Barbara. When Batman finally appears, it is Gordon's job to take him down. The only problem is that Batman is taking down the bad guys, including the corrupt cops that also give Gordon a tough time through the story.

The best thing that I can say about this movie is that it is a true adaptation of the story it comes from. Almost beat for beat, this is the story ripped straight from the pages of the comics. In other words, all the exciting action and the intriguing story of how Bruce becomes Batman is featured in this movie.

The biggest problem with the movie is that... well... it's a solid adaptation of the comic book storyline. What I mean by this is that the comic has the liberty to jump around a bit with its storyline. It doesn't have to fill in the gaps as much as a film might need to. This movie runs at a brisk 64 minutes and some of the scenes could have benefitted from a few little additions that could have better connected some of the scenes. It's not a major problem, but it is there and additional connective tissue could have helped here and there with this adaptation.

One highlight of the movie is the voice acting. In this regard, I'm mostly talking about Bryan Cranston being cast as the troubled Gordon. Cranston is one of best actors currently working and his voice gives Gordon the weight the character deserves. He's quite fantastic as are most of the other voice actors in the movie.

The weakest voice actor, though, is surprisingly Ben McKenzie as Bruce Wayne/Batman. He's kind of bland when he narrates as Bruce Wayne and his Batman is nowhere near as intimidating as he needs to be. If McKenzie's name sounds familiar, he would go on later to play James Gordon in the show "Gotham". Don't get me wrong, his voice acting could have been a lot worse and he ultimately passes thanks to the fact that the film focuses more on Cranston's narration as Gordon, but McKenzie's voice just could have been a lot better.

Despite a few criticisms, though, this is a pretty stellar and faithful adaptation of Miller's masterful origin story for the Dark Knight. The animation and the strength of the story is more than enough to make this a worthy addition to Batman's animated legacy!

4/5 STARS