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Batman Gotham Knight is to the upcoming Dark Knight movie what the Animatrix was to the Matrix movies: sharp, anime inspired animated shorts featuring different takes (from different creative talents)and different stories surrounding the subject material. (by the way, isn’t it great that for once, a sequel doesn’t add on to the original’s name for franchising/marketing reasons? Batman Begins: The Dark Knight would be bleh.)

The visual look varies throughout each short (each about 12 minutes long), some feel more anime inspired than others, but overall you very high production values, fluid animation, good CG. The look in terms of the style is definitely not related to the Batman: Animated Series, and whether that’s good or not is up to your personal style.

The DVD is all new material and is meant to be, in at least a superficial sales-boost way related to the Dark Knight movie- they’re both released in the same week or so. David Goyer, one of the screenwriters for Batman Begins, writes one of the stories, a look at Scarecrow post-Begins storyline.

For me, the stories didn’t really excite me. The presentation is extremely stylish, but there’s no real depth to the characters or actions. You don’t really learn anything that’s important to the core of the characters, showing a new side of Bruce Wayne or Batman. If I were to compared these to the Animated Series, these stories would rank in the middle, basically be average or perhaps slightly below average episodes.

I would have preferred stories from Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, the big driving forces behind the Animated Series, even though you’ve got a lot of big names associated with this project.

I think kids will like it because of the flash and action, but the violence is more bloody than what you’d find with a TV cartoon.

Worth a rental, but that’s it.

If you really want to see quality, check out Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (still in my mind, the best Batman movie) or of course, the Animated Series.

More information and the trailer follows:

From: http://www.warnervideo.com/batmangothamknight/

Batman Gotham Knight is a fresh and exciting new entry into the Batman mythos, spinning out of a 40-year history in animation including the Emmy®-winning Batman: The Animated Series, widely considered a pivotal moment in American animation.

Six standalone chapters, each with stylish art from some of Japan’s greatest anime visionaries, weave together into a larger story that follows Batman through his transition from beginner to The Dark Knight.

Chapter-by-Chapter Synopsis

In “Have I Got a Story for You,” Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Josh Olson (“A History of Violence”) tells the story of how chance encounters with Batman by a group of youngsters leave each kid with a very different impression of the Dark Knight.

In “Crossfire,” acclaimed novelist/comics writer Greg Rucka tells the story of Gotham City police having to get over their distrust of Batman – while under fire from the mob.

In “Field Test,” writer Jordan Goldberg showcases the incredible high-tech arsenal Batman commands and reveals that there are some things even Batman won’t do in his pursuit of justice.

“In Darkness Dwells” takes Batman into the Gotham sewers to face “Killer Croc,” a deformed thug who seems even more monstrous after the Scarecrow, and his fear toxin, makes a resurgence, in a story by David S. Goyer, co-screenwriter of “Batman Begins.”

Award-winning comics writer Brian Azzarello explores an early chapter of Bruce Wayne’s training in “Working Through Pain,” showing how a mysterious and exotic Indian woman named Cassandra introduced Batman to techniques that would help him to conquer the physical and spiritual consequences of what he does.

Finally, in “Deadshot,” four-time Emmy Award-winning writer Alan Burnett ties together threads from all the Batman Gotham Knight chapters, as Batman must thwart an unerring assassin whose love of guns and disregard for human life lets him cross lines that even a Dark Knight shies away from.

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