Next month, Warner Home Entertainment will bring The Dark Knight Returns: Part One to Blu-ray. This animated adaptation of Frank Miller's landmark graphic novel takes places in a dystopian future where martial law and media manipulation invade the lives of ordinary citizens, and Gotham City has become overrun by criminal entities far more unstable than anything the city has faced in its past.
As Gotham destroys itself, an aging Bruce Wayne (Peter Weller, RoboCop) watches from the seclusion of his Wayne Manor, disgusted at both the new criminal element as well as his physical and mental frailties that forced him to retire ten years earlier.
When Wayne's old adversary Harvey "Two-Face" Dent (Wade Williams, Collateral) violently re-asserts his twisted influence, Wayne takes up the Batman mantle once more, but even improved crimefighting technology and a new sidekick (Ariel Winter, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) might prove inadequate for Wayne to confront the perils of this new Gotham City.
Warner's Blu-ray/DVD/UltraViolet Digital Copy combo pack offers the first half of the Dark Knight Returns story in its 1.78:1 original aspect ratio with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track; part two will arrive in 2013.
Update: In addition, the disc will contain the following supplements:
The Dark Knight Returns digital comic
Behind-the-scenes featurettes:
Her Name is Carrie...Her Role is Robin
Batman and Me: The Bob Kane Story
Two bonus Batman cartoons from the WB vault
Preview of The Dark Knight Returns: Part Two
The Dark Knight Returns: Part One streets on September 25th.
Meh... I don't like these animated features. It looks flimsy and lifeless, and made up to cash-in on the title. You want to do it great? CGI or take loads of time to do it because so far, I'm definitely sticking with my graphic novel and that's it.
This looks TERRIBLE... I'm used to the Nolan trilogy by now and the Batman outfit should be all black, not grey and black. The voice is not right and Robin is a girl? Ugh. I won't waste my money on it.
Animation looks like crap. And why are they splitting it into parts? Just give us the whole damn thing! I mean, I probably won't buy it because these features are boring adaptations (Year One being the worst) but still.
I love the graphic novel but I'm less than excited about this. Looks very average to say the least. Not to mention that their Year One adaptation felt flat and lacked emotion. I don't have much faith in these DC Animated movies anymore...
The animation is not bad at all, really. And that style capture perfectly the feel of the comic book series (it was not a graphic novel when it was first published). I have big hope about that one, it looks great! Also happy to see it's released in two parts, all the DC animated movies are arount 75 minutes, and that's not enough for that story.
I don't think the problem is that they are Batman fanboys. I think the problem is they aren’t, thus they have no idea what they are talking about. This looks like a great interpretation of the comics it’s based on. I’m glad it’s in 2 parts, that way they don’t rush the story!
The majority of the Blu-ray.com community is very quick to rate down the unpopular opinion. The minus (-) button should be used for comments that are spam/trolling or aggressive/vulgar and NOT when the opinion expressed is the unpopular one if it is done in a polite way. I'll say it again, my expectations are very low for these DC animated movies based on their recent output. So go ahead and rate me down. Sigh.
The animation looks intriguing for it's style - clearly modeled after the style of the original book. Some shots in the trailer looked right out of the comic, but less articulate than the drawn pages. Unfortunately, I don't care for the cheap, overly simplistic style of these animations either. It was cool 20 years ago with the animated series, but there are Saturday morning cartoons with more elaborate animation today. That's it's getting two parts is encouraging, storywise. I agree that some of these Batman animations seem condensed, even compared to the funny books. Think I'll stick with the comic for now too, at least until it's finished and/or goes on sale.
Guess I won't be paying my rent in October, because September 25th has now officially gone BEYOND brutal, wallet-wise. Now it's just taunting with further morsels. :P
I love the scene that captures Batman leaping through the air with the lightning bolt in the background...just like the iconic comic cover! Looks great! Can't wait for this release. DCU has definitely earned my trust.
I hope this is good. The original graphic novel was. I wish Kevin Conroy was doing this. Also with this being in two parts that means about $16 for each part so you end up payinng about $32+ for this movie.
I want this, but the amount of movies out at the time are way too many. I'll put this off and pick up with Part 2. Saves the waiting period between parts and gives a break to the wallet.
I love how the animation is kept in style to the graphic novel (which is truly an excellent read). I may have to grab this one, if the price is right...
I've always been in the minority of comic book fans that never really cared for the DKR graphic novel. With that being said, I tend to enjoy the DC animated movies and will be pre-ordering this.
Looks interesting, these DC animated films tend to be hit or miss for me (although batman year one was alot better then i thought it would be). Not sure about weller's voice and splitting this into two parts seems like a rip off. One major complaint about these titles is there run time, why not make both parts into one 2 hour film and treat the fans to a real gem?
Frank Miller is so over rated !! The best Batman comics were done by Dennis O'Neal and Neal Adams ! Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale were also pretty damn good ! This feature looks just as cheesy as the comic !
Man No Kevin Conroy as the voice of Batman. He's the only voice as far as I'm concerned that should be used. Every1 else sound so put on an unnatural and now we get robo cop as the voice . Slitting the series means more money so that was to b expected.
Please Please release the Animated series . That series made me love Batman again . It was so awesome n sucks so bad now on dvd especially since it 4:3. A downer man.
While I agree that I wish TAS would be released on BD, I'm pretty sure that WB would release it in 4:3, just like the DVDs (see Batman Beyond: RotJ and JLA Season One). Not liking the OAR shouldn't be a reason to want a BD upgrade from the DVD.
@RJ Smoove 4:3 was in fact the original broadcast aspect ratio, but I don't think it was the producers instended AR. I remember asking Paul Dini about it at a con when the first TAS DVD came out and he advised me that unfortunately the DVD release AR was not his decision.
@ everyone who thinks it's immature to rate comments:
We live in this day and age where everything is rated, thus many will find overrated or underrated comments. Yet, I can only speak for myself when I say that I'm not here for my comments to be liked. In fact, I could care less not being liked at all online. Chances are I'll never meet anyone of you, and vice versa. What we do here is comment on what we think and that's all. You only show who you are by commenting, but that doesn't mean everybody hates you. You shouldn't live by everyone's choice, only your own.
I'll be buying this day one, but I'd have prefered they just do the whole book in one release. I don't care if it's 2 and a half hours long, at least you'd have the whole story without waiting until next year to see the rest.
I'm willing to bet one of the two included Batman cartoons will be the one from the 90s that had the kids telling stories about Batman. One of the stories was a hugely abbreviated version of The Dark Knight Returns. That segment had Michael Ironside voicing Batman and he did a really good job.
I'm so glad it's not Kevin Conroy. He's the best Batman, but he's not Frank Miller's Batman. It's good to see a little separation between this and the 90s cartoon (despite the inevitable comparisons and confusion). The art seems to follow the original books pretty well, even if it does come off a little more cartoonish than it should. I'm looking forward to it.
