BATMAN YEAR ONE WORST ANIMATED FEATURE

 

In the middle of March, I found this article by Phillip Sayblack of the Eyewitness News 9 in Jacksonville. He is a blogger and a lover of movies and comic books.  He comments on the animated feature, Batman Year One  as being the worst animated feature by DC Comics. Sayblack states that the title of the feature is highly misleading since the feature focuses on  James Gordon as the protagonist and less on Bruce Wayne becoming Batman. He discusses some of his concerns about the animated feature:

“What isn’t so standard is the level of graphic violence and sexuality thrown into this feature (and its bonus feature centering on Catwoman).  Batman Year One received a PG-13 rating from the MPAA.  But the level of violence in sexuality in the movie makes for a work that really walks the line of a movie that perhaps should have gotten an R-rating instead.  This take on Batman is anything but family or even kid-friendly. It’s more proof that just like comic books aren’t meant for kids anymore, apparently neither are the movies that are spawned from said comic books.  And as evidenced by this work, Batman Year One is no exception to that rule.”

 

 

 

 

 

Sayblack is pretty much focused on the animated feature for its graphic violence and sexualcontent throughout the movie. Even though, the feature is adapted from Frank Miller’s graphic novel he presumes that DC Comics would have tried to tamper down the content overall for kids. According to Bruce Timm (producer of the feature), he wanted to capture the essence of Frank Miller’s Batman Year One on screen from the mood to the dialogue, to the overall plot.  As for Catwoman’s short, Timm states:

“[It was] ten minutes of sex and violence we couldn’t put in BatmanYear One.” 

I have so much to say about this article, but I am interested in what you have to say about Sayblack’s rants on his Eyewitness News 9 blog. Is Batman Year One, the worst animated feature ever from DC Comics? Should the rating have been changed from PG-13 to an R rating? Do you even think that Frank Miller’s graphic novel was portrayed well in the feature? What do you think about Catwoman’s short was it too sexy or just right? Post your comments below or on Facebook? If you have not seen the Catwoman short, you can find it on Dark Knight News Facebook as well other Batman Year One clips on Facebook.

Source- Batman Year One the Worst and DCU NYCC ’11 Bruce Timm panel 

-Kristina