Batman: Year One Commemorative Edition

The animated movie version of Batman: Year One came out a little over ten years ago. The studio has now released Batman: Year One Commemorative Edition on 4K UltraHD to mark the anniversary. (And they were kind enough to send me a copy!)

This is one of the better DCU animated movies, as you can see in my original review.

All the key extras have been carried over from the previous package. That includes the “DC Showcase Presents Catwoman” short cartoon; the commentary with Alan Burnett (but also Mike Carlin, Andrea Romano, and Sam Liu); the featurette “Heart of Vengeance: Returning Batman to His Roots”; and “Conversations With DC Comics”. That last one is bittersweet, as it features Denny O’Neill, Michael Uslan, Dan DiDio, and Scott Snyder. DiDio is no longer active in comics, while Denny has since passed away.

The promo pieces have changed, of course. Instead of ads for upcoming Green Lantern and Superman and Justice League animated movies, we get previews for the much more thematically connected Batman: The Long Halloween Part One and Part Two and Batman: Soul of the Dragon.

Most interesting to me, as I love behind-the-scenes pieces, was the new, 22-minute “Reinventing Gordon”. Using clips from various media appearances — cartoons, movies, Gotham, the 60s Batman TV show, and comics — the featurette provides a history of Jim Gordon from the beginning.

Participating are:

• Michael Uslan
• Jeph Loeb
• James Tynion IV
• Jim Lee
• Frank Miller (missing from the extras on the original movie release, and a welcome addition)
• Joëlle Jones
• Bryan Cranston (who played the character in this movie)
• J.K. Simmons (who played him in Justice League)
• Jeffrey Wright (who played him in the upcoming The Batman movie)

The participants discuss how the stories went from Batman “needing a cop” to handle the details and congratulate him, to Gordon becoming a foil and an ally. He represents the bureaucracy Batman is a reaction to, but they’re still colleagues. There’s the innate contrast of the law helping a vigilante and vice versa.

I found this special a substantial addition with some good insights. If you don’t already have the movie, this is worth picking up on November 9.