The various direct-to-video DC Comics animated movies have been somewhat hit or miss. I don’t think any of them have been outright awful of the ones I have seen, but at the least, they’ve done a decent job of adapting some of the better (or at least better known) stories in DC’s back catalog. Case in point: The Long Halloween, a Batman story showing a young Bruce Wayne’s year long search for a mysterious serial killer. Written by Jeph Loeb (who does best when he works with more Silver Age concepts) and drawn by Tim Sale (who has an incredibly distinctive and memorable style), the story acted as an origin story for one of Batman’s biggest foes, showcased the last stand of the Gotham mob, and featured most of Batman’s best known enemies in at least a cameo appearance.
That animated movie was divided into two parts, each about an hour and a half, and HBO Max had both of them, so here we are.
Batman (Jensen Ackles), Commissioner Gordon (Billy Burke), and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Josh Duhamel) are all working to make Gotham a better place even as the local mob under Carmine Falcone (Titus Welliver) fights to maintain its place even as the various costumed madmen and other freaks continue to make trouble. But then a high ranking member of the mob is killed on Halloween by a mysterious figure who fires a fatal shot through a handgun that used a rubber nipple as a silencer and left a jack-o-lantern nearby. The three crime fighters form a pact to find the killer who strikes again around every major holiday, killing the targets the same way and leaving a symbol of whatever holiday it is nearby. This is Gotham, so there is no shortage of suspects, including other mobsters, various Arkham inmates that come and go as they please (particularly the Joker), and maybe even the DA himself since, well, Falcone is something of a more personal problem for Mr. Dent.
By the by, like all Batman fans of my generation, I do adore Mark Hamill’s take on the Joker, but has every reoccurring Joker actor since then been trying to do what he did? Voice actor Troy Baker’s Joker sounds an awful lot like Hamill’s very distinctive and memorable take on the character. I don’t mind that, but I was wondering about it.
Regardless, I am largely glad I watched these two back-to-back. My recollection of the original book meant I remembered who the Holiday Killer was, and that meant the clues stood out a bit, but I do wonder how much that was true in the original story. As mysteries go, it wasn’t overly shocking, but I do wonder how much of that was hindsight. As for the animation, it certainly wasn’t as good as Tim Sale’s stuff (on display in the opening credits sequences), but it did its job well enough. And like all of these DC direct-to-video movies, the cast is filled primarily with character actors, many with distinctive voices and somewhat familiar faces though no huge names, and a smattering of professional voice actors in smaller roles. Most prominent may be the recently deceased Naya Rivera as Catwoman, and one of the highlights of the movie is the Bruce/Selina relationship. The two have a very flirty thing going on while both more or less realize they really aren’t meant to be together after all.
But as much as Ackles made a good Batman–and he also made a good impression as Jason Todd in the animated adaptation of Under the Red Hood–this one as a whole reminded me a bit of the animated adaptation of Batman: Year One. Despite the title, Year One was more of the story of Jim Gordon as memorably voiced by Bryan Cranston while Batman was voiced in a rather forgettable manner by Gotham star Ben McKenzie (and he’s kinda bland there too). Long Halloween works in a similar manner as it works best as a Harvey Dent story, and Duhamel actually does have the best voice performance of the main cast. Is Long Halloween on par with the best animated superhero movies? No, but it was a good spot of fun and a nice three-hour Batman story that never felt that long as I watched it.
Grade: B+
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