The Vile One's Dungeon: Anime Expo 2008 - Day 3
Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 07.06.2008
411mania's first look at BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT!
Robot Chicken Panel
The production crew of Robot Chicken was in attendance for the AX to talk about the past, present, and future of the show. The main creator, Seth Green, was not in attendance because someone more than likely forgot to wake him up or drag him out of bad. And in case you didn't notice, that was meant to be a joke. So please don't sue me.
One interesting anecdote was recording a promo for the series with the one and only George Lucas in reference of the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special with Lucas screaming the line, "I hate it! I hate it! I hate it!" that surprised everyone. Another idea being talked about was a parody of Yu-Gi-Oh that they were having trouble with, but were still definitely planning on doing anyway.
Robotech: The Past, Present, and Future of Robotech
From L to R: Tommy Yune, George Yun, and Kevin McKeever
The folks from Harmony Gold: Creative Director, Tommy Yune; Webmaster, George Yun, and Marketing Rep, Kevin McKeever were in attendance to talk about the Robotech franchise. Unfortunately if you are a Robotech, and you've been keeping up with the news or any of these types of panels, there wasn't really anything new here. The teaser we've seen a million times for Robotech: Shadow Rising was shown again. Now the problem with this is, one year later, this teaser is not a big deal anymore. And Harmony Gold is being very tight-lipped about any movement or development with this project. Now the reasoning was essentially that Harmony Gold didn't want to make any premature announcements similar to the The Shadow Chronicles. So what's the status of the project then. Earlier I had spoken with voice actor, Tony Oliver, the voice of Rick Hunter from the original series and The Shadow Chronicles. Oliver made it sound like there were some delays with Shadow Rising due to the live action movie. Harmony Gold did talk about the movie, but again all of it was old news. Announcing that Lawrence Kasdan was writing the movie like it was some big, super secret announcement is not going to do it. There were some new pictures of the BETA fighter toy prototype, but we won't get more information on this item until SDCC '08. For Anime Expo, this was a bit of a disappointment for Robotech, but hopefully there will be more at Comic Con.
AX Premiere of Batman: Gotham Knight
Unfortunately the planned QnA that was scheduled to go along with Batman: Gotham Knight was cancelled at the last second. I am not sure who was supposed to be in the QnA, but I can guess it could've been guys like Bruce Timm, etc. Fans were given posters for the movie along with Batman LED mini-flashlights before the start of the movie.
Batman: Gotham Knight is a worthy addition to the long line of Batman animation projects, though its far from a perfect and fantastic one. Gotham Knight is interesting because it seems to want to set it itself as an inbetween of 2005's Batman Begins movie and this summer's sequel, The Dark Knight.
At about 75 minutes long, the movie barely runs at about a feature length. If you were to compare the project to anything, the easiest comparison would most likely be the 2003 Animatrix project. Gotham Knight is basically the Batman version of Animatrix. Rather than a singular story and style, Knight is made up of six inter-locked shorts and is a co-production between long-time DC comic writers who have worked as Batman as well as Japanese anime production studios such as Studio Beetrain, Production I.G., Studio Madhouse, and Studio 4*C.
Gotham Knight features Kevin Conroy returning as Batman/Bruce Wayne. While the Batman feature here is apparently supposed to be the one from the new movies, it's missing the voice of Christian Bale the current live actor of Bruce Wayne/Batman. This is not a terrible move exactly, since Bale likely couldn't have brought to the table in a voice-over role what Conroy's been doing with the Batman character since the early '90's. For over 15 years, Conroy has established himself as the definitive voice as Batman and he remains as such here.
Gotham Knight is not without its problems. The biggest of which is the first short in the movie, "Let Me Tell You A Story," in which three skate boarding youths share their tales of encountering the Batman, which each offer a different view of Bats. Sounds familiar to to an episode that was already done in the 90's animated series right? Well, that's exactly the case here, except this time . . . it sucks. The dialogue and voice acting in this short was awkward and really doesn't work. The animation, if any of you got to see the movie, Tekkonkinkreet, its basically like that. And while the designs of the animation are very stylistic, they are also very ugly. The short itself doesn't really fit into Gotham Knight and basically doesn't work with the rest.
While the rest of Knight is divided into five other shorts, there are hints of an ongoing story. Things that take place in one short are referenced or brought up again in the later ones. Besides Batman, there's also Lt. Jim Gordon (Jim Meskimen, Alfred (David McCallum), and two GCPD cops in Gordon's special crime unit: Detective Allen (CSI'sGary Dourdan) and Detective Ramirez (Ana Ortiz) who appear in multiple shorts. Allen has a small subplot in the second short in which he disproves of Gordon's connections with Batman, and hates working alongside a vigilante. Another issue brought up in multiple shorts is an ongoing gang war between the Italian and Russian mafia groups in Gotham, as well as the assassination of key political figures in the city.
I think the problem with these more serialized story elements is that the movie doesn't commit to them, and it feels like we are missing part of the story here. Gotham Knight while it directly references certain events that took place in Batman Begins doesn't really seem sure that it wants to be a sequel to it either. There's also something very specific that happens to the Narrows section of Gotham based off of what happened in Begins that will hopefully be uphold in The Dark Knight, but that remains to be seen.
One of the more interesting sequences is a wounded Batman dragging himself through the sewers, and in flashback form we see Bruce Wayne visiting a sagely Indian woman that instructs Bruce on how to deal with his pain. The movie has a very profound conclusion in giving an excellent picture of a Batman who while might be able to put his physical pain aside, still feels that pain ten fold in different ways, and ends with a very startling, haunting image.
One of the more fun shorts was Deadshot, animated by Studio Madhouse. In this short, it answers the questions of the assassination brought up in an earlier short, as well as introduces a new, animated version of the character Deadshot, a master marskman, sniper, and assassin. It has a very nice little twist in where we first think that Deadshot is trying to take out Gordon for the Russian mob, but it turns out he's really trying to eliminate Batman instead. The animation for this short is tops, but the fight with Bats and Deadshot is a little anti-climactic.
I think fan-girls more than anything will like the Field Test short since it features the closest thing that's ever been done to an animated, bishounen version of Batman/Bruce Wayne. And Bats has probably not been this elegant before. The short features Bats using the aid of Lucius Fox to develop a device that will develop a field that will deflect bullets. But there's also a rather confusing moment in the short as well that could've been executed better in which Batman has to take a Russian mobster to the hospital after he's been shot.
Overall, Batman: Gotham Knight is a strong piece of animation to go along with the history of Batman animation and media. But overall it fails to measure up to the best work of Batman: The Animated Series, The New Adventures of Batman, Batman Beyond, and Justice League. Hopefully the more profound revelations it suggests will be upheld in the new upcoming movie, to prove that it's not pointless continuity that will be ignored.
There was a scheduled QnA session with Quinton Flynn and Jeff Nimoy that was apparently cancelled, but the con staff didn't really do a good job of spreading the word since people were still lining up for the event without knowing it. No idea why Flynn and Nimoy had to cancel, but it would've been cool if Raiden and Snake had both been at AX this year.
NEXT UP: The final Day 4 of Anime Expo with the Japanese anime directors of Pokémon and Sword of the Stranger. Also the AX interview with David Hayter, with the blockbuster 411mania exclusive bombshell on Hayter's true, unadulterated thoughts on the ending of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots.
