The release of Tim Burton's Batman in 1989 gave "The Caped Crusader" unprecedented popularity, which hasn't waned much in the intervening year. Counting that first movie, since that time we've gotten six feature films and five animate television series, all of which have varied in quality. One consistent fact is they've been highly influenced by Burton's movie in that they have a dark and gritty quality, which was only amplified by Christopher Nolan's two Batman films. Now, Warner is bringing Batman to a new medium: direct-to-video movies, such as the newly released Batman: Under the Red Hood.

Batman: Under the Red Hood opens in Eastern Europe where Robin is fighting The Joker (voiced by John DiMaggio). Batman (voiced by Bruce Greenwood) doesn't arrive in time and The Joker kills Robin. The story then jumps ahead five years. Back in Gotham City, Batman is hard at work fighting crime as usual, with the occasional help of Nightwing (voiced by Neil Patrick Harris) (who is Dick Grayson, the original Robin now grown up). Red Hood (voiced by Jensen Ackles) makes his presence known to the local criminals and tells them that he will take a cut of their profits, but he will treat them fairly, as long as they don't sell drugs to kids. This enrages Black Mask (voiced by Wade Williams), who had been controlling the streets. When Batman first tangles with Red Hood, he quickly notices two things; for a criminal, he has an odd code of ethics, and his is a highly-skilled and well-trained fighter. With the help of Nightwing, Batman vows to take down Red Hood, but he may not be ready for the secrets which are uncovered.

I left the comic book industry in 1995 and I've only picked up a few titles since that time. Also, I always preferred Marvel to DC, so I didn't read many of their books. This rant is leading up to the point that I wasn't familiar with the fact that the basic story which unfolds in this movie came from the comics. So, for followers of the Batman comics, the big twist here won't be a big revelation. Therefore, the movie may not be as effective. I can only comment on the film as someone who didn't know the entire story going in. (As far as I was concerned, it was all original. It wasn't until I watched the extras that I learned that the story was pre-existing.)

But, like most of the DC animated movies, there's just something off about the pacing here. Again, the story works for those who aren't already familiar with the Red Hood. In fact, the movie seems to be aimed at that audience. However, the movie also assumes that we have a working knowledge of the Batman universe. I have no idea who Black Mask is and the movie doesn't bother to tell us. Likewise for Ras Al Ghul, with whom I was familiar. While the story is zipping through these details, and there are some good action scenes, the movie seems to drag at times. And the ending offers no closure whatsoever.

When brining a comic book character to the screen, the last thing that you want to do is insult the fans and Batman: Under the Red Hood certainly avoids this. The movie features some good action scenes, and is actually quite bloody and violent at times. The story has some hiccups, but should work well for those who don't read the comics. I'm just glad that Nightwing was around to keep things from getting too dark.

Batman: Under the Red Hood shows that the Batplane can really take those sharp turns on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Warner Home Video. The movie has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the Disc contains a VC-1 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 18 Mbps. The image is pristine -- there's simply no other way to put it. The image shows no grain and no defects from the source material. It's clarity is very impressive and the colors look great. The picture is never too dark or bright. The level of detail is excellent, but the transfer doesn't reveal any flaws in the animation. The Disc offers a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.0 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are well done and show good separation. The surround sound effects come to life during the action scenes and the explosions provide nice subwoofer effects. Overall, the audio package works well.