I haven't read the original graphic novel of the long Halloween, so I was excited to go into this with an open mind and a fresh take on this story. I'll admit I was skeptical given the recent wasted potential of both the killing joke and death in the family, but I'm proud to say the delivery was exactly what I wanted

First praise, the voice acting is incredible! Jensen Ackles to no surprise works so well as Batman, Josh Duhamel is an incredible Harvey Dent and disappears into the role, Naya Rivera was an incredible catwoman may she Rest In Peace, Troy Baker is an excellent Joker, and countless other examples. Very good casting choices, and excellent work by the actors

As for the story, I'm so glad I get to come in knowing nothing because this is a legitimately excellent mystery! Without giving away too much, I've changed my guesses so many times as to who holiday is, because there's more curveballs in here than a Rian Johnson movie. I love the pacing, the tone, the suspense, the action, and the way the characters interact with one another. It's almost poetic

The animation is stellar at best, but at worst it needs a bit more work. The landscapes and backgrounds are gorgeous to look at, but some of the characters could do with a few touch ups here and there. These are mostly nitpicks because for all intents and purposes, I think this was very well animated, even by today's standards

Any problems I have with the movie can be overlooked, but I still want to address them. There are more than a few moments where I feel like certain characters should not have come out of the situations they were in unscathed, or at the very least needed a moment to recover, and they can usually walk it off. I also don't know what's exactly Gilda's deal, if she has some sort of issue going on mentally/physically and I'm hoping for an explanation soon, but if it's left unexplained she does come across as a bit irritating. I don't think she's a bad character by any means, but I am hoping she grows on me a little better in part 2

So to sum everything up, I love this movie and I'm so eager to see part 2 when it's released. This is what I love to see in Batman movies, and I think it might be up there with some of my favorites.

The animation the tone the background music the cast everything is excellent in setting up the type of the batman animated movie we would like to see. It portrays batman in his early years so he has less of detective skill than we are used to which may be covered in part 2 but this movie is as satisfying as a batman movie could be. Do give it a watch.

Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One is the best DC animated movie in years, a dark, atmospheric and suspenseful crime drama. Jensen Ackles is a surprisingly great Batman, Troy Baker is reliably perfect as Joker and Naya Rivera, Josh Duhamel and Billy Burke are all great. The animation is excellent and Chris Palmer's direction is really good. The music by Michael Gatt is good. It's reasonably well paced although some of the time jumps are a little jarring.