Over the years, Batman has taken many forms. There’s the comics we know and love, the campy 60’s TV show, and of course this summers gritty Caped Crusader in The Dark Knight. One of the most loved though, is the kid-friendly Batman of Batman: The Animated Series.

Broken into six chapters, Batman: Gotham Knight aims to keep to the flavour of The animated series, but with a new Anime-styled twist. It’s basically six short films from some esteemed Anime directors that are loose prequels to The Dark Knight.

The first chapter is entitled “Have I Got A Story For You” and is a direct remake of arguably the best episode of The Animated Series “Legends of The Dark Knight” (also included on the dvd as a bonus). Four kids sit around and tell each other their ideas of what Batman is really like. they are all way off, and of course, Batman ends up crashing into the skate park they are hanging out in. This is by far the worst of the stories as the character designs are atrocious, with Batman being drawn as a dumpy old man.

The second story, “Crossfire” is ably written by Greg Rucka. It features MCU detectives Crispus Allen and Anna Ramirez, the latter of whom features heavily in The Dark Knight. This chapter is pretty good, visually and story wise, and definitely makes up for the last one.

Up next is “Field Test.” This story loosely mirrors a theme from The Dark Knight as it features Batman testing some improvements to his gear designed by Lucious Fox. Not a terribly inspiring story, and Bruce Wayne looks to be about 14, but entirely watchable.

“In Darkness Dwells” is a creepy story that has Batman scouring the sewers looking for Killer Croc after he has kidnapped a Bishop from the surface world. Croc looks kinda silly in this story, but it’s an action-packed chapter, and great from the standpoint of introducing a new character.

“Working Through Pain” is written by 100 Bullets scribe Brian Azzarello. This story is a great story right up until the end. The story tells the tale of Bruce Wayne’s time in India during his Batman training. Bruce is attempting to learn how to ignore his pain, and is taught by a beautiful outcast named Cassandra. Strange name for an Indian woman, but not a bad story that unfortunately turns very cheeseball at the end.

The final and arguably best chapter is called “Deadshot,” and features Batman fighting the villain of the same name. Deadshot is a great villain and the way they show his kills is breathtaking. We learn a bit more about Batman’s motivations here as well, and it’s a great capper to the “feature” portion of the DVD.

The bonus features on Gotham Knight include 4 episodes of The Animated Series, including my favourite “Legends of The Dark Knight.” There is also an interesting documentary about Bob Kane, creator of Batman.

While Batman: Gotham Knight probably won’t deliver you any big clues to the plot of The Dark Knight, and is a bit strange if you aren’t used to the Anime style, it’s still a great DVD, and by far the best of the DC direct-to-DVD movies yet.

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