A while back, I mentioned the upcoming DC Universe Original Animated Movies feature Batman: Under the Red Hood. The trailer for the movie has just been released, giving us a bit more information about the actual film. Oddly enough, the one place this trailer hasn't appeared yet is on the goddamn official website. Anyway, the trailer is after the jump.
It looks pretty amazing so far, and it has one of the best casts I've seen in one of these films: Bruce Greenwood as Batman/Bruce Wayne; Neil Patrick Harris as Dick Grayson/Nightwing; Jensen Ackles as Red Hood; John DiMaggio as the Joker; Jason Isaacs as Ra's al Ghul; and Wade Williams as Black Mask. It's the first time I've almost immediately known who every cast member was (although I did have to double check on Jason Isaacs and Wade Williams--they're Lucius Malfoy from Harry Potter and Brad Bellick from Prison Break, respectively).
I do have some reservations about these casting choices, however. Based on the preview, Bruce Greenwood is going for a Christian Bale Batman voice, and that has the potential to get really annoying really quickly. I'm interested to see how well John DiMaggio (Futurama's Bender) is able to portray the Joker--from the sounds of the preview, he's got the laugh nailed. The problem with making a movie like this is that most fans of Batman (or at least of his various animated portrayals) are so used to hearing Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as Batman and the Joker that it seems almost criminal to let anyone else do those voices. The recent Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths was a pretty good movie, but William Baldwin's Batman voice was downright awful. Honestly, what the hell else are Conroy and Hamill doing these days, that they can't be in these movies? Are they busy with some other projects, or are they just asking for too much money? Whatever it is, both they and DC need to get with the program and realize that we're not going to accept just anyone as Batman and the Joker.
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