Reel Snippet – Batman: Hush
Summary: The city of Gotham has no shortage of deranged psychopaths, but now a new one swathed in bandages named Hush (Maury Sterling) has stepped onto the scene. He seemingly has enough sway to set the Gotham underworld not only against Batman (Jason O’Mara), but Bruce Wayne as well, implying that he knows they’re one and the same. This new arrival also happens to coincide with the return of Bruce’s old flame, Selina Kyle (Jennifer Morrison), better known to the public as Catwoman. As the two chase after Hush for their own reasons, they start to rekindle a romance, both wearing and beneath the masks, leading to the hope that they can retire from their lives of crime and crime fighting to find happiness. However, Hush is also targeting Bruce’s loved ones, which means Catwoman might be in just as much danger as Batman himself.
Review: Batman: Hush, adapted from the comic miniseries by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee, manages to stay faithful to it while also taking some liberties to keep fans on their toes. Now apart from a Wikipedia glance, I don’t know much about the original, but this movie got me curious because it’s got a great story with a lot of emotional weight. It’s interesting because I never would have thought a Batman romance would work on screen or page, but this movie proved me wrong and made me feel for Bruce and Selina’s romance. Of course, it’s still a Batman story, so there’s plenty of that heavy pathos that we’ve come to expect and crave.
The cast in this movie is superb; while several voices reprise their roles from previous DC animated movies (and yes, this is in the same universe as The Death of Superman), there are plenty of newcomers as well. Morrison is the obvious new blood, but it’s also the first time that Batgirl and the Joker (Jason Spisak) get a speaking role in this line of movies. The Joker is particularly spot on with Jason bringing a genuine creep factor into the clown’s voice (and as a bonus, the voice actor looks like he could play the Joker in real life). It’s good that the voice cast is so superb because there’s a veritable treasure trove of Batman characters to whet fans’ appetites, including Harley Quinn (Hylden Walch), Bane, Two Face, Clayface, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, and more. Just to add a cherry on the cake, James Garrett reprises his role as Alfred from Batman: The Brave and the Bold and if you close your eyes, you could be fooled into thinking they got the actor from the old DC Animated Universe. Seriously, it’s scary how close it is.
Thankfully, this movie goes for things beyond fan service or trying to be too edgy. Yes, of course there’s some blood in there and even a few risqué moments that raised my eyebrows a bit, but the focus is on the characters and the storytelling. Just as well too, because there are quite a few laughs in here, especially when Bruce’s son Damien lectures him on… using protection. It’s important to inject some levity into this story because it’s a dark story that really explores what makes Bruce tick and how his mind works. And spoiler alert, it isn’t always healthy or pretty.
As always, my issue with these DC animated movies is the animation itself, which is often average and stilted, but there was also this weird thing going on where characters would randomly pause longer than normal before speaking. Apart from that, I can say for certain that DC’s done it again with this animated movie. It’s not quite as good as The Death of Superman or Batman: Under the Red Hood, but it still earns a place in the upper echelon of these animated movies. If you’re a fan of DC or comics in general, this is definitely worth a watch.
Fun Tidbit: At Selena’s apartment, she has a cat named Eartha, a clear reference to Eartha Kitt who played Catwoman in the Adam West Batman series. Well, okay, she was one of the actors for Catwoman in that show.
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