Synopsis:

The Red Hood. Vicious. Methodical. Lethal. Who is he, and what is his connection to both Batman and The Joker?

Intentions:

To take an already great Batman film and tweak it over the line to being more fan-friendly. To hopefully lessen the all-too-obvious spoon-feeding of information.

Change List:

Edits include: (But not limited to) Replaced the two WB logos (regular shield and animation dept version) with a single longer one. Removed entire opening sequence for later use. Film starts with ‘mob meeting’ scene, then goes to the opening credits. Altered animation and dialogue to remove Batman quipping, “No, you’re anything but good” to thugs. Altered animation and dialogue to remove clumsy exposition between Batman and the thugs about Amazo. Removed Amazo punching Batman in the chest hard enough to throw him back 50 feet. He now throws him instead. Altered animation (two shots) so that Batman does not dent a steel container when he slams into it. Removed Nightwing’s line, “Packs quite a punch for a toaster on steroids, huh?” Removed more exposition, this time about Nightwing and the previous Robins. Removed Nightwing and Batman talking about batarang attack on Amazo. Removed Nightwing’s line, “Did you know he could fly?!” (And fixed animation slightly so that Amazo/Nightwing don’t fly straight through a girder.) Removed Nightwing asking for (and getting) advice from Batman on how to attack Amazo. Altered animation and dialogue to remove Nightwing telling Amazo, “This might sting a bit!” Altered animation and dialogue to remove Nightwing’s line, “Lasers! He’s got lasers!” Altered animation and dialogue to remove Nightwing’s lines about putty in the eyes/plastique. Removed Nightwing telling Batman that, “The shots came from a rooftop. A sniper! A good one.” Removed close up of Jason Todd’s Robin costume. Removed Red Hood’s line to himself, “Okay then. Nice night for a run.” Altered animation and dialogue to remove Nightwing’s lines, “He’s very good!” and “We got him!” Also fixed Nightwing’s eyes, which were drawn oddly off-model for one shot. Altered animation and dialogue to remove Robin’s riddle. Added to Ra’s flashback/explanation about Bosnia by using the opening sequence of the film. Restructured, and also altered animation to fit several moved pieces of dialogue so that it fits in with the rest of the flashback material. Removed all footage of Batman racing towards the warehouse. Altered animation of Ra’s entering the Lazarus pit to fix a transparency goof. Added in orange tinted glass for shot when Jason jumps through them. (To match all the surrounding windows.) Removed Joker asking where he knows Red Hood from. When Red Hood holds his knife to Batman’s throat, re-animated to flip orientation of knife to fix continuity. Altered animation and dialogue to remove Jason’s “We’re both just a couple of walking armories.” And Batman’s “Maybe so…” Added in missing bathroom tiles during fistfight. (The space was meant for animation purposes but must have been overlooked.) Altered Batman’s final takedown of Jason: Originally, Batman waits until Jason fires, then (seemingly) dodges the bullet and throws a batarang that somehow sticks in Jason’s gun barrel. Now, Batman instead waits only until he hears Jason cock the gun, then destroys it using some more of the plastique that took down Amazo at the start of the film. After the explosion, removed Batman finding Joker safe and well in the rubble. Instead, we just hear the echoing, distant laugh of the Joker as the camera pulls back from the destruction. I preferred to only imply that he may have somehow survived rather than showing it blatantly. Removed Ra’s watching the Gotham news on his jet, and mention of The Joker being returned to Arkham. During the end credits, added Bill Finger’s name with Bob Kane’s to the “Batman Created By” listing. Where it rightfully should be.

Additional Notes:

Other than the cut-list, I also re-framed the film to 2:35:1 (maybe 2:20:1. Somewhere in that vicinity) and altered the colors and lighting to suit my tastes. I wanted the shadows to literally be on the verge of swallowing the characters when appropriate. To have the feeling that you never know what could be lurking only feet away. It may feel almost too dark sometimes (hopefully not, but it depends on your settings) but I wanted to get closer to a live action film, where you don’t necessarily see every detail at all times. One note to picture quality…the original DVD has several places where the transfer is less than perfect. Some edge noise and color banding are often evident. Re-rendering (and the color correction) has made this more obvious in a handful of places. I did what I could to minimize it, but apologies if it is irritating.

Special Thanks: