"Batman: Year One" Blu-ray/DVD Talkback (Spoilers)

[James Harvey]

Want to discuss the Home Video Presentation and Bonus Features for the Batman: Year One animated feature? Look no further!

Batman: Year One Home Video Release
Studio: Warner Home Video
Release Date: October 18th, 2011

Synopsis: Comics legend Frank Miller’s classic retelling of Batman’s gritty, formative days makes its full-length animated debut in Batman: Year One, the Fall 2011 entry in the popular, ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original Movies. Produced by Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation, the all-new, PG-13 rated film on Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD, On Demand and for Download. Batman: Year One is based on the landmark 1987 DC Comics titles from 12-time Eisner Award winner Frank Miller and illustrator David Mazzucchelli. The film depicts young Bruce Wayne’s return to Gotham City in his first attempts to fight injustice as a costumed vigilante. The playboy billionaire chooses the guise of a giant bat to combat crime, creates an early bond with a young Lieutenant James Gordon (who is already battling corruption from inside the police department), inadvertently plays a role in the birth of Catwoman, and helps to bring down a crooked political system that infests Gotham.

Blu-ray Bonus Features:
-Sneak Peek at Justice League: Doom, the next DC Universe Animated Original Movie
-Sneak Peek at Green Lantern: Emerald Knights and All-Star Superman
-DC Showcase Animated Original Short – Catwoman
-Featurette –“Heart of Vengeance: Returning Batman to His Roots”
-Featurette –“Conversations with DC Comics”
-Audio Commentary with Alan Burnett, Sam Liu, Mike Carlin and Andrea Romano
-Batman: Year One, Chapter 1 Digital Comic Book
-Two bonus episodes from Batman: The Animated Series, handpicked by Bruce Timm
-Standard and high definition versions of the feature film
-Digital copy on disc of the feature film

Two-Disc Special Edition Bonus Features:
-Sneak Peek at Justice League: Doom, the next DC Universe Animated Original Movie
-Sneak Peek at Green Lantern: Emerald Knights and All-Star Superman
-DC Showcase Animated Original Short – Catwoman
-Featurette –“Heart of Vengeance: Returning Batman to His Roots”
-Two bonus episodes from Batman: The Animated Series, handpicked by Bruce Timm

Single-Disc Bonus Features:
-Sneak Peek at Justice League: Doom, the next DC Universe Animated Original Movie
-Sneak Peek at Green Lantern: Emerald Knights and All-Star Superman
-DC Showcase Animated Original Short – Catwoman

Note: This thread is to discuss all aspects of the multiple releases of this title, including the home video release and legal download options. Check out The World's Finest for more details. Please discuss the feature film in the proper talkback, as linked below.

Discuss This Blu-ray and DVD release!

Related Threads:
-Batman: Year One Feature Review (Spoilers)
-Batman: Year One Feature Talkback (Spoilers)
-Batman: Year One Graphic Novel Talkback (Spoilers)
-DC Showcase: Catwoman Animated Short Talkback (Spoilers)
-DC Showcase: Catwoman Animated Short Review (Spoilers)
-Green Lantern: Emerald Knights Blu-ray/DVD Talkback (Spoilers)
-All-Star Superman Blu-ray/DVD Talkback (Spoilers)
-Superman/Batman: Apocalypse Blu-ray/DVD Talkback (Spoilers)
-Batman: Under the Red Hood Blu-ray/DVD Talkback (Spoilers)
-Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths Blu-ray/DVD Talkback (Spoilers)
-Superman/Batman: Public Enemies Blu-ray/DVD Talkback (Spoilers)
-Green Lantern: First Flight Blu-ray/DVD Talkback (Spoilers)
-Wonder Woman DVD/Blu-ray Talkback (Spoilers)
-Batman: Gotham Knight DVD/Blu-ray Talkback (Spoilers)
-Justice League: The New Frontier DVD/Blu-ray Talkback (Spoilers)
-Superman Doomsday DVD/Blu-ray Talkback (Spoilers)


Also Related:
-Batman: Arkham City Video Game Talkback (Spoilers)

Note: We appreciate and encourage discussion, but please keep your posts civil, relevant and insightful. Please do not post any improper or inflammatory material, as we will issue warnings if we believe it necessary. And remember to keep the discussion ON-TOPIC!

[tenderheartbear]

As always with these releases I'll ask my usual packaging question.

Is the title at the top of the spine (on the DVD) like Justice League: The New Frontier, JL: Co2E and GL: FF or have WB done their usual trick of putting it lower like Batman: UtRH, GL: EK and Superman/Shazam? Many thanks.

[Bat-Fan Beyond]

As always with these releases I'll ask my usual packaging question.

Is the title at the top of the spine (on the DVD) like Justice League: The New Frontier, JL: Co2E and GL: FF or have WB done their usual trick of putting it lower like Batman: UtRH, GL: EK and Superman/Shazam? Many thanks.

I gotta ask... Does it really matter at this point since your collection now contains movies with both spine title settings? Or do you actually have them divided into two groups on your shelves based on the spine titles?

[tenderheartbear]

In the grand scheme of things, no it doesn't matter. I keep all my DC titles alpabetically so it's a bit unsightly when you get a nice run of matching title heights then one that drops, then another two that are okay etc. So for example Green Lantern and GL: FF are great, but between them is GL: EK which is lower.

It only annoys me because WB are one of the only companies that 99% of the time have consistancy in their spines, except when it comes to their DC titles. With Paramount, Disney etc. you almost expect them to look shoddy.

[Trevor]

Well, with this release, I've got to ask who was in charge of making up the Smallville Complete Series trailer on the Blu-Ray? I realize that the early episodes and effects aren't anywhere close to Blu-Ray 1080p standards, but really, for a show that has been bringing in big profits for WB for the past 10 years, it really needed to be treated with respect. Instead I found that the trailer appeared to not have been checked for aliasing (just about every arm and round object in the trailer looked like it had a set of stairs going up the side of it), plus why output it in non-anamorphic 16:9, when you are trying to promote something that is being released in anamorphic 16:9? I can understand if you were sending it to a TV station, then you might send a non-anamorphic version, so that it would look good on a standard-def station airing on a standard-def TV, but we are talking about a Blu-ray/DVD. The ad could've been output at 480p 16:9 and still been encoded in DVD-standard definition..

[Russkafin]

Batman: Year One DVD comes with "free" download... that requires a credit card??

OK, first off let me say that I have never taken advantage of a "digital copy" or "digital download" that came with any of my DVDs before. But I just bought "Batman: Year One" at Best Buy, and I noticed that it came with a free download of "Batman: Under The Red Hood." I was pretty stoked, seeing as I'd been meaning to rent Red Hood but never got around to it. Now I can download it for free? Sweet!

I went to the site on the sticker (RoxioNow) and redeemed my code. It said my redemption was successful, and now on the playlist of videos in the site I see "Batman: Under The Red Hood" listed as a purchased video with a price of $0.00.

But when I go to play it? Error message. "Your credit card information is currently not on file. Error ID: 3305,514."

Excuse me? I need to give them my credit card to watch a free video? Is this normal? That just doesn't sit well with me.

There was a section of the site to report a problem or ask for help. I submitted a WebTicket with my system info, what video I was trying to watch, and a statement saying that I refuse to enter my credit card information to watch the "free" video that I was promised. This was two weeks ago and I have not heard a single thing back from them. The status on my WebTicket still says "New." (At least I have a link I can go to to see that my comments were received, though no one apparently cares.)

Has anyone else had a similar experience? What would you do? Just plug your credit card info in so you can watch the thing? Or stand your ground and give up on the free video?

[JLUBeyond7]

I've never used the site before but from your description it seems like something similar to what iTunes does. I know when I first used iTunes to download free songs, it asked to put in a credit card so that they have one on file (hoping that you'll buy something from their service eventually). But I don't use iTunes to buy any music unless its free. So I think you should be ok putting in a credit card number but don't quote me.

Regardless, the fact that they haven't contacted you about the situation isn't exactly helpful either.

[Jon T]

The "Heart of Vengance" featurette wasn't too bad, and deserves bonus points for actually briefly discussing Frank Miller's work on Daredevil at Marvel. However, like most Batman histories that discuss the character's return to a darker outlook at the end of the 1960s, it only ever talks about Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams, with nary a mention of Frank Robbins' and Bob Haney's writing contributions that first started the whole process - and actually pre-dated Dennis O'Neil's dedicated work on the character.

Also, considering the length of time the featurette devotes to Frank Miller, and indeed, the subject of the main feature itself, Miller's total absence on the bonus features is made all the more noticable.