Tag Archives: Jonah Hex

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On The Couch #43: Batman: Under The Red Hood

Despite Netflix offering Batman: Under The Red Hood through instant streaming, I opted to rent the Blu-Ray from them instead. My reason for doing this was that with every previous DC direct-to-video release, I enjoyed the special features much more than the movie. Thankfully, that didn’t end up being the case with Batman: Under The Hood.

Out of all of the DC direct-to-video animated movies, Batman: Under the Red Hood is the best. The story is very faithful to its source material, probably because original writer Judd Winnick is the screenwriter here. And the source material is good. Batman: Under The Red Hood revolves around the resurrection of the second Robin, Jason Todd, who wants to get back at his killer, The Joker, and his former mentor who allowed his killer to live, Batman.

Neil Patrick Harris voices NIghtwing, the original Robin all grown up.

I still remember vividly when DC Comics killed Jason Todd. It made national news. Not only did DC kill Batman’s partner, but the fans were responsible for it. DC set up a 900 number and let the fans vote if Robin would survive the story A Death in the Family. It was 50 cents to call, which prevented 11-year-old me from getting my parents permission to call in and vote. To this day, I’m not sure how I would have voted if I was given permission. Like many Batman readers at the time, I wasn’t a big fan of Jason Todd as Robin. I thought it was cool that he was discovered by Batman while stealing the wheels off the Batmobile, but he became annoying very quickly with his whininess and temper tantrums. Still, I don’t know if I would have voted for him to die. At the same time, I don’t know if I would have voted for him to live. Maybe it’s a good thing that my parents withheld taking my $0.50 make that call. No 11-year-old needs that kind of responsibility hanging over his head.

“You can prevent it with a telephone call.” …or not.

The one-two punch of A Death in the Family and the Tim Burton Batman movie turned me into a huge Batman fan. I think I had a different Batman t-shirt for every day of the week back then, my favorite being one of The Joker, surrounded by laughter, holding up a gun and a joker card. I was obsessed. I still have a giant Batman movie poster from the NYC subway hanging up in my old room at my parents’ house.

While I didn’t like him as Robin, I really like Jason Todd as The Red Hood, I especially liked when he confronted Batman and asked him what seems like the most obvious question in the world, how can Batman let The Joker live? The Joker has murdered thousands and despite Batman’s best efforts, he continually breaks out of Arkham to murder more. To Judd Winnick’s credit as a writer, he pens the perfect answer to come out of Batman’s mouth for that question.

The special features on the Blu-Ray did not disappoint. There’s a cool Jonah Hex short, with Thomas Jayne voicing Jonah Hex. And there are two documentary featurettes on the first two Robins, Dick Grayson and Jason Todd.

If you’re a fan of Batman, you should definitely check out Batman: Under The Red Hood.

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At The Theater #21: Toy Story 3

Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are my favorite Pixar movies, so it shouldn’t be hard to believe that Toy Story 3 was the movie I was looking forward to the most this summer. With that anticipation comes a bit a fear. Is this the one where they jump the shark? A lot of franchises’ third movies have been lackluster. I’m looking at you Godfather 3, Superman III and Batman Forever.

I shouldn’t have worried though, Toy Story 3 is great. Pixar really can do no wrong.

What other studio has their kind of track record? My least favorite Pixar movie, Cars, is still a good movie. Cars just doesn’t hold up to the incredibly high bar set by every other Pixar release. But Toy Story 3 definitely does.

This is my favorite of the Toy Story 3 character posters. He’s got a 3 for a nose!

Toy Story 3 packs more guilt than a Jewish mother (I can make that joke because I started the hora at an Episcopalian wedding this past weekend). The movie really hammers home how lonely your toys get when you grow too old to play with them. They ride this point for the whole movie. It’s enough to make me want to drive straight to my parents’ house, run up to the attic, rip open the Hefty bag full of He-Man figures and reenact the battle for Eternia.

Toy Story 3 is very funny. If you enjoyed the first two, you’ll love this one. And if you didn’t enjoy the first two, try to get that stone in your chest replaced with a heart.

This poster looks like Woody farted and everyone behind him is shocked by it. Maybe they’re trying to figure out the least awkward way to tell him he accidentally pooped himself.

Like every other Pixar release, there is a short before the main feature. This time it’s Day and Night, which has to be the coolest blending of CGI and traditional cell shaded animation ever. It also looks much better than Tom Cruise’s upcoming Knight and Day.

While watching Toy Story 3, I couldn’t help but think about Cars and why it doesn’t work as well as Pixar’s other movies. I think I figured it out. It’s because there are no people in it. The other Pixar movies that involve anthropomorphizing the world around us show what’s going on in the lives of toys, fish and bugs when people aren’t paying attention to them. But in Cars, there are no people. The cars in Cars are entirely self-sufficient and self-motivated. There’s no interaction between the cars and people, which is the dynamic that anchors Toy Story, A Bug’s Life and Finding Nemo to the real world. Without this anchor, Cars seems a bit faker than the others. That being said, I’d still take Cars over most CGI animated movies produced by other studios.

Pixar is still batting 1.000. Go see Toy Story 3 and see it in 3D. It’s definitely worth it, and it’s a safe bet it will be better than Jonah Hex (also opening this weekend).
SPOILER: One of the characters in this poster isn’t in Toy Story 3.
Woe for Stinky Pete the Prospector