Batman: The Long Halloween Part 1 and 2

Considering Batman’s 80+-year history, it seems there’s no shortage of famous stories to adapt into animation, a medium where his stories have had more consistent success than the live-action counterparts. One such story is The Long Halloween, a 13-issue miniseries by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, originally published monthly between 1996 and 1997. As with The Dark Knight Returns, this storyline received a two-part animated adaptation, though both parts would release much closer together, with Part One on June 22, 2021 and Part Two on July 27, 2021. Although I hadn’t read the original comic, its status in the industry made me curious enough to watch both parts of its adaptation through HBO Max, appropriately during the Halloween season. Even without knowing what happened in the source material, or any differences in porting it to a new medium, it still stands as one of the definitive Batman stories and a must-watch.

Part One opens with the Halloween murder of Johnny Viti, nephew of Gotham City mob boss Carmine “The Roman” Falcone (Titus Welliver), with a jack-o’-lantern mysteriously left at the crime scene. GCPD Captain Jim Gordon (Billy Burke) meets with Batman (Jensen Ackles) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Josh Duhamel) with the intention of working together to find the murderer, since this also affects Harvey’s own months-long investigation into the Falcone family. As the trio work together, their investigation grows more complex as their leads dry up and the murderer, known only as Holiday, continues killing on major holidays.

Batman (Jensen Ackles), Jim Gordon (Billy Burke) and
Harvey Dent (Josh Duhamel) form an alliance to stop Holiday.

Right from the start, Part One sets up an intriguing murder mystery that isn’t too difficult to follow along with, but has its own layers of complexity and share of red herrings. As with any good mystery, multiple characters fit the bill for Holiday, but each new clue or event can change Batman’s, and by extension the audience’s, mind about what’s really going on. This leads to a climactic finale that sets up the circumstances for Part Two in a way that leaves you immediately wanting more. While the story does feature time skips through the major holidays, it’s easy to keep track of when the events are due to how the dialogue naturally weaves in the necessary details.

Along the way, we get to see certain characters from Batman’s Rogues Gallery, including Catwoman (Naya Rivera), Joker (Troy Baker) and, rather appropriately, Calendar Man (David Dastmalchian). The presence of these characters can give the story a timeless quality, since it’s clearly set sometime into Batman’s career and the audience can quickly pick up on his relationships with his enemies even if they aren’t that familiar with the mythos (although prior knowledge helps). Fortunately, Joker doesn’t feel too shoehorned into the story and is darkly entertaining thanks to a masterful performance by Troy Baker. Similarly, Calendar Man, who originally debuted as a joke villain, actually sounds menacing and comes off as an actual threat thanks to a great performance from David Dastmalchian. Since Harvey Dent appears as a DA, it seems obvious that he will turn into Two-Face sometime during Part Two, but his gradual slip into darkness from the stress of his investigation and the resulting strain on his relationship with his wife still comes off as tragic.

Calendar Man (David Dastmalchian) feels genuinely menacing.

There’s also a great running theme of family. Holiday repeatedly targets members of the Falcone family, Gordon’s position as GCPD Captain negatively affects his home life and Harvey Dent has implicitly tried and failed at starting a family of his own with his wife. With the foundation set for this theme in Part One, the audience can only imagine how Part Two will build off of it.

Although the film doesn’t visually style itself after the original artwork by Tim Sale, the character and environment design still have a great aesthetic to them and the animation has some very impressive action and camerawork. Some CG is used, though it’s minimal and easy to ignore. There’s also a sense of timelessness in the setting, though its noticeable how old vehicles are prominently driven while smartphones also exist.

Part Two picks up soon after the post-credits scene of Part One. Under the influence of Poison Ivy (Katee Sackhoff), Bruce Wayne has been slowly transferring all of his assets to Carmine Falcone over the course of three months. When Catwoman snaps him out of it, Bruce continues his investigation into Holiday as Batman. Meanwhile, the case has slowly taken more of a toll on Harvey Dent, who eventually turns into the villain Two-Face after taking one too many hits from the mob families he wants behind bars.

As Part Two goes on, it does a great job at continuing and wrapping up the plot threads introduced in Part One while successfully altering the viewer’s suspicion of Holiday’s identity, eliminating suspects seemingly in the same order in which you would have suspected them. Additional villains such as Scarecrow (Robin Atkin Downes) enter the fray, but they still contribute to the plot, as their actions help Batman get closer to the solution he seeks. Harvey’s descent into evil is also paced well and while he’s portrayed sympathetically, his actions as Two-Face make it clear that he’s hardly the same man he once was. The reveal of Holiday’s true identity also makes sense within the context of the entire story and gives certain details new significance, enough to change the experience on a second viewing.

Harvey's eventual turn into Two-Face feels tragic.

Part Two also continues the theme of family from Part One, tying it with the theme of legacy and discussing the notion of whether the son should be expected to pay for the sins of the father. In the case of Bruce Wayne, he wrestles with his father’s motivation for his connection to the Falcone family and what that means for him as a son and as a vigilante. Scarecrow’s subplot actually ties in with this really well, since his fear toxin forces Batman to relive his past trauma and, ultimately, confront his feelings on his family’s legacy. Catwoman also has a family-themed subplot this time, which explains her more personal motivation for involving herself in the Holiday case.

Speaking of Catwoman, it’s clear in Part Two just how important she is for the story. She assists Batman with the Holiday case in subtle but significant ways and saves him twice, once while he’s under Poison Ivy’s influence and another while he’s under the effects of Scarecrow’s fear toxin. Her own relationship with Bruce Wayne as Selina Kyle also grows more important and leads to a satisfying conclusion. As this film was also Naya Rivera’s final role before her untimely death in 2020, her performance as Catwoman showed off her great talent as a voice actor and it’s unfortunate that we won’t get to see how that talent would further blossom.

Catwoman (Naya Rivera) plays a significant role in the story.

Naturally, the animation feels consistent with Part One and maintains its high standard. However, there’s a CG horse that’s harder to ignore than a CG vehicle and the post-credits scene looks like it somehow had a lower budget than the rest of the film, with obvious motion tweens.

Whether or not you’ve read The Long Halloween, this animated interpretation is a must-watch for Batman fans. Its well-written story, incredible animation and talented voice cast help elevate it above many other animated Batman films, including The Dark Knight Returns.