Stubs - Batman: Gotham by Gaslight

 

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (2018) voices Bruce Greenwood, Jennifer Carpenter, Anthony Head, Scott Patterson. Directed by Sam Liu. Screenplay by Jim Krieg. Based on Gotham by Gaslight by Brian Augustyn, Mike Mignola. Produced by Sam Liu. Run time: 78 minutes. Color. USA. Animated. Superhero

The world of Batman has been transported to different times and places, take Feudal Japan in Batman Ninja (2018), which was released earlier the same year. In Gotham by Gaslight, Batman is transported back to the time of Jack the Ripper, but rather than the foggy alleys of London, the murders happen in Gotham perhaps a little later than they had actually happened.

Pamela "Ivy" Isley (Kari Wuhrer) is an exotic dancer/prostitute.

One of the first victims is an exotic dancer/prostitute, who, thinking she has a gentleman willing to pay for sex, is ready to do it in an alley.

Batman (Bruce Greenwood) fights Big Bill Dunst (John DiMaggio).

Meanwhile, an elderly couple is being held up by three orphaned boys, Dickie Grayson (Lincoln Melcher), Jason Todd (Grey Griffin) and Timmy Drake (Tara Strong). Batman arrives to save the couple and instructs the boys to seek out the orphanage run by Sister Leslie Thompson. But the boys’ handler, Big Bill Dunst (John DiMaggio), isn’t willing to let them go. He proves to be formidable foe, but Batman is able to defeat him and the couple manages to escape unharmed.

It is then that Batman hears Ivy’s screams, but he arrives too late. Jack the Ripper has already killed her and escaped undetected.

Ivy is another victim of the Ripper, who has been preying on the poor and destitute women of Gotham and the police, led by Gotham Police Commissioner James Gordon (Scott Patterson) and Chief of Police Harvey "Bulldog" Bullock (John DiMaggio), seem no closer to solving the crime. One of their loudest critics is stage actress Selina Kyle (Jennifer Carpenter), who uses the occasion of a pre-opening event at the coming World’s Fair to berate the two.

She is about to be escorted away when Sister Leslie Thompson (Grey Griffin) joins her in the criticism. Tensions relax when Bruce Wayne (Bruce Greenwood), who is footing the bill for the Fair, shows up. He and Sister Leslie have a long history. She helped him cope with his parents’ murder and he supports her work with orphan children.

Bruce Wayne (Bruce Greenwood) and Selina (Jennifer Carpenter) develop a bond.

Later, Bruce is out on the town with District Attorney Harvey Dent (Yuri Lowenthal), an old friend. Harvey, who is married, is infatuated with Selina and takes Bruce to see her perform at the Monarch Theater. The three go out on the town and even sneak Selina into their men’s Dionysus Club. It is obvious that Bruce and Selina are forming a bond. One of the things they have in common is Sister Leslie, who took Selina in when she was younger.

It is then that Bruce puts together that many of the murdered women had once been in Sister Leslie’s care. Fearing that Jack will target her, he hurries to the orphanage. Not only does Sister Leslie help orphans, but she also helps all sort of destitute people, including Marlene (Tara Strong), a drunken old woman whom she escorts to the dormitory.

Sister Leslie Thompson becomes aware that the Ripper is following her.

Sister Leslie is aware that she’s being followed and turns to face Jack the Ripper, who is wearing a mask to conceal his identity. Bruce climbs the fence at the Orphanage and tries the doors, but they’re locked. He hears the attack, but is too late to stop her murder. At the crime scene, Bruce finds a bloody Dionysus Club pin, meaning the Ripper must be one of Gotham's wealthy.

 Alfred Pennyworth (Anthony Head) tries to help Batman/Bruce Wayne.

As Batman, in his Batattic, he tries to figure out some way of identifying the culprit.

Selina puts herself out as bait for Jack the Ripper, hoping to capture him herself. She is quite good with a whip, but Jack is able to overpower her. Batman arrives in time to “save” her, but he also lets the Ripper get away, which angers Selina.

At Sister Leslie’s funeral, Bruce is met by Hugo Strange (William Salyers), the director at Arkham Asylum. He claims to know the killer and wants to meet with Batman personally.

Bruce is also accosted by Marlene, who saw him on the compound before the murder. She tries to shake him down for money and when he won’t buy her silence, she tells the police what she saw.

Also, at the funeral, Alfred Pennyworth (Anthony Head), Bruce’s butler and personal caretaker, thwarts being robbed by the three orphan boys. He offers to give them work and food if they show at Wayne manor.

At Arkham Asylum, the Ripper arrives before Batman and attacks Strange, who tries to escape but fails. Instead, the Ripper throws the doctor into a pit of his own patients, who tear him apart. Batman arrives and is in pursuit of the Ripper. Batman and the Ripper have a rather perilous fight on the outer skin of a police department Zepplin that Ripper hijacks. But it's Batman that the police are after and they are relentless in their pursuit. Batman even steals a coat and removes his mask so he won’t stand out.

Some of the action on the Zepplin.

He is nearly trapped several times only to be saved by Selina, who has the driver stop her carriage to let him in. Bruce is wounded and in trying to check on him, she sees Batman is Bruce. When the police stop the carriage, the two pretend to be having sex in the carriage. Bruce is known as a playboy, so the police think nothing of it and let them go. Selina takes him to her hotel room, where they spend the night.

Bruce Wayne is arrested as Jack the Ripper.

After the death of Marlene is discovered, Bruce is arrested at Selina’s and Dent, jealous of Selina's affection, prosecutes him as the Ripper. Sentenced to Blackgate Penitentiary following the trial, Selina visits Bruce and urges him to reveal that he is Batman to clear his name and help save the girls from Jack. When he refuses, she decides to tell Gordon herself. Bruce can’t stop her. He bribes a guard to deliver a coded message to his manor and later escapes after staging a prison fight.

Harvey Dent (Yuri Lowenthal) turns his back on his friend.

Selina hunts down Gordon at the Gotham City World's Fair and learns to her horror that he is the Ripper.

Meanwhile, the three orphan boys deliver a box to a particular spot where Alfred had instructed them to. Batman arrives and takes off on a motorcycle. He goes to Gordon’s house looking for Selina. Gordon’s wife, Barbara "Two-Face" Eileen-Gordon (Kari Wuhrer), is there and when Batman discovers Gordon’s secret, she acts proud that he is riding the city of sinful women.

Commissioner Gordon (Scott Patterson) is revealed to be Jack the Ripper.

At the fair. Gordon injects Selina with a sleeping aid, but she manages to use her blood and the Fair's searchlight to give Batman a signal. Gordon puts her on a Ferris Wheel car and is planning to operate on her while she’s still alive.

Batman arrives and fights Gordon into a Ferris wheel where Gordon, driven mentally insane by his time in the Civil War, reveals his "holy work" is to rid Gotham from what he sees as human filth.

In order to escape justice, Gordon lets himself be consumed by flames.

During the struggle, the Ferris wheel lights on fire and begins to collapse: Batman defeats Gordon, and Gordon walks into the flames to escape justice.

Batman and Selina learn that the orphans are now his wards.

Batman and Selina are saved by Alfred and the orphans, who are now, according to Alfred, Bruce Wayne's wards.

The movie is based, loosely based, on Gotham by Gaslight, written by Brian Augustyn with artwork by Mike Mignola, a one-shot from DC Comics in 1989, a copy of which was included with our version of the movie. This was the first of the Elseworlds stories, in which DC characters from alternate timelines or realities are featured in stories outside of the DC Universe canon.

The book is a very different telling of the story, minus most of the DC characters that are shown in the movie. And, overall, it is somewhat less satisfying. The plot is more convoluted than the film’s and the murderer doesn’t seem to be a regular Batman character and is introduced quite late in the book. The only thing the two stories seem to have in common is that Bruce Wayne is framed as Jack the Ripper. Of the two, I prefer the movie’s retelling of the story.

The voice acting is very good throughout. Even though several actors (John DiMaggio, Grey Griffin, Kari Wuhrer) voice multiple characters, I never got the sense that one character sounded like another. Bruce Greenwood has been the voice of Batman in Batman: Under the Red Hood, Young Justice, Batman: Death in the Family as well as Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, so this was a role he was comfortable playing.

Jennifer Carpenter does well as Selina. The character is not the Catwoman we usually see her portrayed as. She does have an affinity for cats, but she’s not a criminal, rather a crime fighter. And their relationship is more sexually upfront than I’ve seen in over iterations of the pairing.

Grey Griffin is a bit of a stand out with the supporting voice actors. Not only does she voice Sister Leslie Thompson and Jason Todd, she is also Selina’s singing voice on “Can You Tame Wild Wimmen?" which is a real song, first recorded in 1918. It seems to be the right song for the scene when we do see Selina sing and Griffin does a really good job selling it.

While I generally liked the movie, there is one sequence that bothers me. There is a scene early on when Batman visits Commissioner Gordon at home. Prior to his appearance, Gordon is warning Barbara about Jack the Ripper, which since we later learn that he is the Ripper and she’d known about it, seems planted to confuse the viewer. I doubt anyone would, in private, have such a conversation. Perhaps if it had taken place in front of a third party, it might not have come off so much as a device.

Gotham by Gaslight is well-paced and there are really never any down moments or lulls in the storytelling.

For the most part, I prefer my Batman stories animated over the live-action versions. The medium seems to lend itself to this sort of story and Gotham by Gaslight is not an exception to that. While set in Gotham, animation allows for an otherworldliness that live-action, even with all the CGI, can’t in the same way. If you’re a fan of Elseworlds stories, or Batman in general, this is a good one to see. This is one case where the movie is better than the book.