ANI-MOVIES, *Batman: The Long Halloween-Part 2

Batman: The Long Halloween-Part 2 wraps up the other two-thirds of the 90s comic book, although leaving out whole characters and aspects from the adaptation. One thing is removing Riddler altogether after he played a significant supporting role in the original source material. Despite this though, it does bring the story to a mostly satisfying conclusion, while at the same time adding its own notes to the Batman lore.

Also included with the feature is another DC Showcase short of former Charlton Comics title character, Blue Beetle. This Silver Age version of the original Golden Age hero takes the extra step and has the story take place during the 60s, and the best part is that it's done in the style of cartoons that came out at the time. Acting as an homage to the 60s animated versions of Spider-Man and Batman. It opens up with a snappy full chorus theme song, and Blue Beetle teams up with The Question to stop the colorful Doctor Spectro who has hypnotized the heroes Captain Atom and Nightshade into his latest crazy caper. The brilliant in the short lies in its way of spoofing corny cartoon plots, and the constant animation flubs that were made back then, like Blue Beetle's outfit suddenly changing color schemes in some shots, or the repeat animation of certain movements.

The main feature continues several months later with Bruce Wayne being enthralled by Poison Ivy signing over heaps of cash into Falcone's pocket. Catwoman had previously figured out Batman's identity and frees him from Ivy's control. Scarecrow then breaks out thanks to Falcone to help the mobster spread fear over Gotham, while he along with Mad Hatter carry out the boss' heists as well. Rival mobster Sal Maroni has his father murdered by the Holiday killer, which leads him to get in Harvey Dent's good gracious by testifying against Falcone. The whole thing was a ruse though as Maroni throws acid on Dent in court, leaving the D.A. with a scarred face. The now Two-Faced Harvey meets up with the hulking Solomon Grundy in the sewers, all while Batman's trail seems to point to Dent being Holiday since the beginning. On Halloween, Two-Face and Grundy bust most of the other crazies out of Arkham Asylum to takeover Gotham by rubbing Falcone with his remaining gangsters. Batman arrives to stop the villains, with Falcone dying realizing that Catwoman was his daughter. Two-Face surrenders to Batman claiming he did all the Holiday murders. Batman however puts the pieces together and realized that the original killings were in fact done by Harvey's wife Gilda who wanted revengs on Falcone from her first being wed to his son Alberto with their aborted child. The movie concludes with Flash and Green Arrow at Wayne Manor to see about Batman joining their upcoming Justice League.

Part 2 does add its own mark to the DC Universe by altering the ending, to which the original comic was recently retconned with its own new conclusion. There is still much left out from the source material and considering that fact that this project was broken up into two full-length features that they could have covered it all. The dub is agreeable though with Jansen Ackles as Batman from formerly playing the titles character in Under The Red Hood, Alastair Duncan returning as Alfred who previously played him in The Batman 2000s animated series, Troy Baker is back as Joker, plus the late Naya Rivera doing a great job in her final role as Catwoman. No word yet if Warner Bros. is planning on combining both films into a single feature like they did with Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, but both films are great separately on their own.