User reviews

I gave it a 6 mostly for the concept of the film and the atmosphere which was really great but when the movie ended it still felt like something was really missing and I couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was until a few hours later... It was the actual detective work.

Before the film started my greatest question was how the hell is he going to solve any mysteries without his super powerful bat-computer and I was looking forward to see how it will play out. It turns out there was little to none of that detective work and the Bat figures out who the killer is by pure luck and nothing else, which is really a shame for the world's greatest detective.

I did enjoy other parts of the movie, but, I cannot tell you what without giving any spoilers. You should watch it yourself and you will know what I'm talking about just don't put your expectations too high for the general outcome, it's definitely not a 10 or a 9.

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight: It is Victorian times and Gotham is looking a little Londonish. There is a killer afoot named Jack the Ripper stalking the streets. Also stalking the night is a masked vigilante known only as The Bat. Can Commissioner Gordon solve the cases with the help of his prosecutor Harvey Dent and Dent's millionaire childhood chum Bruce Wayne?

The Good: The greatest thing about Gotham by Gaslight is what it doesn't do. There are no Tesla or Lovecraft cameos. Nobody invents an airplane powered by a diamond. It is a realistic (relatively) style environment with people that act like people actually did back then (Guy in Bat costume excepted).

Gotham by Gaslight also finds proper roles for Batman's Rogue gallery and his allies. Commissioner Gordon, Alfred the Butler, and Harvey Dent keep their old roles. While other's get to put on a new hat. Hugo Strange is a progressive doctor running a psychiatric hospital and Poison Ivy is a vaudeville stripper. The movie has Batman in the role of Sherlock Holmes with focus on detective work rather than Bat punching. Selina Kyle (Catwoman) takes the role similar to Sherlock's love interest Irene Adler and three Robins (Dick, Jason, and Tim) take a role similar to the Baker Street Irregulars. It is a lot of fun seeing well-known characters in their new roles. The movie handles this quite well.

The Bad: Why is this an "R" rated film? There are some adult themes but neither Poison Ivy nor Selina Kyle shows any nudity despite some obvious story beats where it would have been expected. The violence is muted and the camera turns away from anything possible offensive. I have to think this us more of a marketing ploy (An Adult Batman Cartoon) rather than a reflection of the material. If you are going for an "R" rating and your story is about a serial killer that murders prostitutes it is not as if there is no material to work with.

In Conclusion: A Sherlock Holmes mystery with a Batman dressing. It is a good mystery that will keep one guessing. Characters are well written and voiced with Selina Kyle and Harvey Dent being standouts. Overplayed Victorian elements (see above) and overplayed Batman elements (Joker) are nowhere to be found. A good family film despite the "R" rating and an excellent treat for fans of the bat.

How much you like this film will definitely depend on how much you are into the Victorian/Steampunk aesthetic, as well as the murder mystery genre in general. There is definitely nothing bad to report about this movie, it is a decent little crime noir set in the early 1900s.

If there is a problem it is that it has no connection to the greater Batman/DC animated universe and could easily not be a Batman film at all, since outside of the character names themselves there is little to link the two. Batman only vaguely 'Batmans' outside of some grappling-hook action and minor detecting. It is certainly not one for those who like outlandish superhero action.

Overall if you see this as a short murder mystery there is little to be disappointed by here, and if you crave a more down-to-earth Batman then this will be great for you. In my opinion you might as well just watch something like Zorro or Lone Ranger, or any other masked vigilante that Batman was based on as for me its 'back to basics' tone is just a little too basic, but it is certainly a matter of personal opinion in this regard.

I enjoyed this animated movie it was a lot darker than usual batman stuff the fight choreography was pretty good and it had good cinematography an interesting story to boot i enjoyed the twist at the end.

Watch this if you like batman and have an hour to waste 7.5 / 10.0

Thoroughly enjoyed this 'Elseworlds' tale. Bruce Greenwood is a great Batman and I loved Anthony Head as Alfred - hope he gets to do more. Fight choreography in DC's animated Batman movies has improved hugely in recent years and Batman's battles with the Ripper here are as exciting as anything seen in his live-action - in some cases more so. Several nods to established Batman mythology/continuity for fans, plus a nice callback to Tim Burton's Batman '89 movie in the first few minutes. Quite a few Sherlock Holmes references too (might need to be a real Holmes buff to catch some). Definitely one for rewatches.

8/10

I loved Batman: Gotham by Gaslight. I found the concept of Batman in the 18th Century to be intriguing and the story line was excellent. The characters are all names that a Batman fan would be familiar with, but it is the way the characters are worked into the story that makes this a great animated film. The settings felt a bit like London in the 18th Century, and it could have well been London, I noticed that they seemed to be a reference to the Charles Dickens character Bill Sykes, along with a bit of mixture of Sherlock Holmes as well. All in all, a great movie and worth purchasing if you are a animated Batman fan like me.

As a stand alone movie, this is a fun ride. It is beautiful, chock full of Easter Eggs, actual historical references, and has a good pace. Unfortunately, they chose to make some rather bizarre changes to the original story that I just can't quite stomach. If they hadn't messed with such pertinent aspects of the story, this would have gotten close to a ten. It is metal, truly R and that makes it very awesome. But, if you are a fan of the original source materials, be prepared to walk away a bit disappointed.

Great serious story, wow they didn't make animation this hardcore in the 90's It gets gory and eerie at times which is really what a Batman movie should be.

It has a fantastic classic Batman story.

Great els-world favourite characters.

Batman's fighting choreography is fantastic and this is a cartoon lol!

Animation looks dull in places that don't matter and thats fine and is made up by focusing on the main features, and that looks great, well executed action.

Classic Gotham feel that is right at home! (got to have a blimp!)

Lots of nods and easter eggs to previous Batman animations, comics. (Mask of the Phantasm, Robins, Two Face, Sherlock Holmes's Dancing Men story (which I really appreciated, I f-ing love Jeremy Brett and Sherlock stories), Death in the family, the weird Scott Snyder comic about James Gordan's messed up son, Dark Knight Bat pod, Black Mask...these were the ones I noticed.

Overall really good ELS-WORLD Batman story!

First of all this one is not for kids as you can see the sign (R) below the title. Totally different plot, different story, different era. I can promise you one thing, this type of movie you will not get to see often. Amazing story with the nice animation and total unexpected climax. One hell of a Bat movie. As I am not going to give you any spoilers. Just download it and watch it.

A nice adaptation of the comic and surprisingly R rated yet no too adults only either. A simple Victorian-era serial killer mystery featuring Jack the Ripper referencing Sherlock Holmes and Houdini. The problem for me with these films is that the immense possibilities that are not exploited. There can be simple editing techniques that can be easily used in here which would have been made this way better.

I'll sum it up succinctly, it does nothing with the change of venue, has a bad mystery that involves too few suspects and almost no detective work, it makes Batman seem like not much of a super hero, and generally the script acts like resetting Batman to Victorian London decreases the things you can do with the character and is a really boring idea.

Just watched this movie and as someone in their 50s who grew up and accepted the new incarnations and evolution of the Batman I was very disappointed. Yes I know this is set in the past but a regression in technology doesn't mean the character has to regress also.

I felt that the Batman in this movie was just a pale reflection of Sherlock Holmes and a powered down version at that. He even had his own version of Baker Street Irregulars which was just a bit derivative. While providing recognition of one of Batmans most central archetypes is appreciated it progressed past the point being of a homage but instead made the principal character of the Batman feel like just a cheap copy of the original..

To be fair the film is competently done and is watchable. The voices were well done and filled out the characters to a degree. I even enjoyed the song by Selina Kyle in the theatre as well as using the voice and character of Harley Quinn in a cameo role as an old drunk woman. I did not however appreciate the dead fish eyes of Bruce Wayne that again made him seem more 2 dimensional and detracted from my enjoyment.

One of the biggest failure in this movie was the misuse and under use of characters like Poison Ivy and Dr Hugo Strange who were just passing through this movie. Don't blink or you'll miss them.

Coming from the UK I've seen every permutation of the Sherlock Holmes legend in the media and this was a mediocre offering at best. I shouldn't have had to keep reminding myself that this was a Batman movie and not a Sherlock Holmes movie.

There was quite some talk during this movie's release as to how it is good.It increased my expectations but now only I had the time and mood to give it a watch.And it was pretty good.The design of the batman's cowl was the only issue for me.Even if it is a Victorian age film,they need not make the eyes square.I really missed the white eyes typical of animated Batman.Other than that I had no complaints.The story and writing was engaging from beginning till end and I didn't see the climax twist coming.Overall a nice addition to DC 's acclaimed animated movies list

The poster makes it look a lot better than it is. The story is actually quite boring, or predictable rather. If you think about the scope of possibilities that Batman and his enemies could have posed in a Victorian setting then you can see how this one falls short.

Finally, DC puts out something watchable. No, seriously - this is like a freaking rare Pokémon, a DC film that does no make you feel like a freaking idiot for wasting your time watching it. Honestly, I am not sure if this movie is actually as great as I am making it out to be or if DC set the bar so low that I am overrating an lukewarm movie. Whatever, I am planning to read the comic it is based on and rewatch the film again because I am a hardcore fan but also a realist and I'm predicting Warner Bros being dumb enough not to reboot their cinematic universe for a least another year. Foolish executives are going to permanently damage the DC brand unless they give us a hard reboot - which is why REAL DC fans stopping paying to watch any DC movie years ago. Keep it up and save DC. I am sick of Marvel fans laughing at our movies.

Considering it's set in an Elseworlds universe, the dark and thematically noir influenced complex atmosphere fits in perfectly with the Batman mythos. The film paces with some increasingly mysterious events that eventually leads Batman to a very baffling revelation. The character portrayals were brilliant from an 18th century point of view, not to mention Batman performing his mixed martial art skills when pitted against Jack the Ripper was a solid stunner. I run out of reasons why most of the DCAU films go underrated, but in my opinion this film deserves better. There are a few negligible shortcomings in the film like Batman being at his usual best without the aid of any electronic gadget(say Batcomputer) but then again those are overshadowed by the plotline. It's definitely a must watch for Batman lovers.

Batman: Gotham By Gaslight does have a fascinating take on the Dark Knight fighting Jack the Ripper, but the animation comes off as cheap at times.

As a fan of both animation and The Bat I have long wondered why Warner is so reluctant to actually want to try and deliver anything but this cheap looking tripe.

The usual is here. Uninspired designs, purposeless movement in some shots and deadeyed stiff awkwardness in the rest. Dead camera angles and radiodrama soundwork. Not to mention that the story is about as riveting as a dry wall.

One can tell that underneath all this mediocrity is a hard hitting gritty and gory retelling of The Dark Knight as the victorian era Gotham's Sherlock vs a very gruesome Jack The Ripper... But the final product feels more like an early cd rom era point n click adventure than anything worth mentioning after the credits rolled. Such a shame they refuse to do anything worthwhile with these endeavours.

Dc animation fans deserve better...

Outside the idea of Batman vs the Ripper this took absolutely nothing from the comic. That might not be so bad but the story was garbage and was a bore to watch. Completely awful

I have a bad vision from up close when I forget my glasses, so I couldn't read the resume on the back when I rented it at the club, so I have to rely on the sleeve. I tought this would be not again about Jack the Ripper, but rather a steampunk re-design of the Batman universe. It was much more mainstream than that.

The characters' design and voices were okay, but the backgrounds lacked in grandeur and oppression, and had too much colours, except the ones in the asylum which were nearer to the right tone.

The filmakers obviously saw in this story a one-shot rather than a serie, and as such their work was directed towards the Batman fan first, and the Victorian/Steampunk fan second - Jack the Ripper being the era's most obvious story. In that sense it's a hit-and-miss - There was so much possibilities in there... IMO if they had given this to a real steampunk author, it would have been better.

But still, it's indeed an interesting little piece, if merely for the potential.